Irvine Housing Blog

When a picture of the kitchen is missing in the current market, I immeditely wonder if there are any large appliances left or if the thing has been stripped to the wall by angry occupants who have been forced out.

seculded? This blog is a wonderful resource, very well written and informative. One thing I don’t understand is the obsession with countertop materials and other minor details in the comments. Very few note privacy issues or architecture problems. Garage doors in a front elevation is a sure sign of a tacky house so why get snarky about minor stuff? Thank you irvine renter for a timely and informative blog.

eastman

1714 Timberwood can rent for $2300/month. 160 GRM makes it $368k. Any potential knife catcher should keep this in mind.

Realizing that they barely made it out of the burning building in time, you know that the people who sold 1512 Timberwood in 2006 to the failed flipper did a huge “HOLY S THAT WAS CLOSE!” when the credit machine stalled a week later.

SUCKER!

We sold our one bedroom there for $260k…thinking no one would ever pay more than this for a one bedroom apartment. $100k profit in two years was too good to pass up, but they went on to go for $420k….we had no idea people would get so irrational about real estate.

Could you take a look up in North County at the new condos going up in Anaheim, both downtown (Harbor & Lincoln) and around Anaheim Stadium?

The ones at Harbor & Lincoln are zero-bedroom, 2-3 bath “Lofts” originally in the $400+K range.  Building is four stories and looks like a Thirties Euro-Bauhaus industrial building, minus the “Joe the Worker” statue on top and Leon Trotsky impersonator haranguing the masses from atop a soapbox before the main entrance.

I ran across the REA for the complex, who told me the “loft units” are intended for young singles and couples fresh out of college.  My experience with housing costs tells me the cost of each zero-bedroom, granite-countered “loft” (mortgage, property taxes, & HOA squeeze) comes out to over $3000/month, minimum.  How many “young singles and couples fresh out of college” can afford $3000/month?

The last I saw, the starting price on them was in the $380K range, down from over $400K.  When I asked, I was told that the Starting Price Was Always $380K, the Starting Price Was NEVER $400+K, Oceania had always been at peace with Eurasia, and the Chocolate Ration had always been ten grams.

Die.
Yuppie.
Scum.

Us gays just LOVE Justin but for this condo, I wouldn’t give them what it went for new (257.000.00) Does this place remind you of your fist cool apartment? Does me!

As Kathy Griffin would say, Justin is an honorary gay. A place of high Honor in American Culture.

There are IAC units that look icer inside than this place.  $225/sq ft is where this is headed, or $325k

Timberlake / Timberwood—UUuurrrggg, get it!

If you read the lyrics close, you can’t tell if he’s singing about a girl or a guy or a house…HHHhhmmm, interesting isn’t it?

“The owner purchased in early 2006 with an 80% first mortgage which was a 1% Option ARM. There is a 10% HELOC, which was probably used as purchase money, and a 10% downpayment.”

If you aren’t a flipper who was planning to get out in a year or two, anyone who bought a house with a 1% teaser rate signed their death warrant along with their closing papers.  I don’t know if these folks thought they’d move or refi, or maybe they assumed wages would eventually make the payments manageable, but they gambled with their home and credit, and now they are paying the price.  Good profile, IR.  There’s a lesson to be learned here.

What is with that kitchen table and chairs?  Looks like one I had in 1978.

Nice IR! Bringing out some JT…

IR, how can you call the folks at 800 Timberwood delusional?  They’ve reduced the asking price by $500. 

“No similar recent past sales could be found. “
This looks like another cookie cutter condo, yet nothing close has sold recently? 
I was expecting a bit of a bounce in prices and sales already, as those who had been looking for awhile saw these lower prices as “cheap”.
I suppose if banks now require down payments, then none of the first time buyers have them, or will have for years.  So maybe no bounce.

A lot of the new housing being built in Anahiem was planned to be condo’s but now they are converting them to apartments. I don’t know what they are going to do with the lofts, those would be difficult to lease as apartments too b/c the layout is not room mate friendly.

If it doesn’t sell in america - try germany!
http://immobilienusa.wordpress.com/
(still laughing)

In doing my rent/own calculations (which I do for a different reason than most of you; I do it to keep-convincing myself to “stay rented”)...  I use $500/month as the HOA (“condo-fee”) cost.

Am I ballpark here? What’s the “range” of HOA fee’s?

Thanks y’all…

PS>> I cashed-out of OC housing right at the peak of the bubble, started a business (going strong!). This was *not* skill…  In the Navy we used to say “I’d rather be lucky than good”

What I miss a little bit in your posts is an opinion about what you think a current fair market value of the property would be…. and what it might be a year from now

Is that the kitchen in the background or a closet?

Closet with granite flipper countertops and whatever big-bucks brand of appliances was TREN-DY last year.

What sticks out to me is not the current price or the outrageous purchase price in 2006…

It’s the purchase price of 257k on May 18th 2001.