“Buyers Are Looking For Deals” In California
The LA Times reports from California. “John Rockey has been hanging drywall for 35 years, and he’s seen it all in the boom-again, bust-again Antelope Valley housing market. By the time a new building spree peaked in 2005, Rockey’s payroll had again grown to 200. Now, his Lancaster-based Progression Drywall Corp. is down to 50 employees, and he’s got a serious case of deja vu.”
“‘This is looking like 1990 all over again,’ he said.”
“‘A lot of people are panicking,’ said Jaimes Gumaro, a North Hollywood real estate agent who has a listing in a Palmdale neighborhood dotted with homes for sale. ‘They were expecting to have all this equity, and then it suddenly stopped. Now, they just want to get their money out of it. They’re saying, ‘I’m outta here.’”
“Foreclosure sales in Lancaster and Palmdale rose to nearly 200 between Dec. 1 and Feb. 28, an eightfold increase in a year. Notices of default more than doubled over the same period a year earlier, totaling more than 1,000 from December through February.”
“‘Now, we have all these folks who can’t afford their homes and their loans are adjusting, literally by the thousands,’ said Peter Terracciano, who founded his Palmdale brokerage in 1990, as the housing boom began to go bust.”
“Rockey gets most of his work from large builders. ‘Every customer has a different story every day,’ he said, ‘and they’re not good stories.’”
“He recently learned that the builder of 300 new houses he’d been lined up to drywall in Rancho Cucamonga abruptly halted the project, costing Rockey $4 million in work. ‘We’re getting killed,’ he said.”
The Recordnet. “New-home prices in San Joaquin County continued to slide, from an average $519,350 at the end of last year to $507,115 in the most recent quarter, a decline of 2.4 percent, according to the latest sales numbers from the Gregory Group.”
“That’s down from a high of well above $550,000 in the third quarter of 2006.”
“The number of people out looking at home models significantly increased beginning in mid-January, said Joe Anfuso, president of Stockton-based Florsheim Homes, but that dried up again several weeks ago with the implosion of the subprime market.”
“‘I certainly think all the builders are going to be feeling the effects of the slowdown in the subprime market,’ Anfuso said. ‘It will take some time to flush out of the system.’”
“Gregory Group president Greg Paquin said builders have been lowering the presence of incentives in the sales market because these days, would-be buyers are responding better to lower sales prices, rather than to higher base prices with incentive packages thrown in.”
The Tribune News. “Whether they’re first-time home buyers or investors, more San Luis Obispo County property owners are facing foreclosure, according to local real estate experts.”
“For the first three months of this year, 215 notices of default were sent to homeowners, up from 99 in the same period a year ago, according to All American Foreclosure Service. Forty-nine trustee’s deeds were recorded from January to March of this year. That’s compared to only eight in the same period last year.”
“‘Either the lenders are not working it out with the borrowers or whatever, but more are going back to the lenders as a whole,’ said Don Vaughn, owner of All American Foreclosure.”
“‘The lenders made it easy for people to buy a home, be it the first-time buyer or investor,’ he said. ‘From the lender’s viewpoint, the property would increase in value, but that has stopped. Therefore, the investors are walking away.’”
“The majority of foreclosure activity is concentrated in Nipomo and Paso Robles (and to a lesser degree Atascadero), areas of the county where growth is occurring and people may have bought more house than they could afford.”
The Orange County register. “One measure of how many homes are for sale in Orange County is up 43% in six weeks. By this…logic, it would take 6.57 months for buyers to gobble up all homes listed for sale at the current pace of deals vs. 6.09 months two weeks earlier; vs. 4.59 months six weeks ago (a 43% jump); and vs. 3.62 months a year ago.”
“The Orange County tax man’s official year-end tally that showed 5.32 percent of roughly $2 billion in property tax dollars owed on the first installment due in December weren’t paid at that point. That was the highest level of tardiness since 1996.”
“‘You don’t want to extrapolate too early,’ says O.C.’s tax man Chriss Street, of some of the negative trends. But this latest count of paid bills is ’substantially lower than normal. Something is going on here.’”
“In the first two months of 2007, O.C. lenders filed 1,727 default notices, that’s 50 percent above average.”
“New Century last week became the largest subprime lender in the nation to file for bankruptcy. It simultaneously cut 3,200 jobs nationwide, or about half its staff. At Monday’s job fair, about 200 ex-workers networked with potential employers who were were looking for sales representatives.”
“Denise Price, a former senior underwriter at New Century’s Home123 retail division, said the lenders who showed up were looking mostly for people in sales and not with her particular skills. ‘At this point, I think that’s all that’s available, especially in Orange County,’ Price said of sales jobs.”
“Her boss, Richard Measures, lost his job at New Century a year after being laid off at another lending company. ‘The real sad part is we built a team,’ said Measures, a Temecula resident who has worked in the mortgage industry for 30 years.”
“‘I thought of this as a lot more stable company,’ he said of New Century. ‘We were aggressively hiring and expanding. You don’t normally do that unless you’re confident about the future.’”
The Freelance News. “San Benito County’s real estate market picked up in March, but the number of homes on the market and the time they’re sitting unsold continues to rise.”
“One market number has been moving continually upward: the number of days homes sit on the market before selling. In March 2006, homes were on the market for an average of 78 days before selling. By March of this year, homes had been on the market an average 154 days before selling.”
“At the same time, the number of homes on the market has also increased. There were 286 homes on the market in March 2006. That had increased by nearly 50 percent to 427 in March this year.”
“‘Buyers are looking for deals,’ agent Jan Kisla said.”
“Real estate agent Melissa Mitchell said that’s hitting the most expensive homes the hardest. That’s because people buying a home for more than $1 million are usually moving up from one worth about $700,000 or $800,000 she said. But if they can’t sell their home, or they can’t get a good price for it, those buyers aren’t going to be looking at the priciest houses.”
“And it’s not just buyers who are becoming more difficult. With mortgage foreclosures increasing dramatically in the past few months, homebuyers are also being subjected to more scrutiny from lenders, Mitchell said.”
“‘You can wait 17 days and then find out the buyer couldn’t get the financing,’ she said.” “The most expensive home sold in San Benito County last month went for $1.125 million. But even that four-bedroom ‘custom French Tudor’ on ‘beautiful equestrian property’ was advertised as ‘price-reduced and motivated’ at the time of sale.”
“The least expensive home sold last month in San Benito County was an 81-year-old, three-bedroom home in Hollister that went for $420,000, a markdown from the original listing price of $448,000.”
From the LA Times piece:
‘Homeowner Debbie Brown remembers the last time it got ugly in Palmdale, right after she moved there in 1991. When the size of their mortgages exceeded the value of their homes, she said, people simply walked away.’
‘Houses were getting dumped right and left,’ she said. ‘There were all these empty houses, and people were crawling in through the screens and living in them. It was really scary.’
I think the same thing will happen this time around, but on a much larger scale. With the number of empty houses out there, it makes a lot of sense for some people to become squatters. After all, housing is usually the number one expense in the budget. Eliminate that, and you’re living well.
–
I live 40 miles NW of Palmdale and I have heard nothing but bad stories about crime and too many new homes that were built and continue to get build. Crime and empty homes are a deadly combination for a community.
If Palmdale is lucky, the home prices wouldn’t fall below 1996-99 levels.
Jas
Cool. Do you live in Pine Mountain Club? Frazier Park? I was looking up there a couple of years ago a scoffed at the bubble prices. They’re still trying to sell me overpriced bubble garbage.
and you don’t even need to pay those pesky property taxes
There should be a great many squatting opportunities coming up over the next couple of years.
LOL — Why rent when you can squat for free?
“people were crawling in through the screens and living in them”
This time they will have tatoo’s, meth, and guns…these aren’t you’re grandpa’s hobo’s
I agree
I agree
Sorry, duplicate
What makes you think they didn’t have those things last time?.
Guns, maybe. Meth? probably not. It was crack last time. The tatoos? Does it really matter if they have guns?
The difference is that meth can be cooked in residences (that’s the new place to do it in), and it’s definitely more dangerous to cook it… some places have to be demolished after meth has been cooked there.
At first, I was skeptical, then I saw those stories about 700K, 800K, and 900K houses being bought to grow weed in the LA area in. That shows you how much of a business it is. Few meth heads would care about property rights if it’s abandoned.
Chuck Ponzi
http://www.socalbubble.com
Is Calif. you have to disclose if a house has ever been contaminated by meth. You want to flip that house — you must disclose it was used for meth.
“You want to flip that house — you must disclose it was used for meth”
Bwwwaahhhaaa good luck with that. Pray it has had a police report or something on it that makes it impossible for the seller to forget to disclose or claim he didn’t know about the activity. Maybe 1 out of 20 that should be reported actually are, that cleanup is expensive.
Which backs up what I posted a few days ago that most of these folks will not want to be bailed out even if it is offered to them. They didn’t want the home to actually live in, and even if they lived in it, they didn’t actually want to stay there. These were investments - pure and simple. Now that the investment potential is gone, it’s adios muchacho. They’re heading back to the big city ’cause the High Desert SUCKS!
ex-nnvmtgbrkr,
I agree, if you’re in for an “investment” and that possibility becomes dubious….you’re out of that “investment” the moment it starts costing you to hang on. And nothing says “cost” better than an increasing mortgage rate, taxes, insurance and maintenence bills…..
Yea true a lot of folks moved out that way with the intent to build equity and move back to the area of their choice. Now that it’s not going to happen anytime soon it will be interesting to see how bad it gets.
Imagine if you’re out there with equity as your neighbors are walking away.
The last time it got ugly in Palmdale? I’m sorry, but when has it not been ugly in Palmdale?
I’ve lived in Palmdale since ‘91, and I’ve lived and worked all over LA county. I’d still pick it as the county’s best spot to raise a family on a single income.
That being said, I’m outta here, God willing.
When I saw that this morning, I thought it was a bit early in the decline to start talking about Lancaster/Palmdale. But after thinking about it. With the MSM somewhat lagging in their information. Makes you wonder just how bad it is in that area. I know a lot of reality is not posted about Los Angeles. There’s a disturbing disconnect here between whats reported and reality. But Lancaster/Palmdale must be seriously underwater at this point. That’s kind of unnerving this soon in the downturn. If I had a SFR in that area FB or not. I’d start seriously thinking about cutting bait and getting the hell out of there. That’s going to be an ugly situation.
Agreed, especially when the domestic violence starts becoming routine fom people losing their homes and the wife walking out. Expect to see lots of husbands shooting their families. Not something I am looking forward to hearing about.
There also has been a greater influx of gang bangers. Ben has posted a couple of clips here that showed the problems in that area. People buying new homes and having to deal with gang bangers and such. It’s going to get real interesting
You can see some of the gang banger cars broken down on the side of Highway 14 -the route to LA and back to Palmdale. Bling bling and low to the ground.
Damn. Sounds like fun to me. Got popcorn?
But yet real estate “always goes up”. How can that be?
I remember HUD signs all over Palmdale “50.00 buys a home” etc.
“I remember HUD signs all over Palmdale “50.00 buys a home” etc.”
What a rip off. Everyone knows that a house should not cost you a dime - and if you are a real investor you actually get money back for buying it. I hope HUD adjusts their outrageous expectations soon.
“The least expensive home sold last month in San Benito County was an 81-year-old, three-bedroom home in Hollister that went for $420,000, a markdown from the original listing price of $448,000.”
That’s more like it. Look’s like the affordability crisis is behind us.
I thought it was interesting that the most and least expensive sale was price reduced.
Curt, that struck me too. 420K in Hollister, sounds like a bargain.
It still amazes me that people are buying homes in these price ranges. 420K is a ton of freakin money.
Oh cool, that must mean there are tons of jobs in Hollister that pay $140k/yr. Three times income, right? And as we all know, everyone wants to live in Hollister.
I always see teenagers walking around with shirts that read, “Hollister”. Thus teens think Hollister’s cool, so I’m sold.
Hollister Ranch is cool, if you are in Santa Barbara.
It is the height of exclusive, exurban development.
It also has good surf spots that are generally only available to the 150 owners of homesites.
It’s not the same Hollister. Hollister, the city, is 40 miles or so south of San Jose… arguably commutable (I wouldn’t want to). Hollister is the town made famous by the fake motorcycle gang riot in the ’50s.
400K in Hollister is still pricey.
San Benito County is poor, and Hollister is a brd commuter city for San Jose. 20-25 miles east of 101 which makes the commute a bit more difficult.
I know I was riffing on the Hollister’s cool comment above.
The real reason the clothing company chose the name is likely hollister ranch and not Hollister, CA.
mee too … lol !!
There were all these empty houses, and people were crawling in through the screens and living in them. It was really scary.’
It reminds me of that movie The Big Lebowski when Jeff Bridges recovers his car from the LA impound lot and looked inside and goes “what is that smell” the officer responded vagrants sleep in abandoned cars or deficate in them and then move on.
What’s the difference abandoned house abandoned car?
The cops can’t take a house to the impound. It’s stuck rotting were it’s at and there’s nothing the neighbors can do about it.
An impounded car doesn’t depreciate the value of the car sitting next to it. Can you say that about all of those empty homes? Nope.
Nyc Boy Brilliant post again. Great stuff.
Its amazing that these unremarkable, inland communities became so expensive. Jeepers, its not like they are close to the beach. At least Encinitas and Del Mar have something going for them.
Palmdale is not unremarkable. What’s remarkable is that people buy houses in that deity-forsaken desert. What’s remarkable is that the houses stand up to the constant sandblasting by high winds for half the year. What’s remarkable is its remoteness, and that people are willing to commute 2 hours each way to a job, just to own a house out there. What’s remarkable is that nothing grows there except for Joshua trees and a few tumbleweeds.
And, then there is Mohave Velley. Oops. I used to live there. Same, same, only hotter.
Valley.
And man does the wind blow through Mojave or what?? Seems like hurricane force, even in the summer.
And then you have Victorville/Hesperia/Apple Valley. These “communities” make Lancaster/Palmdale look like Utopia.
Yes
dont forget Adelanto !!
Passed thru Victorville last month. Can’t believe almost 100,000 people live there. Highlight was the big box stores.
My parents moved out there 2002. They love it. They’re also retired, and don’t mind the occasional meth head who stumbles into the street.
It’s all good. And, they keep reminding us that their house has gone up from 225 to 460 or something like that.
Chuck Ponzi
http://www.socalbubble.com
I lived in the Antelope Valley from 1989-2001 (great time in my life) and 2004-2006 (big mistake). I moved to Lancaster in 1989 to work at Edwards AFB as an aerospace engineer. If you an AE, the flight test center is your dream job. Lancaster was a quite white collar aerospace town where every 4th car had a Department of Defense sticker on the windshield (Edwards AFB or Air Force Plant 42). The schools were good and even the East side (Lancaster and Palmdale) were nice places to live and raise a family. Not a lot of retail back then, but enough. I rented a few years, bought a home in Quartz Hill in 1992 (didn’t know it was the top of the last housing bubble). Got married and proceeded to watch my home lose 40% of it value over the next 4 years.
That’s when everything started down hill for the Antelope Valley. Hundreds of HUD foreclosures all over the A.V. and the wise city planners allowed tat wonderful thing called “Section 8″. This is what killed the East side as all these repos and people fleeing to the West side rented their Eastside homes on “Section 8″ subsidized rent. A lot of bad element moved into the A.V. during this period (1996-2000). East side schools went from barely acceptable to right down the toilet. Mass exodus from East to West side (if you were smart).
I moved to the Southeast in 2001 to Work for NASA and again didn’t realize we were in the makings of the biggest housing boom ever. I enjoyed my 3 years in the South, but thought I was missing out and took an oportunity to return to the A.V. (back to Edwards). This proved to be the biggest mistake I’ve made so far. Not going back to work at Edwards, but moving back to Palmdale this time (West side - Rancho Vista). Luckily I was renting until we could find a home we liked. Wow! what a change. Everyone had drank the kool-aid in CA and thought their 2,000 sq/ft POS stucco wonders were worth a half a million dollars (HELLO!! Is this thing on?).
Very quickly we realized this was not the A.V. we knew just three short years ago. It appeared much of Creshaw, Compton, Ingelwood, Picquioma moved to the A.V. since we moved away. Serious crime had become common and in places we used to shop and visit. The schools had lost the battle too. The West side schools were still safe, but no longer challenged students and were dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. We rationalized why on earth would I pay for a home in the A.V. that was twice as expensive and half as desireable as it was three years earlier? I didn’t, I moved back to the Southeast as soon as possible and that turned my worst mistake into my best move.
I fear the Antelope Valley will become “Compton North” and I really feel bad for those who stay and put up with the poor quality of life there now. I am amazed and angered to see just how quickly a once thriving and unique town can change to a crap hole (crime, poor schools) and to top it off, the A.V. will get hurt severly in the coming real estate crash that is coming. All the genious’ that thought the A.V. was worth $500,000, are about to get spanked hard. Those homes are going to revert back to 2001 prices. Can you say “REPO CITY”! This will finish off the West side and it will be done. Loved working flight test at Edwards, but would never return to the A.V. in a million years!
Let’em Burn
sm landlord, I’d met a guy years ago who commuted from Palmdale to Westwood. WTF? Even stranger, he worked for the Navy.
Tons of people do that everyday and I do not get it. When you factor in car repair, gas, and other essentials. What is the benefit of moving to these places?? I will never get it.
“Tons of people do that everyday and I do not get it.”
People have been doing that commute for 50 years. I had an uncle in the early 60’s that worked for Lockheed in the high desert so he moved up there. So they shut the plant down and moved it to Burbank. He did that commute for 30 years. Rationale was cheap housing but now??? Who knows?
Damn, that rug really tied the room together man : - )
“vee vant zee money Lebowski, or else we cut off your johnson.”
Wamu Debt Collector to FB
This aggression will not stand man! The Dude obliges.
Donny, he was a good man, a good bowler.
What’s the difference abandoned house abandoned car?
someone else can live in your car but he can’t drive your house
We could ask Casey. He has an abandoned house with an abandoned car and a hobo. Great post that was. Good Times.
Younger Cop: And was there anything of value in the car?
The Dude: Oh, uh, yeah, uh… a tape deck, some Creedence tapes, and there was a, uh… uh, my briefcase.
Younger Cop: [expectant pause] In the briefcase?
The Dude: Uh, uh, papers, um, just papers, uh, you know, uh, my papers, business papers.
Younger Cop: And what do you do, sir?
The Dude: I’m unemployed.
“Ever thus to deadbeats, FB.”
Even with all the bad news. Home builders are not giving in…especially in the OC. Go to any new development and look at prices….hasn’t really budged…maybe at most down 5 percent. Still ridiculously expensive.
Same here in my neck of the woods…northern AZ…
I think there are lots of lots of people who are just now getting the memo the party is over…they are still counting on a summer bounce…
I think this fall is Waterloo.
This fall is Hiroshima (L.A.) and Nagasaki (Vegas).
Those were 10-20kt blasts, check out Tsar Bomba.
Those HB will have to drop prices soon as sales are dropping across the state and USA. It just isn’t affordable to the average joe without a exotic loan.
Same here in eastern WA. Over the past couple of weeks, we talked with the two leading builders in town. Both tried like crazy to get us interested in spec homes with no buyers. Both were dying to start building a home for us as soon as the plans could clear permitting–something unheard of even a year ago, when you had to book a “custom” home a year in advance (not very custom actually, just standard plans off the internet).
But both were terribly offended that we even tried to negotiate on price. After 10 good years, it will take a little while to truly humble these builders.
Dying to build you a house but unwilling to negotiate price. Well, there you go. They’ll come around eventually.
They’ll be calling you back.
During the 90’s bottom we bought a house in Corona, California (shut up). We said 5% down only (we wanted as little at risk as possible). They refused. 2 weeks later they called us back and we got the deal at 5% down.
Have posted before, am a $1K/mo tenant in a spec house in Maine. Cheap enough to keep it all year even though I’ve been in Calif since December. The builders apparently don’t mind negative cash flow around $2K/month, because they still think someone is going to pay them $575K for the house. That price might’ve worked in 2004 if the house had been finished then. Now they’ll be lucky to get $450K, but I don’t think they’re ready to entertain offers below $575K. Yet.
Home builders…. they “will” drop their prices. It’s only a matter of time. Think any builder can stand strong next year at this time?
Many are still in a fog and just can’t deal with real estate always goes up pitch they have heard for so long. Many are still walking around with dead space brain cells to the reality of the market.
Hollister is a hellhole—I expect Hollister, Gilroy and Los Banos to get at LEAST a 25% haircut over the next two years.
You might say the lower colon of the bay area…the last little bit of digestion before? Houses could be found for 150k in 2000. 420K? …I think not.
You think Hollister is bad, When I attended Cal Poly, they were cooking speed up in Atascadero!
I keep an eye on Gilroy, aka Garlic Capital of the US (or is it the World?), as a leading indicator of the what may happen to housing on the SF Peninsula. I don’t track it in detail, just an occasional glance at MLSlistings.com. Currently there are just over 300 listings—100 listings per page priced low to high. A glance half-way down the second page (listing no. 150) shows a median asking price of about $730k. Last year it was $800k.
Gilroy is in the middle of nowhere. Still don’t know how they will burn through over 300 units in inventory at those prices. Or for that matter at any price.
I think Morgan Hill may be spared severe corrections because of its proximity to San Jose, while Gilroy and Hollister have horrendous commutes to the San Jose, and the houses there are pretty much cookie-cutter stucco boxes–they used to be charming, rural communities before the bubble….it’s a shame.
Ummm…. Morgan Hill is only 10 miles closer to SJ on 101, which is not pretty during commute times. It’s STILL over 20 miles of BS traffic to San Jose city limits. From there it’s a crap shoot every morning on how the drive to your job is gonna be…then there’s that drive home again.
Ok so it’s 20 miles to downtown SJ…if you work in W.San Jose, S.Clara, Sunnyvale, Mt. View or Palo Alto well good luck to you and that drive
Amen
When I was a kid, I lived in Aptos, so still remember Gilroy as a small agricultural community - yes the Garlic Captial of the World, as Watsonville was the Artichoke Capital of the World (12 for a dollar, them were the days). Gilroy also had a fabulous Country and Western radio station called KFAT…wonder what ever happened to it….?
Back then you might consider commuting to Santa Cruz (then the largest town around) as ‘doable’, but to be honest there wasn’t much out there except for fields and farm buildings - I haven’t been back there in decades, but from what I’ve read here, I guess Gilroy has turned into another dormitory town for San Jose. What a pity
And, if your on-the-fly median is $730K, then that’s about on par with some places in the nicer parts of the San Fernando Valley, here in L.A.
That’s insane.
CASTROVILLE is the Artichoke Capital of the World! By the way… is the Giant Artichoke still deep-frying artichoke hearts? I would kill for some!!!
I disagree. I think the jobs most susceptible to outsourcing and a slowing economy are the high tech jobs. When Circuit City is laying off sales people, they must know that sales will be slowing. Henceforth, the manufacturers and software co’s will soon be ramping down their production as well. This means far fewer engineers will be required and even less $200,000 software sales people. I would say that if you make over $100,000 and you live in Silicon Valley and you are not a top executive, and you haven’t already divested yourself of the overpriced Toll Bros, you are probably in trouble.
One other note, I noticed that some of the larger software co’s are now targeting small business owners. This is because the larger multinationals dont need to continuously upgrade their corporate software. Lots of commercials during golf and college basketball touting one of these software suites (cant remember which one).
Same concept with Dell. Anyone with basic foresight could see that eventually everyone would own a computer and the at some point the market would get saturated. Then sales would slow. How many times does the average j6p need to upgrade their computer and operating system?
“How many times does the average j6p need to upgrade their computer and operating system”
didn’t they say the same thing about televisions? anyhow when a new toy comes along, everyone’s gotta have it…and the way things are looking computers could look very different 5 years from now.
world
“Gilroy is in the middle of nowhere”
Nope! The middle of nowhere is Los Banos, Patterson, Wesley, and all of the other hell holes on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley that have been positioned as a Bay Area alternative. Take a look at this lovely gem: http://modesto.craigslist.org/rfs/294536865.html
This should be $100k tops.
Gilroy is in the Santa Clara valley. It has a climate like Napa.
Los Banos is 50 miles east on the other side of Pancheco Pass in the central valley.
Gilroy has a lot of open space and is pro growth so it’s not a silicon valley city with limited construction (like Sunnyvale). Gilroy is in Santa Clara county and the city has bus service locally and to San Jose and up to Sunnyvale and commuter train service to Downtown SF. It’s a place for the lower economic class to live and work in the valley commuting via public transit or for folks who want massive homes in the hills and a commute.
I’ve been tracking Gilroy and think it’s way over valued but it is a POOR indicator of the Silicon Valley for two reasons (1) There is a lot of housing developments in Gilroy putting pressure on existing inventory. That is NOT the case around Mountain View 40 miles N. Gilroy has a lot of open land for devleopment.
(2) Gilroy is a ag town with commuters but it is not in the middle of nowhere. It does have Caltrain access to SJ and SF and it is connected to the coast and central valley via 152. It’s in a strategic location geographically but has no high paying, local work.
Morgan Hill was much more expensive, professional and is just 10+ miles N of Gilroy and closer to jobs. It has a tech industry and limits growth. I say it is probably a better, not great, indicator of the valley’s economy.
FYI national geographic did a story on Silicon Valley (in the past 6 years) and had a map of home prices by Zip - Morgan Hill was an expensive island in a sea of lower priced homes.
20 years ago, passing through Hollister, I thought it might be a nice quiet place to retire; but the last time I was there (2004?) downtown was a congested mess, and you couldn’t hear yourself think for all the “boom” cars blasting rap music - on top of which, it looked like local merchants were on-board with pandering to the Harley crowd (based on the town’s fabled run-ins with the biker gangs).
Uh, I’ll pass.
But… But… Gilroy! It’s all about the garlic! You have to pay extra for that little cultural tidbit. And really, who wouldn’t want to?! I mean, c’mon.
I remember reading about places like Hollister and San Benito county as having houses under a $100K. That place is very rural and a long haul from San Jose, Monterey, or any other area that might even remotely be considered desirable in California (sorry I have too big of a chip on the shoulder regarding CA). The ave in San Benito county should be in the $100K range. What bargain are these folks looking for?
“What bargain are these folks looking for?”
Perhaps half off a gram of meth (this area of the South-South Bay is fairly notorious). I have a feeling there will be an inverse relationship between the declining market and the growth in meth use over the next few years. Many FBs trying to escape reality through chemical means.
That sounds like pretty much the entire central valley. New syndrome? CVS
Prices still way too high in Eureka and Humboldt county. My flipper across the street still trying to peddle her $619K house on a 3,500 square foot lot has continued to have a bunch of lookers, but luckily no buyers. People still have that “deer in the headlights” look when you talk about housing bubble or prices going down in other parts of the state–”it can never happen here.” Or, “people from LA want to live here, and they will keep coming.” So far, they’re right, but one thing they can’t deny is the foreclosure situation, even here:
http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Eindexhum/realestate/foreclosures_humboldt.GIF
For right now people are leaving LA not coming to LA. As long as housing will be unaffordable people will keep moving out of LA and CA. 185K net residents left LA between summer of 2005 and 2006. I would assume that 1006-07 number will be even higher.
Sweet, sweet California thread.
I almost had the DTs going from withdrawal symptoms.
Welcome back: Dorky California news of the day
“He believes that as Colfax evolves into an exurb of Sacramento, public water and sewer service will replace the existing wells and septic systems. If so, vacant residential land would become much more valuable….And here’s the kicker: When you subdivide a tract, the sum of the parts is often worth more than the whole. Greg figures that if he were to buy 4 acres for $125,000 and sell it in two parcels, he would eventually get about $200,000 apiece. The payoff would be even greater if he could sell four 1-acre lots — a distinct possibility if municipal water service were to come in (tracts with wells and septic tanks require more land per house).
Even if Greg had to wait 15 years for his payday, he could make as much on the property as he stands to earn in decent mutual funds, and maybe more if local land prices rally sooner.”
Kiplinger Save for Retirement by Buying Land?
by Jeffrey R. Kosnett
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
I love California Dreamin’, but put it to bed. Another pyramid to hook the suckers.
I couldn’t help thinking that poor Greg will be holding on to that land, paying taxes on it, etc., and it will NEVER pay him interest. Or send him a dividend check.
Some investment.
“Denise Price, a former senior underwriter at New Century’s Home123 retail division, said the lenders who showed up were looking mostly for people in sales and not with her particular skills.
LOL, I guess there’s not much of a market for rubber stampers right now.
Yes and for her idiot boss as well, who didn’t know that the company was unstable (and they were throwing crap up against the wall), even though he was an underwriting manager.
“‘I thought of this as a lot more stable company,’ he said of New Century. ‘We were aggressively hiring and expanding. You don’t normally do that unless you’re confident about the future.’”
LMAO.
Thanks Ben - I was going through some serious California bubble withdrawals - pass the Valium.
http://centralcoasthousingbubble.blogspot.com/
Almost every for sale sign that I see in Santa Cruz and Aptos has a “price reduced” or a “new price” sign attached to it. $750,000 is still too rich for my blood.
if i don’t read bad cali news everyday i can barely function. i have to know flippers are hurting and property tax bills are killing. the resets coming is my greatest joy. oh yeah im a renter with loot stuck in a bad lease and no chance of buying.
i was agitated in sd, but now im frenzy.
“The Orange County tax man’s official year-end tally that showed 5.32 percent of roughly $2 billion in property tax dollars owed on the first installment due in December weren’t paid at that point. That was the highest level of tardiness since 1996.”
—————————————————————————–
This is inconsistent with Gary Watt’s assessment of how wealthy the average OC resident is.
Ah, Gary “a little bit of heaven in 07″ Watts. Whatever happened to him…did he die and go to heaven…? …with a heavenly “tailwind” behind him perhaps….
….wot a tosser…
In Rockey 2,
Does he get beat by the Bubblicious Creed?
Or was that the 1st one?
I thought this might be apropos (lyrics from the Eagles’ “The Last Resort”:
“Some rich men came and raped the land,
Nobody caught ‘em
Put up a bunch of ugly boxes, and Jesus,
people bought ‘em
And they called it paradise
The place to be
They watched the hazy sun, sinking in the sea
And you can see them there,
On Sunday morning
They stand up and sing about
what it’s like up there
They call it paradise
I don’t know why
You call someplace paradise,
kiss it goodbye”
you could say the same thing about everyone’s house
it’s only raping the land if it’s someone else’s house
“you could say the same thing about everyone’s house
it’s only raping the land if it’s someone else’s house”
What if they’re unoccupied, with no buyers on the horizon?
You must live in the city or burbs…seeing a beautiful piece of natural forest razed for an ugly condo megaproject is a tragic sight.
Especially when it’s all on spec and the units aren’t needed. Sick, sick, sick.
This boom sucked. Wake me up when it’s over and we go back to the post WWII (or shall we say, post Depression) policy of keeping asset values flat.
They’re still building. What a f***ing waste.
“Gregory Group president Greg Paquin said builders have been lowering the presence of incentives in the sales market because these days, would-be buyers are responding better to lower sales prices, rather than to higher base prices with incentive packages thrown in.”
Oh, no baby; I want a hefty discount AND a generous BJ. Haven’t you heard?. It’s a BUYERS market now.
Sorry, didn’t see this before I posted a comment below about Paquin’s belated observation. Hey, I don’t mind. If they can afford a discount AND an incentive pkg, I’d rather double the discount. Maybe the builders are starting to understand the problem.
Prices will keep going down, and down, and down…..until the Laws of Supply and Demand are obeyed!
Next person I meet who calls themselves a “mortgage broker” gets a punch, free, to the chops.
Good idea.
Well said… thanks for the good laugh.
With so much negativity and sad news out there….it occured to me that we could use a wee bit o’ humor. No, I’ll not assualt any brokers, though I am so tempted!
I just saw Borat.
The funniest segment was the NYCity boys threatening to break his jaw or face if he didn’t back off. And back off he did.
That is the image that came to mind.
Blast from the past:
Foreclosures in California will hit record highs for 1991.
Statewide foreclosures during the quarter ending Sept. 30 were up 74% over the same period in 1990 compared with a national average increases of only 20%.
And the trouble is not confined as it is traditionally to blue-collar groups.
In some of Northern California’s more affluent counties, foreclosures have soared in recent months.
In San Mateo County, twenty miles south of San Francisco, there have been 366 foreclosures in the first 11 months of 1991 compared with only 126 for all of 1990.
Analysts like Dan Feshbach, president of Mortgage Information Corp. of America, believe that California is just beginning to experience the decline in real estate values that the nation has been seeing for more than a year already.
According to MICA data, foreclosures on homes nationwide in the $ 100,000 range increased by 20% over a year ago.
But foreclosures on homes above $ 191,250 jumped 99% in California compared with 27% nationwide.
The median price for a home in the San Francisco Bay Area declined this year from $ 260,720 to $ 250,000.
Foreclosures on California homes priced $ 400,000 and above have nearly tripled in 1991.
Analysts speculate that many of these homes were purchased at the top of the market in 1988 and 1989 and have since declined in value, leaving their owners with the option of walking away from the mortgages.
In Santa Clara County, the heart of Silicon Valley, many couples bought expensive homes during the late 1980s when their two-income, high-tech jobs seemed secure.
But since then, many companies have been laying workers off.
In other cases, entire firms are deserting California and taking employees along.
The state’s high tax rate and local restrictions on growth and industrial activity are driving many companies to other states.
Workers wanting to follow their company out of state but who are unable to sell their homes in the sluggish market are simply defaulting, say observers.
National Mortgage News, December 30, 1991
Seems like 2008 will be like 1991, but they had a recession back then. Things will be similar but of course not the same as it may get worse this time.
Interesting article. The thing to note is that foreclosures in CA did not actually peak until 1995. A full 4 years after this article was written. If you are waiting or prices to fall, remember they will be very sticky on the way down. Prices have not taked a big dip for a few months now, as new listers put out the wishing prices. I predict we will see another price drop heading into late summer, early fall. Then a bigger reduction heading into winter. We have 3 mores years of this.
If you are renting, examine the cost vs owning. There is no sense jumping into ownership when you net, after taxes, $20,000/year renting. You should sign another 1-year lease and relax.
I owned property in downtown HB from 87 to 95. The top was 89-90 and the bottom was 95. In the end my place was down 35% off the high.
This crash MUCH worse than the last one in CA. Yes, there was a recession, but you still had to be able to afford/qualify for a loan, you didn’t have flippers restricting supply, there was no “mania” fueled by TV/books, and you had far fewer suicide loans. And the rest of the country was NOT going thru a big crash so there was a supply of buyers always trickling in as CA prices became relatively more attractive to folks whose homes in other states held their value.
This time is the “perfect storm”, and when the recession comes (and it must to get back to equilibrium) the final ingredient for a category 6 hurricane will be in place.
A Cat 5.
If there is a recession, we may be entering one right now with gas prices pushing us into it, this housing market will wipe out a lot of middle class families.
People do not have the savings to withstand 6 months job loss. Savings rates are so low, it’s frightening. 401Ks are probably all folks have to cash out and keep the home while they try to find work or find a buyer. I suspect many probably forgo the 401K to pay the home payment.
“We have 3 mores years of this”
Not going to take that long…
Soooo hoping you’re right, though I’m thinking more and more it will be more along the lines of 5-8 years, especially looking at the ARM resets over the next 10 years
I bailed in ‘94… couldn’t buy a home (not even a condo) on one income. See ya!
I was around for the 1990’s crash and it was nothing, second page news; just an inconvenience.
This one is going to lay waste to L.A.
Hasta la vista baby.
“‘Now, we have all these folks who can’t afford their homes and their loans are adjusting, literally by the thousands,’ said Peter Terracciano, who founded his Palmdale brokerage in 1990, as the housing boom began to go bust.”
Is this great or what? People will have to learn a basic lesson: if you can’t afford it, don’t buy it!!!
Facts, jack. I love Gilroy, Santa Cruz and the Northern Bay Area. I left Calif and I am back. That said, I may leave again. Thanks for all the info.
Someone PLEASE pop the L.A. bubble…
So I come home today (W. Hollywood), and there’s a Mercedes SUV blocking my driveway entrance, and it’s a LONG driveway, leading to the house I rent. So I can’t get to my house. After ten minutes of searching, I finally find the culprits: a couple of RE investors, strolling merrily along my driveway (on private property), presumably there to see the 200% overpriced P.O.S. next door. “Oops, we’re new in the area.” Oh really? Funny, when I go to a new area, I’m pretty careful NOT to block the private driveways of the local residents. Face it, you just didn’t CARE if you blocked anyone.
A few minutes later they get back to their Mercedes, and I kid you not, start CHATTING about who-knows-what, until I honk my horn to remind them I’m still waiting for them to move.
“Yes, we are Real Estate Investors. Bow down and envy us, for in our minds, we already own your property.”
People like that should be beaten. What’s sad is that they probably consider themselves geniuses…you know “investors”. REAL ESTATE INVESTORS…as opposed to you sorry rube who has to rent. Godamn this is sickening.
dude, weho sux - leave before you start to think that kinda shit is normal….there is nothing normal there
-ex weho resident
WeHo’s got things going for it, as well…. Rent control is one. Number of very good restaurants within walking distance is another. I’ve never driven as *few* miles as I do now…
BTW, dude did the exact same thing across the street a few weeks back (parking in front of driveway), and a resident came out and covered the car with ketchup and mayo…. it was awesome!
Key their car and drive away. Have a beer at the local bar and come back later.
That will teach ‘em.
Good idea for next time (well, I’ll have the beer this time anyway
)
You should have parked behind them and then gone into your home, or better yet left.
or park behind them and go to lunch, take your time.
MMG, that’s pretty funny, we both posted the same thought at the same time.
Another good idea, although maybe then MY car gets keyed…
And MBA, I agree WeHo sucks in many ways. But since I’m renting, I can easily leave when it starts getting to me. Damn, I love being a renter!
Best revenge would be to tell them what a great investment buying that house would be. Then you could watch them squirm for the next few months/years as their “investment” bled cash.
My neighbor had their housekeeper park her car in MY driveway because it was street sweeper day! I called a tow truck. You should have seen how fast they came running out of their home to stop the driver before he towed it! Hahaha
Cheeky buggers!
To quote Viz “get ofrt moi laaand, you’re worrying my sheep!”
OT - but has anybody heard any details regarding what the state of Minnesota wants to do to “help” the FBs? My dad mentioned that he heard a blurb on the radio how some idiot wants to bail them out.
The next Great Depression is gonna make The Grapes of Wrath look like a shopping spree on Rodeo Drive by comparison.
That’s a little dramatic.
Yeah, quite extreme.
we hope it is!!!
haha… I can out do you:
The next Great Depression is gonna make the Bubonic Plague Black Death in Mideval Europe look like a sweet sixteen birthday party.
That was pretty good except for the “Mideval” part.
Reeley bat speling on teh bolg todey.
Wow. Black Plague or Sweet Sixteen. I need to think about that one.
“Her boss, Richard Measures, lost his job at New Century a year after being laid off at another lending company. ‘The real sad part is we built a team,’ said Measures, a Temecula resident who has worked in the mortgage industry for 30 years.”
———————————————-
The good news is he doesn’t have a 4hr roundtrip commute from Temecula anymore. Hwy 91 from the IE to the OC has got to be the nations worst traffic problem.
No, the good news is that since he is a r.e. professional, he didn’t buy into the hype and actually has a very inexpensive home and drives an inexpensive car, both of which are almost paid off and he will be financially okay… NOT. LMAO.
Government Financing? In Palmdale at the peak of a historic and unsustainable price bubble? I hope the crash comes quickly before the VA and FHA get in too deep.
———————————
“Empire Cos. also is proceeding with Anaverde, a 2,000-acre development in west Palmdale that will have about 5,000 homes. About 900 have been completed, Gutierrez said.”
James Previti, Empire’s president and chief executive, said a loss of sub-prime lending probably would put a temporary drag on sales. But he thinks that buyers will find alternatives in government-backed Veterans Affairs and Federal Housing Administration loans.
“I think we will be adversely affected for one or two quarters as we transition into government financing,” he said, adding that he was “still fairly bullish on the Antelope Valley.”
James,
you missed the train and the next one isn’t arriving for 10 years. Do something else if you can.
“But he thinks that buyers will find alternatives in government-backed Veterans Affairs and Federal Housing Administration loans.”
Fool’s Gold.
I don’t think he was being completely clear when he describes the “Government Financing”, and then references the VA and FHA loans.
The government financing he’s referring to which saves the housing market are the loans Senator Dodd is writing under his desk.
I heard the city put the ki-bosh on Ana Verde. The developers failed to finish the park and school that was promised.
About 1/3 (no exageration) of the homes there are for rent, for sale, or vacant.
Buyers should get some deals. Just look at the recent results from foreclosure.com. We are now approaching 1.5M, on a national basis,
Last update: 04/10/07 6:50 PM
Foreclosures: 177,785
Preforeclosures: 230,574
Bankruptcies: 443,489
FSBOs: 30,622
Tax Liens: 612,267
LIVE AUCTIONS: 9
Total Listings: 1,494,746
And look at CA:
State Info
Updated: 04/10/07 6:08 PM
Foreclosures: 23,204
Preforeclosures: 64,007
Bankruptcies: 26,389
FSBOs: 1,321
Tax Liens: 259,578
Auctions: 0
Don’t Blame the Market for Housing Bubble and Crash …..
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article731.html
And this from the article………which goes right to the heart of things……………
The Federal Reserve provides the mother’s milk for the booms and busts wrongly associated with a mythical “business cycle.” Imagine a Brinks truck driving down a busy street with the doors wide open, and money flying out everywhere, and you’ll have a pretty good analogy for Fed policies over the last two decades. Unless and until we get the Federal Reserve out of the business of creating money at will and setting interest rates, we will remain vulnerable to market bubbles and painful corrections. If housing prices plummet and millions of Americans find themselves owing more than their homes are worth, the blame lies squarely with Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke.
Would it not just be Alan Greedyspan?
“‘A lot of people are panicking,’ said Jaimes Gumaro, a North Hollywood real estate agent who has a listing in a Palmdale neighborhood dotted with homes for sale. ‘They were expecting to have all this equity, and then it suddenly stopped. Now, they just want to get their money out of it. They’re saying, ‘I’m outta here.’”
Oh… this is going to be HUGE! We have quite a few near retirees hanging on for anywhere from one to four more years in order to maximize their retirements. In class today they were bragging about how much they will cash out of their homes and how they will retire out of state (as no one can afford to retire in state).
One home in Palos Verdes
Two in Laguna beach (nice areas)
One in Pasadena
and one more in Redondo Beach.
These people are estatic about netting $500k to $1.5M of home equity when they retire. They’re only sticking around for the health benifits and to add $50k to $200k to their pension/401k/savings.
Exactly the type of people who were following Gary Watts. Just the type of people to panic and try to cash out when everything goes south.
One guy has his home equity (bragged $1.5M) and his pension and social security to retire on (nothing else) . The sheeple type too… Anyone else think he’s ready to bolt?
Oh… this will get interesting soon!
Got popcorn?
Neil
what’s a pension?
I would have already sold and left the state. One of the project managers at my work who left when i started over a year ago bought his place for over $300k, worked hard, and sold for over $1mil. Then left to go back to his hometown in Ohio, bought a huge custom house for $300k and took a similiar job in that state. I heard he bought a boat since he lived near the lake and was talking to people how it was like winning the lottery. Obviously he had a lot of money in the bank and had a good career. Why are these retiring people even bothering staying around if they could sell for close to what they think they can get?
I always ask if someone could sell their crap place in compton for $500k, why not sell, move to another state and not have to worry about money again.
From what I understand a lot of folks are doing just that. however, some are morons and dropping their entire gain on a home in their new location. Forgetting that Prop 13 is only available in CA.
Moved out of California in 2005 and glad I did. Dont’ forget the other gang 13 taking to the streets. Won’t be pretty when taxes will be less to control the areas. Not my idea of a rosy picture.
In class today…
Hope you brought popcorn for everyone!
“‘A lot of people are panicking,’ said Jaimes Gumaro, a North Hollywood real estate agent who has a listing in a Palmdale neighborhood dotted with homes for sale. ‘They were expecting to have all this equity, and then it suddenly stopped. Now, they just want to get their money out of it. They’re saying, ‘I’m outta here.’”
Ugh… hope this isn’t a double post, but no response appeared…
Basically, I have a group of coworkers who *must* have their home equity to retire decently. Homes in Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Laguna Beach, and Pasadena. As soon as they hear equity is leaking out and develop any expectation of further equity loss… they’ll leave the state. Only one thinks they have even a small chance of retiring in California.
All are sticking around work only to maximize their pension/401k/savings. We’re talking about sticking around for $50k to $200k more retirement fun money… So if they see losing more than $200k in home equity… we’ll be into panic.
I’m tired of being the prophet of doom… so I talked about my upcoming wedding instead of real estate.
Got popcorn?
Neil
(in sing-song)
Neil double posted, neil double posted. Nanny, nanny, nanny.
Poor John Rockey…..all his illegal mexican drywall hangers & finishers have no place to work. After all his working at driving labor prices so low that American workers can no longer do his work and afford the homes they drywall…well, at least the affordable houses!!!!
Off topic…I love the ad on the right margin of this blog.
Question: Is this a happy sub-prime flipper couple that just unloaded their home and still owe 80K? Or a couple who just bought from Mr. “I buy homes for cash” and haven’t been told that they’re upsidedown as they signed the papers? Love it!
Sorry I meant to say “specuvestment” instead of “home”.
I plucked this interesting tidbit off Dr. Housingbubble from a poster named Chris:
FWIW, the final scenes of Lethal Weapon II show the destruction of houses in a neighborhood: this scene was filmed in Lancaster, CA, after the film studio bought a tract of houses that were left unfinished by a developer after the last bubble burst.
I wonder how many squatters were sacrificed for the film?
the final scenes of Lethal Weapon II
I was waiting to see how long it would take for the Lethal Weapon Dos post as soon as I saw PalmCaster. Who normally posts it?
When, for G-d’s sake, are we going to see buyers not referred to as looking for “deals”, but for prices having any relationship at all to incomes or rents?
The repeated headlines about buyers looking for deals are driving me up a wall and are part of spinning the language by the REIC, IMHO- the fact that we don’t want to pay a mortgage at 3x rent (2x after tax benefits) does not mean we’re looking for something that should be seen as out of the ordinary. The prices of 2003-2006 were not even remotely in line with historical norms, and a significant drop from them does not make a property a “deal”!
We’re just looking for a return to some semblance of sanity!
Very true! It’s only a “deal” if I can buy it at the 2000 price.
There is some hope in the report that Gregory Group president noted “buyers are responding better to lowered prices, than to high base prices and large incentive packages” . Duuuhhhhhhh!
That’s just spin. If I was a buyer in this market I would find the nearest comp and offer 30% below what the last one sold for untill I found someone that bit. All this nonsense about sellers being offended and crying because buyers want couches etc. is pure utter garbage.
mrincomestream…….
your speaking my language……I always said a third off the latest comp is good buying.
your=you’re
Ha! When this sucker bottoms I’ll only buy something in the 4 bedroom range with coinage from my piggy bank. And that’s paying full price, no mortgage.
Actually, I’ll probably tip the Sheriff’s Deputies as they boot the irresponsible bubble borrower to the street, furniture and all. Maybe they’ll just bail and I’ll get all the new, expensive Ethan Allen furniture they HELOC purchased.
Nice.
Spring Housing Outlook
http://www.cnbc.com/id/17870639
This is all over both CNBC TV and CNBC.com - some major hype about the market coming back to life.
Dead House Bounce (that’s not going to happen)
I met that agent (Scott Voak) from that cnbc article, who absurdly claims that prices are starting to rise in parts of San Diego again. (It must be a different San Diego to the one I live in..).
I met him at an open house. Odd, he never did manage to sell that house…despite its many price reductions….
He was a moron then and I imagine he still is…..
Why MSM quotes people like him is a mystery to me and an abdication of journalistic professionalism and integrity. Shame on you CNBC….
The beauty of the median price index.
Take away subprime and alt-A and there’s no buyers for the “cheap” houses anymore. Median moves up when the 26 year old and $25k a year buyers dissapear.
“journalistic professionalism and integrity.”
Hahahahhahaha. These words and CNBC connected. Never thought I’d see it.
We will be lucky if it is a repeat of 1990-93.
The mainstream media is really starting to catch on to the housing bubble. Big LA Times story today on the front page and a big headline on the MSNBC website all about the housing bubble and phucked borrowers.
Good to see this stuff finally coming out.
This is good,
From the NYT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/realestate/11leonhardt.html
Good find
http://money.cnn.com/2007/04/10/real_estate/alta_alive.moneymag/index.htm?postversion=2007041017
“Despite the subprime meltdown, many lenders are still finding a place for exotic mortgages.”
What will it take to teach these lenders a lesson? Let them burn.
What lesson? The smart guys at the top will be chilling somewhere in the Carribean by then.
For the So-Cal RE industry it’s desperation time. I met my wife for lunch the other day and two schmucks are eating in the next booth, seriously stressing about some RE deal that won’t close.
“Dude, he owes 350k, it’s worth 500k, I offered him 400k, what the hell?” All the while, they’re both on their cell phones dialing like mad, alternately barking orders and kissing ass (”sir, yes sir!”) Then they abruptly left without finishing their meal.
I’m so glad I have a nice steady income and was able to enjoy my lunch. I’ll be looking out for more road rage incidents as these guys really start to crack up from all the pressure of not making any $$.
Those were equity “stealers” errr I mean buyers you were sitting next too. They make Mortage Brokers look like altar boys.
“Dude, he owes 350k, it’s worth 500k, I offered him 400k, what the hell?”
Words of a con-man
“‘We’re getting killed,’ he said.”
And it’s only the beginning.
Here is the logic of the “it’s not like the 90s crash b/c we don’t have the aerospace layoffs” crowd:
My dad died of cancer. If I don’t get cancer, I won’t die.
It’s nice to be immortal
OT, but recently a poster pointed out how many of us Massachusetts poster bash our state. I was born and raised here but I’m disguted by what’s going on. Check out this proposal to bail out the FB’s with taxpayer dollars. http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2007/04/11/plan_will_aid_those_facing_loss_of_homes/
Amusing thread on the AV….
http://www.city-data.com/forum/california/480-moving-palmdale-ca-questions.html
How bad in the West…
Denver> very bad
Vegas> bad
Phoenix> going bad
LA> all of the above
There is some good news, East of the Miss should warm up by June 1st?