Irvine Housing Blog

Another great find, IR.  And I really like your suggested additions to the listing.  LMAO!
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IR, you always start my day off with a smile.  You even got a chuckle of of me today.  Thanks for all your hard work and dedication to your site.

I hate it when they do that.  I live fairly close to this address.  Maybe I’ll swing by and snap a few shots of the property if there is interest.

Looks like the REALTOR(tm) added some of the house.  Nice, but $1M?  Also I suspect the 2600 ft includes the garage.  These houses werent that big.

LOL to funny. My new listing updates this morning are showing downword pricing pressure. A 1700 sq. ft. 3/2 condo came on the market for 499K. Should be about 380K near the bottom.

I meant TOO funny

That was too funny!  Keep it up!

This is an outstanding blog. I have been sending the URL to friends. I just love the sarcastic comments about the various listings. There is nothing like the popping of a bubble to deflate pretenses among individuals and neighborhoods.

I have a suggestion. If possible, you should get some comparable rental information when you showcase these dogs on the market. There is a fantastic calculator showing that, in many cases, even reduced asking prices are double what they should be.

Sellers need to stop taking those drugs and get back down to earth. Buyers need to sit on their wallets until it happens. And it will.

long time reader first time comment…

my wife and i laughed our heads off to this. it is so true and you nailed it. keep it up. too funny.

LOL! People with crap property always show you pictures of the neighborhood… how the lakefront looks in summer from the 16th floor, or the park, or sailboats on the lake… anything to deflect your attention from the crappy offering.

IR,

I think the realtor got your message.  They posted the house’s pix.

As someone said… are you sure the living space is 2600 sq feet?

I’ ve been in some of these houses (same model) and the feel iif the house is really small.  The downstairs is no more than a 1000 sq feet.  The ones that I’ve been in have a high ceiling in the living room and entry and the second floor goes over the garage.

For example, my own house is 2700 sq feet and I have 5b/3ba with a 200 sq foot kitchen.  Our 2700 sq feet feel large, in fact my house feels positively huge compared to the Woodbridge homes like this one.

And that’s the rub… these homes have small kitchens and that kills them.  Mind you the kitchens work well for ONE cook and the layout of the house is fine, but when you’re looking at 1MIL the market demands a larger kitchen.

OTOH, these homes do have enough backyard that you could bump out the rear of the home five or six feet and then really make them shine.

It’s actually not that bad of a house… although it’s terrible if you look at the price. I wonder if the Realtor saw this posting and added pictures in response to this or not. I wonder too how many Realtors read this and say, “Oh, crap, my house is on IHB!”

Countrywide Announces Plan to Address Changing Market Conditions Including Workforce Reductions
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070907/laf060.html?.v=53
The Company presently estimates a total workforce reduction of 10,000 to 12,000 over the next three months representing up to 20 percent of its current workforce.

Fitch Affirms $10.4MM and Downgrades $544.8MM from 2 Countrywide Second Lien Transactions
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070907005754&newsLang=en

11,836 Homes Offered For Sale on Countrywide Financial’s Website
Total Asking Price: $2,496,366,775
(As of September 5, 2007)
http://countrywide-foreclosures.blogspot.com/2007/09/foreclosures-reo-11836-homes-offered.html

Soon enough, every house will be on IHB. Figuratively speaking, that is. In the meantime, I almost feel sorry for the ones that make it to this blog. And so you know, I have no interest in a house or condo in Irvine. I’d rather die than live anywhere near there. So I’m totally objective!!

That is funny. Those pictures were not there early this morning.

A bit of a long term perspective on a house thing.  Though I wonder if he’d feel this way if he’d bought in 2005 instead of 2001.

Appreciating Depreciation
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/09/realestate/keymagazine/909LEDE-t.html?pagewanted=1&ref=keymagazine

Slideshow - what $1.5 million US buys in various parts of the US and around the world

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/09/04/realestate/keymagazine/20070909WHATYOUGET_index.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

U.S. housing woes go south—to Baja
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bajabust8sep08,0,420904.story?coll=la-home-center

those baja debtors look to be in dire straits…double whammy, losing equity in their primary residence and about to be wiped out in whatever equity they put in their mexican “investment” condo.

IR. love the blog.  It gets a bit one trick pony at times pointing out (gloating over) the potential loses on the listed houses, but is always amusing.

Try this - how about a non cherry picked report on what is actually SELLING?  If your market is anything like mine, I think you will be stunned at how relatively stable the prices of these properties are as opposed to the global negative 20% everyone seems to believe in right now.

The more I read on various blogs, the more I’m starting to suspect that some of the reported selling prices might be fraudulent.

I read that yesterday…  I don’t feel one iota of pain for those people.  What were they thinking about?  Specially the retired couple who bought two just so they could sell to one to pay the second off.

Or those who borrowed on their primary residences.

Sorry, I don’t feel bad about any of them.  Let them lose their houses.

As they say… Bears make money, Pigs get slaughtered.

He does make a good point.  Houses are not that of much a great financial investment long term.  You can get lucky short term or get burnt.

Either way, he does make the point that the value of a home -long term- is in the intangibles about being HOME.

But, what do I know?  My wife and I have been married for 21 years, owned our home for 20 years, even though I sell my cars before they need new wiper blades and I throw my socks away as soon as they get thin.

But, I do have a home… and we did rebuild it to our specs…

What do they say?  It’s home sweet home.

And 401K sweet 401K

Just don’t confuse them.

Near the bottom, you say? It’s only just begun, I say.

Hogwash… do you think the US is expensive?  Try Western Europe, Japan and Hong Kong.

Remember that for all intents and purposes, the LA basin is a global metropolis.  And land West of the 405, the stretch south of the Santa Monica Mnts and parts of the San Gabriel Valley are prime land.

So, then you have to compare our prices with NYC, Tokyo, Hong Kong, London, Paris, Barcelona (Madrid is not land bound), Milan, Berlin, and the like…

Soon you realize that our prices in LA are dirt cheap.

Of course, Ohio and Iowa are cheaper, but from a cultural desirability perspective, they should be compared with Medallin, Afghanistan, Eastern Manchuria, the Siberian Gulags and Fort Lauderdale.

Are you proposing a new song?

“We’ve only just begun to live,
White lace and promises
A kiss for luck and we’re on our way.
And yes, We’ve just begun.

Before the rising sun we fly,
So many roads to choose
We start our walking and learn to run.
And yes, We’ve just begun.

Sharing horizons that are new to us,
Watching the signs along the way,
Talking it over just the two of us,
Working together day to day
Together.

And when the evening comes we smile,
So much of life ahead
We’ll find a place where there’s room to grow,
And yes, We’ve just begun.”

The funny thing about that song is that it started as a TV commercial for a bank that was selling MORTGAGES…. yep.. that was a JINGLE about BUYING A HOUSE…..

How apropos when you think about it!  ;-D

Great. Now everyone will start whining again about how you can’t compare other places to Irvine.

“If your market is anything like mine, I think you will be stunned at how relatively stable the prices of these properties are…”

Do you sell cemetery lots?

I should use that song. Personally, I think Karen Carpenter had one of the most beautiful singing voices I have ever heard.

So you are getting a lot of sales over asking price where you are at? Here the asking prices are down 10% this year. Where does that put sales? Depends on how you measure it. I only know what I see: asking prices below purchase prices and dropping…

It would be an appropriate song, especially seeing as how she eventually died of anorexia.

World’s Most OverPriced Real estate markets - LA #5
http://www.forbes.com/2007/08/24/housing-overpriced-world-forbeslife-cx_mw_0824realestate_slide.html?thisSpeed=15000

Los Angeles
P/E: 31.25
Last month we named Los Angeles as the least affordable housing market in America. Despite higher costs in San Francisco and Manhattan, L.A.‘s overheated market was built up largely on speculators who subsequently exposed it to the credit problems now dogging the market. Top properties are still extremely expensive despite the price correction presently under way, which is expected to push down returns.

Actually, the saying is

Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered

Perpetual bears are lucky to keep up with inflation

I second that.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=RvBCl3CBMXA&mode=related&search;=

I have been reading your blog for a year now. I start my day with a cup of coffee and a new entry on your blog. I continue then to other links from your site: HP, Patrick, Dr. housing bubble, boring prof. Piggington, etc.  I thank you all for your dedication, and simply for informative and useful posts.
There was a time I was kind of ashamed that we rent (my husband and I are two engineering professionals earning decent money although we have three college age kids—and we pay for their schools) but now we feel wonderful, mostly thanks to you.

Great job.
anna

just 5 condos from Irvine in the list by countrywide, somehow i was expecting a lot more, this is no gloom and doom ...

L.A. sales down 50% in August
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laland/2007/09/la-sales-down-5.html

News item: The first look at August home sales in L.A. County shows sales dropped by 50% from year-ago levels. That is not a typo—half the sales market disappeared.

Los Angeles Business Journal: “The expanding morgage crisis and credit crunch slammed the Los Angeles housing market in August, with home sales plunging 50% from the same month last year and 25% from July ... The pain was widespread, as only a handful of the county’s nearly 300 ZIP codes managed to eke out any sales gains…. August’s median sales price dropped slightly from its record July level to $579,000.

More: “Everything was great until about a month ago,” said Beverly Hills real estate agent Syd Leibovitch. “Then, on one day—Thursday, Aug. 9—everything changed as lenders shot up rates on jumbo loans to 9% and further tightened guidelines…. It became almost impossible to find a jumbo loan.”

Our take: We wonder if a drop-off like this is unprecedented—anyone out there remember a month when the market dropped this sharply—25% from the previous 30 days? 50% from the previous year’s level?  We only ask because we’re starting to believe the current downturn may not look like previous slumps. Yes, California real estate is cyclical, but as Countrywide said yesterday, this cycle is different.

Here’s the original news source for the blog:

August Home Sales Take a Major Plunge
http://www.labusinessjournal.com/print.asp?aid=23122559.5773737.1523912.6679455.9259542.558&aID2=117215

She did have a beautiful voice.

I also liked Richard’s hit..“She aint heavy, she’s my sister”

I have always known that saying as: Bulls make money and bears make money, but pigs get slaughtered.

CW,
I expect that there is a lot of fraud in Santa Ana.  There are a lot of junk houses (old, small 1000 sq. ft ) on small lots that sold for $600,000 to $700,000 last year.  Similar homes are now listed from $400,000 to $600,000.  I wonder how many of these homes were bought with 100%/125% financing with $100,000+ kickback to the buyer.
When we sold our home every Mexican buyer wanted a kickback.

In this current market:

bulls = pigs

Otherwise you’re correct.

You mean a kick in the ass?

I think there are a few wifes out there kicking there husband ass for paying over 2mil in Kerigan Ranch (Yorba Linda) last year.  Homes last year sold for as much as 2.2mil.  This year 1.45m to 1.7.  I walked in one home that has recently been taken off the listings - 5000sq ft. - was listed at 1.5mil.

Yes, I think this was probably quite common.  When we sold in 2006 we gave the buyer a $15K kickback to get out when nothing in our neighborhood was moving.

Cash. Cold, hard cash. Cash is King. Right? Do you invest in Money Market funds? The absolute safest thing besides the mattress? Maybe not so much.

http://bloomberg.com/news/marketsmag/mm_1007_story2.html
Bloomberg.com: Bloomberg Markets Magazine

Perhaps this is why one T-Bill trader last week said “T-Bills are trading like dot coms. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

It’s sort of a long piece, but it may save you some grief to grind through it and note the names.

Naive question, I’m sure: Why give a kickback rather than just record a lower sales price?

“Why give a kickback rather than just record a lower sales price?”

CW, the kickback could pay the buyer’s closing costs (very common).

I just published an article about Long Beach real estate market. It described the smallest house on sale recently. You may find the article at:

http://longbeachproperty.blogspot.com/

John
www.movoto.com

For $1 million, I want a house on the lake @ Woodbridge with my own boat dock.  =p

Looks like the pictures of the Lake worked…  Carnelian appears to be in escrow already.

IR,
this house was sold for 975k$ in october.  Market is falling apart ??