IHB News 1-16-2010

Residents of the North Korea Towers need to clear out their junk before it goes to Goodwill.

Marquee at Park Place at Night

Irvine Home Address … 3141 MICHELSON Dr 406 Irvine, CA 92612
Resale Home Price …… $449,900

I’m dizzy walkin outta Larry’s army wear used
With some black leather shoes and desert BDU’s
Many boxes of ammo, i got the camo face paint
Barricaded the tower doors, safe this place ain’t
Up to the top, i can see the whole planet it would seem
The sun is beatin on my head as i’m livin my horror dream

The Tower — ICP

North Korea Towers News

Just in case any who walked away from their mortgages in the Marquee at Park Place North Korea Towers missed the notice, they need to go back and pick up their crap before it gets donated to Goodwill.

http://www.marqueeparkplace.org/

ABANDONED PROPERTY WILL BE DONATED TO GOOD WILL – JANUARY 31, 2010 – 1/4/2010
New!

Attention all Marquee Park Place Residents:
Over the past couple of years Marquee Park Place has acquired
vast amounts of abandoned personal property items belonging to
residents. Currently, these items are stored in an Association common
area room.

Please be advised, if you believe that any of these items may belong to
you please contact the Marquee Management Team. A detailed description
of your item(s) must be provided, prior to retrieval, for ownership
verification. Thereafter, effective January 31, 2010, all items will
be donated to Goodwill.

Thank you. The Marquee Management Team

IHB News

The Great Housing Bubble

The printable eBook with the full text of The Great Housing Bubble is available in the sidebar (Get the PDF eBook – FREE). You can now read the full text online in post form, in eBook form, and of course in paperback. This is the first the eBook has been available free.

Back to Class

I have been working on my writing of late. I began a quest to improve early last year, and I did become more comfortable in my own skin, but I did not stretch myself to explore the craft of writing itself sidetracked by setting up a brokerage business.

After reflection, I committed myself to write at a higher level. To that end, I refocused my writing on my strengths, analysis and insight, and I will continue to provide a mixture of my own analysis of properties and market trends together with a critical review of residential real estate news and opinions.

However, I want to improve the reader experience of my writing because reading good prose should be a pleasure. I want my writing to enjoyable for its subtle rhythms and its attention to a reader’s inner ear. I have much work to do. But one change I have made, a change that drives my wife crazy, is that I now read every word aloud (actually, I mutter mostly). It is amazing how many subtle errors you find when you read your own writing aloud.

I have enrolled in a basic writing class at Irvine Valley College to banish the grammar gremlins. The most frustrating limitation I face each time I sit down to write is my own insecurity about punctuating a complex sentence. Given some time and attention, I can craft complex sentences with subordinating clauses providing additional detail, and I have a few sentence structures I feel comfortable with using, but I do not have true freedom of expression to convey my basic thoughts in a way that is both compelling and engaging without running into the fear — did I punctuate that properly? Did I? Rather than take a risk, I simplify my thoughts working them into comfortable sentence structures never seeing if I can write more complex and artful sentences without losing readers in boring, dragged-out monologues to the Narcissistic joy of reading one’s own writing… you get the point.

I will be brief. I still value concise delivery of information, and good writing need not be burdened with words for words sake. If done properly, a more complex grammar delivers more information in fewer words due to better organization. I want all of you to enjoy your daily visits to the IHB, so I remain committed to providing analytical, creative, and entertaining writing focused on Irvine real estate at the highest level of quality I can.

For an example of what I hope to accomplish, go back and read Money Rentership: Housing and the New American Dream. It is my favorite from last week.

Housing Bubble News from Patrick.net

Prime Jumbo RMBS Delinquencies Swell to 9.2% (housingwire.com)
Obama Plans to Raise $120 Billion From Banking Fees (bloomberg.com)
Fed Seeks to Block Release of Bank Bailout Secrets (bloomberg.com)
California Creditors Dread IOUs With Aid Plea Failing (bloomberg.com)
New rules designed to speed up short sales (orlandosentinel.com)

Foreclosures

Foreclosures top record in 2009, no end in sight (marketwatch.com)
Record year for foreclosures as unemployment rises (miamiherald.com)
Hawaii had 9,000 foreclosures in ’09, up threefold (pacific.bizjournals.com)
The foreclosure process: alternatives and consequences (naplesnews.com)
The Tip of the Foreclosure Iceberg (housingstorm.com)
Foreclosure glut deflates all house sales (marketwatch.com)
More Houseowners Struggling As Option ARMs Reset Higher (cnbc.com)
Second Wave Of Mortgage Defaults Coming (youtube.com)

Predictions

3 Reasons House Prices Are Heading Lower (money.cnn.com)
4 Economic Scenarios You’d Better Hope Won’t Materialize (seekingalpha.com)
5 Reasons why you Shouldnt Buy a House in California in 2010 (doctorhousingbubble.com)

Renting

Home sweet rental (nypost.com)

Is it time for a rental renaissance? (guardian.co.uk)
Houseownership: Less Than Meets the Eye (businessweek.com)

Miscellaneous

A Call for More Regulation at Fiscal Crisis Inquiry (nytimes.com)
Scariest Chart Of The Day (business.theatlantic.com)
Treasury Investors Most Bearish in 2 Years (bloomberg.com)
U.S. Subpoenas 15 FHA Lenders With High Mortgage Defaults (businessweek.com)
U.S. economy still hemorrhaging jobs (marketwatch.com)
Add homebuilders to the government bailout tab (money.cnn.com)
Federal Reserve “earned” $45 billion in 2009 gaming interest rates (washingtonpost.com)
Why Option ARMs will hit Mid to Upper Priced Houses (financemymoney.com)
Massive Tsunami of Defaults Coming (youtube.com)
Yield curve can’t drive profits if banks won’t lend (blogs.reuters.com)
Is it just my return to earth, or is TARP just not working? (heraldtribune.com)
Learning From Europe (nytimes.com)
Maui house prices down to 2003 level (honoluluadvertiser.com)
Shadow inventory stalks Tampa Bay housing market (tampabay.com)
Actual unemployment rate higher than shown by official numbers (bloomberg.com)
FHA’s dilemma – subsidize crap loans or stay solvent? (sfgate.com)
Treasury Bonds, The Short Of The Century (seekingalpha.com)

Marquee at Park Place at Night

Irvine Home Address … 3141 MICHELSON Dr 406 Irvine, CA 92612

Resale Home Price … $449,900

Income Requirement ……. $96,041
Downpayment Needed … $89,980
20% Down Conventional

Home Purchase Price … $777,500
Home Purchase Date …. 2/15/2006

Net Gain (Loss) ………. $(354,594)
Percent Change ………. -42.1%
Annual Appreciation … -13.4%

Mortgage Interest Rate ………. 5.27%
Monthly Mortgage Payment … $1,992
Monthly Cash Outlays ………… $2,950
Monthly Cost of Ownership … $2,440

Property Details for 3141 MICHELSON Dr 406 Irvine, CA 92612

Beds 2
Baths 2 baths
Size 1,583 sq ft
($284 / sq ft)
Lot Size n/a
Year Built 2006
Days on Market 57
Listing Updated 12/19/2009
MLS Number S596135
Property Type Condominium, Residential
Community Airport Area
Tract Marq

According to the listing agent, this listing may be a pre-foreclosure or short sale.

2 Bedroom,2 bath unit with den overlooking community pool. Spacious living room and separate dining room. Gourmet kitchen with granite countertops and stainless steel GE Monogram appliances. Master suite and secondary bedroom with custom drapes. Master bath and guest bath in marble and travertine. Enjoy Marquee social events, exercise room, pool, spa, billiards, media room, 24 hour concierge and elegant lobby for greeting guests. Close to shopping and airports. Come home to your own private paradise.

15 thoughts on “IHB News 1-16-2010

  1. Chris

    “I have been working on my writing of late.”

    You write is good. Me like, me understand 🙂

  2. NoJobGrowthEverWorldisOver

    This looks like North Korea or the IHB forums with a high HOA.

    This might be at rental parity for a hermit.

  3. movingaround

    Your writing is already good – yes, there is always room for improvement – writing well can be a never ending and insanity inducing quest! Just be sure to take time every few months to read some undergraduate essays or some newspaper articles to remind yourself how well you write already!

  4. Geoffrey Chaucer

    Better writing comes down to liberal usage of onomatopoeia. Focus on phony realtor “buzz” as prices “thud” and owners “screech” away, and remember that the most intriguing part of any bubble is the “pop.”

  5. Barren_Irvine

    With an association of ~$1000 and school district of Santa Ana, there is no telling where prices for these condos are headed. 2010 will be the judgment year!!!

  6. Rocker

    Reading aloud what you just wrote or talking aloud while you are writing is a “bad habit” that I have, *until* I read in book that: when you do that, you are actually “forcing” your brain to use more neurons synapses or neurons links, giving you more “brain power” to solve the task at hand.

    By “brain power” I mean all the knowledge that you have accumulated (trough direct experience or learning a new skill) becomes available more quickly to be consumed by the other part of the brain that’s solving the current task, whatever it is.

  7. Sue in Irvine

    For a moment I thought the “abandoned property” being donated were the empty units abandoned by the owners. 😆

    1. norcal

      I thought so, too, Sue. But to make that happen, maybe Goodwill could set up an RE office at the concierge’s desk.

      1. Gemina13

        I hadn’t. Roya is like a lot of people I encountered when I lived in Brea–cheerleaders for the NAR who were too happy to inform those of us priced out of the insane market that we were losers, fools, or cowards for not digging our graves in a landfill of debt.

        I think I’ve begun to pity others, even a few speculators. But people like Roya will always make me snicker and point.

  8. Greg Fielding

    IrvineRenter,

    Thanks for the link to one of our articles. We really appreciate it.

    I couldn’t find an easy way to email you directly to thank you so I’m doing it here.

    We really appreciate your support.

    Thanks,

    -Greg Fielding
    HousingStorm.com

Comments are closed.