Happy Boxing Day!
Irvine Home Address … 5322 PLUM TREE Irvine, CA 92612
Resale Home Price …… $520,000
{book1}
Take it all down, Christmas is over
But do not despair, but rather be glad
We had a good year, now let’s have another
Remembering all the good times that we had
Oh no more lights glistening
No more carols to sing
But Christmas, it makes way for spring
Though hearts of man are bitter in weather
As cold as the snow that falls from above
But just for one day we all came together
We showed the whole world that we know how to love
Oh no more lights glistening
No more carols to sing
But Christmas, it makes way for spring
Oh no more lights glistening
No more carols to sing
Christmas, it makes way for spring
Oh remember that Christmas, it makes way for spring
Boxing Day — Relient K
I want to thank my wife for the inspiration of today’s post.
From Wikipedia:
The name [Boxing Day] derives from the tradition of giving seasonal gifts, on the
day after Christmas, to less wealthy people and social inferiors, which
was later extended to various workpeople such as labourers and servants.
The traditional recorded celebration of Boxing Day has long included
giving money and other gifts to charitable institutions, the needy and
people in service positions. The European tradition has been dated to
the Middle Ages, but the exact origin is unknown and there are some
claims that it goes back to the late Roman/early christian era.
In the United Kingdom it certainly became a custom of the nineteenth
century Victorians for tradesmen to collect their ‘Christmas boxes’ or
gifts in return for good and reliable service throughout the year on
the day after Christmas. [1].
The establishment of Boxing Day as a defined public Holiday under
the legislation that created the UK’s Bank Holidays started the
separation of ‘Boxing Day’ from the ‘Feast of St Stephen’ and today it
is almost entirely a secular holiday with a tradition of shopping and
post Christmas sales starting.
Christmas Day is usually spent quietly with the family (my son was thrilled to spend all day in pajamas). According to my British sources, Boxing Day is the day to get outside, whatever the weather. Watch sport. Play sport. Have fun!
Housing Bubble News from Patrick.net
2010: Another year, another crisis (blogs.reuters.com)
Housing May Stay Shaky Without U.S. Aid (online.wsj.com)
Despite modified loans, many houseowners lag again (miamiherald.com)
Watchdog needed to prevent financial collapse (heraldtribune.com)
Small-business bankruptcies rise 81% in California (latimes.com)
Serious U.S. mortgage delinquencies up 20 percent (finance.yahoo.com)
Borrowers with modified loans falling into trouble (finance.yahoo.com)
U.S. property faces long road to recovery (reuters.com)
Foreclosures for “seriously delinquent loans” topped 1 million in Q3 (latimes.com)
Spend or save — what’s an American supposed to do? (latimes.com)
With rates so low, where should your cash go? (msnbc.msn.com)
Top 10 Outrageous Predictions for 2010 (cnbc.com)
More houses are poised to hit the market (latimes.com)
Glut of shadow properties could hurt housing prices (tennessean.com)
Foreclosure backlog estimated at 1.7M (news.yahoo.com)
My Half-Baked Bubble (nytimes.com)
Realtors Try Used-Car Salesman Tactics (minyanville.com)
Irvine Home Address … 5322 PLUM TREE Irvine, CA 92612
Resale Home Price … $520,000
Income Requirement ……. $108,654
Downpayment Needed … $104,000
20% Down Conventional
Home Purchase Price … $212,000
Home Purchase Date …. 5/14/1998
Net Gain (Loss) ………. $276,800
Percent Change ………. 145.3%
Annual Appreciation … 7.8%
Mortgage Interest Rate ………. 5.08%
Monthly Mortgage Payment … $2,254
Monthly Cash Outlays ………… $2,960
Monthly Cost of Ownership … $2,390
Property Details for 5322 PLUM TREE Irvine, CA 92612
Beds 3
Baths 1 full 1 part baths
Size 1,372 sq ft
($379 / sq ft)
Lot Size 1,500 sq ft
Year Built 1974
Days on Market 1
Listing Updated 12/16/2009
MLS Number S599118
Property Type Single Family, Residential
Community University Park
Tract Tr
According to the listing agent, this listing may be a pre-foreclosure or short sale.
***Short Sale in process with a professional short sale negotiator***Upgraded University Park Home With Remodeled Kitchen, Recessed Lights, French Doors, Skylights And Much More. Bright And Open Floor Plan Featuring Large Living Room With Fireplace, Sunny Kitchen With A Bay Window, Two Large Private Patios. Tract Is Like No Other With Huge Parks, Lots Of Trees, Private Driveways, Assoc Maintained Front Lawns And Landscaping, Pools/spas/clubhouse.
***Short Sale in process with a professional short sale negotiator*** LOL! People are carving out niches as professionals with respect to short sales. Does anyone remember 3 years ago when nobody knew what a short sale was?
Shortsale?
Christmas is OVER.
Kick em to the curb.
Don’t worry, shelters allow children.
Do you ever have anything nice to say?
I received this email recently:
“…A long time ago [you] wrote a
post on negotiating in a down market. It was a great post, and an
inspiration to me to hold out for better prices. However, I think the
market dynamics have changed since then. The fundamental value report
gives a good idea of the range of bargaining by outlining the likely
range of contract prices that might actually conclude in a ratified
contract and sale.
From this I derived my own “method” which I then only needed to use on
one house, because we “won” the bid. The idea being that if you
actually want the house, and have set a firm personal upper limit on
what you’ll pay to get it, and that number is within the reasonable
comp range, then open with the bottom of the range of probable sale
values(of other non-REO sales) . If the you’re less set on that
particular house, then open with the bottom of the comps. There were 2
other bidders on “our” house, one a low-ball (thank you low-ballers of
the world for making our 10% under list look sane despite the 1 MOI in
the area), all of which were to be presented on Tuesday (offers
recieved over the weekend and Monday after 2 weeks on the market). So,
since we did love this particular house (everything we needed, nothing
we didn’t, and just enough touches of us, screened in porch, franklin
stove, redone bathrooms that aren’t too upscale), and didn’t want to
“lose” it without putting our best foot forward we re-bid only $3k
under our maximum price. We weren’t the highest bidder, but we were
the ones with 20% down, conventional loan and a loan officer and
settlement company that are both well respected in the area. And they
seller took it. Only $3k of “gravy” for us (i.e. we were fully willing
to pay up to our max price, and anything less was gravy).
Anyway, I don’t think this “method” is how one gets the least
expensive possible price, or even how one gets the best value for your
money. But it is how we are buying a house that we love, for a price
we can easily live with, that is in no way overpaying with respect to
comps. (only 2% under the loan appraisal).”
I am glad to see people have found benefit in the posts on this site.
IMHO, inner peace is priceless (“buying a house that we love, for a price we can easily live with”), but calculations must be based on logic and not on emotions.
Bidding 2% below comparables/appraisal sounds like traditional momentum strategy. I guess that a lot of people use this method. Only time can tell if it was good buy.
It’s a 3bdr/2ba SFH at a price that’s affordable to the local median income at 33% DTI at rates under 6% with only 10% down. The PITI will be $200 more per month than rent on a 2 bedroom apartment. (there is no HOA) So while prices could still go down from here if the more expensive homes need to drop lower to find buyers, it is at a price that is well supported by normal metrics.
Oh, and “easily live with” was not in the affordability sense for us, we can afford it on one of two incomes, “easily live with” was in the sense of we know that the market has the potential to go down another 5-10% from here due to continuing distressed sales, but we can live with the paper loss of that portion of our downpayment. Because where we are all inventory and sales signs say that if anything prices will be higher next spring than they were last spring. Our area’s unemployment is back under 5%, and REO’s have been listing at only a 5% discount from “real” sales and finding buyers for list or better within weeks. There’s too much pent up demand here. We really are at the, it could go either way point. By May prices could be 10% under what we paid or 5% over what we paid. There’s really no way to tell.
Irvine has not reached these levels, but other cities whose bubbles were less severe have pockets of reasonableness.
If someone were bidding on this house purely emotionally then those same comps could have been used to justify a bid price of the list or higher. It took logic to step back and see the minor distinctions between the houses and recognize that this house was not intrinsically worth as much as the high comps because its upgrades weren’t as high-end. Basically comps went between $380k and $450k, list was $425k, and you needed to objectively look at that thoroughly and say that this house is worth at most $410k, better condition, better location and bigger lot than the low ones, but not as fancy as the high ones. And we got it for $402 net. ($405 was our personal max because, well, it’s winter, August comps shouldn’t fully apply)
Other buyers will get better deals than us. But you have to balance your goals.
IR isn’t renting any more?
Sorry, I read it wrong, someone
else bought a house.
Only girl reindeer have antlers this
time of year.
So Santa’s reindeer are either all girls,
or boys in drag!!!!
yeah, I just found that out.
So I guess Rudolph is a “girl”?
Funny! A nice square Irvine crap box on Boxing Day!
Little known fact: Every day is boxing day in america as hopeless saps sign up to box themselves in an overpriced cell for 30 years…
If you’re a guy, try telling that to your wife.
If you’re a gal, well….nevermind.