Irvine Housing Blog

The governor and Obama should think about changing the tax system.

The influx of Latino is fueled by the fact that they can get free schools, cheap medicine for their kids, food stamps, etc, but don’t pay taxes at all because of low incomes. 50% of the US population doesn’t pay taxes at all because it’s socialistic: the rich pay all taxes.

Why does the governor want to raise sales tax, auto registration fee, etc but says nothing about raising house property taxes?

Why does he want to cut school financing? The future of America depends on highly educated people who can create technically complex products.

Doesn’t he understand that low-skilled foreigners only consume, don’t produce anything competitive?

Vincenzo,

I know you might one of those undercover racist who blames foreigners for your own lack of accomplishment, but it’s getting old. Take some personal responsibility for your failures in life instead of blaming it on brown people. You can succeed too, if you remove the hate from your heart and concentrate on making something of yourself.

I did it, and yes, my parents were immigrants. I had to deal with racist remarks when I was younger from people who thought like you. I got free lunch, and food stamps, and my father worked in a cement factory. He didn’t produce anything “technologically” complex, but he did work very hard to put me through school.

I learned from his work ethic, and eventually was accepted at MIT (c/0 2002) on a full ride scholarship. Now I work at Apple, you know, the company that created the iPhone?

Before you blame others for your own personal failures, remember, some of the problems you may be experiencing may be internal. Sometimes change comes from within.

MIT Grad,

I’m not sure how an MIT grad jumped to the conclusions you did from Vincenzo’s comments.  What makes you think that he is a personal failure?  He seemed to be commenting on the fact that 50% of people in the US don’t pay income tax and yet the government continues to try to squeeze those of us who do pay income taxes.  Based on his complaint, I would have to assume that he is in the 50% who do pay taxes, meaning he has done okay for himself. 

As for myself, I don’t agree at all with the current tax system.  I would love to see a less graduated tax scale.  Actually, I would like to know what percentage of income taxes go to research grants, entitlement programs and pet projects.  For the sake of discussion, let’s assume that equals 50% of state income tax revenue.  I think that every taxpayer should be able to allot 50% of their taxes to the programs THEY support.  If I wanted 50% of my taxes to go towards environmental research, I should be able to decide that.  If I wanted 25% to go towards AIDS research and 25% to go towards welfare for single moms, I should be able to choose that.  It would be a much more democratic way of doing business than we currently have in place.  I just don’t think that it is fair that proportionately I contribute more money to the goverment spending allowance than I have power to decide its use.  In fact, the less you pay in taxes the more decision power per dollar contributed you have.  Doesn’t that seem a bit backwards?

The FCBs will save us. Irvine will become a hub of savvy buyers who seek to outbid each other with cash for an Irvine tract home.

The 2010 Census data seems to agree:

2000 Irvine population
Total 143k Asians 42k 29.4%

2010 Irvine population
Total 212k Asians 83k 39.1%

And I don’t think that even counts the Middle Easterners and Indians.

The problem with being one of the highest prices markets in the country is that every nearby market pulls you down by the substitution effect. The high prices in coastal California pushes growth inland as buyers substitute driving distance for cheaper housing. Cheaper substitutes in Riverside County limit price increases in Orange County.

The substitution effect for Riverside was more effective when gas was cheaper. Now, that gas and/or toll road premium you have to pay (not to mention the commute time and hassle) makes that difference in house prices less attractive.

I think South County and closer homes will see more buyers than the IE. Not only do they have more inventory than Irvine, they are over 20% less. The problem is there isn’t enough ethnic demand there (maybe someone should build a Diamond Jamboree center in Ladera).

The day you folks in the ‘Golden State’ passed Prop. 13 (06/06/78) was the day I realized I would never be a CA homeowner. The freeze in property values at 1975 levels meant it was obvious to this person (22 years old at the time) that new buyers would be the ones stuck with higher values and thus larger property tax bills. But why your state doesn’t revalue real estate everytime a HELOC or Re-Fi was made against the property based on an increased assessment value seems at best a missed opportunity. Oh well…

The desire to not be overrun by illegal immigrants has absolutely nothing do with racism, not that Mexican is a ‘race’ anyway.  We need to enforce our laws, eliminate sanctuary cities, cut off health care, education and food subsidies to those here without permission, and put teeth into laws that punish companies for employing the unauthorized.  If every state took these steps we would have to take down those stupid border fences to avoid bottlenecks for the waves of people walking back to their home soil.  Believe me, I would say the same thing if the country were overrun by millions of Canadians or Swedes.  And before the liberals accuse me of being stupid just let me say that I am fully bilingual and have lived in Mexico and Central America.  This has given me perspective into the thought process of those that head North.

Funny when you get people who claim to be “brown” yammer on about how successful they are in IT/Tech/etc. and work for companies like (insert big corporate conglomerate here).

All those people can easily be replaced by even “browner” and “hungrier” people in a flash.

So, I suggest that all of you STFU and get off your MIT high horses because there are probably plenty of people in (insert brown country here) that would love to come over here and do your keyboard banging jobs for $10/hr or less.

It wouldn’t even matter if you’re a fu**ing surgeon.  There is somebody out there that would gladly learn whatever is necessary and undercut your salaries.

Thoughts and prayers to the people of Japan and those affected by the earthquake.

Just a quick comment on the featured property - I used to live in Corte Bella (aka community of ‘aisles’).  Back in 2004, I rented the master bedroom in one of the units that faced the gate and fountain.  Had a very nice time living there, no complaints for the most part - there was this one time where water flowed down the air vent, other than that not much else to complain about.  I think the landlady did complain about the high HOA at the time, among some other things.  Would I buy a unit there now?  Sure, if they cut the price in half (asking and HOA).  Haha.  Otherwise, I’ll just rent there if I needed to live in Irvine.

Regarding the communism/socialism discussion - I think it’s best summed up as the resentment against the ever expanding growth of the statist government and welfare state.  If you think such growth is good because it promotes ‘social justice’ (whatever that may mean to you) and ‘fairness’ (again, whatever that may mean to you), then well, good for you.  Others see the growth of government as an decrease in their liberty and property (i.e. increased taxes).  Welfare programs like medicaid/medicare/social security may sound like good ideas at the time, but in the end it will bankrupt this country (those entitlement programs already take up more than 60% of the federal budget).  The effect of those programs is that people are less self-reliant and sufficient and increase their dependency on those programs (i.e. they have a increased ‘sense of entitlement’).  Why take care of yourself, be prudent and save for a rainy day and retirement when you know you’ll be covered?
It’s this same line of thinking that produced the idea of ‘too big to fail’.  If you know you’ll be bailed out if you don’t make good decisions, then there is a lot less incentive to make good decisions in the future, and just take more risk and gamble and ‘enjoy life’.
If you want an illustration of the difference between capitalists and socialists/communists, just compare the tea party rallies with the protesters in Madison, Wisconsin.
In case you are confused, socialists and communists were part of the protests in Madison.

so this seller has lost -8.3%... if they had bought similar profile home somewhere other than irvine, wouldnt they have lost more?
definitely love reading the ihb, have learned much about real estate from many of the posts… the one thing tho about irvine, and your comment that maybe the FCBs will save us.. i guess you mean negate the impact of the double-dip in irvine? yes i think so…but no, i dont think they are savvy buyers..
they just want a home to own, and irvine has to be it..
speaking from personal experience, those with the means to move to america from china/taiwan/korea.. they only want to live in irvine(of course san marino is what they aspire to), even forcing their american-born ethnically-asian spouse/son-in-law to commute 45 miles one-way to their job in downtown la.. i remember asking, whats wrong with los alamitos or cypress? not enough white residents(safety factor) and/or not enough asian food(comfort factor) was the response.. i guess that would be the out-migration of whites from ca reflected in the census