Irvine Housing Blog

IR,

I’ve been reading since spring, and I have to say, your blog format has gotten a little stale.

FORMULA: A YouTube song pull, a WTF house listing that isn’t so rare to find anymore, some catty comments about punctuation or periods used by a Realtard, maybe a graph, and a closing phrase about how imminent doom is either here, or on it’s way.

It was fine for the first few months, but really, you’re bound to run out of songs.  And you can only make fun of ‘gourmet kitchen,’ phraseology before that gets tired too (I’d say it happened in August, but that’s just me)

Anyhow, here’s to a re-energized blog in 2k8.

Scroogey
——-

Merry Christmas to IR, IHB and everyone here.

Do you have any better idea?  I like the format just fine.

Merry Christmas, folks!

Oh, and that’s not Santa coming down the chimney. He’s wearing a ski mask and has a crowbar in his hand!

“...your blog format has gotten a little stale. “

I was here when this blog was getting 3 to 7 posts per day - before the IR era.

IR has hit on one of the best ways to expose the bloated housing bubble, and that is to highlight homes that are for sale. What better way is there?

Of course, this concept is not new, and weather it be Real Homes Of Genius from Dr Housing Bubble or many of the other blogs that do this, its something that works.

Its the best way to show potential home buyers what they may be getting themselves into. Thats really why many of us are here, to teach and warn others that happen upon this blog.

The easy thing to do is just quote news releases from other sources, like “that really popular housing blog” does, and there is nothing wrong with that, but there is a reason why IHB has become so popular.

Anyway, many businesses that I deal with, in order to be politically correct will say something to me before I hang up the phone - they say “Happy Holidays”. Well, I am not going to fall for that and I want to wish everyone here a “Merry Christmas”.

Tofu?

See first song.

Happy Winter Solstice!

This So Cal great weather thing is out of hand…  Just got back from lunch and it was 76 degrees.  Gotta change into my shorts and t-shirt before I burn up!

Merry Xmas y’all…

First you start a war on housing, now you start a war on Christmas. Is there nothing American that you won’t try to destroy?

It’s 8:41pm on Christmas Eve.

Merry Christmas!

My wife and I are flipping a house. We thought this was just the right time. We came into a no-money-down fixer-upper, a 1500” colonial with nice lines, about 30 years old.

We cashed out 100% of our sweat equity, repainted the whole thing inside and out. Floors are expensive, but my wife had the brilliant idea of using a wet paintbrush with tan paint to streak uneven lines in the floor - it looks just like hardwood, but for only the cost of paint. The wiring was substandard, so we just removed it. And it was missing a bathroom, so we’ll add one to the attic. Instead of getting expensive shingles for the roof, we used sand paint. It’s really almost the same. The appliances are repurposed from some other houses, too. In all, I think we’ve spent $50 on our flip.

Our open house is tomorrow, and we hope that we’ll be as rich as George Bailey.
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My wife and I are flipping a house. We thought this was just the right time. We came into a no-money-down fixer-upper, a 1500” colonial with nice lines, about 30 years old. We cashed out 100% of our sweat equity, repainted the whole thing inside and out. Floors are expensive, but my wife had the brilliant idea of using a wet paintbrush with tan paint to streak uneven lines in the floor - it looks just like hardwood, but for only the cost of paint. The wiring was substandard, so we just removed it. And it was missing a bathroom, so we’ll add one to the attic. Instead of getting expensive shingles for the roof, we used sand paint. It’s really almost the same. The appliances are repurposed from some other houses, too. In all, I think we’ve spent $50 on our flip. Our open house is tomorrow, and we hope that we’ll be as rich as George Bailey.

...

If you haven’t guessed ... it’s a dollhouse.

Merry Christmas!

Scroogey,

The holidays really bring out the best in some people—the worst in others. I have no doubt suggestions are welcome, but whining is for brats.

Perhaps IR can dedicate Janet Jackson’s “What have you done for me lately?” to you while covering a house that’s been flipped three times in a row.

As for me, I have enjoyed many of the special topics and analysis provided by IR, not to mention a good deal of warning that was spurned by bulls as the bubble kept inflating. Here is somebody who knows a little bit about the real estate biz and how to spot a trend in data.

I’m content to check in from time to time to see what’s up and am often pleased with either the song tie-in, “realtor ad-writing assessment”, or the story behind the deal extrapolated from the information available.

Why don’t you just go away and start “Scrooge Mc Duck’s Everlasting BlogStopper” and do things your own way?

Oh, and a very merry Christmas to you!

I’m guessing you’re making a little joke there…

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119829696940946747.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

“Price Indexes Will Map Out Spread of ‘Negative Equity.”

“Last March, First American CoreLogic, a housing- and mortgage-data
supplier in
Santa Ana, Calif., calculated that nearly 7% of 32 million U.S.
households studied
as of December 2006 owed more than their homes were worth, based on
computer
estimates of the property values. The homes studied had mortgages
originated in 2004
through 2006, around the peak in the housing market. Since the end of
2006, U.S.
home prices on average have fallen nearly 5%, said Mark Fleming, chief
economist at
the firm. That suggests that about 11% of the homes studied now would
have negative
equity. An additional 5% or so probably have equity of less than 5%.
That doesn’t
leave much cushion at a time when prices are still falling and most
economists don’t
expect the market to hit bottom for at least another year.”

“Economists at Merrill Lynch say home prices are likely to fall 10% in
2008 after
slipping 5% this year. Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s
Economy.com, a
research firm in West Chester, Pa., recently forecast that on average
U.S. house
prices will decline about 13% by the second quarter of 2009 from a peak
in the
second quarter of 2006. Declines will be much larger in Florida,
California, Arizona
and Nevada, as well as in the metropolitan areas of Washington, D.C.,
and Detroit,
he said.”
 

Merry Winter Solstice Day Kirk.  I see you are celebrating in your own fashion!

Pagan.

Nah.  It would be nice to believe in the mother goddess, but alas it is all nonsense.  It is however, the winter solstice due to the tilt of the earth as it goes around the sun.  You do know the earth goes around the sun, is NOT flat, and the earth is older than 6-7000 years?

Try watching the sky and you’ll see how wrong you are.