Irvine Housing Forums

The saddest day in the financial blogging world

2008-12-01T00:12:31-08:00

My dear friend and co-blogger Doris “Tanta” Dungey passed away early this morning. I would like to express my deepest condolences to her family and friends.

Photo: Tanta in 2004 (from her sister Cathy).
From David Streitfeld at the NY Times: Doris Dungey, Prescient Finance Blogger, Dies at 47

The blogger Tanta, an influential voice on the mortgage collapse, died Sunday morning in Columbus, Ohio.

Tanta, who wrote for Calculated Risk, a finance and economics blog, was a pseudonym for Doris Dungey, 47, who until recently had lived in Upper Marlboro, Md. The cause of death was ovarian cancer, her sister, Cathy Stickelmaier, said.
...
Tanta used her extensive knowledge of the loan industry to comment, castigate and above all instruct. Her fans ranged from the Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times who cited her in his blog, to analysts at the Federal Reserve, who cited her in a paper on “Understanding the Securitization of Subprime Mortgage Credit.”

She wrote under a pseudonym because she hoped some day to go back to work in the mortgage industry, and the increasing renown of Tanta in that world might have precluded that. Tanta was Ms. Dungey’s longtime family nickname, Ms. Stickelmaier said.

From CR to Tanta’s many readers, fans and internet friends: Tanta enjoyed writing for you, chatting with many of you in the comments, and corresponding with you via email. She told me several times over the last few months how much she enjoyed discussing current events with you.

Tanta worked as a mortgage banker for 20 years, and we started chatting in early 2005 about the housing bubble and the changes in lending practices. In 2006, Tanta was diagnosed with late stage cancer, and she took an extended medical leave while undergoing treatment. At that time I approached her about writing for this blog, and she declined for a simple reason – her prognosis was grim and she didn’t expect to live very long. To her surprise, after aggressive treatment, her health started to improve and she accepted my invitation. When she chose an email address, it reflected her surprise: tanta_vive ... Tanta Lives!

Armed with a literary background and extensive knowledge of the mortgage industry, Tanta wrote about current events with deep insight and wit. Here is the introduction to one of her posts in 2006: Let Slip the Dogs of Hell

I still haven’t gotten over the fact that there’s a “capital management” group out there having named itself “Cerberus”. Those of you who were not asleep in Miss Buttkicker’s Intro to Western Civ will recognize Cerberus; the rest of you may have picked up the mythological fix from its reprise as “Fluffy” in the first Harry Potter novel. Wherever you get your culture, Cerberus is the three-headed dog who guards the gates of Hell. It takes three heads to do that of course, because it’s never clear, in theology or finance, whether the idea is to keep the righteous from falling into the pit or the demons from escaping out of it (the third head is busy meeting with the regulators).

Tanta wrote a number of posts detailing the inner workings of the mortgage industry. These posts covered a wide range of topics, from mortgage servicing, to everything you want to know about mortgage backed securities (MBS), to reverse mortgages. She called these posts “The Compleat UberNerd” and in typical fashion she noted:

An “UberNerd” is someone who is compelled to understand how things work in grim detail, even if the things in question are tedious in the extreme …”

Tanta liked to ferret out the details. She was inquisitive and had a passion for getting the story right. Sometimes she wouldn’t post for a few days, not because she wasn’t feeling well, but because she was reading through volumes of court rulings, or industry data, to get the facts correct. She respected her readers, and people noticed.

Felix Salmon at Condé Nast Portfolio.com, wrote on Nov 7, 2007 wrote:

“Tanta is one of the best financial writers in the world, and explains complex ideas with wit and great clarity.“

Paul Krugman at the NY Times complemented Tanta several times, recently writing:

“The great thing about this age of blogs is the way people who really know something about a subject can quickly weigh in, without being filtered through Authority.”

Even researchers at the Federal Reserve referenced Tanta’s work: From Adam Ashcraft and Til Schuermann: Understanding the Securitization of Subprime Mortgage Credit, credit on page 13:

Several point raised in this section were first raised in a 20 February 2007 post on the blog http://calculatedrisk.blogspot.com/ entitled “Mortgage Servicing for Ubernerds.”

Tanta was also extremely funny. She introduced the Muddled Metaphor Index (MMI) and Excel Art featuring the Mortgage Pig, and she was the originator of a number of phrases in use today, like “We’re all subprime now!”

This is a very sad day and I know many of you are in shock. Tanta was our teacher. She generously shared her knowledge with all of us. I doubt she knew how many lives she touched; her insights, spirit and passion lives on in her writings – and in all of you.

Tanta Vive!

P.S. please post or email me your thoughts and remembrances, and I’ll post some of them. Please no tips - I’ll post a charity of Tanta’s choice soon. All my best to everyone on this very difficult day.

I asked CR at IR’s book signing how Tanta was doing. His response was, “not well”. I was genuinely concerned by his response, but I, nor anyone, knew what kind of cancer, or exactly how bad it was, or how old she was. She was too young and too bright to go now. I can only imagine the lives of family and friends she must have touched in her time, because she touched so many just by blogging. You can tell by the amount of comments and the velocity of comments, as I started to type this there were 595 comments and currently there are 602. This is truly a sad day in the financial blogosphere, and a sad day for those who love snark, because we just lost the queen of snark.

My sincerest condolences go to her family and friends. As I have tears in my eyes for this loss, her family and friends will miss her more.

In her honor, I will rip Gretchen apart in a snark filled way, that I wish could live up to Tanta’s snark, anytime she writes a piece that is drowning in sensationalist swill.

Tanta Vive!

Anyone been watching the Towering Inferno at Marquee Place?

2008-01-10T00:23:39-08:00

I counted at least 20 units for sale. Some for almost a year and a half. With $1200.00 a month in HOA’s and empty units this place must be really hurting. I pass by there at night and it still looks like a ghost town.

Obnoxious Realtor

2008-11-24T12:11:52-08:00

Who is the most obnoxious realtor you have encountered? I would like to nominate Eric Fenchel, as the worst I have encountered. In fact my wife and I (who are actively viewing homes) will not even consider purchasing a home where Eric is the listing agent.

Headlines…

2007-02-27T05:48:23-08:00

I don’t think the sharp appreciation of the yen got nearly enough attention today. If the carry trade continues to un-wind then today was only the beginning.
It’s too bad they don’t issue paper t-bills any more. I’d be sniffing them right now.

Minimum Lease Length?

2008-11-30T23:37:08-08:00

Is there some law regarding the minimum amount of time a lease from the MLS due to broker commissions?

I was told it either has to be 1 year or month-to-month (which how would they figure broker fees from the latter).

Is there a possibility of 6-month or 9-month leases?

What’s going into escrow - Irvine and maybe some Tustin too

2008-01-16T13:04:50-08:00

For a list of recent escrow entries, check out www.ipoplaya.com

I keep a pretty good watch on 2000+ sf properties and will post updates here as I run across them.
Today’s escrow entrant, a Cal Pac place in Northwood II:
http://www.redfin.com/stingray/do/printable-listing?listing-id=1341646

# of properties sold in Shady in the last few months

2008-11-30T23:06:14-08:00

Does anyone know how many properties have sold in Shady in the past few months & selling price?

Who’s buying now?

2008-11-20T14:46:27-08:00

Where are all those posters asking why we haven’t bought? Where are you guys? lol I guess you don’t read the financial parts of your paper. Who would want to own RE right now? It will only follow stocks to the bottom. There are millions of people who were already in debt only to see their stock or retirement accounts evaporate. How long will it take to get back to the market highs of 2006? 1 generation? 2? Maybe longer? Who’s gonna buy in Irvine? I know, I know “Irvine has a lot of rich people, good schools, jobs, etc.“ Well that all changed in the past 6 weeks. You think those hedge fund manager on Wall Street are still buying $30M apartments? Second homes? Hell no, they are looking for work! 2/3s of them will crater, maybe more, so where’s that money now? It sure isn’t in the bank. Citi is now below $5. Buffet is taking a bath as well. No one is immune in this environment folks. Oh yea, forgot about the oil millionaires all going out buying new homes and toys….NOPE! That $107 oil premium is gone, and still falling. Those Google dot commers coming to the rescue? Nope! That’s gone too. People living paycheck to pay check who lose one of those pay checks and they take the whole neighborhood down.

So, why aren’t you buying? lol

TIC LURKERS?

2008-11-29T12:35:55-08:00

Here’s a not-specific housing topic post out of curiosity and amusement…

Are there any TIC employees who are known to lurk IHB? Have they ever shown themselves or maybe even contributed to these forums? Anyone ever fessed up?

niketalk.com for instance, is known to have caught the attention of the folks up at Nike, and they refer to the un-affiliated site more than they will admit for informal market research. There may even be user accounts held by nike people who “leak” info and pics to feed the hype.

That site is just an example of the power of the internet (for good or bad, but more towards good I think) in having a direct effect on product, market, pricing, etc. IHB I would think may be another similar instance. It’s a great source of info that I can imagine a resourceful (*cough* lazy) TIC employee getting their market research from and putting it in a report for their boss. Of course, sometimes I feel like I take the info presented here as word and don’t bother to cross-check. I would be one of those lazy TIC employees.

(PM me for my resume.)

Moving in IAC from rental to rental?

2008-11-29T14:47:56-08:00

Does the IAC allow a resident to move from an IAC community to another IAC community (without a penalty) before the lease has expired?

anyone?