Irvine Housing Blog

Are the “original prices” on this blog adjusted for inflation to present-day dollars?  I saw a post a while ago where a 3 bedroom condo in Irvine sold for about $180K in 1979.  That seems a little steep at nearly 4 times the median house price of 1979 in a non-superbubble housing market.

uh, the war is against a diehard group of powerhungry extremists who lust to murder Americans for our support of Israel and to force the withdrawl of troops from the holy land Saudi Arabia.  Is it worth fighting them to support our ally and to be able to operate militarily from a position of strength?  If so, in what battlefield would you rather fight them then in Iraq?  Iraq is a much better field for the technically superior force than Afganistan.

saved yourself in the end there.  there is no lower case of stupidity then blaming the president for the downcycles or lauding him for the boom cycles.  the economy is cyclical, period, stay in office long enough and you will have both.

I could hook you up with mine.  He is offshore and owns several properties.  Has a brand new never lived-in available in Woodbury right now for $3,200.

Time to be aware of the corruption. There’s tons of off-shore accounts and plans to live in other countries. The elite are ‘international’. They are going to Costa Rica, Dubai, New Zealand, South America. The Nazis fled to other countries. Wake up. Don’t be so naive about reality you Bush/Cheney(neo-con) apologists and enablers.

Do some more homework on how Greenspan of the Fed and the Bush administration pushed the ‘ownership society’ with lowered interest rates. Campaigns pushing home ownership started at the top. This stuff started after 9/11. Do some research instead of just namecalling.
It’s not all Bush either allowing this mess to happen...Clinton upon the advocacy of Greenspan deregulated banking by repealing the 1934 Banking Reform Act and this allowed banks to gamble in RE debt derivatives...now trillion$ in worthless investment interest rate contracts. The Fed created this bubble with deregulation and non-regulation of derivatives and the underlying predatory and fraudulent lending practices that created toxic mortgage waste.

Yup, #2 is right, especially the defined benefit pension plans.  You were fortunate to be a part of this trend, but it’s all over now.  From the Gen-Xers (and the youngest Baby Boomers) on, pensions are a dream of the past.  I live waaaay beneath my means, but with the healthcare situation in its current state, and the absence of defined benefit pensions (at least for most of us), I will probably be working until I’m 80.  Oh well.

Isn’t there something about medical that does not help the GDP? I mean the more money spent on medical is actually a detriment to the economy as a whole?

Bush is a lying war criminal who is directly responsible for the deaths of many thousands. The sooner that he is brought to justice, the better off for mankind.

Signed, An American.

I used to think that to protest and demostrate was the American Way, like the Boston Tea Party, but clearly it is the exception. Most people are too busy paying bills to care, the rest too afraid of what people might think. The People are manipulated like sheep, and passed out spending money like little children.

Well, making improvement on raw land is a pretty good use of funds, I would say, but since it has not been finished yet, (a bank would not lend on it) you can’t say that you did the smart thing...yet.

People will do anything to feel rich for a while.

Stay the night at the Ritz Carlton. It is a lot cheaper in the long run.

Yes, I took an equity loan in the hope that my business would be able to become profitable. It seemed like a reasonable thing to do. However it is really very risky, and I knew it, and it did not work out for me. If I had better options I certainly would have chosen them. There was no bail out for me, just the hard pavement, but I made money when I sold the house.

The economy has only added medical jobs, hospitals grew, in the last 5-6 years, funded mostly by the baby boomers retiring and living off medical, a government entitlement. Everything else has shrunk and the expansion of any growth was all debt created.

I just hate hearing how the government changed the definition of manufacturing, government started counting people who maker burgers at fast food places as being in a “manufacturing” job. The government then bragged ~150,000 manufacturing jobs were added to the economy last year. The government stopped releasing M3 data of the money supply, they have taken down economic websites that reported economic data from the Fed.

The government is obfuscating the reality, this recession is going to be soo bad, whoever is president is going to have a huge mess and they will be blamed for it.

About the analogy to Rome. Rome did indeed live on imports. They loved stuff from the East. Augustus bragged on his tomb as an achievement that he was the Emperor who opened trade to India. The Romans loved it. You can still find Roman GOLD coins as far as China, basically boats left Egypt along the coast to Arab states, India, traders took the coins as far as Vietnam and then even China. The empire survived on gold, all it flowed out of the empire. When the enormous gold mines finally ran dry the empire collapsed and they were overrun. I see that the US just prints more money. Germany knows better what happens, but they did it for strategic reasons to pay for the war reparations. Is the US devaluing the currency for strategic reasons, of course. The dollar is like a global currency, inflating it is like a tax not just on the American populace when their savings drop 15% purchasing power, but the entire world pays that price with their US dollars and bonds/debt in hand. The Chinese aren’t stupid, they will buy higher performing investments than bonds like the Arab and Norwegian investment funds do.

I’ve come across a lot of people who took the money and ran, and others who drank coolaid and lost it all. A neighbor of mine took 400,000 over 3 years out of a house that eventually was foreclosed. It sold at foreclosure for 495K, those mortgage companies folded too.

“How do you know what they spent the equity money on? How do you know that it wasn’t spent on medical bills or the long-term care of an elderly parent?”

It would be outrageous for an elderly person to ask a child/grandchild/whatever to pay $400k for a few years of their care.

In the real world, most people wouldn’t have the money to offer it, and most people wouldn’t have the available credit to do it. And even if they did, the “elderly” should do the honorable thing in that case. Most old folks I know absolutely do not want to send their families to the poor house to stretch their lives out longer. (Ask all the illegals around here what they’d do if their elder needed $400k of care.)

That said, we really should offer a nationalized baseline medical coverage in this country. It’s an appropriate application of shared risk.

I am no fan of President Bush and I am offended when a foreigner comes here and insults the U.S. It reveals a boorish clod, especially when it comes from someone who has been here for such a short time.  Although the youtube videos are humorous, short clips, out of context can make anyone look foolish.

I will say this about President Bush:  He may not be stupid but I do think he is evil, untruthful, and he is certainly no patriot of United States.

Before you flame away: ask yourselves this: is this war about protecting the lives of Americans and, if so, how you can reconcile an open border policy and these pictures with that position?

http://www.abqtrib.com/photos/2007/may/29/5774/

Nah, I sold the Lexus to CarMax (great place to sell a used car by the way in my limited experience) and used that cash to help fund my SUV purchase.  I am paying 2.5% on the SUV though… It’s gonna go up soon.  I’ll be paying 3% once I refi, but that is still probably about half the typical auto finance rate unless you get a dealer finance incentive.

Have you paid off your mortgage yet?  If not, you’re still paying 2.5% after tax for your IS300, even though it’s long gone.

Who cares how you are securing the auto if you can save 4-5 points per month in interest?

Actually, by saving the interest expense thereby lowering monthly spending, wouldn’t a person doing this be decreasing their overall risk of personal default?  By purchasing this way, isn’t one actually reducing one’s financial risk? 

At least if you lose the house to the bank, you’ll still have the car!  Might not be the case if the car was financed direct.

Another sane comparison, GWB now vs. 10 years ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw4Bhmm22xo

You’re not entitled to say who stays or who leaves this or any other country, and as long as I obey the laws, as I’ve been doing it, I’m not leaving, amigo, and I’m as legal as you or your ancestors were.

Leave the name calling of our president to the people that were foolish enough to vote for him in the first place;-)

“If you need to buy a car, and have equity, why not finance the purchase with home equity vs. an auto loan or lease?”

Because you’r then securing the auto with your HOME vs the auto itself. That’s dumb.

Nice try.  The man has lived under intense public scrutiny for nearly 8 years.  Of course he’s going to make some goofs.  You’ve written two posts on this board and they are both moronic and one of them is illiterate.  Based on that track record, I’d take GWB’s intellect over yours any day, my friend.

Your use of the term “retarded” was obviously meant as an insult to Bush.  Further, it is offensive to anyone who suffers from a learning disability.  Trying to claim otherwise is an insult to our intelligence.

For people that were offended by my comments, I can tell them that after living here since 2000, I can perfectly departmentalize the following 4 things:

US presidency, US people, US foreign policies and Capitalism

People from other countries think that all of them mean the same: a mean country thirsty for blood and natural resources of poor countries and its habitants are the same.

And I tell to my countrymen, not all those things mean the same, sometimes they overlap but they are unrelated, and take out the US people of that, they don’t have anything to do with that because I’ve witnessed many times how generous and optimists they always are, that’s the American spirit, that’s what created the Americana lifestyle: music, food, art.

I’m not using the word “retarded” as an insult, I’m using it to describe a person unfit for the skill level that her job demands.

And that’s the best 1 word that I have to describe the lack of intellectual coherency, sometimes dyslexic vocabulary displayed by GWB many times in public.

Watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa3J-L29iT8

It wouldn’t be surprising that after he leaves the presidency they will find something wrong in him, as it happened with Ronald Reagan in his 2nd term of his presidency, when he was already showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease, it’s documented that he already was forgetting things, names or where he was or what he just did, but the white house didn’t say anything.

Eh amigo, I reckon you take yo’ “luxury” and git yo’ butt back to wherever you came from.

If Dubya is so retarded then why is he on the White House while all you can do is post asinine stuff like that?

Anyone who makes it to the White House is most definitely NOT a dumb person in any way, shape or form. 

Now, do you want to discuss French Democracy, the EU Parliament, Venezuelan Governance, Chinese Freedoms or Free Markets in the Asian Tigers?  Then by all means say something.  Otherwise I suggest you keep your useless drivel off to yourself.

I dunno about _that_ strategy.

We maxed out our 401K loans but that’s our own money and we’re paying ourselves and hedging our 401Ks, plus we got some serious money in our credit union.

Borrowing from someone else is making them rich.

My garage is half full, but not with just plain stuff, it’s my kid’s rock band stuff: drums kit, guitars (2), basses (2), keyboards (2), amps (3), speaker cabs (3), mixers (2), mikes (3) and a couple hundred feet of wires and AC cords.

It’s not stuff, it’s the future of Rock’n’Roll.

And it’s LOUD!  ;-D

The amazing thing is that these High Schoolers already play better then the college bands of my youth.  I’ve told my son that he’ll have no problems getting free beer once he gets into college.... but if I find out I’ll have to cut his allowance and send him into the Marines.  ;-D

Not always for fancy junk.  I know some families who took excessive HELOCs to finance their kids’ college costs.  Unfortunately, there was no other way to pay for their education.  The family I am talking about is a working class family, sent 3 kids to college and it nearly bankrupt them.  The first one got into his first-choice Ivy league (how could you say no?), second - to a very reputable out of state school, and the third - to USC film school (again, parents could not stomach telling the kid - sorry, you can’t go because we are too poor...) Kids were smart and got scholarships and worked part-time while in college, but at 30K/year + housing - this was still not enough.

Yes, and I fail to see your point.  Are you familiar with the following fable?

http://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Aesop/Aesops_Fables/The_Ant_and_the_Grasshopper_p1.html

Now, can you extend this theme and apply it to New Orleans?

So you hold the U.S. to a higher standard huh?  What role do you believe the government plays in your life?  More importantly what role do you believe it should play?

Of course, if you have a decent income, you are probably in AMT so you really don’t get the income tax deduction for the MEW attributable to buying a car.

Ipop -

The exclusion applies to the I-bonds (see original post, I called them “an inflation protected savings bond” instead of I-Bond, so I guess I wasn’t too clear.)

If you are worried about the MAGI exclusion limits, you can put them in the recipient/beneficiary’s name (assuming the income of an 18-year old student won’t exceed the MAGI).  And if you didn’t do that upfront, you can gift it to them later.

Thanks, Will.  Much appreciated.

Skek—hey - I am going to retract my vitriol as, for whatever reason, I really didn’t see the ‘retarded’ line in the original post.

Urgh.... my disappointment in humanity just grew.

Still the “don’t like it, move to another country” argument is a personal pet peeve.  Calling people retards is a bigger one though.  I’m sorry I missed it.  It’s Monday.

A better idea would be to visit Sudan.  I’m sure its much worse there than in the USA.  Don’t like the heathcare system?  Try the healthcare system in Darfur!

Personally, I hold the U.S. to a slightly higher standard than an economically crippled, 3rd or 2nd world nation.

New Orleans is an open sore that has been left to fester.  You’ve never been to Iraq pre 1991.  You likely don’t have a friend who died there.

If you think things in the US couldn’t have been handled better than they were, there’s not much to discuss.

This is way off topic.

Tell me, what would I find in New Orleans exactly?  Poverty, crime, the destitute, social inequality?

C’mon, why don’t you go to Cuba, and then we can talk about protest.

I am going to reiterate my previous point IPO.  MOST people don’t have the skills or discipline to take advantage of tax minimization and/or cheap financing.  They better stick with cash investments and plain vanilla structures.  Your model works great for you, because presumably you are fully aware of the risk exposures you are taking and the vehicles you are utilizing. 

In reality the financial gurus are 100% right on the idea of using home equity as a cheap source of financing to fund higher yielding investments.  This is finance 101.  The problems arise when things go wrong, markets like what we’ve seen this year erode principal and confidence.

I disagree that someone from another country calling the President of the United States “retarded” is a legitimate or useful opinion.  I’d say that is what is “silly” and “not called for.” Frankly, it’s offensive.  I think you are doing your best to spin the ramblings of a couple of idiots into a coherent argument (in part because I suspect you agree with the underlying conclusion—which is fine), but you ignored the content of my post in favor of arguing a straw man about working in China and you are putting arguments into JN and Foreigner’s mouths that they didn’t make.  I suspect you could do a better job of “criticizing” Bush than they have, and reasonable people can certainly debate the government’s role in the bubble, but the kind of derangement exhibited above is hardly that.  You’d do yourself a favor by distancing yourself from it too.

I do agree with you that this debate is better suited for another forum, so I’ll stand down on the politics.

Book a flight to New Orleans and you will probably find something to be upset about.

“The economy did not grow through production, it grew through consumption.”

Just to clarify, the economy usually DOES grow with consumption.  Because the idea is that by increased consumption, there will be increased output and therefore more revenue and profit and disposable income, etc.  The problem today is that the consumption increased without the increase in production.  Or more accurately, the pace of consumption (increasing housing prices) was far greater than the pace of production (increased housing construction).  People just decided to pay more for the same good, by leaps and bounds.

By the way the GDP graph sums up very nicely the situation we are in today.

Protesting what exactly.  Perhaps we should all dump fruit on the highways?  That’ll show’em!!!

Skek,

Your comments are silly and aren’t called for.  People work all over the world—in 1st world, 2nd world and 3rd world countries, get paid well, and can have a good time doing it.  I’ve been ‘deployed’ to China and had a ball.  It doesn’t mean there is more freedom or opportunity, etc.  These are all just empty, subjective words people throw around to avoid criticism that makes them uncomfortable.  People work all over and its their right to have an opinion of the environment they’re in.

It’s a legitimate question. Where is the outrage?  Well, one answer would be that it was partially muffled by a lot of monopoly-money that will shortly dry up.  This has been alluded to in the comments and in the post.

There are many legitimate answers to this legitimate question.  But these don’t relate to the housing in Irvine, California so I imagine they would best debated heatedly on another blog.

And when it really hits the fan, the next prez is left holding the bag.

“Except in a democracy, the king is really a manifestation of the populace. So, really, we are to blame.”

This presupposes we live in a democracy… but now I’m getting off topic.

On a related note though - and I’m in the Portland, OR area - its hard for first time buyers who are only *now* first time buyers (i.e. not in the market at all during the last 4 years)… its hard to know where to start.  I can see things have to cool off, even here - especially with condos which the market is *flooded* with.

Still I know a house in 2001 sold for $170 and now they say its worth $300k… but then again, maybe it is?  Its hard to get perspective.  And at the same time, if that’s worth $300—then aren’t these ones going for $340 in a cooler part of town a good deal?  Especially if they were $399 a year ago?

Its hard to get perspective without anything to compare things too, except for a roller coaster housing market… which, experts say, didn’t affect Portland.. where prices are still rising.

Except they aren’t?

Dear foreigner, see above.

So, Bush’s America is so bad that you leave your country to live here?  You certainly don’t have to.  Feel free to move to whatever country offers you more opportunities and freedoms.  How about you worry about your country and we’ll worry about ours?  Thanks for your concern.

JN, it’s an unfortunate sign of the times that this kind of simplistic, conspiracy theory nonsense passes for political discourse.  “Engineer the inflation of property prices.” Do you have any idea how many different, independent parties had to act to “engineer the inflation of property prices.” Do you honestly think that George Bush called up all the banks, hedge funds, investment advisors, fund managers and wealthy individuals, including foreigners, and said “hey guys, I want to keep the American public anesthatized so that I can start an illegal war for the benefit of my crony profiteers—do you mind making billions in risky loans and then investing in them?  Sure, eventually you’ll all go bankrupt and put the American banking system in jeopardy, but by then, I’ll have invaded Iraq!” Who forced each individual consumer to take out a risky loan and buy more house than they needed?  Who forced people to leave their jobs and become real estate agents and mortgage brokers?  Who forced people to buy houses in order to flip them?  I could go on, but your comment is absolutely stunning in its stupidity.

Let me guess, you think Bush is so diabolical and omnipotent that he could pull off the greatest economic con ever conceived, yet I’m sure you also think he’s too stupid to be president?  At least your buddy the “foreigner living the US” thinks so.  I bet you lay awake at night and see black helicopters circling your house?  I bet you tell your friends in hushed tones about the time you were kidnapped by aliens and probed.  The Bush administration has been a bitter disappointment in a lot of areas, but this kind of drivel is worthless.

It is very easy to spend 400T on medical bills, that is all I am saying.  You should not presume to know what they did with the money.  You can point out a fact without adding the drama of embellishment.

I maxed my HELOC just in case OCTFCU decided to limit their downside risk and terminate my line. 

It’s costing me around a point every month on the $100K, but I feel so much safer having the cash it’s worth the piece of mind…

I’ve thought about that—I’ve seen the reports of various banks freezing HELOCs and not permitting any more borrowing, so I could see them sending that kind of notice at some point (especially if things get worse) or refusing to lend the money if they thought I was over 100% LTV.  On the other hand, this is a smaller private bank where I know my “relationship manager,” so I think they’d give me a chance to explain what I was doing before they shut me down.  And on an income basis, it wouldn’t be a close call—I’d still be well below 3x income/28% DTI.

IrvineRenter, you really outdid yourself today. A more complete picture of the economic situation in this country has never been delivered in a single post in any blog, in any article, anywhere. Your writing is superb, and the example of today’s sad little house illustrates the opening consumerism concepts you explained so well. This stuff is dynamite.

I’ve worked at shopping malls for the past 7 years: Fashion Island, Tyson’s Corner, and back again at Fashion Island. I’ve been shocked at the amount of spending. People loaded with big shopping bags, and it’s not even Christmas. And the folks are so stressed out if the store is sold out of something, it’s the end of the world. Then you drive past the houses, and all the garages are filled to the brim with stuff, cars parked outside. There is a huge amount of retail therapy going on, not just in Irvine, but all over the country.

Once again, I am looking forward to you and your wife’s housewarming party in Shady Canyon.

Being a foreigner, I have the “luxury” of being an outisider, so I step back from the point where you are and ask myself:

Where’s the outrage people?

Why nobody is protesting?

GWB is retarded, Why they don’t see it?

Will the bank honor the HELOC now if the combined 1st and 2nd exceed the value ( or some threshold thereof ) of your home?

One more question buster.  It would appear that the income exclusion for EE and I bonds (I couldn’t find an IRS form to exclude the income from TIPS) is limited according to one’s income:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8815.pdf

Is this true?  Looks to me that if a married filing joint couple has a MAGI over $128K, they can’t exclude this income at all… Am I reading that right?  That doesn’t seem to jibe with your idea of high net worth types using them to save for education.  Wouldn’t high new worth types normally have a MaGI over $128K?  I’m confused…

Borrowing against equity does make in California because of Prop 13.

If -and only if- you borrow to rebuild, then the net effect is that you can build yourself an almost brand new home ( save one wall to call it a “remodel” ) and still keep the benefits of Prop 13.

Look at it from my point of view ( copied by many others in my neighborhood ).  You buy a 1500/2000 sq foot home.  Live in it for several years and then when you want to move up, take an equity loan, rebuild the house and then refinance it all into a first.

The end result is a “move up” home, a lower first mortgage than if you had bought ( you didn’t pay profit to some seller ) and MUCH lower real estate taxes.

Of course this only works if you’re in the right neighborhood and you don’t already have the biggest house.

It would make sense to do that so long as you were religious about paying down the balance every month.

I see the average lamb of a homeowner buying the car on equity and paying next to nothing down; figuring the next guy to buy the house can pay for it.

It’s true - plastic hooters are expensive these days.  Insurance doesn’t cover those.

hey buster, wondering if you can interpret the below:

Education Tax Exclusion

The savings bond education tax exclusion permits qualified taxpayers to exclude from their gross income all or part of the interest paid upon the redemption of eligible Series EE and I Bonds issued after 1989, when the bond owner pays qualified higher education expenses at an eligible institution.

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/planning/plan_education.htm

This makes no reference to the income from TIPS being excluded from tax, only EE and I.  Can you point me to a reference somewhere that would indicate as such?

Are you postulating that the realtor might be full of S and hyping the ad?

Quite the cynical crowd in here today!

If you need to buy a car, and have equity, why not finance the purchase with home equity vs. an auto loan or lease?  You can work that vehicle purchase into an income tax deduction…

I paid all cash for my IS300 (long gone now that I have kiddies) back in 2002 via a HELOC and then refinanced my 1st and HELOC into a new mortgage in 2003.  The effective interest rate on the financing for my car purchase is/was 2.5% after tax deduction, or 4-5% less than what I would have paid at the time.

Personally, I’d rather less interest overall to anyone…

Do people really plan to rent/pay mortgage on “their” home for 40+ years

No - they do not; that is the crux of the entire problem. 

The exit strategy for these types of people is not to pay the mortgage off.  They plan to “make the payments” long enough for the house to double in value.  Transfer the debt onto the next greater fool.  From then on, it’s not their problem.

They plan to make the payments “long enough”.

Not a bad strategy if you bought in 2002 or prior.

They will be sorry when they try to move in a few years.

So what you are saying is that there are circumstances in life that justify borrowing $400,000 against your house and losing it in a foreclosure?

Exactly.

Yes, the income is tax free if used to fund higher education expenses.  This is true of all savings bonds issued today.  TIPS are the same as any other savings bond except that they offer a fairly low 1% or so REAL rate of return.  That is, they pay 1% or so plus a rate equal to the change in an inflation index (I think it’s the CPI, but I’m not positive.).

They are so popular with big investors that the Treasury is now limiting the purchase to just $5,000 per year.  It used to be $30,000 per year in electronic form and $30,000 in paper form but the rich people figured out what a good deal they were so they have to limit them now.

I was fortunate to find a good landlord, but I don’t live in one of the new communities. I would like to find a place in Woodbury, but I doubt it is possible to find a landlord who isn’t distressed there. Ditto for Quail Hill and Northwood II.

I like reading stories like yours. It shows that people can be responsible and disciplined even when everyone else is not. Thank you.

In my opinion, the housing bubble was deliberate.  What better way for the maladministration to keep the American public anesthatized, than to engineer the inflation of property prices.

As long as the public was fat, dumb and happy with their bubbleicious appreciation and unlimited access to MEWs, they didn’t complain bitterly about an illegal war and the crony profiteers.

Buying a depreciating asset with home equity is no different than buying a depreciating asset with a credit card. Debt is debt.

Head line should have read like:

“54% of sub-$500,000 home sellers in distress”

54% of homes FOR SALE under $500K…

I am blown away by how much our economy under Bush’s reign has depended upon “phantom equity”.

Wouldn’t that be something if all this unwinds during the rest of the year so that when Bush leaves office we will have a war in Iraq (similarily, the result of “phantom” WMD’s) AND the stock market is lower than what it was when he took office?

That would be quite a legacy wouldn’t it!

“The king, the king’s to blame...”
Except in a democracy, the king is really a manifestation of the populace.  So, really, we are to blame.

This is real yet alarming data:

54% of homes in OC distressed.

http://mortgage.freedomblogging.com/2008/03/10/310distressed/

How do you know what they spent the equity money on?  How do you know that it wasn’t spent on medical bills or the long-term care of an elderly parent?  Leave your Irvine bubble for a moment and think about the large numbers of un- and under-insured in this country that more and more includes middle-class earners.  You are very quick to pass judgement; and unless you know what they spent the money on, it is very presumptuous of you to take them to task for their debt, and I’m sure that regardless they are well aware of their predicament and don’t need your input.

buster - I wasn’t aware there were inflation protected educaton bonds.  I do purchase EE/E bonds but they are not inflation protected per se like TIPS.  Are you saying that the income is tax-free on TIPS if you use to finance education expenses?  EE/E interest rates are variable at least, but they aren’t even equivalent to inflation…

“Lush atrium brings the outside in”..... reduced to the ridiculous, yep.

True dat.  Btw, I don’t think IR is misreading any of his posts.  There is plenty of ancillary evidence that these folks have done exactly what he says they are doing.

I would certainly look that way in the public records. I don’t think your house would be marketed as “preforeclosure” though.

Thanks, buster!  Although Skekky’s definition of a true emergency is the 2009 Aston Martin V8 Vantage...!  Now that’s an asset that will never decline in value.  J/k.

If the listing on your property read “short sale!!!!!” or “preforecloser!!!!!” then we would surely have a lot to say, it’s pretty much a guarantee that all of the HELOC money was tapped when you see that.