“Trying To Stop The Bleeding” In Colorado
The Rocky Mountain News reports from Colorado. “Colorado on Wednesday launched the nation’s first statewide foreclosure hotline, which came out on the same day a national study said the state continues to be plagued by the highest foreclosure rate in the country.”
“The hotline is expected to help at least an estimated 40,000 homeowners in some stage of foreclosure in Colorado, said Zach Urban, program manager for Denver-based Brothers Redevelopment.”
“The attorney general’s office is going to contribute money it receives from lender Ameriquest as part of a $295 million national settlement involving predatory lending practices. The Colorado Association of Realtors is contributing $30,000, and JPMorgan Chase is kicking in $12,500, said Kathi Williams, division director of the state’s Division of Housing.”
“The $500,000 cost may seem like a large amount but could stem the tide on a problem whose impact goes beyond the 14,205 foreclosures reported through September, a 32.3 percent increase from 2005, according to the Division of Housing. ‘We’re trying to stop the bleeding,’ Williams said.”
“She said a lack of price appreciation in homes, risky creative financing such as adjustable rate mortgages and interest-only loans, slower economic growth during the past few years, predatory lending practices, and scams are contributing to rising foreclosures.”
“Urban said the cost of foreclosure is costing taxpayers. ‘We had the University of Colorado-Denver last year study the cost for us, and they found on average it costs a municipality $10,000 per home,’ he said. Williams said that in Pueblo, for example, vacant foreclosed homes were being used for meth labs.”
“Mike Rosser, a retired mortgage banking executive, said that foreclosures often cost lenders $35,000 to $50,000 on each home. ‘They also drive down property value, which means less is collected in property taxes,’ he said.”
“Two men get out of a truck in front of Border Street’s second summer foreclosure. The men work for a company hired by the bank. ‘I’m out of Wyoming’ the man says, moving quickly through the empty house. ‘They got me down here in Denver ’cause the foreclosures are so bad. There are 60 guys doing what we do in Denver and the area around here.’”
“This is the seventh or eighth house of the day, he says, ‘and we’re not done yet. We’re so far behind it’s not even funny. It’s busier now than it ever was.’”
“‘Yeah, we moved out,’ one of the sons says. ‘We couldn’t pay the bills. We’re just going to leave it to the bank. We’re done with this.’”
“Local economists have been tracking El Paso County foreclosures. They say 25 percent of all foreclosures between 2003 and last July were in zip codes 80911, 80916 and 80906. In zip code 80864, in southeastern El Paso County, almost one-third of all homes are in various phases of foreclosure.”
“UCCS economist Fred Crowley said residents of the area have higher commuting costs, and many purchased homes when variable mortgage rates were low.”
“A report said that for the second consecutive month, Greeley has the highest foreclosure rate among the 252 metropolitan areas it surveyed and Colorado continues to lead the nation in terms of the foreclosure rate. In September in Colorado, one out of every 408 homes is in some stage of foreclosure.”
“Williams said that in Pueblo, for example, vacant foreclosed homes were being used for meth labs.”
That should be a good use for vacant foreclosed homes in California’s Central Valley over the next few years as well…
There you have it GS; you’ve been waiting to see that quote, have’nt you?
Looks like we know what the next bubble will be!
Dentistry?
http://www.stopmethaddiction.com/meth-teeth.htm
They’ll have to wait till the pot growers move out.
Hahha, just met and old HS friend that is a concreate contractor. He made the comment that all the new homes being built in nor Cal (Stockton) will be good for nothing other than growing pot.
Now, you’d think the meth labs would have the cash flow to keep up with their mortgage!
Only a fool would put a meth lab in his own home!
True,…. but only a fool would be operating a Meth Lab, Yes?
Not to be rude, but I’ve been going by the name implosion for quite awhile here. Is it possible to add a letter or number to your name to make a distinction? Thanks.
“‘Yeah, we moved out,’ one of the sons says. ‘We couldn’t pay the bills. We’re just going to leave it to the bank. We’re done with this.’”
I’m curious, how does a foreclosure hotline stop “jincle keys” such as this? Please enlighten me.
‘They got me down here in Denver ’cause the foreclosures are so bad. There are 60 guys doing what we do in Denver and the area around here.’”
And who is doing the job in Florida and Southern California? As those regions are ramping up faster, where do they hire experieced foreclosure people on short notice? Is this the job boom of 2007?
Neil
They don’t have to winterize in Florida and Southern California, though.
the fact of the matter is that better than half of the foreclosed parties never try to make contact with the bank, kind of a bunker mentality. forebearance, short sale, recasting the note, etc. are all viable options that these people never pursue. of course, the real problem is that 90% of these people have no equity at all, making negotiations difficult.
“The hotline is expected to help at least an estimated 40,000 homeowners in some stage of foreclosure in Colorado, said Zach Urban, program manager for Denver-based Brothers Redevelopment.”
____________________________________________
What a waste of tax dollars. What are they going to tell them - sorry you are screwed, have a good life! We needed regulation and enforced lending standards BEFORE this happened. That would have been a good use of tax dollars.
-”“‘Yeah, we moved out,’ one of the sons says.
- ‘We couldn’t pay the bills.
- We’re just going to leave it to the bank.
- We’re done with this.’”
The above is the new 4 step plan for the idiots who could not figure out that their budget could not support the media dream.
Wait until we in Calif get a little more momentum…we are going to kick ass on this forclosure rate.
The idiots are the ones who lent them the $.
True, but this is America. We address only the symptoms of our problems, and not the actual causes.
Tell that to the prohibitionist.
Apparently, they sit you down for a brainstorming session to formulate an exit strategy or some type of lofty capital restructuring plan. Heeheeheee.
Seriously, according to the article, “Counselors can act as intermediaries between you and lenders, give you a game plan, help you organize your finances, avoid scams, reduce your potential liability, and possibly sell or keep your home.” The article does not mention financial bailout or BK attorney referrals, however.
Pretty soon BK service advertising is going to grow by leaps and bounds in Colorado if it has’nt already.
“Well, Sir, how much money do you have on the plus side..”
“2000 dollars, my last 2000″
“Mmmmm…Well, good, that’s a start you can make that back payment to forestall the proceedings for this month”
“Well, OK……I hope they take VISA,……cause it’s my last 2000 on my 40,000 limit on my last credit card. All the others are all filled up. Gee, this foreclosure counseling stuffs workin out better than I though!….”
The true shoe has yet to drop. Even as we speak builders, “Kara for example” are starting to default on their loans. As more and more builders have to write down land values, more of these loans will go into default. If you will notice, the lending institutions for Kara are all FDIC insured. So I would have to assume that most builders borrowed through reputable institutions. This will have the same snowball effect that the S & L scandal had in the late 80’s (in the end 1.3 trillion). A taxpayer bailout is inevitable. Regardless of what the prime is, lending institutions will stop lending money as they did back then. Buyers are still addicted to buying as long as there are easy lending standards. Once the only way you can get a loan is with 20 % down a 30 year fixed and 4 appraisals, these buyers will dry up. I give it a couple of years.
“Buyers are still addicted to buying as long as there are easy lending standards.”
I agree with this. Every time I think the last greater fool has stepped up to the plate in the neighborhoods I am watching, someone comes along with even less common sense. Whoever coined the term “sheeple” was right on the money. These braindead idiots are purchasing homes WAY out of their price range. I remember when an old friend of mine purchased his first home from one of my college professors at the time. It was a very modest home to say the least, and I was a bit surprised that she lived there as it was obviously way below her means. But she had a lot of common sense. Nowadays, we have janitors buying $500k houses. What a joke. Once that funny money spigot is turned off for good, goodbye appreciation, hello disintegration.
The whole RE infrastructure — brokers, agents, loan officers, appraisers, banks, lenders, etc — has been motivated by money and forego basic things like qualications, guidelines, etc. The mentality is to make money first and then whatever next.
House prices in states like Cafornia, Nevada, Azizona are out of whack and beyond insane level. It makes money seem to be worthless. A little shack in LA is more than half 1 million, go figure.
If the correction is bad enough, lots of people are going to lose their shirts. I wonder if the whole thing is an inevitable result of low borrowing interests and lagged borrowing standards.
‘I’m out of Wyoming’ the man says, moving quickly through the empty house. ‘They got me down here in Denver ’cause the foreclosures are so bad. There are 60 guys doing what we do in Denver and the area around here.’
How does the bank deal with foreclosed owners who refuse to leave?
Sheriff’s office can be very persuasive.
Barry Manilow and a megaphone.
They tried something like that in Waco. Didn’t work IIRC.
lol
How about Barry Manilow, Dr. Laura and if that doesn’t do it, some old Carpenters.
LOL
I recall from the early 90’s reading about evicted owners in Southern California — Riverside I believe. The sheriff would finally get them out but only after the “owners” ripped-out ALL appliances, fixtures, copper wiring & plumbing and then had “moving-out beer parties” with their friends where they’d bowl late into the night (yes, with real bowling balls).
Lenders soon changed their strategy and began working-out “short sales” with owners.
This is the problem in this country. You get people who schouldn’t have been given loans, let alone keys, to these houses and then when things don’t work out they strip and destroy the house. People like this should be put in jail for life, no questions asked. We have it way to good and easy in this country. I say send them all to the Sudan for a little R&R!
only after the “owners” ripped-out ALL appliances, fixtures, copper wiring & plumbing and then had “moving-out beer parties” with their friends where they’d bowl late into the night (yes, with real bowling balls).
hehehe…wait’ll the taxpayer starts pickin’ up the tab for all the shithole properties with HUD/FHA/VA as the mortgage guarantors. Their stuff makes the conventional bank repo’s look
like the Good Witch Glenda’s castle.
By the time these agencies get to the foreclosure sale, you might just as well burn the houses down.
I used to luv sendin’ in FHA appraisal reports with neg values.
Some dipshit govmnt reviewer would call and say-WTF is with this negative value? We LENT yada, yada, yada on this…
Sorry dudes…houses is 100% trashed, depreciated, gutted, worn-out, f*cked, whatever you want to call it…
And…
…the cost to demolish and get rid of all that asbestos insulation, exterior shingle and lead painted wood, is like more than the site is worth…so-
Go talk to the guy who lent the money, morons.
It’s a good thing land value is appreciating — since they aren’t making any more land.
Former owner if still occupying home after the trustee sale is now a tenant and subject to eviction law in California.
Cut off the gas & electricity and come December - no problem!
They might have to hire the police or sherriff’s department depending on the area to force them out.
I think they use tasers and tear gas!! LMFAO
In Lakewood the cops throw in a flash bang grenade and burn the place down.
flash grenade at a meth lab..not a good idea….
a boom loud enough to bring U.N. sanctions….
Anyone know how to track how much is owed on an address in CO? Boulder in particular?
boulder county records are online, check grantor/grantee list
-
OT: It’s a great time to be a stockholder!
11,947.70 +95.57
Nasdaq 2,346.18 +37.91
S&P 1,362.83 +12.88
We are going HIGHER!
Great time to shill for stocks, just as the country ends the boom phase of the business cycle…
Sounds kind of like “wow, my house is up 200% in two years but I’m not selling because they’re not making anymore land and next year it will be up another 40%” doesn’t it?
As a wise man said today, “buying because other people are buying (underperforming hedge funds and shorts giving up) will be tough to stomach when the correction finally arrives” Of course the usual MO at that point is to claim you sold everything at the high.
I sold more than half of my long positions today.
-
I’ve been long since 1995 and have never sold even one share of my Vanguard portfolio - and I don’t plan to.
Main Street and Wall Street seem to be on the brink of a divorce.
http://tinyurl.com/wau3l
I don’t care if the Dow goes up 2,000 pts between now and March. Like Bear Bryant, I execute based on my playbook which has served me well over many years and all fundamental data to date supports my playbook.
When the wise took profits out of tech, they put money into housing — inflationary money has to go somewhere! The wise got out this year, expect stocks to get that cash and chase prices higher. Bubbles don’t burst, they just move from moron to moron.
To which I say, check out this great old chestnut of a book:
http://tinyurl.com/y9qnod
lol. He really gets around!
LMAO 73 cents.
Lereah’s books are suffering from even a worse degree of deflation than the housing market.
AB dada,
Isn’t this contrary to your previous statement? If bubbles don’t burst, they must deflate. If I missing something here, tell me as facetiousness is tough to detect over the net. Nevertheless, you got many responses to your comments in a previous post today.
The amount of money that may have escaped RE alive is hardly enough to float stocks, let alone propel them higher. It’s more likely that the masses will have to liquidate their positions in order to cover their RE losses.
I’ve been selling a lot this month, will be completely in cash by election day. It is a nice time to sell.
Who would have thunk it would come to this ? Wait, WE did !
40,000 is a big number. And that is just Colorado. Yikes.
Why is Colorado farther ahead in the bubble bursting than other states? What happened differently there?
lowest saving rate in the country in CO
Well since the US has a negative savings rate I guess that means Coloradans are DEEPER in debt than usual…
Colorado has had flat home prices for years now. No appreciation and risky loans are a lethal combination, as we will soon find out in California.
And in Texas. Big big time.
But I recall CO RE on fire in the mid nineties. Almost moved there until I realized i would be chasing the market.
Colorado forgot to get onto the “everybody will retire here” bandwagon, so they have suffered from a lack of speculative excess.
Rocky mountain high…
WTF is a damn hot line going to do for you at that point…..
bake cupcakes
put nice towels in kitchen
bury statue
oh, here is a number to suicide hotline for ya.
The hotline advises the installation of granite counter tops and a nice koi pond. Then it will sell.
..and what makes that fools in the AG’s office think any of the assistance money will go to the mtge….by now, the FB knows that they are F’d…any money they get isn’t going to make it to the mortgage company…
they will see it a chance to walk away with at least something…
it will be very similar to the “Katrina cash” that went to the strip bars, lottery tickets, casinos, etc.
mark my words…
Penn you are soooooooo right on this one. “Yeah, just got a check for say, $10,000 to cover the next 2 months mortgage. Sure, I am going to pay that bill. $10,000 is my next vacation or the next idiotic exotic home loan.” And that’s if they are not meth users.
This entire LIE of the New Mortgage Economy is based on the oft repeated slogan that people will do ANYTHING to keep their home, and skip all bills to make a mortgage payment. I remember when this was kicking off in 2002 and all the critics were shut up by the “experts” — who said “homes” are different and people with poor credit will treat it differently than EVERY OTHER ASPECT of their lives as proven by their credit record.
Firstly, I LOVE “The New Mortgage Economy”! (Not really)
My guess is that any “assistance” would be paid directly to the lenders not the borrowers behind on their payments? Either way it doesn’t much matter, could you guys BELIEVE the paultry contributions from these huge publicly trade lenders? $12,500 from freaking JP Morgan? That’s what their CEO spent on lunch! Let me see here……. you guys made how much shuffling “wall paper” off to the GSE’s? How many hundreds of millions of dollars? Oh and you’re going to kick in like this some kind of local fund raiser? O.K sounds fair to me!
“The New Mortgage Economy” LOL!
Did you make that one up? Cuzz I like it! The phrase describes so perfectly everything we’ve attempted to accomplish in the “debt=wealth” society but says so much more! Kind of like “The New Deal” the “TNME” will be remembered long after Greenspan is forgotten!
Yeah, I laughed at the $12,500 from JPM too. Very amusing. Bet that’s one day’s take home pay for the CEO.
Nope. JPM’s CEO takes home $36,153 a day. If he works 12 hour days, he makes $12,500 in about 4 hours. (If he works 8 hours a day, he makes it in less than 3 hours.)
Whew, are we good here or what…from “the Daily Reckoning”
Can you handle 9 years of zero appreciation? Keep reading…
In California, prices have soared so high only 15% of the people can afford a typical middle-class house. You have to make about $135,000 a year to afford an “average” house.
The rest of the country isn’t that far out of whack, but it’s bad enough. The only way to bring things into line is for incomes to go up or home prices to come down or some combination of the two.
15% decline over three years…
Barron’s reports, “Such levels of overvaluation are typically followed by price declines of about 15% that take an average of three years to unfold.”
12 years…
The Economist, the respected British magazine, says “Home priceswould need to remain flat for over 10 years to bring America’s ratio of house prices to rents back to its long-term norm.”
Five years, 20% price drop…
Some economists are saying that the coming rebalancing period could last half a decade because it would require a 20% correction nationally…
10-15% drop in the next 12 months…
“One likely scenario is that housing prices would drop 10undefined15% in the bubble zone over the next 12 months, then remain flat for maybe four more years while incomes catch up,” says Fortune senior writer Shawn Tully. “And in some places, appreciation has been so sharp that a seller could see prices plunge 30%…”
Five years, 25% drop…
The Weekly Standard says prices in the Washington, D.C., area would have to drop 25% to return to a normal price/income ratio within the next five years. And that’s if personal income continues to grow at a smart 5% rate. In other words, if there’s no recession.
Prices down 25% in Washington? Crazy? Impossible?
Don’t kid yourself. It’s happened before. Listen to this report from D.C.’s Virginia suburbs: “My wife and I bought a home here in Virginia in 1998 for the same price the previous owners had paid way back in 1989. That’s nine years of zero appreciation.”
I don’t understand the magic flatness of a highly-leveraged speculative market. Can anyone produce a commodity that has flatlined for years after a speculative run-up? EVER? Geewiz, the Peak Oil can’t even flatline for a month.
Permanently high plateaus have historically proved ephemeral.
Huh? Give me ambiguity, or give me something else!
http://www.m-w.com/
Give me ambiguity, or give me something else!
Tell it to the Department of Redundancy Department.
gotta love the dictionary….
ephemeral: a mineral one step removed from “unobtainium”
Hey HD74..
Sorry I didn’t reply the other night and to highjack this post..
What’s your take/speculation on the North Shore’s market?
Ipswich - Georgetown - Rowley - Topsfield - Boxford
North Shore-Rated most expensive place to live in the country by Forbes Magazine.
Bucolic settings of intact big acreage estates and gentleman horse farms held by old money and Greatest Generation crowd offset by brutally expensive housing, crumbling infrastructure, horrific traffic, junk jobs.
When I grew up in Ipswich here in the 50’s and 60’s it was a blue collar textile town with some clam diggers and a hodgepodge of white collars who took off for BeanTown on the Budliner. I always regarded the place as “nice” but suburban boring.
Now the area is for the high rollers only. Doc’s from MA General; mutual fund kingpins; tech wizards; college prof’s various entrepreneur types.
If you’re a fireman, teacher, or any kind of working stiff, you ain’t got a chance. Any housing this economic crowd has a chance at is marketed by lottery.
All the town’s are anti-growth because nobody wants to foot the bill for any potential special ed kids. There’s lot of talk about “affordable housing”, but it’s all namby-pamby BS.
NIMBY’s and environmental wacko’s reign supreme here. You got beaver’s who dammed up a bunch of tributaries to the Ipswich river which have down severe damage to the drainage systems, virtually destroying people’s land-and nobody does a fookin’ thing. You have to have a legislative act to get rid of a family of beaver’s. Developer’s don’t stand a chance.
So as an oasis amoungst the teeming horde of 8 million, with limited inventory, I really don’t think there is going to be much of a fall in values-’cause there isn’t much to purchase in the environs.
So with no spec building and no affordability for speculators the area is kinda immune from the bust cycle.
Great Gen types and their boomer offspring got a long ride down from purchase prices in the $20/40k range.
People are pretty smug around here.
I pretty much totally agree with your sentiments..
I’d like to focus on two in particular…and this is not an attack or a troll (the only trolling I do is for Striper and blues and maybe a swing by the Kitten’s)
..so on to your comments…
“So as an oasis amoungst the teeming horde of 8 million, with limited inventory, I really don’t think there is going to be much of a fall in values-’cause there isn’t much to purchase in the environs.”
“So with no spec building and no affordability for speculators the area is kinda immune from the bust cycle.”
Are sort of saying it is truly a little bit different here?……what do you think is the worst case scenario on a newer 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, 2 car garage colonial at $600k in the towns I mentioned?
For example…
the house at the following link (Zillow) sold for $600k during the summer…66 Saunders in Rowley..what is your worst case on this one?
http://www.zillow.com/HomeDetails.htm?zprop=56961727
light blue one two to the right from the house with the pool
RE: Rowley…understand this has traditionally been the poor sister to the above towns you reference.
I know here in Ipswich a simple conforming building lot is assessed @ $300k. 1.92 acres is a decent sized lot. 2900+
sq. ft., is “big” but certainly can’t be considered McMansion territory.
Secondary school system (Triton) is also in a major funk because Salisbury isn’t payin’ their fair share of the freight.
This is a real valuation wild card. Who want’s a 4 bedroom in a crap school district.
I’m seein’ boatloads of $550k houses for sale in southern ME which has one hell of a lower pay scale than the northshore of MA, so I’m not thinkin’ $600k for Rowley is that bad.
However-worst case scenario-
Say the place takes a 20% clip in the downturn. Max depreciation for the ‘90/’91 bust.
We’re @ $480k with a $120k loss. A couple with decent incomes could take the hit. Banks go back to 20% down that’s a $96k down/with a $385k note.
Pretty reasonable for this neck of the woods.
Personally, I think it’s the foolish funky bunaglow’s in places like Great Neck in Ipswich, Rockport, Marblehead, etc., with the water views purchased for $19k in 1960 and are sellin’ for $650k to a mil for teardowns or construction flips which will be the market that will really shit the bed.
But…Mazz is really headin’ into some serious political shit. Duval Patrick wins the governorship and starts allowing a bazillion immigrants to set up ship in order to cement the DEMs hold on the legislature-all bets are off.
The mass boomer exodus for the door could start early.
Then it’s who knows?????????????
Interesting. If all this assumes that incomes will eventually catch up, what happens if they don’t?
Japan
Sacramento home prices stagnating: Here is an example. This home is in Rocklin (sacto foothills) and is currently listed for $415,000 (multiple price reductions from $500,000 9 months ago): MLS # 60077228 (to see the home, go to sacbee.com and seach for homes in Placer County using the #). Sale history: Sold in Feb 1992 for $200,000. Sold in March of 2000 for $195,000. That is price stagnation. Anyone care to look up the CPI number and tell us the real drop in value, compared to the nominal drop of 2.5% over 8 years. It CAN happen, it does happen and it will happen some more. Why pay 2 to 3 times the cost of homeownership, suffer the drop in value and (even after taxes) loose money each month?
Anyone have any insight on the market in the northern suburbs of NY? White Plains area?
I’ve got a nephew who’s considering buying a coop….I’m trying to talk him down.
Off the ledge?
of course
The state of Minnesota is trying to warn people about potential mortgage fraud and deception when taking out mortgages or refinancing:
http://www.dontborrowtroublemn.org/
Minnesota also has a Foreclosure Prevention Assistance Program.
http://www.hocmn.org/map.cfm?pageID=7
Home Builders are toast read the Centex earnings…it is toast.
Centex reports preliminary Q2 EPS results below consensus (55.09 +1.10)
Housing operating earnings for Q2 are expected to ~$230 million based on 8,525 home closings. Net sales (orders) for the quarter were 6,828, a decrease of 28% from last year’s second quarter. These results reflect current record levels of home sales contract cancellations, driven in many cases by the inability of buyers to sell their existing homes. Consistent with Centex’s aggressive response to rapidly changing market conditions and due to the flexibility afforded by its option agreements, co expects option deposit and pre-acquisition walk-away costs to be in the $85 to $95 million range this quarter. Additionally, land valuation adjustments are expected to ~$40-45 mln, which includes co’s share of such amounts for a joint venture. As a result, co is revising its Q2 EPS to a range of $0.65 -0.75, Reuters consensu is $1.35. “The housing market continues to adjust rapidly and Centex is executing its balanced approach to effectively manage these transitions. Cancellation rates that were well outside of historical levels diminished our earnings visibility this quarter”.
What a surprise. We are just months away from net losses - due to “one time” charges, ala CSCO, JDSU, WCOM, LU, etc…
Then a few months after that, net losses from operations.
Way to go guys! Another sucksessful quarter. Keep up the good work!
Let’s see if the PPT can hold this one up Friday. I keep sayint that eventually the news is going to be so bad on all the homebuilders, that the PPT wont work.
down make fun of CSCO…some people are going to need it to make the @$$ pounding less painful
oh, Cisco, I thought said..never mind
meant ..don’t make fun….
I have a good friend who is trying to sell in LA, and his big plan is to move to Boulder. Does any one here know the conditions in Boulder, CO, specifically?
I’ve sent him all the info about every town within 40 miles of Boulder tanking. He says “Boulder is “different” (limited land, everyone wants to live there, etc., the usual suspects…) I can’t seem to find any thing on Boulder specifically.
Thanks
I have a brother in-law living in Boulder. Housing doesn’t seem to be dropping as bad in that city vs. others, but houses are selling either. Pick your poison. Will drop eventually.
Do you know why this is? From his research, it looks like a great place, but isn’t it closely tied economically to Denver? I kinda assumed it’s like the “Santa Monica” of greater Denver. Does it have any economic base of it’s own?
Along these lines, I think a lot of the trendier “got to live in” areas will end up just as bad as the starter areas… People “reached” ( with toxic mortgages) to get the “Kool Address.
Boulder has lots of great hiking, climbing, and biking. It also has some interesting shops and resturants. However, most of the housing stock, and certainly the “affordable” homes @ less than $500K, are fairly hohum properties built in the ’50s and ’60s. If you’re willing to drive 10-20 minutes to get to Boulder proper, there is lots of relatively new housing stock at lower prices in Superior, Louisville, Lafayette, Longmont, and Broomfield. The newest mall in the Denver metro area is in Broomfield, by the way.
I think many people, and certainly people with families, will choose to live in a modern house with relatively new schools and new shopping facilities, in return for having to drive a few extra minutes when they want to hit the Pearl Street Mall or the hiking in Boulder Mountain Parks.
Bill
Boulder is a trendy city for bohemians. The U of C is there as well, and the university environment has a lot of hangers on and entrepreneureal actvity. That means unusually strong growth and a line to the same crowd that makes Scottsdale so much bigger a deal than Pheonix.
I kinda assumed it’s like the “Santa Monica” of greater Denver.
You nailed it.
If you can sell in LA now and move to Boulder — this is still a good trade. Just don’t buy in Boulder first, then try to sell in LA. LA is still in a stupor with regards to the housing bubble, if you can find the last remaining zombies — they still think real estate only goes up. Expect delays getting them qualified for a mortgage though.
Zombies. Tell me about it. He’s supposed to get a written offer for someone today! I’m amazed. I sold August 2005 and have been renting.
I can’t believe it. People are STILL BUYING here! He’s talking to a realtor in Boulder. I’m sure the Realtor is “Yes, Yes Californian…. Reel him in…, careful, careful…)
I moved from Santa Monica to Boulder in 1995. I was an avid hiker and actually missed hiking. From Santa Monica there was a huge variety of trails within about 15 minutes and Whitney Portal was 3 hours away. In Boulder there were a few trails, and many more if you drive 30-45 minutes, and instead of hiking from the ocean to meadows, you hike from foothills to higher foothills. I also missed restaurants. Boulder has a ‘restaurant scene’ that is expensive and mostly bland white suburban food with ethnic pretentions. As far as housing goes, your brother-in-law can’t lose by selling in CA and leaving for almost anywhere, but he might get bored unless he’s much more interested in the whitebread suburban existence than most people who live in Palms. Boulder is also a two-tiered economy, with rich people and service industry people, and little in between and not very many jobs. There are some government labs and some smart people there, and a few interesting things happening around the university as well as a little bit of studenty and new age hipness. It’s like a really dull white version of Berkeley, with a definite attitude about Californians (they blame EVERY problem on Californians moving in).
His house has been on the market 1 WEEK…. Palms Area of West LA
from ground zero- twelve square miles surrounded by reality:
there are countless homes (in the 100’s) around boulder proper being scraped with a nice mcmansion ($1,500,000 minimum) replacing them. there are hundreds of urban “lofts” or “bungalows” on the drawing board or under construction with prices reaching $1000 per square foot. i live in the mountains west of boulder and all low end (under $500k) is stagnant but $1M plus is moving. all homes being built in my area are $1M plus, one clown is even “earthquake proofing” his construction.
if your friend is leaving california to find a fresh beginning, tell him/her to forget it, cause we have been seriously californicated. as far as the market is concerned, i don’t see a collapse, as most people around here don’t work anyhow, and their precious metal holdings should do even better in the upcoming recession.
Boulder housing market has been flat for several years. RE is a disaster in CO, but prices have just stayed flat in Boulder. Plus, the housing stock in Boulder is crap. Even the new areas being built outside of Boulder are endless, bland housing tracts with nothing to recommend them. Denver offers much better housing stock. But I wouldn’t buy anything in CO right now.
Thanks For the input everyone
(My name changed from “implosion” due to conflict”)
You have all pretty much described it as he sees it. He has 3 kids soon to enter school and he says the LA schools are unacceptable, and private schools will destroy him. If he can pull it off, he’ll walk away with an enough to buy 500k house outright, but he knows the job prospects are dim. He’s in advertising production. He wants to go into “foreclosure rehab and sales” with a friend who wants to move there to. (Who’s gonna be left to buy, though?)
I keep recommending, if he’s gonna go, to rent cause I’m sure there will be “price pressure” soon in Boulder (just like there will be in “Santa Monica”) plus I figure really “being there” would give him a more realistic take on what’s up. Even if he stays. Of course he’s got family pressure (moving 3 kids, what his wife wants)
Thanks All Again
“In zip code 80864, in southeastern El Paso County, almost one-third of all homes are in various phases of foreclosure.”
How can anyone believe that prices are not going to plummet when one in three of your neighbors cannot foot their bills? Although most of these will not be completely reposessed, even a small number of bank owned resales will shape the entire market. There will be a slaughter when this disease gains momentum in FL, CA, AZ or any number of other spec home colonies across the nation.
- The Daily Press. “One of the Victor Valley’s largest homebuilders, KB Home, has stopped building new houses in the Victor Valley and plans to lower prices to a level that brings buyers back to its communities.”
You should the tracts in Adelanto! If you have seen the surface of the Moon and pictures of the Las Vegas desert - you’ve seen Adelanto. They have many 400k homes out there in the middle of nowhere….with zero down.
That place will soon be ‘Meth City.’
Adelanto! Sheesh and these people who are buying probably commute to LA or Orange County. How far will one go into debt and commuting to own? Even if these clowns come down the hill as the locals say, this is still a commute of epic proportions and what about on Friday? Forget even getting home until after 8 or 9 pm.
As for this place becoming filled with meth labs. Forget about that, it is even too far from any know civilization for even that to work out.
Whenever I think of forced foreclosures I conjure up that scene in the movie documentary “Roger & Me” (Michael Moore) where the Sheriff is “puttin the people out on the street”. Always wondered how someone did that type of job.