I hope you are enjoying your weekend. If you want to catch up on the week’s housing market developments, you can find it here.

Irvine Home Address … 103 VERMILLION Irvine, CA 92603
Resale Home Price …… $729,900

{book1}

End of passion play, crumbling away
I’m your source of self-destruction
Veins that pump with fear,
Sucking darkest clear
Feeding on your deaths’ construction

Taste me and you will see
More is all you need
You’re dedicated to
How I’m killing you

Master of Puppets — Metallica

Housing Bubble News

Today’s Housing Bubble Post – It Ain’t Over

The Housing Bubble Collapse And Homeowner Tax Incentives

Housing Bubble News from Patrick.net

Nearly 1 in 4 Borrowers Is Underwater (Mish)
Housing threat looms in South Orange County (mortgage.freedomblogging.com)
House Sales Poised to Dip After Tax-Credit Rush (news.yahoo.com)
It’s beginning to look a lot like a ‘W’ (marketwatch.com)
Realtors dead last on list of occupation by prestige (harrisinteractive.com)
Blame the Federal Reserve (youtube.com)

More foreclosures on the way for 2010 (boston.com)

More US house “owners” at risk of losing property they did not pay for anyway (guardian.co.uk)
U.S. Housing Recovery Delayed “to 2010” (as if!) (bloomberg.com)
U.S. Housing: More Houses in Delinquency than for Sale (seekingalpha.com)
Foreclosure, Delinquency Rate Soars (courant.com)
U.S. Mortgage Delinquencies Reach a Record High (nytimes.com)
Hope for Double Dip in Housing (online.wsj.com)
Pain increasing at the VERY high end (finance.yahoo.com)

Other News

The Talented Mr. Pang

Irvine Home Address … 103 VERMILLION Irvine, CA 92603

Resale Home Price … $729,900

Income Requirement ……. $134,340
Downpayment Needed … $145,980

Home Purchase Price … $672,000
Home Purchase Date …. 5/14/2008

Net Gain (Loss) ………. $14,106
Percent Change ………. 8.6%
Annual Appreciation … 5.2%

Mortgage Interest Rate ………. 5.00%
Monthly Mortgage Payment … $3,135
Monthly Cash Outlays ………… $4,350
Monthly Cost of Ownership … $3,320

Property Details for 103 VERMILLION Irvine, CA 92603

Beds 3

Baths 2 full 1 part baths
Size 2,146 sq ft
($340 / sq ft)
Lot Size n/a
Year Built 2003
Days on Market 1
Listing Updated 11/18/2009
MLS Number S596456
Property Type Condominium, Residential
Community Quail Hill
Tract Sand

Great location .. .. ..A nice and open floor plan.. .. .. Light and bright .. .. .. Ready to move in .. .. .. Arched Entry with a gated front Courtyard .. .. .. Third Bedroom is a Den/Office Downstairs, Living Room with Fireplace, Formal Dining Room, Spacious Kitchen with lots of cabinets .. .. .. Master Suite with room for Home Office and an additional Separate Spacious Retreat .. .. .. Inside Laundry Room .. .. .. Cozy backyard .. .. .. Enjoy Resort-like Amenities of Quail Hill including pools, BBQ areas, Sports Courts, GYM , trails and etc

I like using ellipses as they convey the idea that there is more to be said or though about the subject, but the reader must think if for themselves. When I see a grammatically incorrect attempt an ellipses like above, and it conveys that the author cannot sustain a coherent thought, and the reader is floating from one idea the next.. .. .. maybe I should try it.. .. .. maybe people like to think slowly.. .. ..

Today, I am going to tell you a story that makes me thankful for Irvine and all it has to offer.

Irvine Home Address … 127 GREENMOOR 53 Irvine, CA 92614
Resale Home Price …… $299,900

{book1}

I don’t want to rent a house from you
I don’t know how you can expect me to
I ain’t moving ’cause I know my rights
Too many homeless on the streets at night
You own a street and a block of flats
You earn your living like the other rats
You’ve no morality, what do you care
You deal in poverty, you buy despair
I ain’t moving ’till the baliff comes

Landlord — The Police

Back in 2004, I was working as a Senior Planner for Danielian Associates. We were working with URBI, a large Mexican homebuilding company, to plan about 40,000 acres of land they had purchased east of Tijuana. Part of the process was a site visit and tour of their other projects to fully understand the product that we were planning for. I was unprepared for what I saw that day.

To the good, my perception of the URBI organization is that they genuinely wanted to improve the quality of life for the average Mexican family. The houses they were building were entry level in the Tijuana market, so you can imagine the level of opulence. This new home represented a big move up for a typical family.

We started at one of their “cookie cutter” developments. Let’s just say they bring repetition of form to a new level in residential architecture. After seeing one of their neighborhoods, you never complain about Westpark again.

Do you think that grass was Photoshopped in? I can’t imagine it living long with your car parked there… there is no garage in these units.

We went to one of URBI’s subdivisions, and it was well kept and looked much nicer than the old run-down houses we passed driving there. In many ways it was like a drive through the old suburbs of Los Angeles, but one or two notches down.

We toured the model homes, and I was intrigued by a 288 SF detached home they were selling. Imagine a small garage 18′ by 16′. Inside that garage cut out a small bathroom, shower and closet. The smaller area left over is for a bed, and the larger space contains a kitchen wall and a small nook-like space that functioned as your living room, kitchen, dining room, basically every other function of the house occurs there. If you put a chair or a TV in this space, you are done; space filled.

The tiny house I just described… it sells for a premium! Remember, it is detached. Some of their attached product — the very bottom of the entry level — was very tiny and cramped. I remember feeling like a gerbil bedding in a shoebox.

It is easy to be elitist when living in Irvine, but this kind of housing represents a big step of the shanty where these people are moving in from. The pictures below are from Peru, but these shantytowns look like the ones in Tijuana.

I can remember vividly seeing the water trucks delivering fresh water to these stone huts. It was the only drinking or bathing water they were going to get, they had to pay for it in cash to get any, and they had to be there when the truck happened by. At the time, my son had just been in the hospital for dehydration with an illness. He would have died in the Tijuana slums. Realizing that, I became overwhelmed by the death and misery these people endure. I still tear up thinking about it.

I am thankful every day for my life in Irvine, and although I may slam today’s crappy condo like an elitist pig, I know somewhere there is a nice family for whom this property is “arriving” at some magical destination: Irvine.

Irvine Home Address … 127 GREENMOOR 53 Irvine, CA 92614

Resale Home Price … $299,900

Income Requirement ……. $55,198
Downpayment Needed … $10,497
3.5% Down FHA Financing

Home Purchase Price … $460,000
Home Purchase Date …. 5/12/2006

Net Gain (Loss) ………. $(178,094)
Percent Change ………. -34.8%
Annual Appreciation … -11.2%

Mortgage Interest Rate ………. 5.00%
Monthly Mortgage Payment … $1,554
Monthly Cash Outlays ………… $2,230
Monthly Cost of Ownership … $1,810

Property Details for 127 GREENMOOR 53 Irvine, CA 92614

Beds 2
Baths 2 baths
Size 1,056 sq ft
($284 / sq ft)
Lot Size n/a
Year Built 1984
Days on Market 3
Listing Updated 11/16/2009
MLS Number L31423
Property Type Condominium, Townhouse, Residential
Community Woodbridge
Tract Lr
According to the listing agent, this listing is a bank owned (foreclosed) property.
**BANK OWNED** Charming Cape Cod style townhome. Light, bright, and airy. Great open floorplan. Large brick patio in the front yard. Fireplace in the living room. Tile counters.

Look at the financing for this property; someone making $55,198 per year with a little over $10,000 saved up could afford to buy this property. That puts a market property at about 60% of median income in the area. That is good by historical standards. The bottom of the market will stabilize if interest rates stay this low.