Irvine Housing Blog

“As the debt addicted abandon their entitlements and adjust to living within their means, the economy will slowly improve and be put back on stable footing.”

Actually, it won’t.  Wall Street has no interest in pulling the economy out of a recession, and low wages are just what they are hoping for.  And why should they care?  They can hide money overseas in tax shelters; they’ve outsourced most of the industry and continue to do so; and if the U.S. economy goes south, they’ll relocate in what’s left of Europe and Asia.  Either that, or retire.  Their sole interest is in short-term fixes, and turning the country into yet another banana republic.

Our government is owned by banksters, and I don’t see any improvement heading our way.  Say hello to multiple decades of even lower wages and utter stagnation.

Wow, that’s some scary decor…add another $50K+ for remodeling (or a big prescription of Prozac)....

Wow, a 400K plus loss.  I thought prices never go down in Irvine.  Even at this price, buying in the NKT doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.  That big HOA monthly nut makes this place worth maybe 250K at the most. 

Tip to homedebtor trying to sell.  Put funky art in closet and pick up some guys from Home Depot to paint walls and ceilings a nice, neutral color.

Thanks for the update on North Korea. It’s always interesting to see what is happening here. That HOA dues figure is outrageous! For that price they’d better bring me coffee in bed every morning!

There’s plenty of very affordable housing out there.  Six years of waiting for Irvine is about entitlement and simple greed.

My God.  The interior looks smoke damaged.

$3,526 .......... Monthly Cash Outlays

$42k/year to live in that dump? lol

said Goodnight, the printing company owner. “And that’s where we are right now. Everyone is afraid of the deficits. They’re afraid of the new regulations that are coming down fairly soon. They’re afraid about health care. And no one’s going to make a major investment when there’s this much uncertainty in the air.”

That man’s brain is a fully-controlled subsidiary of Fox News.

At least deficits recently became a concern of the political and media classes, on January 20, 2009, at precisely 11:00 a.m. Before, they were just huge war deficits, which are inherently efficient and job-creating government spending. Deficits spent on public works projects at home just kill kittens and create uncertainty.

All this concerns me, except I’m actually more concerned that there won’t be more regulations coming down on places like the financial sector.

A whole lot of people sure care about deficits all of a sudden. Where were they when it was their party creating them?

something in a basic black ?

darth vader’s OC crash pad or what

Some thing is wrong when you “purchase” a new luxury condo and then must do upgrades. 

Any pending HOA re-assessments for the non-paying units may be a factor for the price reduction.  Anybody know the finance to the NKT?

What ever party is in full control, it’s party time and drunken sailors on shore leave for restraint.

If I were parodying a 1986 bachelor pad, I would model it on this place.

Who on earth would live here? A goth who can’t leave high school behind? A bachelor determined to remain a bachelor? President of the Morticia Adams fan club?

Weren’t these towers built for people who worked very near at New Century and earned $200,000? Now, these people can only find jobs in retail.

The housing bubble and banks sucked in money that would’ve been better invested in manufacturing. Though, manufacturing is considered non grata in OC because it creates pollution, smog, noise, etc, but it also creates jobs (Boeing go away!).

Well, should want to leave one failed state for another here is what $380K will buy 35 miles from downtown Chicago:

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/18679-West-Maple-Avenue_Grayslake_IL_60030_M77979-12901

http://www.housingwire.com/2011/06/23/pending-conforming-loan-limit-decrease-puts-california-on-edge?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed:+housingwire/uOVI+(HousingWire)

“By reducing the conforming loan limit, thousands of California homebuyers will be shut out of homeownership,” CAR President Beth Peerce said.

Oh My God! some people will be shut out from homeownership, that sounds really alarming…wait…if you have a brain and can think (something realtors usually pray you don’t have), you can see your are not being shut out of anything. You just may not afford a much more expensive home. So if you are tight on money and extending yourself, you might only be able to buy a 650k home instead of a 750k home. I’m shedding a tear for these guys, that is so sad, the government must do something!! Can you imagine how sad the kids would be if the family has to settle for an inferior $650k home? sheezz

Over the last year, the ‘shadow inventory’ (# of properties that are not currently listed on multiple listing services and are delinquent by 90 days or more, in foreclosure and owned by lenders) declined by 200,000 properties. This is comparing the ‘shadow inventory’ of 1.7 million in Feb-Apr 2011 to the 1.9 million properties in Feb-Apr 2010. If this level continues to decrease by only 200,000 each year going forward, it would take 8.5 YEARS to clear ‘shadow inventory’ out of our residential RE market! Unfortunately, this could even be considered a slowdown from 2009-2010, when the ‘shadow inventory’ decreased by 100,000 from Q4-2009 to Q1-2010.

Home “shadow inventory” dips on year: CoreLogic
(Reuters) - The number of U.S. homes likely to hit the market soon fell compared to last year due to fewer new delinquencies and a high level of distressed sales, a real estate research firm said on Wednesday.
CoreLogic reported that the so-called shadow inventory of homes in the three months to the end of April declined to 1.7 million homes. That’s equivalent to a five months’ supply and is down from 1.9 million in the same time frame the year before.
It is also down from the peak level of 2 million homes seen in the three months up to January 2010, CoreLogic said.
...
CoreLogic estimates the supply of homes yet to come up for sale by calculating the number of properties that are not currently listed on multiple listing services and are delinquent by 90 days or more, in foreclosure and owned by lenders.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/22/us-usa-housing-corelogic-idUSTRE75L35C20110622

NAr: “It’s a great time to buy!!!”
http://www.realtor.org/home_buyers_and_sellers/buy_now_ad

Hey, don’t worry, Suzanne researched this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubsd-tWYmZw

-Darth

I know there have been many stories of renters getting the shaft when the house they’re renting is foreclosed on, but for the first time this is happening to people I know. Their landlord hasn’t been paying the mortgage for years, and has been pocketing the rent. My friends found out the house they’re renting is up for a short sale two weeks after it went on the market. They now have to show the home to prospective buyers, even though it’s unlikely a short sale will happen. The house is scheduled to be taken by the bank in a couple weeks. Looking at other rental homes in their area, accidental landlords are asking for ridiculous rents to cover their insane mortgages - $5,500/month for a basic house. This is an awful situation and just another example of how renters are getting screwed by this whole debacle.

It used to be that “tough financial times” brought families tighter together.

I purchased a home where the selling couple was going through a divorce with kids in the mix.  It’s horrible.

The statistical lie is that “67% of marriages end in divorce.” Actually the likelihood of divorce greatly depends whether you’re a man or woman and how old you are, plus your education and financial status.

Whether male or female, if you’re now married and 20-29 years old, you’re definitely in a high-risk age group for divorce.

But if you’re both well educated (college degree +) and affluent, then your risk of divorce amazingly declines.

The housing crash has a funny way of destroying the affluence bit, placing what would otherwise probably be “safe” marriages into a higher risk for divorce.

No romance without finance?

http://www.divorcerate.org/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/number-of-long-lasting-marriages-in-us-has-risen-census-bureau-reports/2011/05/18/AFO8dW6G_story.html?hpid=z3

It may be time to rewrite the aphorism “Buy when everyone says it’s better to rent.”

I think we’re at least 20% above the eventual floor, but a status-seeking follower friend of ours, who is normally the last person to think for herself, told us that it’s a bad idea to buy a house, because real estate will be stuck in neutral for many years.

This is definitely causing some dissonance - I don’t know what to think here. Maybe the bottom is in after all?

I’ll pass this on to Suzanne, and have her research it.

people! people!

haven’t you all learned by now!?  Stop…...feeding the trolls!!

I completely relate to this post. 

I would love to own a place (within my means) so I can install the floors that I like, paint the rooms the way I want to, remodel it to my taste, etc.  However, I don’t want to own a home that continues to decline in value so I’m stuck renting.

Honestly if I was convinced that home prices would even remain flat for the foreseeable future I would still buy, but not if they continue to decline.

Totally sucks.

Wow, darth vador is selling his quarters in the death star.

Hey, it’s OK, he will sell, and loss will be erased, because the Force is with him.

$840/month HOA fee, really?  Call me provincial, but that strikes me as absurd.  Thats P&I on a fairly nice place out here in the hinterland.

Call me provincial, but that strikes me as absurd.

You get all these goodies for your HOA dollars:

Enjoy the amenities: pool, spa, fitness center, BBQ area, billard room, and conference rooms. State-of-the-art security including 24/7 concierge service, guard-gated access, keyed elevator access, and security cameras.

The HOA used to be around 1,100, so it went down a bit, and these are suppose to be luxury living, the kind of place Bruce Wayne would live in because it was too late to drive home to stately Wayne Manor.

“Renting lacks an emotional quality of belonging that is difficult to replicate”

You never own your home. Property taxes make you a permanent serf.

You’re living a life of illusion.

Why all the agonizing about houses going down in price?  Every other thing I’ve bought and used has gone down in price!

Seriously, that’s why the government let me depreciate the house I’m renting out.  I’ll hopefully be out of the landlord business soon when my inherited property sells.

Ha, very true Joe R, everything goes down in value after its “old”.

The income breakdown bar chart is a good one, especially for anyone thinking about buying a home going forward.  the interesting part is notice that none of the scenarios include a category for savings, so really this is ex-savings (though let’s face it, most people in the last 5 years really didn’t have any so it’s nearly a moot point).

That interior.  Jeeze.

Liberace ain’t dead.  He moved to North Korea Towers and started collecting zombie art.