Potential California Buyers “Price-Driven”
The Hollister Free Lance reports from California. “Despite making only $14,000 a year, strawberry picker Alberto Ramirez managed to buy his own slice of the American Dream. But his Hollister home came with a hefty price tag, $720,000. A year and a half later, Ramirez has defaulted on his loan, and he’s hoping to sell the house before it’s repossessed.”
“So how did Ramirez, with an annual income of just $14,000, purchase a $720,000 home without any money down? He had help, for one thing. Although Alberto Ramirez was the only one to sign the purchase agreement and the only one named on the loan documents, he actually bought the house with his wife Rosa Ramirez, as well as their friends Jesus Martinez and his wife.”
“However, even in a good month, the Ramirezes and Martinezes together don’t earn much more than a combined $6,500, and their official monthly payments were around $5,200.”
“The Ramirezes said Rancho Grande real estate agent Maria Avila promised they could refinance their home in three to six months to an affordable rate; until then, Rosa Ramirez said, Avila said she would pay for whatever they couldn’t afford.”
“Ramirez did supplement the mortgage payments on the Hollister home, paying about $2,200 per month for nine months. But the refinance never happened, and Martinez said Avila stopped helping with the payments at the end of 2006.”
“Rafael Cebrero, whose company Rancho Grande Real Estate sold Ramirez his home and arranged his mortgage, said subprime loans are getting a bad rap. Those loans, he said, have made it easier for many people to purchase a home.”
“Cebrero said the Ramirezes’ and Martinezes’ situation is an unfortunate one, but he said Rancho Grande was only trying to help the two families buy the home they wanted. ‘We feel we have done as much or more than we can do for these clients,’ he said.”
“Pamela Simmons, whose Soquel law firm is representing the Ramirezes, said the loan should never have been made. Simmons and Purdy attorney Alison Lawton said the firm sent a letter of demand to Rancho Grande in February alleging that Avila knew Alberto Ramirez could never afford the house and that she made the deal only for personal profit.”
“‘The real estate boom covered a multitude of sins,’ Simmons said. ‘Once the market started depreciating, the rug was pulled back to show the rot underneath.’”
The Daily Bulletin. “The housing market is looking like a complex puzzle that will take some deciphering. That’s the word from Metrostudy. ‘Almost every metropolitan market is experiencing a slowdown in new home construction driven by public builders’ retrenchment and the need to reduce new home inventory,’ said Metrostudy President Mike Inselmann.”
“Johnson said one problem developers face in California is the length of the approval and development cycles. ‘They are so lengthy in California that it is almost impossible to shut down large development projects,’ he said. ‘Thus, even in a tightening market, we continue to produce a significant number of lots.’”
“Indeed, the cost of land, entitlement, development, infrastructure and fees will keep prices from falling too far, Johnson said.”
“‘Those who have been on the fence need to recognize this market is different than any we have experienced before,’ he said. ‘Nobody is certain about the duration of the downturn.’”
“That slowdown is expected to last into 2008. ‘It looks like it will be next year before the market even stabilizes,’ said Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.”
“Kyser said there were several differences between the current downturn and the one in the early ’90s. ‘We don’t have the wild overbuilding now that we had then,’ Kyser said. ‘There has been some overbuilding, but not nearly as much.’”
The Sacramento Bee. “One would hope that a 5,100-unit housing project would face an uphill battle because it encroaches on the community’s largest employer. Or because it violates just about every principle of modern planning; build houses close to jobs, not in the boondocks where the land was cheap.”
“Only in a county that is economically desperate or predisposed to growth of any kind would a project like this have a chance. This one apparently does. It is in Yuba County. And the project is known as Yuba Highlands.”
The Press Democrat. “For home builders, the challenges have been slack demand and falling prices. Housing turned down after the market peaked at record prices two years ago. In response, builders cut back on housing starts, lowered prices and offered upgrades and other incentives to attract buyers.”
“‘We’ve gone from fear of not getting into the market to people fearful of getting into the market,’ said Frank Denney, VP of operations for Cobblestone Homes in Santa Rosa. ‘We would lose a buyer in 2004 and 2005 and have another coming in right behind. Right now we have price-driven buyers.’”
“Cobblestone has dropped prices 10 percent on its Streamside houses in east Santa Rosa, reflecting the challenge of selling homes in today’s market.”
The Merced Sun Star. “A weedy 36-acre field along Winton Way could be home to a 142-house subdivision as well as the town’s first fast food restaurant. ‘We think Winton is ready,’ developer and real estate agent Andy Krotik said.”
“Krotik and real estate agent Craig Mooneyham, also an Atwater planning commissioner, bought the land in late 2005, before the housing market collapsed. ‘It was a total different animal then,’ Krotik said. ‘You reach a point (in planning) when you can’t go back.’”
“It’s still a year before construction will start on the business part, and he said the real estate market will determine the cost, design and construction rate of the homes.”
“With a Bay Area influence and population growth across the state, Krotik said the market will eventually perk up. ‘I don’t want to go back to those high prices,’ he said. ‘I just want fair prices where people can afford a home.’”
From KCRA 3. “A real estate investment scheme that has left many Elk Grove homes in foreclosure is now contributing to falling property values in the area, a KCRA 3 investigation has found.”
“With many houses hitting the market under value, homeowners such as Jared Cronroth say their property values are dropping dramatically. His house is listed at $419,000. Yet, just two blocks away, a larger home for sale because of foreclosure is listed for $50,000 less.”
“Because so many of the houses in the area are on short sale, Cronroth said he is having to take a loss.”
The Desert Sun. “As more residents in the Coachella Valley and Riverside County receive mortgage default notices and face possible home foreclosures, county officials hope a new committee can study the problem and come up with ways to educate and help financially strapped homeowners.”
“‘We all know the school of hard knocks is a mighty teacher, and it sweeps a lot of innocents,’ said Bob Buster, District One representative for the Riverside County Board of Supervisors.”
“Formation of the committee comes as 1,460 homes were foreclosed upon in Riverside County during the first three months of 2007. That’s a number about 10 times higher than the 144 homes foreclosed upon during the same period a year ago, county officials said.”
“Across both Riverside and San Bernardino counties, the combined volume of foreclosures rose to 2,369 in the first quarter, up from 255 during the same period last year, according to DataQuick.”
“In the first quarter, lenders filed 5,750 mortgage default notices in Riverside County, a 168 percent increase from a year ago, DataQuick reported. And there were 4,357 default notices sent out in San Bernardino County, a 161 percent increase.”
The Associated Press. “Financially strapped subprime mortgage lender New Century Financial Corp., failed to receive any bids for its mortgage loan origination business, forcing it to shut down the unit and lay off around 2,000 employees, the company told employees Thursday.”
“The Irvine-based company notified employees during a conference call that they would be laid off effective Friday. Speaking on the call, New Century President and CEO Brad A. Morrice said despite a number of potential buyers for its wholesale and consumer-direct operations, ‘none of those potential deals have come to pass.’”
“‘I realize that today’s announcement was not the news that any of us hoped to hear,’ Morrice said, his voice quivering at times. ‘I would be remiss if I did not say how sorry I am for any grief or hardship that any of you may experience as a result of this situation.’”
“New Century had been the second-largest provider of home loans to high-risk borrowers, but it collapsed after a spike in mortgage defaults led its lenders to pull funding and demand that it buy back bad loans.”
[on Dave's return to the ship, after HAL has killed the rest of the crew]
HAL: Look Dave, I can see you’re really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over.
[Dave begins to remove components of HAL slowly shutting him down]
HAL: Dave, what are you doing Dave?
Analogy: Implode-o-meter (vs. pulling computer “cards”)
Glad to see implode-o-meter is back up after being down a while this morning
LOL! That explains it…
I have to admit that I’ve been selectively reading your quotes for some time now, as there’s only so many minutes in a day (or lifetime, for that matter).
But I do have to say this one is probably the best yet.
“Johnson said one problem developers face in California is the length of the approval and development cycles. ‘They are so lengthy in California that it is almost impossible to shut down large development projects,’ he said. ‘Thus, even in a tightening market, we continue to produce a significant number of lots.’”
If you drive to Las Vegas you will pass thousands of new homes under construction along the 15 freeway…there is no end in site.
I love the stretch of the 15 from v’ville on downwards to diego de la san…
The Misery Highway
So, there’s a lengthy approval process in Nevada too?
I think he means the portion of I-15 in CA on the way to Vegas.
And he continues
“Indeed, the cost of land, entitlement, development, infrastructure and fees will keep prices from falling too far, Johnson said.” “‘Those who have been on the fence need to recognize this market is different than any we have experienced before,’ he said. ‘Nobody is certain about the duration of the downturn.’”
Bullllllllll SH*T!! But I have to hand it to him on the creativity factor when it comes to new scare tactics.
Again, for the record, I’m not on the fence.
I’m spectating.
They’re having to get creative… but eventually potential FB’s will be too scared/poor to buy. And he is right, this time it is different. This time is worse than any other time since WWII.
This is going to get uglier than a Jelly wrestling competition at a Jenny Craig convention.
Got Popcorn?
Neil
Ohhh, that is ugly. Neil you keep me in stitches. LOL
a strawberry picker bought a house at a price over 6 times what I paid and I make many times his salary
somnething is rotten in the state of ________ ….fill in any of our fine fifty
Keep calm, exNNV. I too was amused at Johnson’s statement about all the costs that will “keep prices from falling too far.” Oh yeah? I’m sitting here near West Chester, PA, remembering California with a wry chuckle. Go east, young man. Go east, old ladies. Etc.
“‘Those who have been on the fence need to recognize this market is different than any we have experienced before,’ he said. ‘Nobody is certain about the duration of the downturn.’”
“That slowdown is expected to last into 2008. ‘It looks like it will be next year before the market even stabilizes,’ said Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.”
He is bluffing. Prices will come down to where wages demand them to be. I’ll sit on the fence and spectate till Neil’s popcorn runs out. The banks have not yet had their fill of foreclosed properties but they will soon be drunk with them and will start to vomit them. At that point, they will sell at any price. I’m already seeing (via zillow) properties with a zestimate near $1 Million sell for around $200K. Prices are and will fall dramatically. The LENDERS will see to that.
OK, where the h e l l are you seeing those kinds of price drops? Inquiring buyers want to know!
So you want to know??? hehe. I will need a commission. Just kidding.
Check this address out on zillow
12412 Challendon Dr, Etiwanda, CA 91739
Zestimate for $712K but recently sold for $191K.
I’ve seen others like that and worse.
Here is the direct link
http://www.zillow.com/Charts.htm?chartDuration=10years&testAds=false&zpid=61682840
Holy c r a p I stand humbled and corrected sir!
Of course I had no idea where Etiwanda was. I thought it might have been in E. Africa. Turns out it’s next to Fontucky, which is just about as desirable.
How the heck did you find that?
From the provided link:
Sale History
03/28/2007: $191,200
Peaked Zillow at $757,000… WTF?
We’re going to need a lot of popcorn…
Neil
“Check this address out on zillow
12412 Challendon Dr, Etiwanda, CA 91739
Zestimate for $712K but recently sold for $191K.”
Good Job fishing out that data! That location one mile N of the newly- built 210 fwy and just west of the 15 is all spankin new subdivisions. It(Etiwanda)is right on the northeastern edge of Rancho Cucamonga and just west of North Fontana. This entire region is still seeing massive new razing of plots into housing and shopping centers. This scene has been playing out in hundreds of other communities/regions/cities all across the IE.
BTW Zillow often is way over it’s Zestimates, about $100,000 average. They regularly value South LA 2/1 900 sq ft POS’s in gang-infested crack zones over $400,000 and even up to $500,000. Zillow is worthess as a housing valuation tool.
Is that a real sale though? It seems rather shady. I see a lot of this “questionable” sales on Zillow even right in the center of SF Bay:
http://www.zillow.com/Charts.htm?chartDuration=5years&zpid=19548169
900k house sold for 100k. It can’t be right. Maybe it is a HELOC or a line of credit taken on the house.
I checked other like Realtec on FC homes in Palo Altos
and have found large homes sold for fraction of area.
1M homes with a few sold at 150-200K…
Not to worry there will be plenty more when ARM start
resetting….
Don’t kid yourself into thinking that’s the actual selling price. Sometimes Zillow only picked up the foreclosed cost of the first loan paid by the junior lien holder. In this case, I think the buyer took out a big second loan and this lender did not want to end up holding the bag at the mercy of the first lender, so it paid off the first note at the shown price on Zillow and took possession of the property as REO.
If you think that it’s a 50+ % drop right now, you are dreaming. Currently, there has been a 10-20% hair cutso far in the IE, but not a 50+% drop.
peter-
That’s a foreclosure on the second… Yes, I looked. the first is around 431k. Sorry to bust your bubble. It sold for 431k in 2003
Ok, try to bust this bubble.
http://www.zillow.com/Charts.htm?chartDuration=1year&zpid=52975029
Sold for $354K with a Zillow estimate of $1Mill
Location:
6110 Greenwood Pl, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91739
Hmmm I’ll put it this way not what I called a traditional sale. A quit claim deed was used which probably means a forclosure bailout ie: sharks swimming in dark water” what zillow doesn’t show is the 964k loan taken out after the sale sharks recouping their bailout money.
Just confirms my thoughts that zillow is garbage in garbage out.
Ok, so for this property who was/were $crewed?
Probably the Carlton Sheets zombie that bought it. Because it sure as hell wasn’t what I call a deal. By any stretch of the imagination. The original buyer bought it for 550 with 20% down. They probably got behind and took the 354k to walk. Wasn’t a bad payday. With the refi the buyer made 100k subtract taxes, closing costs and repairs they probably made 25k on the buy, by summer they’ll be at least 100k underwater. Too bad they don’t read the paper more…
Is it possible a parent sold the home to a child for that price so they would not have pay a rediculous amount in property tax
Nope not even close…
The cost of land….??? Would that be the very same land which is bought for $5,000/acre and sold to the home builders for $500,000/acre before the streets are built? Gee, I don’t see much chance for lowering prices in that scenario.
I did see all the new homes being developed driving from LA to Victorville and then starting again in Henderson, NV. Amazing thing to see especially all the homes near Victorville. Every 3rd billboard was advertising new home developments. Where will people work to make the payments?
Many of those ding-dongs drive from the high-desert to their jobs in LA (I work with a few here)…crazy
Not too long if the gas price continues upward
That is crazy! I drove from LA to Victorville on my way to Vegas during non-commute hours and already thought this is a long drive. And this was with hardly any traffic. What way to waste a person’s most valuable asset - Time.
There’s epic amounts of time being wasted away in Northern CA too. All of those people living in the Central Valley exurbs like Stockton, Tracy and Merced easily spend 3-4 hours a day in the car if they are coming to San Francisco or Silicon Valley.
People will get jobs wandering around in the desert wearing sandwich-boards to advertise the new-home developments!
“People will get jobs wandering around in the desert wearing sandwich-boards to advertise the new-home developments!”
I will say it again, Victorville is Compton in the hi-desert. Have driven around there a few times and there are SCentral LA -type section 8 projects springing up all over. Fascinating but traffic up there is as bad as LA. Can-t figure out where the poeple are going as there isn’t any jobs to speak of. Saw this also in Palmcaster and have concluded that folks up in these barren hi-dsert communities have nothing to do in the blistering heat in a dull desert burg so they take aimless drives to lessen their monotony.
“If you drive to Las Vegas you will pass thousands of new homes under construction along the 15 freeway…there is no end in site. ”
Actually the ENTIRE LENGTH OF THE 15 FWY FROM TELMECULA ALL WAY PAST BARSTOW HAS BECOME A MAIN TRUNK SPROUTING HUNDREDS, THOUSANDS OF MAJOR HOUSING DEVELOPMENTS. TEMUCULA, L ELSINORE, CORONA, NORCO, ONTARIO,FONTANA, R CUAMONGA, HESPERIA, VICTORVILLE,BARSTOW, ALL THESE PLACES ALONG THE 15 ARE ABSOLUTELY OVERFLOWING WITH DEVELOPMENT.
tHESE HOMES WILL DROP IN PRICES TO LESS THAT $200,000 BY NEXT YEAR, EVEN LESS THAN $100,000 UP IN THE REMOTE DESERT COMMUNITIES PAST EL CAJON, TOO MUCH OVERBUILDING AND INVENTORY OVERHANG.
Dude in about six months you would be lucky to get 100k
I think that by end of this year you can get a fontucky doublewide in a crackershack trashed-out trailer dump-i mean park- for less than $10,000. Look for similar deals in such sparkling IE paradises as Colton and Rpubidoux.
Dude, in 5 years they will be 10,000 housings and most in for salvage for the plumbing, wood and parts….
10-20 trillion dollars in assets nationalwide is going away…it was never there in the first place.
So what will it be inflation on the dollar to temporary save the situation for about 6-12 months while we have a German style inflation like ‘23 or a deflation where most assets of this speculative type end up going for 5 cents on the dollar.
The latter hopefully would be better and more sensible….lot of pain for 5-7 years….
“Morrice said, his voice quivering at times”
lamo (still laughing)
Those crocodile tears don’t fool anyone. A good ass whooping in court should bring on the real tears, as he and his wealth are separated.
As I said in the other topic, I think the tears are pathetic. It’s not like he’s going to have to go to rapey prison. Federal Country Club is the worst he’ll see.
Where are those pearls of wisdom from sammy schadenfreude when we nee them ? hehehehehehehehehe
“Kyser said there were several differences between the current downturn and the one in the early ’90s. ‘We don’t have the wild overbuilding now that we had then,’ Kyser said. ‘There has been some overbuilding, but not nearly as much.’” {eh?}
Earth to Kyser calling, “come in please”
Really Kyser that is why production continues -115 projects and 40% of the houses in the Las Vegas MLS are “ready tomove-in” today!
They should put him in jail with the CEO of Ameriquest and have them break rocks for ten years.
yeah, where is the chain gang? bring it back and lower my tax $$$ for road maintenance
From the Imploder site, from a FORMER new employee:
I was one of the people let go today (QC/Risk Management department) and heard the call. He REALLY sounded like he was going to break down, and it was a short call, ending with him just hanging up after making his statement. We all looked at each other afterwards and commented that it was just typical Brad behavior that we all got to hear him blubber away, but we never got our chance to ask questions (believe me we had a few good ones) before he just hung up on 2000+ employees and whomever else was listening. Way to keep it professional, dumbass.
Not only were we given NO notice this was going to happen, but Corporate actually had the SAND to send us all an e-mail telling us that if we quit any time after the e-mail came out, we would not be getting our unused vacation time! W to the T to the F?
So completely illegal in CA, but that’s just an example of how shitily NC treats their employees.
Combine that little stunt (I printed and saved the e-mail…I couldn’t BELIEVE what I was reading) and the fact that there were so many of us let go 59 days short of the notice period, I smell a huge WARN act suit brewing.
Should be fun from now on.
http://www.autodogmatic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=579&sid=362930372ae8e99640382fc2bcd5352e
Not only were we given NO notice this was going to happen
NO notice? Could be a Hall of Shame comment.
No Warren Act pay?
Oh… that’s got to sting.
Now what was that about OC real estate… oh yea, its in the bag.
FYI, you don’t want to smell that bag…
Got popcorn?
Neil
Is that the bag that is flaming on the porch after the doorbell rings?
“New Century had been the second-largest provider of home loans to high-risk borrowers, but it collapsed after a spike in mortgage defaults led its lenders to pull funding and demand that it buy back bad loans.”
Now with New Century - finished
Who is going to pick up the losses on all these Sub-Prime loans that are due to reset?
see: sub-prime monthly resets going forward! @
http://www.lippard.blogspot
This graph is mind numbing!$40-60 billion/month for the next 12-22 months.Sub-prime is huge!! Kiss 2008 goodbye!
The derivative swap market dominoes are cascading, can you hear the “click clack”, breaking Wall Street’s back?
The train was coming straigh for them, billowing smoke, flashing lights, and screaming horns yet they had no warning?
whatever
Agreed Gwynster. Another idiot who knows nothing about r.e. but works in the QC dept. But I wonder how many people they screwed who were to stupid or naive to understand the loan docs they were signing. And I am supposed to feel sorry for this person and the others who got laid off today. NOT!
What 59 days?
In Silicon Valley, one gets 10 minutes to collect personal belongings, then they’ll walk you out
It’s called “the perp walk”. You have a little box with your belongings and are escorted to the door by either an HR person or security guard. Extra points for waving to “friends” on the way out.
That’s not true about them not getting notice.
When you notice the locks on the front door has changed and your key doesn’t work, that’s your notice.
I don’t know what a “WARN act suit” is, but if the employees are expecting to get any money out of this outfit, they’ll have to get in line behind big banks. Guess who’s getting the money, if there is any.
Warn Act is a federal law, that requires employers to provide 60 days paid with notice once the layoffs reach a certain size.
GFE!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worker_Adjustment_and_Retraining_Notification_Act
For those interested in California foreclosures
http://www.foreclosureradar.com/
Covers only California, Alas.
How could I ever compete against an “undocumented” worker earning $14k/yr using a liars loan on a $720k house. Amazing that he (or the criminals associated with him) could keep it going for 1 1/2 years.
As I have said before, it is almost worth while to renounce your citizenship, live here, enjoy all the benefits with *NONE* of the responsibility. Just join the ever growing shadow economy where everything is done in cash and no more pesky 1099’s.
$720k? To live in Hollister? You actually want to live in Hollister? When I read this I thought, “Well there’s this minute’s sucker”.
A mortgage for 51 years’ earnings of his tiny income.
What could possibly go wrong?
What could go wrong? I don’t know. Fun fact:
“What makes Hollister particularly interesting to geophysicists is that from San Juan Bautista to just North of Parkfield the faults in the San Andreas system are not “stuck”: instead of moving only during major earthquakes, the usual pattern for faults, they continuously “creep”. As a result of this creep, Hollister is being ripped in two, for the most part along a remarkably narrow zone running right through the middle of town.”
BAHAHAHAH ! Holister is nothing. How come these homes were only around 140K ten years ago. Freaking marketing from Realtors…and weak minds from buyers drove prices higher.
Maybe he is the straw buyer. The fraud is in the 720K price.
To hide the fraud, instead of defaulting right away on the first payment,
they are throwing in a few payments.
“So how did Ramirez, with an annual income of just $14,000, purchase a $720,000 home without any money down?… …Simmons and Purdy attorney Alison Lawton said the firm sent a letter of demand to Rancho Grande in February alleging that Avila knew Alberto Ramirez could never afford the house and that she made the deal only for personal profit.”
Ummmm, this had an income of $14,000 a year, and went in with his wife and two others to buy a house for THREE QUARTERS OF A MILLION DOLLARS. Now who was being greedy here? It’s not even in a coastal area…couldn’t you find a nice little cottage to share with the other couple? Or am I mistaken, and $750K IS a small cottage in Hollister?
There is nothing in Hollister worth more then $150K on a good day. It’s been affordable backed housing loans that have been fueling the fire. Someone really needs to look into the abuse here and what they’ve been funding.
at 6% the commission is higher at 700K than 150K…
buyer loses home realtor keeps the commission.
pure rip off…. wheres a cop when you need one.
“Most people are vulnerable when it comes to mortgages, because the situation is very complex,” HERA Co-Director Maeve Brown said.
It used to be straight forward; either you can, or cannot, afford it. The complex part is passing the costs on to the taxpayers.
“Bob, Carol, Ted & Alice” sounds yummy
I propose we bring back debtors prison. To do this we will have to end the drug war to free up space in prsion.
People work of debt in prison/on chain gang then are released. I think this is where the prison term ‘working of debt to society’ came from. It was LITERAL.
Not to worry. We will hire Sherrif Joe Arpeo, from Maricopa County, AZ, to design our prison. Tents outside in the Mojave with cots, pink sheets and pink pillow cases. Pink clothes for the outmates. Baloney sandwiches for food. The Disney channel and Fox for TV. Do you get the picture??? hehehehehehe
Since fraud is involved in the majority of these cases, I propose we use existing laws, throw the fraudsters in prison and waive the statute of limitations on debts obtained through fraud. they can work the rest of their lives to pay off the money they stole from all of us. Perhaps in future this would serve as an example to others.
I’ll back you!
NO WAY!
the greedy lenders are just to blame….Caveat emptor!
Don’t lend your money if you can’t take the risk!
Can wall street make $2.3 trillion in the next 18 months to offset this implosion?
no wonder everything seems to go up every day?
Actually, to upgrade “paying your debt to society” for the modern age, mandatory organ donation should be implemented. After all, you only really need one kidney, one testicle and one eye.
“A weedy 36-acre field along Winton Way could be home to a 142-house subdivision as well as the town’s first fast food restaurant. ‘We think Winton is ready,’ developer and real estate agent Andy Krotik said.”
Somebody’s been smoking too much Krotik…
Oh Lardy Lardy…
No Manteca today?
lol
“Despite making only $14,000 a year, strawberry picker Alberto Ramirez managed to buy his own slice of the American Dream. But his Hollister home came with a hefty price tag, $720,000.”
And since these people qualified under ‘affordable housing’ their payments were probably lower than shown here and they were probably renting out rooms in the house that won’t show on their tax statements. Plus, what’s in it for an attorney when these people have nothing? There is much more here then meets the eye! It’s this kind of crap that kept us out of the housing market here in the area. These people here will end up not paying and living in their homes until pulled out kicking and screaming; they don’t have to worry a thing about credit scores as most deal in cash.
This is precisely the kind of thing which has helped prop up the market. Realtors and builders were pushing and selling homes to criminals who, in turn, invite over the whole extended family from Mexico to work under the table, and pitch in for the payments. That’s exactly what this guy planned from the get-go. And the lenders, and our administration were happy to oblige. It’s the great sellout of the American people. Truly sad and embarrassing times for this country.
What do you want us to do? Build a wall? Enforce the law?
C’mon that’s expensive. Maybe if we got the Chinese to build it, then it might be affordable.
There was a news item a couple of months back about illegals building part of the wall in, I think, Arizona. Unbelievable, but to be expected since they gave the job to the lowest bidder.
I just found it (it was California): http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6626823
And the last punchline: “Golden State Fence’s attorney, Richard Hirsch, admits his client broke the law. But he says the case proves that construction companies need a guest-worker program.”
Unbelievable.
I just about choked when I read your nickname, thanks for the hearty laugh!
lol. I used to use it extensively on stock boards before the bubble burst. I would post tongue in cheek stuff like:
We at PT Barnum Bank have placed a SUPER STRONG BUY rating out on *insert bubble stock here*.
Our motto: “A sucker is born every minute and we want to sell him some stock.”
Now it could be: “A sucker is born every minute and we want to offer him a mortgage.”
PT Barnum Bank, Goldman Sachs, BoA, all the same.
Go cry to Lou Dobbs. It’s the Great One-World Government, baby! GOD is in charge now, biatches!
Hell yes build a wall -duh. I’ll even help pay for my share gladly.
What if we had the Chinese enforce the law (make that Chinese emigration law)? The organ donor market would see prices drop 75%.
Yep, the middle class has been sold out by those in high places. As long as those high up in govt and business prosper, who cares about the average joe (as long he can make his payments).
You must listen to “Savage nation” to understand what immigration reform will mean.
Oh, I do understand. We have no idea what’s coming. The rule of law is now a joke, we are sitting ducks.
You act as if this is not a bipartisan effort to allow illegal immigration. Savage blames the liberals. They are *ALL* to blame.
I am fairly liberal, but what bothers me is I expect conservatives to try to bring in cheap labor to undercut the worker(s). I don’t expect liberals to go for the vote factor I expect them to support the citizens.
“You act as if this is not a bipartisan effort to allow illegal immigration. Savage blames the liberals. They are *ALL* to blame. ”
That’s a little harsh. Remember the GOP House of Reps voted to make being an illgeal a felony. That was what prompted those riots (err peaceful marches according to the MSM) last spring. Of course because Mark Foley wrote some nasty IMs you all voted out the GOP and made Nancy Pelosi speaker. That’s all fine and good but don’t go crying now that the Democrats surprise surprise want amnesty.
And in the Senate the amnesty bill of last year was voted for by every single Democrat but only 15 of 55 Republicans voted for it including Mr. Amnesty himself John McCain.
And yes I know Bush wants amnesty and he is dead wrong too.
But sersiously dude to say that they ALL want amnesty is just plain wrong.
Great man!!! Michael Savage rocks! LANGUAGE, CULTURE, BOARDERS!!
Yes, but there’s a flip-side to the whole deal. What I’ve noticed in the last couple of years is ethnic groups preying on their own. In the Hispanic circles in SoCal, you trust the loan agent or realtor because they’re “our people”. If you’re Hispanic in Cal and speak the language, you can line ‘em up and fleece ‘em. The ‘ol fish-in-barrell routine. There is a Filipino community up where I’m at that got hosed by the same principle. I know because I had to bail a bunch of them out of the toxic the loans they were put into. The propblem? One Filipino LO went through the community and cleaned house. Because Filipino’s are so tight (so i was told by a Filipino client) they trusted without hesitation. This agent was promising ridiculously low payments and swearing up and down it was neither adjustable or neg-am (for those who were smart enough to ask). Well, neg-am was exactly what it was. By the time many of them had got to me they had already increased their loan balances from 10K-20K from making the minimum payment option (they were all refi’s, and in many cases refi’s that were taking out perfectly good loan with an excellent rate) By the time they all had realized they’d been hosed, their Filipino scam artist had flown the coup.
“By the time they all had realized they’d been hosed, their Filipino scam artist had flown the coup.”
Not to worry, they’ll find him. Of course, after they do, nobody else will…
My wife is Filipino (I’m white). I know what you mean. Her whole family is really stuck on the “buy real estate” mindset and for the past two years they thought I was a crazy whiteboy for not wanting to get into it. That’s beginnning to change though as more more the MSM reports come out.
yeh, I know hte felling.
now of course after being 150% correct, their problems are reasons for their lack of civility as the LEVERAGE compresses the very air they breathe!
correction:
I know the feeling!
…crazy whiteboy
OMG LMFAO
JWM in SD, from now on I’m acall you “crazy whiteboy”.
It’s not just ethnic groups.
You should see the degree of scamming by realtors, mortgage brokers, etc. of people in their religious denominations who trust them because they’re “good Christians”.
What riper pickings for a huckster than insular groups espousing a philosophy of obedience to authority and ‘faith’, i.e. belief in the absence of evidence.
It’s a “free for all” once in a lifetime gift from Greenspan.
Since when does Wall Street want to give Joe 6-pack 500K just for
signing his name?
People knew that, fraudsters knew that, they all jumped in.
Christians, Muslims, … all joined in the feast.
Now Hanson is blowing the stock bubble to replace the housing burst. Get on the Dow index fast.
Yes, I am in SoCal and I have seen what was described by ex-nvmtgbrkr for another ethnic group other than the two mentioned. I refinanced someone out of a loan they got to buy just 1.5 years prior, A+ buyer, 20% down, full doc and they got an option ARM with big fees, points, huge margin, prepay penalty. The broker made a fortune and they had a rate over 9% on a monthly adjusting loan. It was worth it to pay the prepay penalty.
Oh man that is sweet. I wish I was ethnic so I could exploit my ethnic brother.
But that would be unethnical.
another LOL
us East coast folks sign off too early to enjoy the laffs from Cali people.
Hey don’t get so excited. I know a guy (26 yrs) who worked in a gym. No not a trained a “towel hander outer”. He “owned” three houses. Last I heard he was mad at the bank for not working with him on short sales.
Update: He moved to Las Vegas to start over!
Perfect place for him to start over. They hand out a lot of crying towels there.
(I hope you didn’t mean start over in RE)
Is it too late to get in on this scam?
1) Renounce citizenship.
2) Get job picking strawberrys
3) Apply for a loan with your ss#, err.. your…. ah… what number to use? who cares?
4) Buy a $1M hacienda somewhere with a pool.
5) Pop the Champagne (now Tequilla) relax and enjoy your rent free McMansion for 1 1/2 years. Live worry free on US taxpayers social services (health, security, education).
Lifestyle of the rich and famous. Take that US taxpayer. In one form or the other Jose’s real estate endeavours were at your expense.
Yes, but the mortgage company is only trying to help them realize the American dream…
how about helping REAL Americans with the dream? I’m fuming
One of these days… The US taxpayer is going to stop taking it on the chin and fight back in a big way. Far too many people are abusing the poor taxpayer.
1) Illegals.
2) Probably half of those on public assistance, SSI, disability, welfare, etc.
3) Lazy ass Caltrans workers that stand around all day.
4) Defense and oil companies, along with their war monger toolies on Capitol Hill taking us to Iraq.
And many others. And we can look forward to MBS investors getting their hands in the cookie jar as well.
Think Perl Jam: “The Taxpayer spoke in class today.” If we had much sense 75% of those on “the Hill” would be swinging in the breeze.
Is welfare or SSI a well-paying vocation these days, versus a minimum wage job?
Probably. With welfare or SSI, you don’t have to drive to a job. That saves gas money.
I don’t know, are prisoners adding value to society? Here’s a statistic: 22% of inmates in Orange County alone are illegals. I don’t know the stat for state-wide, but I’d bet money it’s at least 25%. And judges are threatening to start releasing prisoners because of severe overcrowding in CA.
Does rule of law matter anymore?
Over 1/3 of the federal prison system is comprised of non-citizens.
So just deport them, already. Quit paying their room and board.
That’s why they have to keep raising the minimum wage, to make it pay as well as welfare.
SSI…make that 98% of the people on it are illiget. Once they pass a cursory review of assets and make up some disability, they get $900/mo. for the rest of their lives. Pretty sweet, huh?
I know several rather well looking females (35-45 yrs. old). They all have this in common: A psychologies, smoothie pills ( Paxal, stress pill), personal assistant job, divorce and get a Social Security Check for mental stress.
The SSI rolls interface with W-2, and 1099 income so if your examples are working full time they would need to use a false SSN to hide the income or work entirely under the table for case–if this is the case let me know–I am in a position to do something about these types of violations.
Um, you can live on 900 a month? What are you? A monk?
I, for one, could easily. But that doesn’t matter, since most of these scoundrels have side jobs that pay under the table cash, and typically bolster the SSI with worker’s comp, WIC, section 8 rent, or some other public assistance.
Rant all you want, that is the reality.
“That slowdown is expected to last into 2008. ‘It looks like it will be next year before the market even stabilizes,’ said Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.”
I can’t believe this guy can say that about the California market with a straight face. If by “stabilizes” he mean on a steady downward trend, yeah, maybe 2008.
Yeah, the second derivative (acceleration downward) will stabilize sometime in 2008.
“Kyser said there were several differences between the current downturn and the one in the early ’90s. ‘We don’t have the wild overbuilding now that we had then,’ Kyser said. ‘There has been some overbuilding, but not nearly as much.’”
Has this idiot seen the current inventory numbers? The numbers on vacant homes? Economist? Please! Go back to your football dude, we’ve got it handled!
Kyser got rolled…
I’d take the early 90’s downturn in just a few places in the country, over the cluster-you-know-what, coming our way.
e-CON-omist.
Um. There are something on the order of 1.2 million vacant homes. That is over a year supply at current houshold formation rate. That was with no new supply coming on line.
So, if all the homebuilders sat on their hands for two years then it would be close to OK. Maybe.
I think the real numbers are worse than Calculated Risk is estimating.
Don’t forget that the builders now have like 1.7 mill in the pipeline now.
Don’t forget that only in fantasy land do all new housing starts buy homes!!!
I figured that the builders will have to drop back to 800k/year for 5 years to burn off all the new inventory.
This does not address the MILLIONS of homew now for sale that are coming vacant soon (foreclosures).
Does not address the boomers dieing and thier kids selling both (three, etc..) or thier RE investments and thier residence.
I figure 7-9 years for this all to shake out before we hit supply/demand equality and even really approach the bottom. It may turn back up then or just go sideways for a number of years before rising again.
All these “Investors” trying to weather the storm haven’t even seen it get windy yet and are in the path of a level 5 hurricane with only a wall of illegal aliens to hold back the water.
this guy spouts off on all sorts of southern california economic news. did he get his degree at the 99 cent store? what a chump. man….i’m getting so tired of these idiots being quoted in the msm…kyser, husing (the ie expert)….i’m glad this blog is here to skewer them just like lereah!!
rant off.
True about the overbuilding, but I’d have to add he’s right about LA, no overbuilding here, hardly any building here period unless you count the few condo developments in the valley and playa vista.
you should see the condo towers been going up in San Francisco
and not stopping more coming your way. But where are the jobs?
BAHAHAHAHAH Oh it just get better.
“True about the overbuilding, but I’d have to add he’s right about LA, no overbuilding here, hardly any building here period unless you count the few condo developments in the valley and playa vista.”
the marina azura towers, loads of “lofts” off of washington off opposite cosco, condos going up on lincoln and manchester, and playa development is HUGE
then check out NOHO lofts and condos… towers hundred and hundreds of units
then go downtown and see thousands more of lofts and condos…..
we’ll see how next year plays out…. lived in LA all my life….and don’t believe there are enough truly well heeled people to buy all this million plus stuff, ….
“True about the overbuilding, but I’d have to add he’s right about LA, no overbuilding here, hardly any building here period unless you count the few condo developments in the valley and playa vista. ”
In dwtn LA there will be at least 3000+ new housing units added this year. SFV has hundreds of projects, mostly mid-sized 10-100 unit apts.condos going up in such areas as N hollywood, Studio city, Warner center, Northridge, ect.
Counted at least 10 projects in Carson during a short drive thru there. A large condo village is going up at 22800 normandie in Torrance. Marina del Rey has that 200+ apt tower going up near Washington/Lincoln. Hundreds of new units up along both sides of Jefferson blvd in Playa Vista .
Saw at least 4 contruction projects(Apts, condos?) along national blvd from the 405 west to Centinelia.
Pasadena has that hugh project(200 apts/twnhms?) off the 210/Sierra madre blvd as well as varous dwtn developments.
Repeat these developments by a factor of several hundred and you get the scope of all the building activity going on in the INNER DENSELY CROWDED PARTS OF COASTAL LA. True 95 % of them are tightly-packed twnhmes,condos and apts, but they do add to the housing inventory supply.
In LA it’s all about infill development, packing new multi’s in former razed industrial sites and torn-out malls. Any open available lot can be utilized, of which LA has thousands: a corner acre here, a 5-acre site there, a weedy plot here. You’d be surprised how many twnhomes, condos, apts can be squeezed on a one acre lot(i have seen 11 condos put up on two adjoining razed sfh lots).
It won’t be a dramatic increase in stand-alone SFh’s but look for a huge increase in supply of Multi-housing units especially around DWTN LA and the valley over next 1-2 yrs.
Thornberg says end of ‘08 at a ‘minimum’ with a recession at end of ‘07. How does that sound. Keep your powder dry.
“Indeed, the cost of land, entitlement, development, infrastructure and fees will keep prices from falling too far, Johnson said.”
Please explain! Entitlement? For whom? And infrastructure costs, whose going to pay? Won’t need those schools when the houses are not filled, nor fire and police. Property taxes will backslide, so where is the money going to come from? I see housing tracts growing weeds up the central valley by the end of summer.
They need to look up the definition of sunk costs.
They need to look up the definition of sunk costs.
Yep…..
That guy Steve Johnson is treating cost of land, entitlements, development , infrastucture and fees as fixed costs. That is costs that don’t change over time. In any basic economic class you learn that you revenue had better be greater than you fixed cost or your in deep trouble. I guess he wasn’t in class the day they taught anouther basic concept. Consumer sovereignty. You can’t force people to buy things they don’t want or at prices that they feel are to high. Or at prices they can’t afford. This guy is math-head, he is so wound up in numbers, satitistics, equations, charts and graphs that he doesn’t know anything about normal people.
@#*#%!!! I meant sunk costs.
He knows, but he also knows where his bread is buttered, I’ll wager.
Yeah, but I’ll bet whatever fool insurance company issued performance (surety) bonds for these projects is sweating like a stuck pig right now.
A house in Hollister sold to a strawberry picker for $720K. LOL. Our money is a big joke.
The real estate agent Maria Avila must have made some huge commish on this, if she paid out about $10,000.00 to “help” them. This is one of the weirder stories I’ve heard. Would this be considered a kickback? Just when I think I’ve heard it all, some new wrinkle comes up. Madre de Dios!
What? Are you saying Greenspan was a comedian?
Faith based currency my man. Faith based currency.
Got Faith?
Who is paying the lawyer? Whew, this whole thing is a shakedown all around. I’m sure the legal fees are not being fronted by the Marmirez families. The lawyers have sniffed out some money. Prediction: the case will settle out of court. The lawyers will take a whopping percentage. The Marmirezes will be left with just enough to rent a single wide in shanty town. The realtor will lose all the commission she made and then some. Actually, I wouldn’t mind seeing more of this happen. There’s a huge market here for enterprising, hungry young attorneys who can sniff out some bucks. A few high-profile cases like this, and I can just imagine hundreds of realtors all over the country having the heebie-jeebie cold sweats, sleepless night after sleepless night, wondering which deal will come back to haunt them. LMAO!
Two words (well, three): Fraud and class action.
I can’t speak with complete confidence on this, but to my recollection, a civil fraud claim is one of the few torts for which treble damages are available. Additionally, where there are many wronged plaintiffs, there’s a potential for a class action. Think of treble damages for a class of 100+ people, and you have the lawyers’ interests in the subprime flameout, at 33% or more of the plaintiffs’ damage award.
Let me clarify for you a little bit from my meager recollection from law school. Fraud isn’t part of the law of tort. Simply speaking, tort involves negligence, ie., a harm caused upon you by someone failing to act with a proper care. When you refer to treble damages, you probably mean punitive damage. It is often awarded against a party (usually a big corporation with deept pocket) to deter similar conduct in the future. I believe the
lawfirm that took on the case did so for a simple reason. The LO, RE office, etc, all have insurance or at least should have. It’s the insurance company that has to defend and pay the cost of the litigation. The cause of action (basis for the lawsuit), in this case, that I can quickly come up with are: misrepresentation, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty, and perhaps breach of contract.
If the RE office has had a pattern of fraud over several years, one could pursue a RICO case and go for triple damages. Sweet.
Where’s nycitydj? I just found him the perfect paralegal gig. He can do the Erin Brockovich thing, digging up FBs whose realtors have deep pockets, and bring the cases to a lawyer willing to work on the come and split the profits when the cases settle (most of them will settle). Hey, dj, there’s your job and don’t say I never did anything for ya! Sheee-it, there’s some major bucks up in your neck of the woods. One or two cases, you could be in clover! Heck, I’m thinking of doing it myself.
No Wonder the price of of a tiny carton of Strawberries IS so frigging HIGH !
The berry pickers have expensive tastes
His house is listed at $419,000. Yet, just two blocks away, a larger home for sale because of foreclosure is listed for $50,000 less.”
“Because so many of the houses in the area are on short sale, Cronroth said he is having to take a loss.”
Thanks the cameo, it made my day. When the price reaches $150K Mr. Cronroth, you will have been skinned alive.
2007: a Housing Bubble Odyssey
Beazer Homes Says SEC Conducting Probe
http://tinyurl.com/2ucwxg
Ok true story…. the DH and I stopped at the Beazer development in Sac (80/5 junction). The lady is giving us the spin. She mentions that IF we qualify yada yada yada, Beazer will cover HOAs for us for a few years.
Just for the record, I’m evil. I asked her how the investigation would effect their ability remain in business in 3 years to cover those HOAs. Her reply was that THAT Beazer (in NC) was in a different state and would never effect anything in CA.
I was going to explain corporate relationships to her but the DH made me promise to be nice this time after I pissed of the KB salesperson.
Oh man, if I ever moved back to the northern part of CA I think we would be good friends gwynster (*cackle*). I somehow still can’t believe the number of utter tools that work in RE.
You bet. Rumor has it I make I good drinking buddy. I’m actually one of the most easy going people you’d ever met except when some knob bonnet is messing with ability to nest >; )
SEC investigation is nothing… we need deep investigation on conduct of Realtors and Mortgage brokers. This is out of the scope of SEC.
Get rid of commission is one step.
Get rid of fake bidders and make it an open auction is the second.
Hey since the strawberry pickers wife is not on the loan why doest SHE buy the house in short sale for 400k and they can get anudder 1.5 years free living!?!? Then repeat with the other two pickers.
Another Hero of mine went away today…
“NASA should start thinking about this planet.”
Wally Schirra
It’s a nice saying, but actually NASA thinks a lot about this planet. UARS (Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite), AIRS (Atmospheric Infra Red Sounder(?)), many other instrument platforms reporting exactly the stuff of which Al Gore’s movie was made, are NASA vehicles, and NASA grants support the data analysis.
“Financially strapped subprime mortgage lender New Century Financial Corp., failed to receive any bids for its mortgage loan origination business, forcing it to shut down the unit and lay off around 2,000 employees, the company told employees Thursday.”
Ta ta taaaa……..ta ta taaaaaaa…….ta ta taa…ta ta taaa… ta ta taaaaaaa………ta ta taaaaaa taaaaa taaaaa taaaaaa……ta ta taaaaaaaa.
What about the knock on effect of 2000 layoffs plus the subprime mess has no institutional buyers. Expecter LEND to take it on the chin.
No buyers.
No interest…
And the investment banks are shrinking the credit lines as fast as they can.
And that is the 2000 remaining employees…
Time to hit the broker forums for some schdenfreude.
Got popcorn?
Neil
But that (remaining 2,000 employees laid off) won’t have any effect on OC housing, right? All of the local economists keep assuring us that everything is fine, employment is up (lots of low-paying jobs), and OC housing prices won’t go down. I’m sure none of those New Century folks drank any of the Kool Aid, and they were all renters, right? Or, there are plenty of new jobs at other lenders in OC for them, right?
WaitinginDC,
Pleanty of Jobs for them, they’ll just head over to Danna Capitol… umm, I mean Ameriquest… oh shoot… oh there are plenty of jobs for them. Look how how they’re increasing in SoCal.
They’re all service jobs. Would you like fries and a mortgage?
Got popcorn?
Neil
Financially strapped subprime mortgage lender New Century Financial Corp., failed to receive any bids for its mortgage loan origination business,
What about that computer system? I heard their employees were some of the top ranked Doom players.
“Despite making only $14,000 a year, strawberry picker Alberto Ramirez managed to buy his own slice of the American Dream. But his Hollister home came with a hefty price tag, $720,000. A year and a half later, Ramirez has defaulted on his loan, and he’s hoping to sell the house before it’s repossessed. So how did Ramirez, with an annual income of just $14,000, purchase a $720,000 home without any money down? He had help, for one thing.”
So is the plan for the subprime kingpins to make lots more loans to folks like Senor Ramirez, then pass the bag to the taxpayer when the need for a too-big-to-fail bailout inevitably arises?
——————————————————————————–
Big Banks’ Loan Push: Illegal Immigrants
By Robin Sidel
Word Count: 743 | Companies Featured in This Article: J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Fifth Third Bancorp, Genworth Financial, Deutsche Bank
The nation’s big banks, scrambling for customers, are pitching mortgages to illegal immigrants.
Two years ago, making home loans to people who are in the U.S. illegally was largely limited to community banks that wanted to revitalize neighborhoods by offering low-cost mortgages to local workers. There are signs that these loans, which comply with regulatory requirements and which represent a sliver of the nation’s $10 trillion mortgage market, are starting to take off in the broader banking industry.
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is developing a pilot program to pitch mortgages to illegal immigrants in Maricopa County, Ariz.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117815439999290317.html?mod=hpp_us_at_glance_markets
“The nation’s big banks, scrambling for customers, are pitching mortgages to illegal immigrants.”
Let’s say you’re in a meeting in the board room of one of these big banks….
“We need to find buyers for this huge inventory of homes. Suggestions?”
“Not likely. At the level of income in that area, you’d need a dozen incomes to pay the mortgage. No one but illegals are willi….. Hey……”
And they don’t mind sharing with a few other families under the same roof
helping criminals used to make you an ACCOMPLICE - wow, times have changed
Many of you inquire about what to “invest” in?
How about buying up a year’s worth of food?
I will state for the record, that it’s doubtful you’ll see much of a return on your investment, no 13% returns on your money, per annum.
But you wont be hungry.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/05/02/honey-bee-disappearance-c_n_47513.html
“I will state for the record, that it’s doubtful you’ll see much of a return on your investment, no 13% returns on your money, per annum.”
I’ll bet even if the price quintupled, you wouldn’t want to sell anyway…
Guess all the bees must be here in West LA…we’re hiring someone to move a whole swarm of them away from our tree (move, not kill)
I know, last night they had a story on the local news about a huge-ass hive taking up the better part of the upper side of a big old tree in one Tampa neighborhood. Bees all over the place. I’m not sure they’ve died, I think they’ve just re-located to better or different digs. Maybe they’re having their own housing bubble and have outgrown the traditional hives. Or they’ve been crowded out by the Africanized bees. Whatever it is, even though I’m making jokes, it ain’t funny. We didn’t have our usual spring pollen dusting this year from the orange blossoms. Of course, we lost a lot of our orange groves to development. I think that has something to do with it, too. I hate this housing bubble. It sucks the big one. The damage to this country is on so many levels.
it’s my understanding that the mysterious bee die-off is nto affecting africanized bees….
…remeber the MSM screaming about them?
The main concern for hbb-ers must bee, does it take bees to pollinate popcorn?
No, corn is wind pollinated.
“No, corn is wind pollinated.”
corn and the typical realtor have something in common
ROTFL
My side is busting off that one!
Any offers on my $1267.00 a month coming due to me in 17 short years?
I thought not.
“‘The real estate boom covered a multitude of sins,’ Simmons said. ‘Once the market started depreciating, the rug was pulled back to show the rot underneath.’”
That’s not rot — it’s elephant dung.
That’s not rot — it’s elephant dung.
And… ummm… the Elephant is hiding behind the pile… and he’s mad.
weird elephant
cause he looks like a one eyed rat
“‘The real estate boom covered a multitude of sins,’ Simmons said. ‘Once the market started depreciating, the rug was pulled back to show the rot underneath.’”
I like this quote, and I’m glad people are finally catching on. If only this sort of thing could make it to the nightly news. It’s time to scare the sh!t out of J6P.
Wow! It’s getting dark really quick….
Isn’t it nice basking in all this darkness? Ahhhhhhhh.
They made it easy for H1b’s to hang around just before the end of the dot com.
Expect same thing with illegals
I am proud of Alberto Ramirez, with the help of Jesus he has pulled off the greatest American scam of all times. As long as he did not use my SSN, he should do it over and over as long as the dumb Wall St firms are willing to buy his mortgage.
“‘We all know the school of hard knocks is a mighty teacher, and it sweeps a lot of innocents,’ said Bob Buster,
Welcome to the jungle it get’s worse here every day…
A little G ‘n R for all those people getting punched in the face by Mr. Reality. And oh boy will it get worse for a lot of people.
“The Ramirezes said Rancho Grande real estate agent Maria Avila promised they could refinance their home in three to six months to an affordable rate; until then, Rosa Ramirez said, Avila said she would pay for whatever they couldn’t afford.”
That is some of the strangest sh*t I have heard of. An agent helping to cover your mortgage?
The promise of a refi down the road by an agent is a pretty standard ploy, but this is crazy.
Then the real estate office says this:
“Rafael Cebrero, whose company Rancho Grande Real Estate sold Ramirez his home and arranged his mortgage, said subprime loans are getting a bad rap. Those loans, he said, have made it easier for many people to purchase a home.”
After everything that has happend with subprime he says subprime is getting a bad rap. OMFG!
Then this:
“..but he said Rancho Grande was only trying to help the two families buy the home they wanted.”
These idiot borrowers wanted to jump off the cliff, they just needed a little help. Rancho Grande was there to help push.
The three stooges could explain the stupidity better than some of these dolts.
THE HOUSING MARKET WILL NOT STABILIZE UNTIL HOUSE PRICES PLUNGE TO AFFORDABLE LETTERS. WE SEE A BUNCH OF UNEDUCATED DOLTS WITH NO EDUCATIO BUYING $720,000 HOUSES THEY HELPED TO BID UP TO STUPID LEVELS.
LET THE CRASH CONTINUE.
$14,000 per year field worker buys $720,000 home - No bubble here, move along. “Strawberryfields forever”
“With many houses hitting the market under value….”
Can someone define “Under Value”.
I thought that value was only determined by “what a buyer was willing to pay and a seller was willing to sell for. Doesn’t that make “Under” impossible??
“Because so many of the houses in the area are on short sale, Cronroth said he is having to take a loss.”
Just had an epiphany: If lenders accept short sales, the transaction will be recorded from an individual seller to an individual buyer and no one, appraisers included, will know it was a “short”. This situation reaffirms that even if appraisers weed out REO sales, they’ll never catch the shorts!
Down, down, down in a burning ring of fire!
Distressed sellers, not used as comps for appraisals. Not used for reporting medain sales.
At least, that is my understanding.
How does one know from reading the public record that a seller was “distressed” ?
They use MLS for comps, right? MLS probably has that.
“How does one know from reading the public record that a seller was “distressed” ?”
clearly ledgible sh#t stains and tears on photocopies of the documents
Got a downpayment?
Go to DRUDGE and vote or Ron Paul.
What a couple donks…
Fiancee’s sister plans to move to Dallas, so wants to sell her current house. Looking in Zillow, I saw it listed for FSBO at $309K = $198 sq/ft. Everything around her is down from $180 sq/ft a year ago, $170 sq/ft 6 months ago, $160 sq/ft 3 months ago. Nothing sold within a mile of her in the last 3 months despite a dozen or more on the market… Many in the $160-170 sq/ft range.
History on this one:
She’s an office assistant, maybe $40K a year. He’s a thrower at the airport. What does that pay? $30K-40K? I really don’t know.
They bought a house back in 2001. They furnished it with leather furniture, giant TV, fancy art, etc. Parked a couple SUVs in the driveway.
In 2005 they went bankrupt just before the laws changed that prevent you from writing off everything if you have above median income. As soon as they cleared their decks of debt, they refi-d the house, bought a new SUV, booked a vacation to the Carabbean, bought a new diamond ring, etc.
They travel to several NASCAR races a year, a couple NFL games.
So, last fall they announce they are going to fix the place up, sell it, and move to Dallas. They redo the kitchen countertops (no, not granite), fix up the yard, repaint, etc. Put it on the market.
Last time we saw them they announced they’re going to Disney World for week next fall. Oh, and since there have been no offers on the house, they’re listing it with a realtor.
Which brings us back to where I started… It is FSBO for $309K all winter… $40-50K more than others in her neighborhood.
So, today, someone posts the link to Maricopa County Recorder… Curisoty gets the best of me, so I go look it up.
Bought Oct, 2001 for $143,645. 30 year fixed. I don’t see the interest rate in the deed, but it was what? 6% - 6.5%
$908 a month P&I.
17 months later,
Mar 2004, refi to $167K, ARM 6.7%-9.7%. Prepay rider.
P&I starts at $1400, could go to $1850
19 months later, Oct 2005 bankruptcy.
1 month later, Nov 2005 refi to $216,800 ARM starting at 8%, (making their P&I closer to $1590). indexed to LIBOR + 5.329. If it reset today would be 12.7%. Cap is 14.6%.
Oh, but it can’t reset today because somehow, the husband got a $5K court award against him that they put a lean on the deed. SO….
9 months after the last refi,
Aug 2006. Refi=$243,950. Interest only ARM, starting at 8%, LIBOR + 5.850, first reset after 2 years capped at 11%, +/- max 1% a year. Range 8%-14.5%. If they prepay more than 20% in the first 5 years, they have to pay 6 months rent on the amount above 20%.
These are the people congress is thinking of bailing out?!?!?!? Come on! In 4.5 years they’ve spent every penny they’ve made, ran up enough debt to make it worth going bankrupt, and moved their mortgage from $143K to $243K!
Let’s pretend for a moment they find an idiot that would pay $309K. Since they are now using a realtor, let’s give a generous closing costs of 7% leaves them $287K. $243K for the mortgage.
$194K subject to prepay at 8% x 6 mo = $8K
Grand total of $36K out.
NOW, let’s say they actually only sell it for what Zillow says it is worth, and others listed around it are priced at… $260K.
-7% = $241K. But they owe $243K + $8K prepay penalty.
In short, the bank will be taking this one. 6 months after the first reset is May 2009, if they can hold out that long with payments of $1600 a month on their $4-5K a month income. Heck, they couldn’t make ends meet when they were only paying $900 a month. How can they make ends meet with $700 a month + inflation less.
Federal bail out? OH HAIL NO!!!!!
Nice post, Darrell. It’s always very interesting to see a detailed history like this. I would imagine that there are millions more very similar to this one. A couple of my relatives are probably at the same stage - but they do everything they can to hide the truth of their situation.
Don’t worry. All the bailout talk is just a case of politicians blowing smoke in an attempt to obscure the huge mess that arose on their watch. Who can they bail out? The banks and other lenders that actually own the houses? The people living in them who are carrying all the debt? Who pays? Who gains? Who takes over the contracts? You’ll notice that all the bailout talk never once gets down to discussing the details.
There is no housing bubble. South Park hasn’t done any such episode.
The racially insensitive posters on this fine blog are truly reprehensible. In your inane search to lay blame you are simply looking at the first and easiest level. Why don’t you follow the money and see that the folks making the true big bucks on this entire housing scam are White. Guess who runs the big corporations? Whites.Guess who has the most politicians? Whites. Guess who runs the RE companies? Whites. Guess who runs the MSM? Whites. Guess who holds the most wealth and power is the US? Whites. Guess who owns the landscaping company that ruthlessly exploits the illegals who performs your manual labor? White. Guess who owns the restaurant that has illegal cooks? White. Guess who the majority of US citizens exploiting illegals for menial labor in exchange for slave wages? Whites. The next time you turn up your nose or blame illegals or enjoy artificially deflated prices due to slave wages or have a racially inaccurate thought please consider the facts and who is the ultimate USER and beneficiary of illegals and the exploitation of illegals. THINK.
WOW you really opened my eyes!
I feel horrible for being white!
Maybe I’ll start listening to gangsta rap and go buy 3 McMansions in Inland Empire and grow pot in them till whitey comes and takes them away.
HAHAHAH, This isn’t a race thing this is an ignorance thing. This blog doesn’t limit access to whitey all are welcome and warned. It is the ignorant the ignorant FB looking to blaim, all readers here are very familiar with the corruption throught and after years on this blog this is the first to level blaime at whitey =)
I must really misunderstand the border struggle because I never knew that evil whitey was going down to Mexico and bringing back slaves. I hope they build that fence quickly to keep the whites out of Mexico.
What is a fair wage to pay someone that is in the US illegally? If nobody hired them, they would be stuck in Mexico living worse than here. If they want decent wages, they need to come to the country with a title other than criminal, for starters.