Lennar profit plummets
Homebuilder reports 73% decline in quarterly net income amid ongoing softness in housing market.
http://money.cnn.com/2007/03/27/news/companies/lennar/index.htm?postversion=2007032707
 

Noteworthy article in the Economist that provides their perspective of the US housing market along with researched stats.  Seems like their fear is not so much the bubble bursting but that Congress will pass bandaid laws to cover up a laceration, which will make things worst.
http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8885853
 

34 percent of homeowners are clueless about their mortgage

http://biz.yahoo.com/brn/070326/21330.html?.v=1&.pf=loans

Not sure what to make of this, is it a one time occurrence or will we see more of this:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070327/beazer_homes_investigation.html?.v=5

Graph - Speaking of Tanta’s fraud piece, do you think that this MLS property might be one of those?  MLS # P558800.  The buyer is offering "financial incentives upon close of escrow."

Eval - I checked the listing on Zip and while it is overpriced it doesn’t look like it is kickback overpriced. But what is disturbing is that the listing agent put that comment in the listing. They can get in trouble for that. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able check the title history and I will know more. By the way that is actually a nice area of Santa Ana.

mah posted this to the blog. This is too important not to post here as well.

Subprime Mortgage Collapse Eviscerates California Headquarters    

The MSM is starting to pick up on the fact that the collapse of sub-prime lending is going to hurt Irvine’s economy.

Doh! Irvinerenter you beat me by 17 minutes in posting that one.

Santa Ana, California Affordability
The chart on this link speaks volumes.

The chart speaks volumes on two points. 1 we are way out of whack when it comes to prices. 2 it has started to go down. It just has a very long way to go.

I saw this earlier today and the Patrick news email has it too but the $1mil market is not immune.
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN2830223420070329?src=032907_1143_DOUBLEFEATURE_more_top_news

Sweeping mortgage bailout unlikely
 

"    Borrowers, don’t hold your breath for a bailout."

FB’s must abandon all hope.

Industry tightens standards on ‘no proof’ loans

"“It’s the small percent of extreme risk loans that are grossly overstating incomes, where people can’t afford it – truly liars’ loans – that really create all these defaults,” he said.
Darren Shimasaki, a teacher from Yorba Linda, bought a $425,000 condo last August with a stated income loan.
Shimasaki, who makes about $55,000 a year, would not have been able to get a standard loan based on his income, he said.
“In order to get into a decent-priced condo, I needed to make, oh my gosh, something like $90,000 a year, and I’m not anywhere near that yet,” he said.
Shimasaki ended up getting 100 percent financing through two loans, including one that requires interest-only payments for the first three years before an adjustable rate kicks in.
After that, he plans to refinance so he can keep up with payments.
“I’m pretty confident that the housing market won’t bust,” he said."

It is idiots like this guy who the rest of us are competing against for housing. The cummulative effect of all these idiots and liars is the bidding up of prices above their sustainable fundamental value. In other words, a bubble.

Springtime may prove chilly for housing market

 By Michael Liedtke

The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO—Springtime usually means good times in the housing industry, but this year it’s threatening to become a grim season of reckoning.

Signs of a sobering slowdown emerged throughout March, ranging from gloomy forecasts among homebuilders to a growing number of high-risk borrowers struggling to make payments on exotic mortgages they probably couldn’t afford in the first place.

The latest flare came this week as Lennar Corp., one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, reported a 73 percent drop in its first-quarter profit and warned that its results for the remainder of the year won’t live up to previous expectations.

Subprime mortgage scare spurs even fancier CDOs
By Neil Shah- Analysis
NEW YORK (Reuters) - With the subprime mortgage crisis making investors wary of collateralized debt obligations, or bonds secured by other bonds, Wall Street is cooking up even riskier deals offering bigger returns to lure hedge fund investors.
Managers of collateralized debt obligations, or CDOs, are taking advantage of a recent spike in yields on subprime-related CDOs to churn out these more lucrative deals, called "CDO squareds."
A CDO squared, put simply, is a CDO secured by other CDOs.
[...]
But the rise of CDO squareds, which were last popular a few years ago, could make a bad hangover from the subprime crisis worse if borrowers start defaulting in higher numbers.
http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSN2738006320070330?&src=033007_1841_INVESTING_comment_n_analysis&pageNumber=2

<nyt_headline version=“1.0” type=” “> New Century Files for Bankruptcy</nyt_headline>

Once a highflier in the booming market for making risky mortgage loans, the New Century Financial Corporation filed for bankruptcy court protection today.
In the largest bankruptcy case to date in the subprime arena, New Century listed liabilities of more than $100 million in its Chapter 11 papers filed with the federal bankruptcy court in Wilmington, Del.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/business/03lend.web.html?ex=1333166400&en=8e1ee6e601bc215d&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

54% of the workforce was laid off this morning.  I can’t imagine how that won’t affect the local economy.  

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article1607235.ece

Lenders willing to help struggling homeowners

The lending industry is posturing for public support in advance of probable congressional hearings on predatory lending. This is more false hope for FB’s.

Remember this post: I am IrvineRenter (Inventory Cholesterol)

Rich Toscano has written another good article about must-sell inventory: Sales and Must-Sell Inventory

Asset Price Deflation: The New Rules of Real Estate 

This linked article above has some great advice for preparing for The Winter of Our Discontent. Have you prepared for what is coming?

OK so it may not be a news article YET but I am going to test my estimated NOD count for last month of 945.
Realtytrac and foreclosure.com are way too slow. The first two days of April are starting off with even more. The lenders are the who’s who of OC subprime Option One, Resmae, Fremont, Mandalay, Peoples Choice and the champion is New Century. WAMU’s are increasing and I am not sure if Merrill is going to be that happy with their purchase of First Franklin. 

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-layoffs6apr06,0,3760899.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Pink slips litter loan industry

Moron Lenders

Very funny video

California foreclosure sales near $2 Billion in March

The party is getting started.