Irvine Housing Blog

At the rate CSCO is buying back shares, and factoring in Chambers’ reinforcement of his 12-17% CAGR for next 5 years (meaning top line will double), they will retire all shares within the next 10 years.

We drive brand new Hondas and Acuras.  My wife works in Torrance ( wink?) so we make money on brand new cars.

I’ll look into CSCO.  They’ve been dragging for a while and they had a bad announcement a month ago on earnings.

I think it’s too early to buy into any equities right now.  The sinking ship is taking everybody down.

BTW, I hate sales and management.  I prefer development and technical consulting.  I’m sure I’ve left a lot of money on the table but I love what I do and I’m damn good at it.

And Greenspan nonwithstanding I get paid fine.

IR
Who is going to pay to have my keyboard and monitor cleaned? As I innocently scrolled down the post the actual asking price on 25 Triple Leaf, a large volume of Diet Pepsi was spewed onto said peripherals! OMG, off the hook. What a starkly ordinary piece of stucco. You made my day!

Seattle, I think you need to refresh your history a little.  The “land bridge theory” is still just that, theory. Although there is ever increasing evidence that there was some migration during that epoch, it is far from certain those original asian tribes made it deep into the North American desert. In addition, you’ve got your eras mixed up.  AZDavid is correct, the Anasazi and many other native American tribes, known collectively as the “puebloans” survived centuries in the desert and they were far from lush during their time. Archeological evidence suggests those cultures rose in the now Sonoran Desert around 1200BC.  The land bridge theory suggests migrations from around 16000-12000 BC. It also bears noting that the cradle of civilization and rise of man grew mostly from the African savannah and the Sinai and Saharan deserts where coincidentally those civilizations continue to exist. There is nothing lush or verdant about those places. Humans can and do thrive in the desert as well as many other wide ranging climates.

I happen to live in SoCal and very much enjoy living here. I also have the perspective of having lived in nearly every climate in this country and I happened to have chosen here. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t live in AZ, I rather like the variety of topography Arizona has to offer. (AZ does have mountains and forests you know.) Apparently I’m not the only one as Phoenix and Tucson are continually among the fastest growing cities in the US ... still are. I think the desert can be quite beautiful and if you respect the topography, there is certainly no reason whatsoever one couldn’t live there quite contentedly. 

Let’s say we all agree to quit disparaging the place where one choses to live using ridiculous geo-centric attacks supported by faulty logic and poor factual evidence.  We talk about choices here all the time. Where one chooses to live is exactly that, a choice and not a character trait.
While I’m on the subject (and clearly off-topic on the state of the Irvine housing market) ... can we also lose the comparisons of wealth and income by way of innuendo?  Someone said it earlier, it’s precisely those “measuring contests” that contribute to the cultural pathology much discussed in these pages. Isn’t it about time we got past this?

It looks just like a Tuscan Villa, if Tuscany was in Huntington Park.

ipo:
you’re obviously a principled guy. Good for you. I’m on the sales side of an F100 so my job is probably not as frustrating as yours would have been on the finance/Biz unit side. Actually its a blast. I’m very fortunate. I love the challenge of leading large teams of people handling big quotas. My customer is also in the Valley so I don’t have much travel. We probably work similar hours, with the requisite email after the kids go to sleep.

I just wanted to highlight the point everyone slammed AZD for is a valid strategy IF one is pursuing retiring as fast as possible. Many people would love to golf/surf/play hoops all day instead of work. Sign me up!

25w:
Intel (major site/thousands and thousands of jobs)? Mot? Medtronic?

tonye:
We drive an early 90s Japanese luxury sedan and a company car. My wife wants a 911 for a wedding anniversary coming up so we finally have an excuse to get a sweet ride. Congrats on selling CSCO in 2K. I cannot comment on how I know, but pay very close attention to their product announcement from last week. It signifies the beginning of their next growth phase building out every service provider and F1000 enterprise network to accomodate the “exaflood” of data realtime video will generate. Buy CSCO at these levels.

You missed my point entirely Boston, likely because for you its about wealth building.  So what if I have $500K between a saved down, 401k, brokerage accounts, etc?  It doesn’t make me “rad”.  That ain’t nothing around here… I don’t think it makes me anything, because I don’t define myself by the amount of dollars I have.  I’m middle class, maybe upper-middle in Irvine, and happy to stay that way.  I feel zero need to parachute out of a place I love so I can be upper class in some god forsaken locale.  A comfortable middle class existence is perfectly fine for me.

IMO it’s attitudes like yours that fueled the bubble.  If you want to get rich quick so you can hit the links four days a week, knock yourself out.  Personally I can’t imagine retiring early.  I love working… I’ll probably work until the day I die if I can.  I walked away from a lucrative position (at least for my chosen profession) in a Fortune 250 company to take a pay cut to go to work for a tiny software company.  If I’d have stayed there, I’m sure I’d be at the director level now making 2-3 bills a year with a fat bonus and deferred executive comp plan.  Why would I make such a bonehead move?  I wanted to enjoy my job and have fun doing it.  Spending my work days in countless meetings, not doing anything myself any longer, simply navigating the politics and bureaucracy of a big company each day just wasn’t worth the big payday…

I’m not knocking anyone else’s choices.  If you are into making big bucks and living large, good for you.  As long as I have enough income to live comfortably, put my kids through school, and retire if I need to, I’m a happy camper.

To Turtle Ridge Renter,

Have you watched what is happening to downtown Chicago condo prices these days?

It is fun to watch.... example: a 2 bed 2 bath 1200 sq ft condo at 345 N. LaSalle, sold for $445K in 2004, sold for $600K in 2005, is now foreclosed, was offered at $299K, did not sell, is now on the market for $259K… might be sold (I’m not sure).

Looks like all the new buildings downtown sold their places almost excusively to flippers, 20 units at a time, and now they’re all coming back on the market.

It’s fun. But I auger it will be a lot more fun by mid-2009.

Someone from the Puget Sound is most definitely and expert in water.  ;-D

It never stops drizzling from above and in the fall those rivers bring it from the below. 

I got my first taste of Goretex and wool long johns from REI at the old store. 

People outside of the Puget Sound ( except maybe Norway and Poulsbo???) just don’t understand wool long johns and a full blown Goretex rain suit.  Definitely useful in the Olympic Peninsula and at Reflection Lakes in Mt. Raineer.

My yearly tax payment is 3700.  It got that high because when I rebuilt the house they assessed me an additional 140K of building.

Someone who’s owned their house since the 70s is paying like 800 per year tax and they mortgage is paid off.

Hence, these people are sitting on properties that are worth say.... around 800K to 1.2MIL and all they’re paying for them is say… 1200 bucks a year in RE tax.

Now then, this is why you can not calculate home prices based upon income because retirees will screw up that calculation.  You have to remove them to really calculate home affordability.

And, btw, the retirees that I know do not live off Social Security.  In fact, since TR was always expensive. the retirees I know have quite a bit of money stashed away in other investments.  And they have pretty good income streams.

Even if they always complain about being on “fixed incomes”.. Yeah, right.

OK you big shot Boston2TheBay .... I’ve owned my house since ‘87.  Hows’ that?  Do you honestly think all the money I have is tied on my house?

Listen, I was buying CSCO stock from ‘94 through ‘97.  Sold it in early ‘00.

OK, now you can kow tow to me.

Besides, I like the location where I am.  I’ve had the chance to move to San Jose twice (mid 90s and Y2K) but I passed it up because I don’t like the place.

See?  You got your goals off a bit.  The priority is not wealth building, but building enough wealth to enjoy your life.  Everything else is gravy.

Like my Acura is more reliable and hassle free than your Benz.  Which means less time wasted on my side dealing it with it.

Capisce?

“Phoenix has a much better high tech job base than OC. I personally never would live there, but it’s loaded with $100K+ jobs and cheap housing. It’s a good place for wealth building. Up here in the Bay area meanwhile listings in Palo Alto in Gunn High neighborhood are still eliciting biddign wars for 3/1 teardowns. The Pensinsula is an alternate reality.”

You are full of shit.  I work in the software industry.  Why don’t you give me a list of high tech companies that have big offices in Phoenix?

Whats that?  No?  I wonder why that is?  Oh thats right because there is no TALENT there.  Yes, I said above I could move there and have a high paying job, but not because the industry is there.  Simply because I get job offers for ‘work from home’ positions.

And no, for a lot of people the point isn’t to retire faster.  Some people enjoy life and/or want to improve the quality of their children’s’ life.

ipop - you love to cite how rad you are. OK tough guy - why are you at such a piss ant firm that you max your 401K? I have an exec deferred comp plan where I can stash 50% of all earnings including bonuses, no limit. Being an accountant I’m sure you know about these. I make enough that my 401k contribution is 6 figures annually, before their profit-sharing contribution. But who cares? You dodged the issue: long term wealth building. If you and I both have $500K put away, and I make a lot more than you, adding an extra $500K means I would retire faster. That’s the point.

I teach my young ‘uns to be decisive, confident and hard working. Instill those principles from the cradle and everything takes care of itself.

Phoenix has a much better high tech job base than OC. I personally never would live there, but it’s loaded with $100K+ jobs and cheap housing. It’s a good place for wealth building. Up here in the Bay area meanwhile listings in Palo Alto in Gunn High neighborhood are still eliciting biddign wars for 3/1 teardowns. The Pensinsula is an alternate reality.

I already have $500K in the bank Boston… I guess technically that would be banks, brokers, and investments.  Why do I really need another? 

I live in a 1600sf square foot condo, can afford to buy a bigger place here in wonderful Irvine, so why not do it?  I max my 401k and set aside $10K per year for the kids college, so what’s the point of fleeing to the desert to live in the dirt just so I can salivate over my bank balance?

I think that is the actually the poor values to teach your children - chasing after a buck for the sake of having a buck…

You hire a gardener for $50-70 a month.  They do all that.

And that assumes $150K down for 3x income, the historical norm.

Japan style deflation. And the Fed is deflating M3 right now, and Bernanke has articulated his plan to keep doing so. Major tsunami on the horizon.

ipop, Tony and CK exhibit IR’s aptly named Cultural Pathology of OC. It prevents them from understanding your point: it’s about long term wealth building. These boys espouse paying the premium for indulgence. Yeah - In N Out. Newport. The Barclay. UCI! Big f’in deal. They’re all great, but better that $500K in the bank??? Soooo many people made money, then plowed it all into a fancy new pad. Indulgence won out. Great values to teach your kids!

Given the baby boomers retirement is going to flood the markets with properties and send us into Japan-style housing price deflation for the next decade, this is another example of people who made the wrong decision in the RE run up. Take the money and run! The equity drain will spiral slowly down for years. RE will no longer go up. And the government’s plans to nationalize the housing market will only make it worse.

Already explained it, Ipoplaya.  You are being dense.

CA started the housing mess.  It’s going to lead the price crash down.  People from all over the country are watching what happens there.

Duh.

Capital,

While it is true that there has been same amount of water on earth for eons, that does not mean that water distribution stays the same.

In temperate/tropical boundary zones around the globe, the deserts have been growing since the last mini-ice age. When the temperatures rise, there is heavier rain fall in the tropics that take away the rain that othewise would have fallen in those boundary areas.

This boundary area covers Sahara, Middle East, and Arizona (and southern Cali).

What you are calling a “drought” is only going to worsen as global warming accelerates. Already, the scientists and water managers are predicting that Lake Mead will dry up by 2021.

If you think the current housing crisis in Irvine is bad, it will be a bloodbath for the housing market in Phoenix when the Lake Mead goes dry.

And for your information, Middle East used to be the most fertile land on earth just couple of thousand years ago. Almost all grains that you enjoy today originated from that region. Luckily for them, oil has provided for them what climate has taken away.

And tonye is right. When the push come to shove, coastal regions of California can get their water using desalinization, but a desert area far from the ocean won’t have that option.

So who is really the knife catcher? The guy in Irvine who is paying $300+/sqft in Irvine or a guy who is paying $150+/sqft in Phoenix?

I would say the latter.

Small lots are fine for me. I lived in downtown Chicago for 17 years, so I can’t imagine what I’d do with a yard. Don’t people with yards have to buy lawn mowers and rakes and things?

“Anaheim isn’t LA.”

Now Genius, they are only 30 miles apart…

I guess visiting Apache Junction is the same as visiting Phoenix.  Scary… Doesn’t say very much for Phoenix.

Weird that we get so many AZ people on this blog… I’ve never once had an iota of interest in a blog dedicated to Scottsdale, Phoenix, or AZ.  I can’t imagine spending any of my valuable time reading up on what was up in any other state besides CA.

Anaheim isn’t LA.

$900,000 would still be a WTF price.

Ok,

45 Thousand Dollars + to selling realtor (assuming 3%).

Realtor writes “built-in cabniets”

and “4 bedrooms upstairs each with own bathrooms.”

(how many bathrooms does each bedroom need?)

I am 40 years old, have a master’s degree and have been in my
field for 15 years.  I work hard to earn 45 thousand in six months…
without spelling errors…

These realtors deserve to be shot.

Where I live a house was listed last Friday for 660k, no pictures or description in the MLS.. today reduced to 550k… still no pictures but 2
word description… “ Short Sale”.

WTF????

Actually, per this article, in the post bubble future Arizona looks like the smartest place to buy property to follow the baby boomer and workforce trends and mazimize appreciation ....

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a789053981~db=all~order=pubdate

People who bought back in the 70’s and 80’s and have grandfathered property tax make 250K in their retirement years?  Really?  Wow, those Social security benefits must be really, really good…

>> We don’t really want a 3,000 square foot McMansion in Phoenix, which costs $750/mo to cool.

3400 square feet and apx $325 for all-electric, family of four (two teens), in the hottest months. Apx $200 in the coldest months. House built in 1993.

It’s uncomfortable in LA in J/J/A, too—so you can skip the B.S.—we have all stood in line in Disneyland.

The IHB houses don’t look so magical to me. In many posts, IHB Renter compares properties that are similar / same. If you can rationalize the price premium by saying that CA is somehow unique in all the world—I think you have got what you deserve.

Water is local!

I’ve often thought about sending anonymous letters to homeowners letting them know that buyers are laughing at their WTF asking prices.  They are in such serious denial though, they would probably assume the sender got the address mixed up with the neighbor whose house is listed cheaper.

Didn’t Juliet kill herself?

“Somebody will come along and fall right in love it with it.  It’s meant to be”.  Isn’t that what these kind of sellers usually say?

And by the way, excellent use of Twisted Sister lyrics.  Rock on.

Keep telling yourself that, Tonye.

Well said tony.  I actually look forward to visiting my friends out in Phoenix for 4 days or so every year.  They are planning on raising a family soon and having a nice big house is very important to them, so they probably made the right decision to move there.

Definitely not for me though. I like having things to do.  I’m a stone’s throw from the 405 so I can do pretty much everything above in even a few minutes less.  (But its noisier where I live then in turtle rock, so I’d trade places with tony if I had a choice

The culture, the nightlife, convenience of being fifteen minutes from pretty much everyplace i’d need to go is worth a lot to me.

I could make the same amount of money I do now and work in Phoenix and have a huge house.  I choose not to for good reasons.

Oh man, those are luxuries found noplace else other than CA.

Congrats, Tonye.

There is the same amount of water on Planet Earth as there was 100, 1000, 10,000, 1,000,000 years ago, etc. etc.  Unless someone is performing fusion or fission at the bottom of the ocean…

WATER DESALINIZATION....

If we have a big drought in the SW, I would imagine that coastal Southern California would be in a far better shape than Phoenix, eh?

Oh, and I have no frickin’ idea of what people make on other side of Culver and University.

They are in TR.

I’m no charlatan, just stating the facts that statistical income generalizations for ALL of Irvine are faulty as they included the student body and faculty at UCI.  All of which are subsidized by the state ( faculty ) or their parents ( students ).

Please stop the innuendo and faulty ad hominem attacks.

Door to door, I’m
five minutes from the Barclay,
fifteen from the Performing Arts Halls (2) in South Coast,
ten from Fashion Island,
fifteen from South Coast,
five from a Trader Joe’s and In’N’Out Burger,
ten from Mervyn’s, ten from a ton of japanese, chinese, persian, mexican, american, french, thai.... restaurants.
five from the beach
five from the UCI main entry
ten from John Wayne Airport… that’s right John Wayne

Now what was that about your location?

Me again.  I just got my mail, and received a mailing from special agent Mi**ael D**n (seriously, he markets himself with that name) which says:

JUST LISTED in Northwood Pointe!  One of the largest non-custom lots on The Irvine Ranch.  Blah, blah, travertine, blah blah granite… etc…

Anyway, I’m pretty sure it’s the $2 mil property in Somerton, although you have to call for details.  What I thought was funny was that he’s touting the fact that it’s a non-custom lot.  I guess he didn’t want to say

One of the largest tract-home lots in Irvine! 

But I will give him credit for not calling it an Estate. 

Have a great weekend everyone!

Seatlle.  I guess that Middle East never heard of your theories on climate change…

Diamond is a hack.  Guns Germs and Steel is Garbage leftist propaganda.

I’ve got a good story about dumb buyers…

A few months ago at preschool I overheard another Mom talking about how they’d just gotten a “Great Deal” on her dream house in the Tustin hills somewhere, so they jumped on it.  They were going to fix up their house and list it right after Christmas.  So this week, I heard her lamenting how their house hasn’t sold in 8 weeks, and they may have to drop their price, and that is going to make it more difficult to afford the aforementioned dream house.  WTF!  I chuckled all the way to my car.  Maybe I should say WAI (what an IDIOT!)

JHill - great post.

I am a Tucson native who moved to Phoenix two years ago.  There are some amazing houses on the north side of town (base of the mountains) that are way nicer than most of the houses I have seen on the IHB and they are probably about the same prices as the Irvine houses.

Lots of people on here are convinced that there is nothing better in the world than CA.  I think it is something in their water.

From Tucson again.  The SW drought is going to seriously hit Southern California, which in fact gets even less rain than parts of southern Arizona (which I agree is in trouble water-wise), and simply ignores this fact, landscaping everywhere with lush tropical vegetation. So Cal may, in fact, be in worse shape for managing drought than Arizona since there is very little awareness among citizens of the actual situation. Look it up.  I think San Diego coast is average 8 1/2 rainfall inches/year, Tucson is 11 (of course right now it’s running more like 4 and 6 respectively).

Ya know, here’s another Arizonan (Tucson) weighing in.  I think the contrasting prices are a real issue and do have an affect on the CA market.  I grew up in SoCal, lived there till I was 30, and I do get it. But do you know what 1.5 mill will get you in Scottsdale or Tucson?  A showplace, huge lot, custom features, every amenity (and not pergraniteel).  And if you are reasonable and buy, say, a very very nice 350,00 buck house, you can do what I just did—for a thousand bucks (and we zonies have the money left over) you can spend the weekend at the Hotel Laguna, walking on the beach, strolling the shops and galleries, and without a parking problem since hotel has a spot on the beach. I also find that there is more than enough culture in Arizona to keep me busy, and if I really crave, say, a view of a big exhibit at LACMA or Denver Museum or even a New York show or concert, I have the spare cash to go there. So, unless you must work in SoCal, these thoughts must be percolating in the brains of some prospective buyers.  And there is 365 day a year recreation here—5 degrees per thousand feet, folks, and we have plenty of mountains.

Environmental changes have effects on human civilization?

Groundbreaking thesis there, Seattle! 

Another one of life’s mysteries comes to a close!

Don’t worry about it ipop, if the bottom of your reebok is the worst thing I’ve eaten at a fast food joint, I’m doing better than most people.

Sorry to respond down here, but the bberry won’t let me comment inline.

Seattle - Thanks for the first grade history refresher.

It’s called “drought”.  It happens in the desert.  Some of these Native Americans even managed to “eek” their living by building canals and channeling water to farm crops.  Who’d have thought that!

Also, you cannot make up generalization about “Arizona Climate” being this or that.  Only the southwest region of the state is even considered “desert”.  The rest of it is higher elevation.

Keep reading your Anthropology journals.

If you throw enough S at the wall, something will stick sooner or later.  Keep trying.

Oh, if you actually read books, I would highly recommend you read “Collapse” by prof Diamond. It tells in very clear terms what effect environmental changes have on civilizations.

If you actually read history, you would have known that Native Americans came over from Asia during the last Ice Age. And during that time Arizona was much cooler and lush place, well suited for human population.

This was true even several hundred years ago when the earth went through mini-ice age. The climate in Arizona was much more hospitable. If you read any scientific/anthropology journals, you would also know that most of the nomadic tribes that eek out a living in desert are remnants of civilizations that once thrived in cooler climates that got decimated when it was slowly converted to desert over last several hundred year.

No, humans are not really well adapted to desert life. We may be able to do it in small scale when we have no other choice, but it is certainly not what we are built for.

Buying a land in middle of a desert is classic sign of delusional “gold rush”. The environment is not sustainable in long term. Pheonix may not even exist in 200 years. Why would you pay any money for housing there?

I do believe that in previous posts the pretty neighbor house was inhabited by a young lawyer who unexpectedly died of a heart attack.  Presumably, had he lived, he would have continued to live there and make payments. 

So there is more trajedy than foolishness.

No kidding!

Who would have thought that borrowing a million dollars to buy a silly house would be such a big deal! 

Sheesh!

5 second rule!

SeattleGameboy -

That’s just plain stereotypical stupid-American gibberish. 

Humans have lived in desert regions for thousands of years.  Arizona was occupied by Native Americans long before the white man got here and invented air conditioning and golf.

I seriously find it hard to believe that some people can be this ignorant - and yet they even go so far as to publicly post their stupidity in writing.

Amazing.

Keep up the good work!

CK -

California is highly interesting to me.  Why?  Because I secretly want to live there and I am jealous of the rest of you and I truely hate AZ?

Nah.  It’s much simpler than that unfortunatey.

California lead the bubble up and now it is going to lead the bubble down.

Once CA hits bottom, I’ll know the rest of the country (AZ included) is not far behind.

Not as sexy as theory #1, but closer to the reality. 

That’s funny, Woodbury.

It’s just different from what you are used to.

It sounds to me like you need to leave CA a little more often and see what all is out there!

Comments like yours are borderline ethnocentric.  Tsk Tsk.

On the topic of it’s a small world, turns out that I used to flip burgers at the McD’s during the summer that skek ate at regularly in the late 80’s…

You do know realize skek, we would drop those suckers on the floor all the time and still serve them right up.  You were eating what was on the bottom of my Reeboks that day!

“but someone seriously needs to queue up some Monty Python background music when reading a CK post”

An excellent Monty Phython song for this time of recession and financial anquish:

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

Bruces’ Philosophers Song

Immanuel Kant was a real pissant
Who was very rarely stable.

Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar
Who could think you under the table.

David Hume could out-consume
Schoppenhauer and Hagel

And Wittgenstein was a beery swine
Who was just as schloshed as Schlegel.

There’s nothing Nietzche couldn’t teach ya
‘Bout the raising of the wrist.
Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed.

John Stuart Mill, of his own free will,
On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill.

Plato, they say, could stick it away--
Half a crate of whiskey every day.

Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle.
Hobbes was fond of his dram,

And René Descartes was a drunken fart.
‘I drink, therefore I am.’

Yes, Socrates, himself, is particularly missed,
A lovely little thinker,
But a bugger when he’s pissed.

Ipoplaya- I see that 2 Morning Dove came back on the market yesterday..... did it fall out of escrow or was it flipped?

L M A O

I meant prices in Phoenix would have to implode…

BTW, AZ --- For the record since I am one of your “usual suspects”, I rent in Irvine, but will be buying in Irvine so I actually do hope prices do keep falling, it only helps me. But unlike you I don’t feel it adds value to throw a bunch of stupid assessments of pricing falling to 1997 levels or you could get this for your money in BFE. That’s not realistic and is pointless.

The subject of Arizona only comes up here when you start making comments like “you elitists shoulda come to Scottsdale when you had the chance, now you are all gonna get yours”.  Sorry for paraphrasing, but I think that about sums up your feelings. Don’t worry, that’s the last comment I’ll direct your way --- as others above noted, it’s not worth the effort.  Best of luck to ya.

Third party observer here…

If housing in Irvine are are overpriced, I think the market would have to implode before I would even think about moving there.

I mean, at least Irvine is fairly close to water and weather is great all year around.

Phoenix is in literally in the middle of freakin’ desert. Humans were NOT meant to live in the middle of a desert. And with all the global warming and water shortages, why on EARTH would even think about buying there?

I wouldn’t pay more than $50/sqft for the very best houses in Phoenix, let alone some average homes.

And talk about sprawl! If having a “decent” sized yard for a median price home means having sprawl like you have in Phoenix, I will happily take the postage sized lots in Irvine.

Its hard to give a solid estimate without seeing pictures of the interior, but I think what we’re seeing a case of a Seller who was (recently, I’m a guessing) a buyer.  Like many people in their situation, they’re stuck in home thats lost 20% of its value over the last year. Now they want out on their own terms. Home owners are fickle, and stubborn, especially if you’re asking them to lose a ton of money.

With neighbors so close on all sides you can hear their bodily noises.  All for a million$ plus.  No thanks.

AZ-You’re just mistaken.  It only matters that it “looks” like everyone in Irvine is making thousands per hour.

I was in Carefree last year for a conference at the Boulders.  All I saw on the drive up from Skyharbor was dust and rocks, rocks and dust.  Not paradise unless you are a cactus.

AZ - Do you have a preference for you own theme song?  Since you seem to have a fixation on Southern California, maybe something like “Jealously” by Paris Hilton might be appropriate?  I bet you dig Paris, don’t you?

Like many clueless sellers in denial, they rationalize that they only need one buyer.

Watch it, Dan -

You are rattling the hornets nest.

You are asking for a salvo blog flog and sacred land rhetoric.

Indeed.  It’s pointless.  We’re here talking about Irvine house prices falling and the usual suspects want to change the subject and talk about Phoenix just because a bunch of their former neighbors saw the writing on the wall and left town with their lottery winnings to go and buy a house in AZ and not have to ever make a house payment again.

Can’t say I blame them.  If I owned in Irvine right now, I would probably want to talk anything other than falling house prices too.

Interesting.

I thought everyone there was earning thousands by the hour…

Some of the more vocal Charlatans on this blog even go so far as to make claims that people earning less than 250K per year are in the minority.

Are you postulating that this may not be the case?

Slamming Phoenix for it’s crime while living in socal is akin to throwing stones while living in a house made from glass.

Wow, 70% of readers/responders think the house is worth less than 1 million, i.e. less than $266/sq ft.  What a disconnect from reality!

The seller must be an absentee owner living in Timbuktu with no internet or telephone for the last 24 months - to make this decision on the asking price in such an information vacuum.

so they should not go for more than 700-750 tops. prices will overshoot on the way down esp for houses that have no special appeal..  8)

Oy vey.

have you guys seen the new fanny guideline, unless salaries skyrocket in Irvine, these houses will go back to 2000-2001 prices with the over one million homes in beach areas like George8 mentioned. it will become very difficult to get loans for these amounts, and if you do make that money, you will be demanding some nicer that a mcPOS in Woodbury.  excuse my language