Irvine Housing Blog

“...Mortgages are like call options…”

I am not an options trader, by any means, but if I own an underwater mortgage, don’t I have the option to “put” it back to the bank?

“High end Orange County asking prices continue their long-term decline.”

Every high-end realtor in Orange County should embrace this!

“Most should strategically default, and many will, but what keeps from from doing so is hope.”

Sooooo. Right.  However, my good man, lest we forget about fear, a force even more powerful than hope. 

Fear of consequences, fear of loss of credit, fear of what neighbors might think, fear of the process, fear of the unknown.

For me fear was different.  For me fear was not the stomach pit, but a spoken word, a focused poem.

Fear became the mirrors image of my parents struggle mortgaged and monied with nothing left.

Fear, the pus-green stare-glare of my neighbors home.  Bought and envied for one dime out of ten of my hollow dollars.

Fear was the heavy saddled of my hopes, my fading riches.  Let my truth and tooth less dreams, speak about the loss of me. 

Fear that big hard men with shining shoes could cast my clan from my home, the debtor’s nest.  Worst yet, a home to be paid thrice before forgive of my noted promise——scary.

Fear, the seed of cowardice claims all men during our walk in time.  I am no different, and might argure that I am weaker than most, and most stupid of all. 

For I gambled and lost, and do not care.

A small window in front, walls a few feet away on both sides, so the only light in the place comes from the back, looking into a similar house across the tiny backyards. Maybe that’s why there are no interior pictures - they would all be done with flash photography.

Way too much Irvine premium in that place.

It is much more of a business and financial decision for a jumbo borrower.

In my experience with wealthy, or financially sophisticated people - these being different categories with a modest overlap - an unambiguous, iron-clad contractual situation in which they legally owe you $x is regarded as a starting point for how much you will accept to avoid hassle and legal fees, weighed also against their own legal costs.

Since the mortgage, a much weaker contractual tie, has a well-defined exit path, I imagine there is little anxiety about defaulting among those with resources or experience, particularly since personal credit ratings are irrelevant to those who control corporate entities which provide personal profit without personal liability.

As for arrant poseurs, their high-end mortgages are all doomed, anyway.

Many wealthy people regard a mortgage as simply a rental with the bank as a non-nosy landlord who will leave them be.

I am not, have never been, and never will be either wealthy or sophisticated, and I see any future mortgage as a long-term lease.

http://factfinder2.census.gov

SELECTED HOUSING CHARACTERISTICS
2008-2010 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates
Irvine, CA
     
Owner-occupied units 38,520
Housing units with a mortgage 32,048
Housing units without a mortgage 6,472

Percent without mortgage = 16.8%