Monthly Archives: January 2010

IHB News 1-2-2010

Today we have a little HELOC abuse to go with your weekend news update.

Irvine Home Address … 171 BRIARWOOD Irvine, CA 92604
Resale Home Price …… $319,000

{book1}

I fell asleep down by the stream
And there I had the strangest dream
And down by Brennan’s Glenn there grows
A briar and a rose

There’s a tree in the forest
But I don’t know where
I built a nest out of your hair
And climbing up into the air
A briar and a rose

The Briar And The Rose — Tom Waits, performed by Celtic Wonder

Housing Bubble News from Patrick.net

Fannie Mae Delinquencies Increase Sharply in October (calculatedriskblog.com)
Foreclosures rise in third quarter (csmonitor.com)
Paul Volcker: The Lion Lets Loose (businessweek.com)
Not So Radical Reform (businessweek.com)
Robert Shiller on the Next Bubbles (newsweek.com)
House equity lending evaporates (news.yahoo.com)
Billions to Fight Foreclosure, but Few New Loans (nytimes.com)

Predictions

10 years…no gain in house prices (money.cnn.com)
Housing sales seen shifting in 2010 (ocregister.com)
Predictions For 2010
Are Houses now “Cheap”? (calculatedriskblog.com)
The Numbers Still Say 30% Down 30% Left To Fall (newobservations.net)
Don’t Be Fooled by the Housing Market’s False Bottom (moneymorning.com)
3 reasons house prices are heading lower (money.cnn.com)
House prices will continue to collapse like a ponzi scheme (thepanicnews.com)
U.S. house prices flat; Double-dip hoped for (latimes.com)
Morgan Stanley Predicts 5.5% 10-Year Treasuries, 30 Year Mortgages at 7.5% (Mish)

FED program to buy agency paper

Fed buys $9.3 bln net in agency MBS in latest week (reuters.com)
Mortgage Bond Rally May End, Rates Rise as Fed Stops Purchases (bloomberg.com)

GSE Bailout

Bankers Get $4 Trillion Gift From Barney Frank (bloomberg.com)

Canadian Bubble

The Vancouver Bubble And Bust (howestreet.com)

Option ARM

Four reasons to walk away from your option ARM (financemymoney.com)
November new house sales sink 11 percent (news.yahoo.com)
Where Americans aren’t moving – California (money.cnn.com)

Walking Away

No consequences for lying borrowers (finance.yahoo.com)
If billionaires don’t feel guilty about walking away from debts, should houseowners? (slate.com)
Walking Away From The House She Can Afford (npr.org)
Elderly Savers Financially Murdered By Low Rates, To Save Debtors (nytimes.com

Miscellaneous

Interview With Patrick (directorslive.com)
Mortgage History Lessson From Chicago, 1877

{book3}

Irvine Home Address … 171 BRIARWOOD Irvine, CA 92604

Resale Home Price … $319,000

Income Requirement ……. $68,021
Downpayment Needed … $11,165
3.5% Down FHA Financing

Home Purchase Price … $140,000
Home Purchase Date …. 6/12/1989

Net Gain (Loss) ………. $159,860
Percent Change ………. 127.9%
Annual Appreciation … 4.0%

Mortgage Interest Rate ………. 5.26%
Monthly Mortgage Payment … $1,702
Monthly Cash Outlays ………… $2,380
Monthly Cost of Ownership … $1,830

Property Details for 171 BRIARWOOD Irvine, CA 92604

Beds 2
Baths 1 bath
Size 1,000 sq ft
($319 / sq ft)
Lot Size n/a
Year Built 1978
Days on Market 6
Listing Updated 12/23/2009
MLS Number S599524
Property Type Condominium, Residential
Community Woodbridge
Tract Vg

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

Great Location in Woodbridge and Great Location in the tract. Quiet, Upstairs End Unit. Very nice and neat inside. Large Deck outside. Spacious Kitchen with Large Eating Area. Both Bedrooms are Light and Bright and Good Size. Enjoy the Spacious Living Room with access to the patio. Convenient Inside Laundry Room. Freeway close and walking distance to Schools and Shopping.

Perhaps that $250,000 HELOC the owner took out in 2005 was not such a good idea….

Predictions for 2010

The decade of the naughts is past; get over it.

27 LILY POOL Irvine, CA 92620 kitchen

Irvine Home Address … 27 LILY POOL Irvine, CA 92620
Resale Home Price …… $1,298,800

{book1}

I turn on the tube and what do I see
A whole lotta people cryin’ “Don’t blame me”
They point their crooked little fingers ar everybody else
Spend all their time feelin’ sorry for themselves
Victim of this, victim of that
Your momma’s too thin; your daddy’s too fat

Get over it
Get over it
All this whinin’ and cryin’ and pitchin’ a fit
Get over it, get over it

Get Over It — The Eagles

Recap of Past Predictions

First, I wrote Predictions for 2008, and last year I wrote Predictions for 2009. Nothing too bold or surprising either time:

“Most of the macroeconomic conditions I made in 2008 are still
operative, and several of the predictions I made which came true will
likely repeat in 2009. These are:

  1. 2008 will see the worst single-year decline in the median house price ever recorded
  2. One or more of our major financial institutions and one or more of our major homebuilders will fail
  3. A severe local recession
  4. I predict we will see many more angry homedebtor’s troll the blog

I do not believe 2009 will see median house prices decline as much
as 2008, but I do believe they will drop significantly, particularly in
high-end neighborhoods. The low-end neighborhoods are closer to the
bottom than to the top, so 30%+ declines in these neighborhoods are not
likely. The high end neighborhoods will experience big drops. Most did
not drop 30% last year, so they have more room to drop. The
unemployment rate is high, and the economy is in recession which will
put pressures on home prices. The dreaded ARM problem is not going away, and these loans will start blowing up this year and on through 2011.”

Not much has changed from my review of the situation a year ago. Lenders did manage to avoid dealing with the problem for a full year, so prices did not budge, and we now have a massive shadow inventory.

“However, there is one bright spot for the housing market that will
blunt the declines in 2009: ultra-low mortgage interest rates. We will see properties at rental parity in 2009.
The low interest rates are going to reduce the cost of borrowing to the
point that many properties will reach rental parity this year.”

I got that one right, and

“With the low interest rates, and with the foreclosures resulting from this year’s loan resets being a year away, we are in a good position to see our first bear market rally. This summer, we might see two or three months of sustained appreciation.”

That happened too, and it happened for the reasons described. As I have noted on other occasions, these conditions are not sustainable.

Predictions for 2010

In looking ahead to 2010, I see a number of important factors that will influence the housing market. Many of the issues discussed today will be the focus of future posts.

Mortgage interest rates will increase in 2010

I don’t know how high they will go, but mortgage interest rates will begin their ascent to a (somewhat) natural market. Any stable homeowner who has not refinanced should do it now or forever miss their chance.

Inventory will increase in 2010

Eventually, lenders are going to have to foreclose on properties, kick out the squatters, and resell the houses in the resale market. Inventory is coming; how much of that we will see in 2010 is anyone’s guess, but I believe we will see much more than we saw in 2009.

Affordability will improve as mid to high end properties are released to the market, and prices of the houses of greatest interest to buyers in Irvine should come down because, despite the buyer interest, there are more properties in distress than there are buyers interested in obtaining them.

Properties selling at or below rental parity becomes the norm in 2010.

As I have noted on other occasions, many properties, even in Irvine, are trading at or below rental parity. This will happen more often, and it will happen at higher and higher price points.

Sales volumes will increase in 2010

Despite the rumors of a healthy real estate market, transaction volumes remain 15% below historic norms on a seasonally adjusted basis. Sales volumes will increase due to greater supply, and prices will go down.

Prices in Irvine will fall 2%-5% in 2010

Increasing interest rates will decrease affordability, and increasing supply will force sales onto the market. The combination will cause prices to begin a multi-year slow decline similar to the 1994-1997 period. The price decline will not be orderly, and the relative stability in the median will mask seismic shifts within the market at sales composition changes (more mid to high end properties will sell) and prices of individual properties decline.

Legislators will consider subordinating GSE loans to artificially increase the lending limit to save the Coastal California market.

If the GSEs wanted to raise the funding cap from
$729,000 to $1,229,000. They could simply allow their mortgages to be
subordinated to a single fixed-rate mortgage up to $500,000, and the
GSEs would be insuring their $729,000 mortgage as a second. The
interest rate on the first would be even lower than the GSE
mortgage—what risk is there? The GSEs would be taking on substantially
more risk, but it would allow them to underwrite loans on more
expensive properties, save the Coastal California housing market (not),
and pass enormous losses on to the US taxpayer.

Don’t be surprised when someone suggests this as a Treasury Department leak and we read it in the MSM. Obviously, I think this is a spectacularly bad idea, but lenders won’t, particularly if they think they can pass losses on to us.

“Assumability” will become the financing buzz word of the next decade

Yesterday I noted that fixed-rate mortgage rates had bottomed. IMO, we are likely to embark on a 20 year cycle of increasing interest rates as we keep one step behind inflation overheating our economy and burning off government debt in a pyre of our devalued currency. In a rising interest rate environment, there is significant value in a seller’s financing, if a future buyer can assume the loan.

Refinancing and mortgage equity withdrawal will not be part of our economy for the next decade

Increasing interest rates mean refinancing is at an end, and mortgage equity withdrawal will also be curtailed. When prices were rising and debt was getting ever cheaper, mortgage equity withdrawal exploded. In a rising interest rate environment, borrowing costs go up and home prices do not appreciate as much (or in our case any at all), so there is little equity to withdrawal, and the cost of borrowing and spending this money is very high.

The housing ATM is broken until we enter another long-term phase of lower interest rates. The rules have changed, and we are now entering an inflationary world. Get used to it.

27 LILY POOL Irvine, CA 92620 kitchen

Irvine Home Address … 27 LILY POOL Irvine, CA 92620

Resale Home Price … $1,298,800

Income Requirement ……. $276,945
Downpayment Needed … $259,760
20% Down Conventional

Home Purchase Price … $1,299,500
Home Purchase Date …. 3/4/2005

Net Gain (Loss) ………. $(78,628)
Percent Change ………. -0.1%
Annual Appreciation … 0.0%

Mortgage Interest Rate ………. 5.26%
Monthly Mortgage Payment … $5,744
Monthly Cash Outlays ………… $7,670
Monthly Cost of Ownership … $5,710

Property Details for 27 LILY POOL Irvine, CA 92620

Beds 5
Baths 4 full 1 part baths
Size 4,000 sq ft
($325 / sq ft)
Lot Size 6,051 sq ft
Year Built 2005
Days on Market 4
Listing Updated 12/23/2009
MLS Number S599684
Property Type Single Family, Residential
Community Northwood
Tract Arbr

Executive well-appointed luxury home situated on a prime cul-de-sac adjacent community park, absolute showroom condtion, elegant formal entry w/rich distressed hardwood floor, large mainfloor suite, huge gourmet kitchen w/sit-up center island w/deep sink, granite countertops w/full backsplash, stainless appliance package, built-in KitchenAid refrigerator, dual convection ovens, six burner cooktop, walk-in pantry plus butler’s pantry w/wine storage compartment, separate formal living/dining rooms, family room w/built-in entertainment center, in- ceiling surround system, rock-face fireplace, decorator paint, finely designed drapery, berber carpet, shutters, crown moulding, leaded glass, lighted ceiling fans, oversized master suite extends to luxuriously upgraded master bath w/step-in shower, deep oval soaking tub, generous size walk-in wardrobe closet, professionally designed backyard w/BBQ/refrigerator/firepit, fountain, resort-lifestyle association amenities, Irvine School District

Irvine Housing Blog No Kool Aid

I hope you have enjoyed this week, and thank you for reading the Irvine Housing Blog: astutely observing
the Irvine home market and combating California Kool-Aid since
September 2006.

Have a great weekend,

Irvine Renter