A Broad Psychological Impact In California
The North County Times reports from California. “Mortgage fraud is on the rise in California, according to recent reports, and analysts say the cooling housing market is helping to reveal more suspicious mortgage transactions. According to the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, in 2006, California had more than one-third of the nation’s suspicious loan activity at federally insured lenders.”
“And the state’s share of the suspected fraudulent activity is growing, according to the agency. Nationwide, in 2006, 37,614 Suspicious Activity Reports were filed by federally insured financial institutions. Of those, 13,768 reports, or 36.6 percent were filed by lenders operating in California.”
“Analysts say incidence of mortgage fraud in California most likely has been higher than reported for several years. It is only becoming apparent now as the housing market cools off and those who commit fraud can’t hide behind housing profits, they add.”
“‘California has nearly twice as many reports of fraud as the national average,’ said Nick Larson, with the Mortgage Asset Research Institute, which developed the report for the Mortgage Bankers Association.”
“A hot California real estate market over the last several years may have been masking the amount of fraud that was occurring in the state, the report says.”
“‘The recent slowdown in its housing market may explain California’s return to high ranking this year,’ it states. ‘Some experts have suggested that (California’s) problems were masked by high real estate appreciation.’”
“One local fraud specialist said recently that he believes fraud is much more widespread than the current report indicates. ‘When values don’t go up, lenders foreclose and they conduct investigations,’ said Bob Simpson, president of Irvine-based Investor Mortgage Asset Recovery Company. ‘I expect the number of frauds to increase at the same pace as the number of foreclosures.’”
“RealtyTrac Inc. reported 6,879 foreclosure-related filings in Riverside County from January through March, an increase of 94 percent from the first three months of 2006, giving the county one of the highest concentrations of foreclosures in the nation.”
“According to the MBA report, over the last several years, California has continued to climb in the rankings. It went from being 30th in the nation in 2002, to 23rd in 2003, to 19th in 2004, to 8th in 2005 and 2nd in 2006.”
The San Gabriel Valley Tribune. “Los Angeles County’s median home price registered an annual gain of more than 5 percent in April, but 14 communities saw their median price drop, according to the California Association of Realtors.”
“Home sales in L.A. County fell 18.8 percent compared with April 2006. Statewide sales plummeted by 27.8 percent compared with a year ago.”
“Marty Rodriguez, owner of Century21 Marty Rodriguez in Glendora, said many potential buyers have dropped out of the market since the subprime crash hit in early March.”
“‘Now there are fewer buyers,’ she said. ‘There’s more inventory and banks are scrutinizing buyers and looking at them much closer.’”
“Locally, San Dimas weathered the biggest year-over-year price decline (10 percent), followed by Altadena (6.3 percent) and Claremont (6.2 percent).”
“CAR Deputy Chief Economist Robert Kleinhenz said the subprime fallout and other mixed signals in the economy have had a heavy impact on some buyers. ‘There has been a broad psychological impact,’ he said.”
The LA Daily News. “April home sales nose-dived in California while prices saw a moderate bump, a trend that continued in Los Angeles County, according to an industry association.”
“Prices trended up because lower- priced homes are not selling as well, leaving their prices out of the mix. ‘At the lower end, we have subprime issues, foreclosures and unoccupied new housing’ competing with sales of existing homes, CAR chief economist Leslie Appleton-Young said.”
“The report found: Fifteen out of the 20 regions studied in the report saw double-digit sales declines. In Ventura County, sales dropped by 20.8 percent.”
“In the High Desert, including Antelope Valley, prices dropped 5.2 percent to $317,420 compared with a year ago. Sales fell by a whopping 51.3 percent.”
“The mixed numbers worry Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. Many foreclosures have not reached the market, there is an exhaustive supply of homes for sale and spring is usually when things pick up, he said.”
“‘Despite these little glimmers of hope here and there,’ Kyser said, ‘I still don’t see the market as having hit bottom.’”
The Record Searchlight. “When Helene and Dan Lhamon put their west Redding home on the market late last year, getting people in for a look-see wasn’t the problem.”
“But after two months of gawking and no offers, the Lhamons were anxious. They were about to move to the Seattle area to start new jobs and didn’t want to be stuck with two mortgages. They decided to (hire) Jody Thulin of SharpDressedHomes in Redding.”
“With Shasta County home sales down from a year ago and prices off about 10 percent, Thulin concedes it’s a good time to be in her business. About six of every 10 SharpDressedHomes customers have had their home listed for a while.”
“For about $3,500, Thulin met with the Lhamons before staging the home. The Eagle Ridge Estates home sold in 30 days for $550,000, $30,000 below the list price.”
“‘We didn’t get as much as we wanted, but I think we were asking too much,’ Helene Lhamon said.”
“Mortgage fraud is on the rise in California, according to recent reports, and analysts say the cooling housing market is helping to reveal more suspicious mortgage transactions.”
I believe there is great confusion over whether fraud is on the rise, or discovery of fraud. Perhaps it makes little difference for new prospective buyers:
BUY NOW AND CATCH YOURSELF A DEFLATING FRAUD PREMIUM.
RE Fraud and rediculous runups in LA City/county:
I have looked at sales, prices, foreclosues, zillow, data quick figures for LA county and also have a pretty extensive knowledge of what is happening at the ground level as i travel pretty extensively throughout LA.OC/IE county. What i see is really crapped out inner city LA slumburgs and /or deteriorated former middle class zips rapidly declining into R-2/r-3 aprtmentalized rental zones where tons of weedy slovenly kept SFH’s are either rented out to immigrants, or are being quick-fixed and /or being rehabbed into multiple housing units, often illegally.
This has had the effect of creating an inner city RE mini-bubble (bubble within a bubble), as owners/sellers of INNer-city properties have rode the speculative greed, assisted by the entire REIC, banks, brokers,agents, lenders, ect. It is/was not uncommon to find POS 80-yr 2/1 / 700 sq ft craftsmans in the s*ITzones selling for half-million+ during the peak of the LA city bubble.
Naturally there is a great deal of fraud going on, as i have uncoverd zillowing a few rotten LA Zips. The Local MSM and regulatory agencies are way behind the curve on the extent of RE fraud in LA. It may take another yr or more for the local/state/fed agencies to uncover/untangle and indict the still largely hidden and shady RE fraud activity in LA, much of which is taking place in the LA deteriorated immigrant/Minority slumzones.
The lenders, Local REaltors, local banks and politicials have little incentive to actively assist in these fraud investigations, as they may be knee-deep in the RE fraud runup themselves thru providing astonishingly stupid Half-million to million $ +loans in the inner city dumzones.
And you wonder why LA County still showing 5.6% yoy increases in the median as the rest of CA Counties showing declines or 0 % YOY.
Note: If the authorites want to start uncovering The LA RE fraud they can start with the LA gang-controlled crapburgs of Maywood, bell, Huntington Park, Cudahy, and Vernon. Good luck! Even the Mayors and Councilmembers in these 100% immigrant enclaves are in the pockets of the gang racketeers who are the likely RE fraudsters.
Funny you should say all that, just saw that Mexican guy I had mentioned before who was buying up properties in S. Central, apparently that mansion that he was building will be used as follows: it has 6+ bedrooms, I don’t know how many bathrooms, but he’s renting out each bedroom to one family. He tore down a small SFR to do this, it’s permitted as a large/mcmansion house. Can you imagine one family per bedroom, how gross? I wonder if they all share a kitchen?
The property values are going to nosedive in high end areas where this sort of McPartmentization of McMansions for into multifamily illegal immigrant rental housing occurs.
This is the same cycle that happened decades ago as formerly-affluent inner-city areas of East LA like Boyle Heights (it wasn’t always a craphole) began to deteriorate and the affluent population moved out — elaborate Victorian mansions were subdivided into rooming houses and multiple-family-occupancy. The cycle repeats.
One kitchen, no problem o, they use hot plates and mini fridges in the bedrooms. They can do their wash in the bathrooms and hang clothes lines out the windows.
Yuck, I can imagine what the neighbors are saying , “Suzanne! I thought you said you researched this?”.
“Suzanne! I thought you said you researched this?”
LOLOLOL!
Funny you should say all that, just saw that Mexican guy I had mentioned before who was buying up properties in S. Central, apparently that mansion that he was building will be used as follows: it has 6+ bedrooms, I don’t know how many bathrooms, but he’s renting out each bedroom to one family. He tore down a small SFR to do this, it’s permitted as a large/mcmansion house. Can you imagine one family per bedroom, how gross? I wonder if they all share a kitchen?
This seems to be happening all over the inner LA deteriorated sections: the buying up of tiny 2/1’s on large 6000+ lots, and the buyers either tearing down that puny house and erecting multi-units on them, either 2-4 cramped townhomes, apts, or duplexes.triplexes. Or they will simply add additional ‘wings’ to that original house and/or raze that rear garage and erect a monster two story back wing/apt units. Sees this all over inner LA, and getting the permits seems rather easy in the deteriorated LA slumzones.
There will emerge out of this even as the LA bubble collapses some Mexican/CA immigrant housing specu=investors who will make out like bandits(Bandito), and become newly-rich LA Slumlords. And make their dough on the backs of their own people.
What is the difference between California and Mexico?…
dammed if i know - not so much anymore…..
Ooh, ooh! Pick me! The taxes are higher in California! Yeah, that’s the answer!
all houses in california have electricity, running water, and sewer. all houses in california have clear title recorded at the county. anyone in california can borrow $400,000 to buy a house.
Why do some comments just get swallowed here? They never seem to post!
Weird…
California has Ahhhnold….
Mexico doesn’t have Jorge Boosh as president
its really hard to imagine a 700 sq. ft. house going for $500k+ in LA during the peak. Are you sure you got that right? It seems like house prices were much higher in that awful areas than that.
Now only if everyone started getting inspected and see what happens to all the non permitted houses and condos. i cant even believe i saw people renovating walls out and stuff like that in apartment style condos. scary stuff and not exactly legal.
California’s economy has been based on fraud for the last 11 years. First it was the dotcom fraud, which pulled hundreds of billions of investment dollars into Cali. When that scam went belly up in 2001 the housing scam started. Now the real estate fraud is collapsing and in my opinion there is no other scam waiting in the wings to prop up the phony California economy.
Over the coming years Californians are going to have their egos adjusted and perhaps will learn that they don’t walk on water and are no different than Americans in the Midwest.
True nuff, Clearview. I agree that we californians are looking at a major lifestyle reduction over the next decade. In fact, we may end up as poor as Iowa or North Dakota on a per capita basis.
But if I’m going to be poor I’d sure rather have the wondrous oceans, mountains and forests of Cali near rather than the endless flat cornfields of the midwest. Might have to horde up a little of our future gas ration and spend $10 a gallon to go see the sights but it will still be a great consolation
My handyman works nights at Home Depot. Says they’re laying people off, rumors of BK are circulating. No $500 annual bonus like they had last year.
Home Depot - BK?????
not clear which is laying off people and going to declare bk: his employer during the day or home depot.
Expand on this with Home Depot….I have relatives that work there. There has been some weird financial arrangement with banks and China since Nardelli left under a cloud taking beaucoup bucks with him.
yeah, what a great place to be 10 years from now. LA with a bunch of snoby, pushy, homeless people who think they deserve to live the American Dream (TM)… If I’m going to be poor, let it be in the away from the maniacs in Cali!!!
You can keep your wondrous oceans, mountains, and forests of Cali. At least in places like North Dakota you have good solid people with values, and schools that actually educate your kids, unlike the gang-infested hellholes that pass for schools in LA.
Amen Sammy.
Coming down from a wealth effect induced high will not be a simple matter for many Californians. We may be seeing it now as the HELOC money dries up there is a switch to revolving credit as a source for that “wealth”. It is an insidious thing fake wealth. It starts with the bottled water and $3.00 cups of coffee rather than tap and home drip. It is the force that fills both garages and landfills with things that they “had to have”. It is a vacuum that sucks dry 401k and IRA accounts based on the rationalization that “I deserve” that plasma TV, new car, kitchen remodel or boob job.
It is overt and grandiose consumption used to fill an empty vessel. IMHO the culture of “Me” has run out of fuel, off a cliff and now, subject to the natural forces of gravity, is headed anywhere but up.
Oh, yeah, we here in CA are in for a HUGE reality check.
Got acid?
It’ll be a shame to lose those boob jobs, though.
Hey!!! Let’s leave the boob jobs out of this. You can throw those things into landfills that easily.
“can’t”
I guess we will just have to suffice with the existing inventory
they will not be able to afford the future needed lift and will be sagging to the knees - be careful what you wish for!!!
I’ll bet walking through the malls is nicer in the Mid-west and the people all speak the same language.
Maybe, but the shoppers are as obese as cattle.
Cal’s assessment is incorrect.
Jbunniii’s assessment is correct.
Worst of both worlds.
“Wonderful life it California, ocean, climate verses N. Dak.
You better have your doors locked and shotgun ready as the LA gangs will be going wild and perhaps at your door.Call the cops…. good luck as they are going to other calls. Take a number and lock your all of your doors as you wait but remember how beautiful the ocean and climate is. Good luck!
This sounds like jealousy IMO… The California economy has never been dependent on any one industry.
“This sounds like jealousy IMO…”
And this sounds like chutzpah IMO.
Chutzpah? The aerospace industry went away. Did California collapse? The auto industry went away. Did California collapse? The dotcom industry went away. Did California collapse? Now real estate turns out to be c*ap. Too bad, so sad. Probably half of that fraud money was reinvested in other states which will share the pain along with California.
People seem to forget that the economy of the state is a lot more diversified than a lot of places. There is banking, insurance, import/export, entertainment, farming, tourism, manufacturing, etc. Here’s a link to some information on how diverse California’s economy is: http://www.lao.ca.gov/2006/cal_facts/2006_calfacts_econ.htm
So, is California suddenly going to become just like the Midwest due to the death of one industry? No. And the entire California economy hasn’t been based on fraud for the last 11 years. That’s just wishful thinking. Sectors of the economy have gone bad around here for the last 200 years (gold miners in 1849?) and the state has continued to boom.
Aerospace industry goes away - POW California takes a bullet to the leg but hobbles on and heals up although with a nasty limp.
Auto and other heavy industry goes away - BAM California takes a gut shot but still has a strong constitution and recovers. However, lingering gut problems lead to indigestion and problems with gas.
Dot Com industry collapses - WHAM it’s a chest shot to poor California. But risky experimental surgery keeps the patient alive while tons of toxic drugs are pumped into it’s veins…it’s touch and go…but everytime the patient falters the doc pumps in more dangerous chemicals.
Now, KABOOM! and the housing industry disintegrates in a cloud of fraud and greed and fear and loathing. The drugs are cut off from the patient, the stiches burst open from the internal pressure, the cancer within is exposed and the patient DIES!
I don’t know if you are right or wrong but that was pretty cool.
california is the import center for the rest of country from which everyone gets their stuff distributed after it’s made by “our” manufacturing base…..in china
people will still need stuff even during a major recession
forecasting the california economy shrinking into north dakota size? get serious…
“…forecasting the california economy shrinking into north dakota size?”
Not going to happen. In fact, despite the adjustment pain involved, once the price levels come back down from their temporarily unaffordable plateau and realign with incomes, California’s natural geographic advantages will kick the economy out of reverse and back into forward.
Answer to Claudia:
“People seem to forget that the economy of the state is a lot more diversified than a lot of places. There is banking, insurance, import/export, entertainment, farming, tourism, manufacturing, etc. Here’s a link to some information on how diverse California’s economy is:”
There is NO manufacturing done in SCal. There are thousands of processing operations such as Chemical plants,food processing, refining, metals fab-alterations, Bio-testing labs,machining, aero-plant materials testing,ect. 99% of the jobs done by unskilled-semi-skilled mostly immigrant green carders or their 1st gen offspring at just above minimun wage levels. The locations of these plants are in the run=down grimy increasingly ‘hispanized’ parts of LA such as Commerce, Santa Fe Springs, Vernon,City of Industry,Sun Valley,East/north Van nuys, Burbank industrial strips, ect. They are in fact Grimy sweatshop ‘factory zones’ employing sweatshop laborers.
The enteratinment sector based in West LA provides high income but only affects LA Westside. a miniscule part of LA/SCAL. CA Tourism is overrated and provides zilch pay.
Banking,insurance, finance are mostly low-level bank clerks working out of shopping malls. Yeh, those LA Dwtn/Century city hi-rises emblazened with the Wells Fargo, AIG, ect logos really matter to 95% of LA’ers at the bottom of the economic totem pole.
Import/export/logistics/warehousing/distributing is all about handling and moving all that imported china-crap going thru the LA Ports. 90% of the jobs in this sector are low-paying warehouse packagers,fork lifters, local del drivers,warehouse clerks.ect. Only the top distribution managers, VIPs which are 5% of the employed ,make over $100,000 a year. Class A truckers can make good income but their work/pay is very unsteady.
There is your ‘diversified’ Scal/LA jobs sector: 90 % of jobs basically low-paying sectors done by immigrants/other unskilled. And i haven’t even gone into other wonderful diversified hi-paying sectors as School/parks custodian,Local delivery drivers,Retail, food service, hospitality,security guards, unskilled constructions laborers, Janitors, local run-of the mill realtors and other RE ‘clerks’,housenmaids, ect.
Yep:real diversity to support half-million $Scal home prices!
Here another quote from You:
“And the entire California economy hasn’t been based on fraud for the last 11 years”
No But There has been plenty of fraud based right here in good-ol LA. AS a matter of fact 30-50% of LA economy is underground,mainly in the illegal alien community. Not only that but the amt of fraudulent/criminally evasive illegal transactions in such areas as Cash Auto repairs-parts, illegal drugs, illegal alien smuggling, auto theft. auto insurance scams,medical fraud rings,
untracted Street vending, warehouse theft and fencing,ect, has effectively created a thriving LA underground economy which in turn provides plenty of ‘Street’cash for the illegals/green card Hospanics to actually be a main engine of the LA Economy.
“…forecasting the california economy shrinking into north dakota size?”
‘California’s natural geographic advantages will kick the economy out of reverse and back into forward. ‘
Anyone who looks that the size of the California economy, the percentage of ALL US imports that come through California’s ports, and the level of agriculture in California will realize that the angry fantasy of those in flyover country (when I grew up there it was “California will fall into the ocean during an earthquake!’) is just that. California is like few other places on earth. There are more opportunities within a 50 mile radius of my home here than in the state where I grew up (Kansas) and all the surrounding states combined.
“Aerospace industry goes away - POW California takes a bullet to the leg but hobbles on and heals up although with a nasty limp.
Auto and other heavy industry goes away - BAM California takes a gut shot but still has a strong constitution and recovers. However, lingering gut problems lead to indigestion and problems with gas.
Dot Com industry collapses - WHAM it’s a chest shot to poor California. But risky experimental surgery keeps the patient alive while tons of toxic drugs are pumped into it’s veins…it’s touch and go…but everytime the patient falters the doc pumps in more dangerous chemicals.
Now, KABOOM! and the housing industry disintegrates in a cloud of fraud and greed and fear and loathing. The drugs are cut off from the patient, the stiches burst open from the internal pressure, the cancer within is exposed and the patient DIES!”
That is really good, you should write a screen play or movie of the week with stuff like this.
I wonder if they will ever make a movie out of the bubble crash?
It can combine all of the elements that make for an excellent movie Action, Drama, Science Fiction, comedy and horror.
>
Not for long baby! The globalists are getting ready to eliminate all those expensive longshoremen and related folk in Cali! The Asian goods are going to be shipped to Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico, from where they will be shipped to mega distribution centers in Kansas. Why do you think they are getting ready to allow Mexican truckers to drive deep into the US?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_and_Prosperity_Partnership_of_North_America
Response to peter m:
With such a long and thoughtful response, I’m amazed that you left out the pornography industry which thrives in the SFV. And SFV and Burbank have a lot of entertainment jobs too! Warner Brothers, Disney, Dreamworks, Universal, etc. The recording industry is alive and well in the Valley and Hollywood too.
The interesting thing about the pornography business is that it is basically recession-proof. They actually seem to do better when more people are out of jobs… Imagine that.
With Mexican trucks being allowed to cross the borders now, California will become alot less important to the Asian import business. Why pay union workers $60/hr when you can pay Mexicans $2/hr? Manufacturing and tech has been outsourced. Now it will be our shipping industry. Next there will be Chinese workers on the oil rigs in the Gulf and Alaska “doing jobs that Americans don’t want to do” (for slave wages)
I think that the House voted overwhelmingly a couple of weeks ago to quash the Bush administration pilot program allowing Mexican trucks into the U.S., that would have resulted in unlimited access to Mexican trucks on US highways after one year. A bipartisan, veto-proof majority.
If the entertainment industry ever collapses, then I will start to worry about California. But I have two children gainfully employed in that industry and don’t see this happening any time soon.
I think that the House voted overwhelmingly a couple of weeks ago to quash the Bush administration pilot program allowing Mexican trucks into the U.S., that would have resulted in unlimited access to Mexican trucks on US highways after one year. A bipartisan, veto-proof majority.
It won’t matter, as the super-corridor will also have train tracks. The containers will be transfered directly to trains in Lazaro Cardenas and taken straight into Kansas. That which doesn’t travel by train will be shipped via semis to the border. In any case the US Pacific ports will be either shut down or have substantially reduced traffic. If I was a longshoreman or a teamster I would be very worried about my future.
i remember the quash too - look, until they take our drivers tests and their trucks meet all our safety standards, i say no way, jose….
No But There has been plenty of fraud based right here in good-ol LA. AS a matter of fact 30-50% of LA economy
LA isnt California… Sorry Charlie … where is the Wine of Napa the High Tech of Silicon Valley Agriculture of Central Valley or the Lumber of Eureka… in LA?
California used to be a first world state, too. Now it’s turning into one giant, gang-infested barrio. Will the last Anglo out please take down the flag?
Just wait until the Mexican Narco-Mafia takes over Cali!
“Just wait until the Mexican Narco-Mafia takes over Cali!”
They are already calling the shots in Bell/maywood/cudahy Hunt park,Vernon, In case anyone is curious, these are sections of LA county which are located approximately along the Long Beach fwy(710) where it meets the 5 Fwy. This is an old industrial grimy pocket of LA which has become quite slummified and densely overrun with illegals. In fact Huntingtom park may be the most Hispanized 100% immigrant community in all CA.
There was a long article in the LA weekly(I thinK) which was titled ‘The Town that law forgot’. It was originally posted on Bens Blog by TXChick. The article decribes how these forgotten beragged burgs have become quite ‘Tijuana-sized’ with Latino Gang Narco elements best buddies with the CuDahy major, and the rampant Tijuana -style police and civic corruption in maywood/bell/cudahy/vernon.
Think this can’t happen in LA city? The LA civic leaders almost **hitted their pants over the angry local response to the Macarthur park LAPD ‘incident’:in fact they cowered and completeluy surrendered to the local Hispanic activists and radical nutcases, which only emboldens all the gang criminal elements of LA,who will dig their tentacles into the already partly-corrupt LA Politician Hacks, tijuana style.
Mexico-Narco?
How about the Texas based Enron who stole 9 billion from californian Consumers? Do any recall the rolling black outs we had ? End enron was shut down and the black outs stopped.
Economist Christopher Thornberg addressed this by looking at the last recession (early 90s) vs the most recent one (2001-2002), looking at what jobs returned that pulled California out of the recession.
“What kind of jobs aren’t coming back? Sectors that service the external economy, and provide us with trade with the rest of the world. What kind of jobs have we been adding? Top 3 sectors: Construction, Credit Intermediation, and Retail Trade. In other words, California is all about building new homes, financing the building of new homes, and furnishing our new homes. We’re in a home-driven economy top-to-bottom.”
video here (@19:50)
“We’re in a home-driven economy top-to-bottom.”
But homes are tradeable commodities, so long as out-of-state and out-of-country investors are still willing to sink money into CA real estate.
Great presentation! Exellent FACT’s given with just the right inflections of “HEY LISTEN PEOPLE”! He was only wrong about the 25% drop that would’nt happen this year. Hello 2003,02,01,00,89
This Video is one year old and still, 98% of the sheeple don’t have a clue.
My Dear Claudia,
I’m a Cali native, born and raised. It’s not jealousy, It’s just that I see my state going to the dogs.
My home state has been turned over to realtor pimps and people with no sense of history or community. How do you feel?
I live close to Hollywood and downtown LA, and I see things like the Groves shopping center and the downtown revitalization and it just makes me feel invigorated! California may get smacked around every decade or so, but like someone else said — it’s a beautiful state. The climates, the terrain, the different regions… I don’t think many regions can compete with all that. Plus, despite what others may say, we do have a very diverse economy. When one thing declines, something else takes it’s place.
It s*cks that I can’t afford to buy a house around here, but on the other hand, with gas prices going up, would I really rather live in Podunksville and drive 20 miles just to buy groceries? I think I’ll just stay here and wait until all the flippers have flopped…
“I live close to Hollywood and downtown LA”
Dear god! Nightmaresville.
I escaped the OC 14 years ago and I ain’t never goin’ back. Everything that’s wrong with the world can be summed up in the LA Basin. Santa Barbara to San Diego can slide off into the sea an I wouldn’t shed a tear. And that ain’t jelousy speaking, trust me.
As a fourth generation Californian who has left the state (at least for now), I agree with Claudia. California could easily be a separate and powerful country, unlike most other states. RE prices have lost touch with reality for the moment, but the state has enormous assets, vitality and potential, and will adjust.
Claudia,
California is a beautiful state, from the desert to the sea to all of California ( a little retro to Jerry Dunphy there). It’s the people who stink. As I stated earlier, the state’s been turned over to realtor pimps and people who don’t care about community. I was born in 1958. When I was a kid the only time someone moved out of my neighborhood is when they died. Everyone owned their homes to live in and provide a stable environment, not to buy and sell and exploit.
Today, the people who are moving to Cali care only about exploiting the state with no interest in building a community where future generations can own a home and raise children in stable, safe neighborhoods. California is the mortgage fraud capital of the U.S.A because the people here are rapacious.
I mourn for the California that I grew up in. Back then neighbors knew each other and people were more live and let live.
“It’s the people who stink.”
Amen brutha. Cali needs a biblical flood in the worst way.
Sorry, it should be “was when they died” not “is when”.
“I live close to Hollywood and downtown LA, and I see things like the Groves shopping center and the downtown revitalization ”
ALL that revitalization you see in Hollywood and Dwtn LA is just Developers putting up more shopping centers,condos, apts,hi-rises,commercial blds, ect. Its all about RE specu=investing and getting returns on invested Capital. True, hollywood has seen a bit of supposed ‘revitalization’ in the old core hollywood blvd/sunset district, what with the building of Kodac theatre and the apparant influx of Hollywood media ent ‘mom and pop’ entreprenours into ‘Old Hollywood’. This does not really matter in the grand larger scheme of LA/CA being a ‘Beautiful state’ because of what much of the rest of LA county looks like. In fact if you go east past vine ave only a short distance along hollywood/sunset blvd you you can observe really trashed out’Hispanized’ sections of LA which would dampen your enthusiasm.
Ditto for DTWN LA hi-rise development: all those hi-rises and talk of new LA DWTN hi-rise heavenly condo districts is just that-all talk. I have spend considerable time in DWTN observing all the new constrcution and going about the several supposed LADWTN Residential districts such a little tokyo, South Park, west Central,ect. And they cannot alter LA’s essential nature: a tiny island/cluster of stupendous hi-rise financial towers(fortresses) surrounded by really scummy third-workd poverty pockets inhabited by poor illegals and the smelly homeless. This is LAdwtn.
Another thing I appreciate about California is how progressive it is.
Stem cell research, computers, hybrid cars, fashion, design trends, food trends, etc. — California always seems to be at the forefront. (This is a double edged sword however, since we are often at the forefront of bad things like gangs too.)
Once you’ve lived here, it’s very hard to go back to places where people don’t care about anything cutting edge.
Back to the original issue: Mortgage fraud. Did that trend start here too?
Umm..I love LA. Sorry folks. My favorite all time bullion coin shop is there. The south Bay beach areas are my favorite. I also love Santa Monica and Malibu. I’m an extreme social liberal and fiscal conservative, so I like things umm…very sacreligous…
But I go where the money trail is and the fishing is very good here in Phoenix for now. I have a spreadsheet where I plug in the numbers when prospective gigs across the USA show up. As long as there is overtime here, this Phoenix temp location is the place to work. I love it where the money is.
I’m a OC native that escaped too. I did go back to LA for a second useless AA and grad school. Worked in the film industry and did some consulting work in fashion while there. I have some great stories but couldn’t wait to get out. We used always joke that the LA philosophy was “it’s all about what you like, not who you are”.
Both the film industry and textile business are not as strong in LA as they used to be 20 yrs ago. Sure you still have a some jobbers and CMT houses (nothing bit salesman samples) hanging on but really, it’s all been decentralized. Junior Budget wear is a tough business, which most of what is left, and I still have friends relocating overseas to run the company while they leave a small skeleton crew in CA. Only NY seems to be retaining it’s clothing industry core with production all taking place overseas and some large corporation like Mast based in Columbus.
“Everything that’s wrong with the world can be summed up in the LA Basin. Santa Barbara to San Diego can slide off into the sea an I wouldn’t shed a tear.”
Not beautiful Santa Barbara, a paradise on earth?! It is different here!
Wow, y’all are who are bagging on California are just sad. I climbed the highest peak in L.A. this morning (Mt. Lukens) and it was incredible! Saw snakes, deer, Catalina Island, gorgeous wildflowers. Too bad your experience of the state and its people was so lousy. I’ve traveled to almost every state + throughout much of the world and I would never live anywhere else.
Another thing I appreciate about California is how progressive it is.
Stem cell research, computers, hybrid cars, fashion, design trends, food trends, etc.
FWIW, hybrid cars are a Japanese product. People all over the US buy them, not just in Cali.
Once you’ve lived here, it’s very hard to go back to places where people don’t care about anything cutting edge.
Oh please. California has to be the SUV and Hummer capitol of the US.
Response to peter m:
I’ve spent a lot of time downtown since 1982. I’m very familiar with the various areas. If you don’t think downtown has improved since 1982, then you really haven’t been around much. In 1982, I remember stepping over entire families sleeping on the sidewalk near Broadway and 2nd. You don’t see families with little kids on the streets at 3 a.m. anymore. (I used to feel so sorry for them. No tiny child deserves to sleep on the sidewalk.)
No one lived downtown in the triangle area until they built the first condos on Figueroa in the 1980s. I know someone who bought one of those first condos and he loved it. No more commuting to work, it was a 10 minute walk.
If I were cynical, I would think it was all about specu-vesting too — but I’m not that cynical. Why restore all of those old buildings when they could just tear them down and put up brand new skyscrapers? It would be a LOT cheaper! No retrofitting. No scratching around for authentic Lalique lighting fixtures (which cost a mint) to replace the ones the original owners destroyed.
No, LA is undergoing a revitalization and it’s been a long time coming and I, for one, am glad. I’m glad the people who are investing in the downtown area are making it better, not just newer.
“In fact if you go east past vine ave only a short distance along hollywood/sunset blvd you you can observe really trashed out’Hispanized’ sections of LA which would dampen your enthusiasm.”
Been there, didn’t see what you saw. Did you see Thai-town?
Also, earlier you stated that there was NO manufacturing done in Southern California. I stress the “NO” because that is exactly what you wrote. Watson pharmaceuticals makes drugs in Corona. Check it out. They don’t even use illegals to make them. That might blow you away. Imagine! Generic drugs being manufactured in SoCal!!
good posts all….. i left la - i hated it. mostly the people, not the natural beauty which gets more blighted everyday. when i lived there, you could still walk the promonade in sm; there were no homeless descending into laurel canyon; the industry still mainly filmed in la (not canada, etc.). that is not to say there was no homeless!!!
look, la as we knew it no longer quite exists - it will remain, but not what you probably want. anyone else miss Bullocks Wilshire - one of the most amazing art deco buildings i have ever seen…anyone?
ps the grove is surrounded by nasty, nasty hollywood drug-addled neighborhoods. sorry, it’s the truth. th egrove does not make me want to move back.
what do i miss? the hollywood bowl, poquito mas tacos. Not too much more.
oh, I forgot, I miss Neptune’s Net - up the pch
….and Texas would be the truck capital.
Crazy Credit, you’re dead on. The LA that people love is an entirely different entity from what exists today. This Saturday I was reminded of what I loved so much about LA when I took my little girl down to Back on the Beach Cafe, and after some swing time and a little breakfast with her and her grandmother, we walked out to the beach and had a swell time. No crowds, no parking hassles. A quintessential California day. This was largely because it was Memorial Day Saturday and everybody who’s somebody had left West LA for vacation and left the place eminently livable.
Bottom line, there are far, far too many people living here right now and it’s destroyed LA. If you live on the westside, you’d have to be insane to drive out to a Dodger game or Laker game, or the Hollywood Bowl. If you have friends in Pasadena or Silverlake, they might as well live in Phoenix. One of the great joys of growing up in LA was having access to many different cities within the larger city. Now traffic is so stupefyingly horrendous that getting just about anywhere is tough. A buddy of mine was heading out to a meeting a few weeks ago from his home in Santa Monica to Beverly Hills. He called me two hours into his journey, having just made it to the Westwood and Wilshire. (This is about a 15 drive with no traffic.)
Please excuse my whiskey-infused meanderings, but it saddens me that this place has turned so rotten.
ps the grove is surrounded by nasty, nasty hollywood drug-addled neighborhoods.
WTF? The Grove is surrounded by largely Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods. I lived on the other side of Beverly Blvd. for nearly 10 years and still think it’s one of the better neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Unfortunately I’m now priced out of it now, as rents have doubled and house prices tripled or worse.
I’m not sure if I’m replying to the person who originally started the post, so forgive me if it ends up in a crazy place. I had to step in and say a couple things about California, though.
Simply put, I love this place. I lived here for less than a year in the Santa Rosa/Sebastopol area when my kids were young, and when we finally were able to move back (the ex is a native San Diegan) when I drove over the Sierra I screamed “Honey, I’m home!” at the top of my lungs out the window.
Until the last few years, when my knees gave out, I skied every winter and hiked every summer. I camped at least one weekend a month for most of the year, and I had to be cautious in that camping because there are still Wild Things here. In the Midwest, the only dangerous creatures you need to guard against while camping are the humans, so this added a whole different element. Some people would not find this a plus, but I do.
Where I grew up, the so-called “Heartland”, agribusiness grows soybeans and corn for animal food. You could only occasionally find locally-grown veggies and fruits, and only then from very small operators who were basically selling stuff out of their home gardens. Cali, as Mark Twain said, is “the Land of Fruits and Nuts” — but some of those fruits and nuts are edible! I can not swing a cat without hitting an organic farmer at one of the many Farmer’s Markets here. Even in metro areas, like Sacramento (which, believe it or not, is actually a pretty large city).
People are in general, tolerant. And there are many diverse cultures, some of which have been here for just as long or longer than the EuroAmerican one, including Chinese and Japanese as well as the Mexican. I have never felt so free to be who I actually am as I have felt in Cali. For most of my childhood and young adulthood in downstate, rural Illinois, I hid my spiritual beliefs and my political leanings.
Yes, Californians are obsessively concerned with their looks and image, and they tend to be shallow in many ways. But they also hold up very well through fires, earthquakes and floods/mudslides. Truth be told, Californians seem to accept that they do not control nature, and they deal with the inevitable tragedies with as much grace and strength as any Midwesterner. Up until our National Guard got sent to Iraq, I would have bet that the response here to any natural disaster was light years ahead of the typical response in the Midwest.
Yes, Californians are going to learn some hard lessons, and some necessary ones. This whole obsession with conspicuous consumption pretty much started here. And as far as environmental issues go, it always breaks my heart that the average native Californian doesn’t seem to cherish the great gifts that have been bestowed by nature here.
The middle class is suffering all over the US, and has been eroding in rural areas and small towns all over for decades now. Other states don’t have the manufacturing jobs, either. Witness Michigan, and the failing US auto industry. Winters are bitterly cold across most of the Midwest, and summers can be nearly as hot as it is here and the humidity makes it even worse. Those “good folk” back there really are good — hey, I’m Scots-Irish and those are my roots. But they also tend not to question authority nearly enough, and they are very clannish. They also gossip, and can be very judgemental of one another and certainly of anyone they perceive of as an “outsider” — which is what you are and will always be if you move to a small town in the Midwest or South.
Cali isn’t the be-all and end-all, and there is absolutely nothing in most of the inland areas of Cali or in LA that would justify real estate prices that are 10 x the median income. But I’d rather remain a relatively happy and prosperous renter in Cali than to own a home in my old hometown. (I also forgot to mention that when we moved here, while our cost of living did go up, it was more than offset by the much greater salaries that we were earning. That remains the same for my career; I can earn quite a bit more here than in other places. This is not true for everyone, though.)
Except for now…..It depends on cheap labor….
Claudia, don’t say, “never”.
Gold rush? Hmmm. . .
As a californinian that doesn’t participate in all the get rich quick scams. I have to agree with you that there are a certain group of people out here that take advantage of whatever situation they can. Unfortunately because the feds and police are so inept they tent to get away with it.
It’s frustrating…
Rob a liquor store with a gun and your take is $235.00 and get caught = 20 years in jail
Rob somebody by bamboozling them with a bunch of pretty numbers, pages long and your take is $100,000 to many Millions
and get caught = 1-3 years in jail
I understand what you’re trying to say, but there’s a big difference. I’ve never heard of someone, with a gun to their head, urinating and defecating all over themselves thinking their life is ending because they got into an ARM. But it’s quite common with armed robbery victims. Nobody should EVER have to endure that. Armed robbers are punks who SHOULD see hard time. The more the better, IMO.
urinating and defecating all over themselves thinking their life is ending because they got into an ARM
It wouldn’t surprise me in the least to hear over the next few years of people committing suicide because of their mortgages.
Californians?
As I and many other Natives will tell you, we dont have EGOS… many of these people have come from the East Coast… their elitist EGOS have inflated prices here. For a fact only 1/3 of Californians today were born in the state. Fact is many of use who lived in the 80s will keep telling many that as home prices skyrocket there is a greater chance that jobs will be exported. We saw this many times over over a large spectrum of industries. Its the loony East Coast Elitist who keep believing in the idoitic nonsense of the NAR and the local CAR propaganda.
This whole country’s operating methodology has been based on fraud…so it’s nothing new. The US couldn’t operate it it weren’t…much like Britain.
READ THE BOOK…”Rum: A Social and Sociable History of the Real Spirit of 1776 ” - by Ian Stewart…it’ll give you a good idea how much corruption was part of creating this country.
Nice post but need a small correction, the right wording would be:
American economy has been based on fraud for the last 11 years. First it was the dotcom fraud, which pulled hundreds of billions of investment dollars into USA. When that scam went belly up in 2001 the housing scam started. Now the real estate fraud is collapsing and in my opinion there is no other scam waiting in the wings to prop up the phony USA economy.
Over the coming years Americans are going to have their egos adjusted and perhaps will learn that they don’t walk on water and are no different than Humans in Mexico or India.
A mortgage broker buddy of mine in Stockton CA told me a competing morgage broker was hauled off in handcuffs last week.
Spreading news of stories like that one might serve to quickly correct the mortgage fraud problem.
You would think… but it’s not going to work that way. There is always someone out there who thinks they are smarter than the feds.
The 6.2% Claremont drop made me smile. A former econ prof of mine had written a book a few years ago denying a bubble. In the NYT article about him and his economist wife, they were pictured in their Claremont house.
Lionel, I think I remember reading about them, also in the LATimes; were they the ones who had some ’sure-fire formula’ for real estate success, or something along that line?
I don’t think it’s the same couple. For the most part, he’s a pretty conservative thinker, not a huckster. He and his wife crunched data comparing house prices and rental costs across the country and concluded that the bubble didn’t exist nationally. Claremont was one of the places that they determined was not in a bubble.
Here’s an article about them:
http://www.collegenews.org/x5508.xml
Lionel: Those two academic economists concluded in April 2006 that southern California housing was not overpriced, using a model they concocted. It just goes to show that you can create a model to support anything. Thanks for finding that article - it’s amazing. Have they admitted their errors now?
Maybe their “institution of higher learning” was paid a commission to peform some economic research by some shill RE organization? How often are studies from academia (or think tanks, for that matter) nothing more than rubber stampings for monied organizations with an agenda? Follow the money trail.
And I wonder how much human pain and suffering is directly attributable to their report? For how many people was this report their “tipping point” that led them to commit financial suicide? We will never know that answer.
Got 10% down?
I read (much of) the paper to see how they arrived at their conclusion.
One debatable point is they assume rents will go up 3% per year forever, but their discount rate, or estimated rate that you could earn on your money if you weren’t spending it on a house, is only 6% after tax. In other words they assume you can only earn 3% above inflation in the stock market or other investments. Meanwhile, a few years back the “Dow 36,000″ guys also used a low discount rate of 6% to argue that the Dow should be at 36,000.
Also, they have two data sets: one where they tried to match similar houses that were sold and rented, and one where they asked homebuyers what they would pay in rent if they were renting their new house instead of buying. The second data set showed more of a disconnect between prices and rents than the first data set. The professors’ reaction was, “Huh, I guess homebuyers underestimate what market rents are.” But maybe the second data set was the correct one and there was something wrong with their first data set (although I don’t know what that would be).
“Mortgage fraud is on the rise…”
————————————————————–
How can something be on the rise if it has not declined. How many letters a week do you STILL receive pitching still another sub-prime? Who is buying into this shit? If not you, who? We are sitting on the plateau (three years). The calm before the st…
The mortgage brokers are looking for blind lead, any blind leads!
You will still get ads but we won’t know until later if they keep getting funded.
Those loans being advertised are not fraud per se… So there is no harm in advertising them. The fraud part comes in when burger flippers make 100k a year on the side while maintaining their McDonalds job for health benefits.
I wonder how many of those subprime solicitation letters are bait-and-switch dangles.
I listen to local real estate cheerleader shows on the radio on weekends (I know, I need to get a life.) Over the past month, the cheerleaders have finally stopped cheering. I smiled on Saturday when the RE agent hosting the show closed by saying, “I have 54 listings that aren’t moving; everyone drop your prices $100,000.” Finally. This week’s show topic: RE fraud. Yay.
“The Eagle Ridge Estates home sold in 30 days for $550,000, $30,000 below the list price.”
$550K in….Redding???
no offense to Redding-ites. (or is it Redding-anians?)
Redding is OK. $550K sounds like a bit much. What’s the median household income in Redding? Sounds like these folks did OK, all things considered.
“Redding is OK. $550K sounds like a bit much. What’s the median household income in Redding? Sounds like these folks did OK, all things considered.”
Median household income in Redding is like $42k. Redding is totally bubblicious.
Looks like the trend of selling and moving to Seattle is still intact, locusts…
Well, at least the migration is slowing down. As to the latest Californian migrants … we’ll see how much they love Seattle come November.
Well, at least the migration is slowing down. As to the latest Californian migrants … we’ll see how much they love Seattle come November.
we’ll see how much they love Seattle come November
Maybe, but it is hard to imagine loving Redding, ever.
“For about $3,500, Thulin met with the Lhamons before staging the home. The Eagle Ridge Estates home sold in 30 days for $550,000, $30,000 below the list price.”
LMAO! People are indeed idiots. If they’d just cut their price 30K from the beginning, they would’ve saved the $3500. That just makes me chuckle.
We had dinner Saturday night with two couples who are moving out of Sacramento; both putting their houses on the market. They have moved in with relatives and hired stagers. My advice: price it low. They nodded.
I didn’t hire stagers when selling (last year) but it was certain that my good-looking antiques helped sell a working-class house (occupied by the town laundress 50 years ago) as some sort of attractive vacation residence.
Maybe. But $550k for Redding is pretty good (from their perspective). I think it sounds absurd and depressing. Another locust heads north courtesy of some California idiot who never passed long division. You can be sure the Lhamons will be overpaying in some shi shi Seattle neighborhood soon.
OMG a Redding post! I sold my home in Redding for $900,000 last fall. There’s not too many $500k or over houses but they do exist but. A lot of Bay Area folks have been able to cash out on $500k or more of equity - although that ship has propable already sailed. In the good times probably 5-10 homes a month sold for $500k plus. Now I think it’s about 2-3. Development has stopped - with some projects down to a skeleton crew but prices remain sticky. I used to think we wold have a large correction which is why I sold my home. I know think that this will be different than the early 90s. I don’t think prices will decline too much. But I also don’t think they will go up for a LONG time - 10 years. I think this cycle will be a lot like Japans Lost Decade. Foreign demand and global liquidity will prevent collapse but we will have zombie companies (CFC) just like Japan
Invest in handcuffs and orange jump suits. Sure winners.
Maybe California NEEDS another good EARTHQUAKE…just to get over-priced POS HOUSES…Moving AGAIN !
A big quake might not be enough to immediately get the market moving again, but it would certainly speed the trend towards increased affordability.
I think the houses would be moving as in rolling and shaking and falling down.
‘A big quake might not be enough to immediately get the market moving again’
Most of the Sacramento River delta area was once swampland drained and farmed with the use of earthen levees that are now a century old. Now most of those farmlands are covered with residential developments and 40% of So Cal’s water comes from the Sacramento River Delta and another 25% comes from the Owens Valley. One major quake in the wrong place could conceivably cause liquefaction of the levees and disrupt the aquadects from the Owens Valley, flooding many thousands of homes and drastically interrupting the water supply for 25 million people. Yes, a big quake in Central Calif could be a much bigger disaster than most people realize, like the Katrina/Bu$hco disaster for New Orleans.
Nope, won’t need a earthquake this time, the tsunami of foreclosures are going to do the trick.
God might throw in a quake and a riot just for laughs, like in the early 1990s California RE meltdown.
The state can weather those 7.0 quakes; the 8.0 quake will be horrible. And it will come.
Historically speaking we’re overdue, too.
Yikes! Let me take issue with the many who wish ill on Californians. As much as it pains me to say it, I have found them to be no different than most other folks. So the thought that they would go through anything like Katrina is heart wrenching. I think some damage to the California ego would be good, however.
Funny all of you pointing at CA and proclaiming doom that will be worse than other places. Please remember that CA foots 25% of the federal budget. I agree we are hosed, but we are ALL HOSED. If you think CA will turn into deeper crap quicker than elswhere I think your wrong. At least with the price of commodities that we produce in CA going into hyperinflation we will have some real income. Those places that derive their jobs from services and throw away consumer nicities that went ballistic in the bubble will fare much worse than CA. Formost in my mind are Arizona, Nevada, Florida and the North West. I am not sure of all the production in these places, but lumber is dead… expensive vacations are dead… retiring in dead… disposable consumer crap (tvs, computers, phones, ipods, etc..) is dead.
The most amazing thing I have heard lately is the Iphone!!!
$500 freaking dollars for a phone!!!!!
I think that thing is gonna be the death nell for apple. That stock is priced for perfection based on peoples willingness to spen big bucks for things the do not really need.
The other recent (last 5-8 years) thing is all these coffe shops that have opened us here in Stockton. I like a good cup of coffee, but you can kiss my ass if you think I’mma pay $5/day!!! Just freaks me out seeing the same crouds in these places every day as I drive by.
IMO all this idle life of luxury crao will quickly collapse when faced with $6/ gallon gas+milk and food tripling from here. As far as I can see this may be a conservative view, but when faced with being hungry or buying some hip tunes from apple It is obvious what is gonna go first.
CA will raise the cost of connecting to the world through our ports and also bennefit from producing agricultural products that will skyrocket in US$ price. The true fact is that when prices in CA even get close to those in the mid west all the okies will once again load up the pickup and head for CA. There are valid reasons that CA has allways been more expensive than other places and those havent gone away. We will certainly crash and burn, I would dare say we will fare better here in CA than in these huge subdivisions they threw up in Nevada and Arizona, don’t know much about Florida but they are historically ground zero for RE collapse.
I like a good cup of coffee, but you can kiss my ass if you think I’mma pay $5/day!!!
LOL! Amen brother!! This is a very west coast thing that is simply stupid, but folks think makes them “cutting edge.” I shudder at all the boring conversations about Peet’s Coffee I have been subjected to. Starbucks? Please! Every poseur from Redding to Pocatello loves to hang out and feel “cutting edge” as the sip away at their retirement.
Microbrews, mmm, no that’s another story
been there, done that
no thanks!!!
Dont need earthquakes… outsourcing of high paid engineering jobs is taking its toll. More and more jobs moving overseas. Silicon Valley produces deflationary products due to heavy intense global competition. Prices for goods and services are falling, increase in salaries is counter productive so many employers are moving out of state or country.
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=722
The incipient Latino-on-black ethnic cleansing and racial tensions in some LA neighborhoods, while still relatively isolated and low-level, are very disturbing from a “writing on the wall” standpoint.
I just rented to a tenant who moved out of their former apartment because someone just walked up to their kid while he was eating at a taco stand and killed him, for no reason. They moved because they were too heartbroken to stay in the same place.
Then I’m talking to a black plumber we frequently use, and he tells me one of his 2 sons, age 18, was shot and killed, also no apparent reason.
Another tenant had his head grazed by a bullet while driving on a freeway “for no reason”, although I suspect he’s a gangmember or hangs out with them.
Anyway, I was wondering what’s going on with all these anonymous killings, and the answer I got is it’s some sort of gang initiation thing, like, “you want to join us, go kill that guy”. Pretty scary. Either that, or it’s that black vs. Mexican conflict that’s going on now?
“Anyway, I was wondering what’s going on with all these anonymous killings, and the answer I got is it’s some sort of gang initiation thing, like, “you want to join us, go kill that guy”. Pretty scary.”
Unfortunately, that’s the kind of senseless crap the hispanic gangs like to engage in. These spineless cholos give honest, caring, hard working Mexicans a bad name. Law enforcement needs to start cracking down harder on the gangs.
“Unfortunately, that’s the kind of senseless crap the hispanic gangs like to engage in. These spineless cholos give honest, caring, hard working Mexicans a bad name. Law enforcement needs to start cracking down harder on the gangs”
AS all of you who follow LA CITY News know by now, LA has a HUGH GANG PROBLEM. Unforetunately the Problems of LA Gangs are protean and pretty much rooted in the impoverished Latino Ghettos, and may pass along from Generations within a single Latino Family/neighborhood. There are hundreds/maybe thousands of these degenerated impoverished latino/Mexican Barrios where Gangs are deeply rooted, and the initiations start quite early. Such areas as East LA,LA Puente, Carson, east Torrance, Montebello,ElMonte,Inner LA ring zones, rampart,Wilmington,Hrbor city,East SFV s*itzones, Lncoln hts, El Sereno.ect, may have generations old Latino neighborhoods where gang ‘traditions’ and culture pass thru each generation.
BTW
Rocky Delgadillo is doing this in LA. He’s a great City Attorney.
“Rocky Delgadillo is doing this in LA. He’s a great City Attorney. ”
Bwwwwaaahhhhaaaa… he must have been under your desk as you typed that. Are you kidding me…
Glad to hear you draw the distinction between worthless cholos and hardworking mexicans. I grew up with many mexican workers. They kicked my ass working in the fields, blew me out of the water working in a restaurant kitchen, and shamed me in beer drinking as a young man. Anyone who says lazy mexican has not worked around them. But chicken walking, hair net wearing, gun-toting cholos are another story. I say let the other guys go an send them to Guantanamo!
“AS all of you who follow LA CITY News know by now, LA has a HUGH GANG PROBLEM.”
My long post on the problem of LA gangs got cut off. No matter! My point is that LA Latino gangs are so rooted in impoverished Barrios that LAPD’s/local city authorities attempts to deal wth them are basically just blowing hot air/PR to a concerned LA public.
Yes, There has been a city-wide coordinated crackdown on certain notorious gangs such as the harbor city 205th, the 18th st , and Canoga Park Alabama, and this may quiet things for a while but the deeply rooted gang culture never quite goes away as long as there are impoverished Latino Ghettos and an endless supply of new recruits from fresh incoming waves of illegals who also bring gang traditions from the mean streets of Mexico city, Tijuana , Guat and Salvador.
MY experience with gang-bangers comes from working with them in the Restaurant-fast food business. Not to excuse their Often Violent Criminal acts but much of it is in the form of retaliation, retribution, revenge against other rival gangs, and generally the wider general public never notices intergang warfare in the ghettos.
It’s looking like we need to arm 1-2% of the population through concealed weapons permits to dissuade this type of “thing”.
I think that California will someday be entrenched in a racial civil war.
So did Charles Manson. That you Charlie? Just kidding.
Sooner rather than later, too.
May be an interesting topic, the reconquista.
don’t tell me manson is a nostradamas!
Of course, if we had gun control, we could fix this.
Read that article and it seems to be slanted as if the sole guilty parties are Latino gangstas. I have worked in the ghettos of Compton and Southeast LA and dealt with some latino/Black gang-bangers on a personal level. Believe me the violence, retribution, shootings, revenge, tauntings are initated by both sides. The Compton Crips and bloods were notorious instigators of violence in the Compton Ghettos.
E,G. The case of that shooting of a 14 yr old black female tenager by a latino gang-banger of the 205th harbor city gang was in retaliation for a shooting/ killing of a latino by a black gangsta.
The S cal poverty law center decrys it as a deliberate racist cleansing campaine. BS. It is all about Control of territory for drug dealing, who controls the hood, revenge-retaliation attacks on each other, ect. It’s all about power and control of the ghetto hoods. Racial cleansing has nothing to do with it. Black gangsta thugs are equally as gulty of fomenting racial aminosities and stirring racial hate as Latino Gangsta-thugs.
The average joe cannot afford $500K homes. Here is what happens:
(www.miamiherald.com/884/story/119400.html)
Flight attendant Joann Soufisiavash bought a sprawling Miramar home for $459,900 almost two years ago using 100 percent financing and two mortgages.
Now she can’t afford the $2,800 payment (not including taxes and insurance), and her home in a gated community is in the process of foreclosure. She owes $502,000 on it. It has been appraised at $439,000.
“My American dream turned into a nightmare,” said Soufisiavash, 46. “I don’t know how this is going to end up.”
I think I hear a popping noise.
Regressive house appreciation!She doesn’t have any skin in the game. Big deal.
Could be a big deal if the mortgage holder gets a deficiency decree or judgment (Fla. Stat. 702.6). She could end up owing $63,000 or more. If there is any fraud in the obtaining the loan, then the debt might not be dischargeable in bankruptcy.
I agree, took a chance on the lottery and wound up paying rent instead. No sympathy here, for her or the lender.
My god…how much do flight attendants make? A $459,900 home seems a little out of line for a flight attendant.
Lettuce pickers are buying $700K houses in California. Maybe that’s why my grocery bill has been so high lately.
Love to see the discussion of fraud in CA. At least in West LA, nobody ‘works’ for a living anymore. OK, that’s an big overstatement, but there are huge numbers of people hear that survive by gaming the system, most lately with the mortgage game. Next will be…? It’s a lifestyle here. Nowhere else have I met so many people who produce nothing, but live high on the hog.
“RealtyTrac Inc. reported 6,879 foreclosure-related filings in Riverside County from January through March, an increase of 94 percent from the first three months of 2006, giving the county one of the highest concentrations of foreclosures in the nation.”
High Forclosure = high fraud. The Inland Empire boom was built on fraud. My brother is a OC loan broker and he did a ton of business in the OC and Inland Empire. If the underwriters has loose standards, he only moved within those lines … and it was loose!
“Nowhere else have I met so many people who produce nothing, but live high on the hog.”
I have noticed this of many Americans in general, it makes me sick. As a country we better get our act together.
We have the good looks of a 1st world country, and the finances of a 3rd world country…
So true, Dukes and aladinsane. It’s going to be a long, painful adjustment. And it will last for years, as people who have not saved for emergencies and retirement will be asking for help.
ahahahahahhaha!
so true! that’s why all the starbucks and coffee houses are full all day everyday!
part of the problem is our messed up tax code. If you actually work at a job, half your earnings go to taxes between federal state and social security taxes. If you “invest” in real estate, you can withdraw home equity and spend it all tax free. when its time to sell your house, the capital gains are free too. and you get a deduction for the interest!
Very true.
In the short run, this means that a few people will be savvy enough to see the game and profit handsomely from it.
In the long run, this tax break is encouraging the greater mass of sheeple to dive headlong into debt and pile more on themselves gleefully.
“The rich require an abundant supply of the poor”
–Voltaire
There are other cash businesses.
Very good point, and very true. One day these policies will serve as a lesson to future generations on how NOT to create policy.
“‘At the lower end, we have subprime issues, foreclosures and unoccupied new housing’ competing with sales of existing homes, CAR chief economist Leslie Appleton-Young said.”
I love how she slipped ‘unoccupied new housing’ into the list of problems challenging the lower end. I guess $700,000 ’starter homes’ have been hit pretty hard by the subprime collapse?
I figure you need a solid $250K income to “start” at $700K.
And there’s the rub! The median SD household income is only around $65K, and I would readily assume the median HH income for those in the market for starter homes might even be lower than $65K…
Exactly, what percentage of people currently in the market to buy have sufficiently high incomes and do not already own. I for one lack sufficient income and am smart enough to rent and keep saving.
Actually, I think the *really* smart ones where the people who had extended families who bought using the zero down, negative amortization loans. They were able to occupy a house cheaper than rent for X amount of time and only damage one family members credit. I believe this is called “working the system.”
I remember once talking to an immigrant from another country. (Legal immigrant, not hispanic.) He was saying “You have a marvelous country here! You come here, you get hurt working — they pay you NOT to work! They pay you to go to school to learn something else!” He had been injured doing auto repair and managed to turn it into two years of college studying computer science. I believe he and his extended family also bought a house in the last five years.
Technically speaking, a lot of those houses ARE occupied - by pot growers, meth cookers, or vagrants.
So, California does have a diverse economy?
And a resilient one…
It will be even more resilient once realistic housing costs allows it to once again compete more effectively on the world stage.
There was a paper recently that tried to establish pot as California’s most important agricultural crop.
It’s true. I live in a county with large and productive agricultural areas, including a lot of wineries that you might think would pull in substantial bucks, but pot is still said to be the number one crop by dollar value.
Hey folks, jokes aside … this is a MAJOR turning point!
Here we have an INDUSTRY SHILL pointing out that the rise in median price is due to the low end not selling, not to inherent demand.
She just as easily could have used the “but the median price is still going up” to gloss over things … as was so common only months ago.
She stole the idea right off this blog.
That’s OK, if we could get NAR and CAR to spout hbb ideas all day long, the market would right itself sooner.
“Mortgage fraud is on the rise in California”
Whatever happened to the poster Paladin? It seems he was gung ho on a website, working with rating agencies, and with the FBI. Is his website up?
I was wondering the same…
Paladin has posted on occasionally.
He is still pursuing the frauds, but the RE fraud pros are now on it as well.
His last update said, that there would be a few big stories coming soon!
One of Casey Serin’s lenders just took a $130,000 hit on the bad [fraudulent] loan it made to him and his co-conspirators. Something tells me that lender will now have more incentive than Palladin to ferret out fraud and poor credit risks.
That was Palladin’s point.
The daggers are being sharpened and the gimp (professional RE fraud investigators) are being woken up and let out of their trunk.
As everybody knows, don’t wake up the gimp.
I’ll bet an enterprising sort could make a good living by hunting down RE frauds that run afoul of the IRS and turning them in for rewards. Could be fun and profitable. I am guessing the the reward would involve the mortgage deduction fraudulently applied to the cash-back.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-perfin25feb25,1,1701590.column
Rewards are from 1% - 30% of the amount recovered, depending on size of the fraud and how much information you deliver.
I think it’s hard to prove cash back after closing, isn’t it? Isn’t it more of a handshake deal? How else could you do it without the lender knowing?
Paladin posted about a month ago with an update. He noted his first goal had been achieved, which was helping blow the lid on the sub prime fraud by notifying lenders, rating agencies and the authorities. The second part of his agenda is to help bust the fraudsters, which is said he is doing. He has been instructed to keep a lower profile. So he seems to be working below the radar screen on individual cases and mentioned publishing a journal of his discoveries and work sometime in mid 2008, here on Ben’s blog.
As California tanks, heaven help all those markets the CA “equity locusts” propped up. I’m sure everyone still “wants to live there”, but few will be buying houses.
My money is on them returning from whence they came. Not a lot of money mind you. One can hope, can’t one?
“…heaven help all those markets the CA “equity locusts” propped up.”
I think I can already hear a giant sucking sound of repatriated CA equity leaving the bubble markets of neighboring states…
I just realized it is the duty of all CA locust to come to Oregon, buy one of our overpriced homes, spend a winter, decide they don’t like our weather, coffee, wine, politics,(after all, this is no Marinabu!) whatever, then decide to sell and lose $1-300k in equity. This will be relatively painless because of $2-400k tax free gains from the previous sale in MonteraBarbara. When they head back to Nirvana by the Sea, prices will have dropped enough that they will still be in the black. Good for them, good for us. After ruining our markets during the last few years, it is the least they could do.
Just back from the Strawberry music festival near Yosemite…
A great time was had by all~
California is essentially grassless, as everything has browned up.
This is bad in 2 ways:
Fires will rage throughout the Golden State, with little water to put them out.
Cattle will have nothing to feed on.
That dryness is nothing new in California. In the mid 70s there was a drought. Then a glut of rain in early 1980s and I think another drought followed that.
Nothing like this one…
It’s bone dry, followed by 2 excellent wet years, that grew plants to the sky~
There will be more wildfires in California this year, than any on record.
And the fb’ers self arsoning their fire-traps, must enter the equation, not in a good way~
Third way: Insurers are losing interest in offering homeowners insurance at rates that state insurance regulators are willing to allow…
—————————————————————————-
Press Release Source: The Allstate Corporation
Allstate Comments on California Homeowners Insurance Rates
Wednesday May 23, 4:36 pm ET
RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Responding to statements made today by California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, Allstate said the following:
“The facts are that Allstate’s California homeowners insurance rates currently in place were reviewed and approved by the California Department of Insurance in 2003, and our policies are competitively priced,” said Rich Halberg, Allstate spokesman for the company’s California Region. “In fact, more than 50,000 Californians chose Allstate for new homeowners insurance policies in 2006, attracted by the value and competitive price of our policies.
“Allstate is seeking a rate increase for homeowners insurance in California - the first in almost four years - so that the company will be in a strong position to help meet the needs of policyholders in California over the long term. This rate increase would reflect the true costs of providing homeowners insurance in the state, including the cost of potential assessments from the California Earthquake Authority and the costs of reinsurance contracts, which help to provide added protection by diversifying catastrophe risk.
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070523/20070523006203.html?.v=1
Get a ‘caveman’ loan from Geico. Buffet and Berkshire will love you.
With the price of construction going down ,I see no reason for Allstate to ask for a rate increase .Most homeowners are not insuring for earthquake anymore because the policies are a joke ,so what risk ,other than fire ,are they talking about in California .
mudslides
I’m feeling a bit chilled…someone throw another FB on the fire.
–
The California Housing Report: Details In the Data Show A Broad-based Price Decline:
http://www.financialsense.com/fsu/editorials/jain/2007/0528.html
Wow. El Dorado County off 20% since the peak. I wonder when they’ll start to get real on some of the wishing prices around there. Land is still absurdly high.
Bill and Ted’s most not excellent real estate investment
“Locally, San Dimas weathered the biggest year-over-year price decline (10 percent), followed by Altadena (6.3 percent) and Claremont (6.2 percent).”
dude, it, you know, kinda sucks
No worries. I just got a flyer to slip into a 50 YEAR mortgage… I’ll only be, let’s see… 97 when this is all mine, free and clear.
Well, gosh-golly. The flyer-stream at the Arizona Slim Ranch has dried up. I haven’t gotten a toxic mortgage offer on a flyer in over a year. Ditto for offers in envelopes or on postcards.
I feel SO left out.
That’ll do pig, that’ll do.
http://tinyurl.com/39b8y2
Realtor to prospective buyer: “Would you like some free swine with that affordably-priced fixer-upper?”
Don’t miss the video which accompanies this story. It is truly over the top.
I’m having increasing trouble telling the difference between the “real” news and the Onion.
What about The Daily Show? Catch Rob Riggle’s report on why gas prices are so high this Memorial weekend.
http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_daily_show/index.jhtml
“Prices trended up because lower- priced homes are not selling as well, leaving their prices out of the mix.”
The usual situation in a declining market — the median stays up or rises slighlty as volume falls. Eventually, a latter phase is entered. And a falling median with rising volume, as low-end houses start to sell, often heralds a recovery.
I got some piece of $hit mail offering me $396K loan on our house (appraised at $320, and bought at $299K in Apr 06). It is a suicide loan, when I read the fine print. But they print it like it is a check for $396K and make it sound so wonderful (lower your payments, extra money for that needed vacation, etc). My $280K loan and $2200 payment are more than enough to handle (fixed 30 yr loan) and these a$$hats think I am going to change. No thank you. How do these idiots in CA think that average people can pay on loan amounts of $1M and up for a substandard POS. And I am looking forward to hearing about large areas of CA going up in flames. No sympathy from me for sob stories in CA. I love hearing more stories about CA FB idiots. Bring em on. Where is Arnold when you need him? Or is Nancy or Barbara or Diane going to come to the rescue, since they have the power of congress.
“…offering me $396K loan on our house (appraised at $320, and bought at $299K in Apr 06)…My $280K loan and $2200 payment are more than enough to handle (fixed 30 yr loan)…I love hearing more stories about CA FB idiots.”
Pardon me, but this sounds an awful lot like the pot calling the kettle black. The fact that you didn’t even have 10% down, stretched yourself with your monthly payments, and purchased at the peak of the market suggests you might be in for a rude awakening yourself. Hope you don’t have to sell anytime soon.
His username of “need 2 leave ca” implies he may need to sell soon.
I would sell now… if he can get $340 for it (show the people that offer!)… he could cover the transaction fees.
I think, from previous posts, that need2leave already left and moved to New Mexico. That’s how he can afford a house. $299K will get you nothing in California.
My wife got an offer to refinance a house she never owned.
Go for it!
All this is good news, but in West LA we still have a ways to go. I house I was looking at sold in one week with ten offers over asking price. I think the asking was around 1.1M (a “low” asking price for these parts), and who knows what it sold for. I’m terribly sorry to report that there are still suckers out there.
Yes, cassiopeia, your wait will be long, but successful. I hope you enjoy just looking at houses (I do), because you should probably wait another 2-3 years. And have the sense to see beyond “staging” - you can find a real diamond in the rough under strange decor, thus snagging a bargain.
RoundSparrow - I left CA over one year ago. I have been on this blog since it started, at that time in the Bay area. I purchased in Albuquerque. Unfortunately, didn’t buy in CA before the runup, and would have sold and left at the height of the bubble. I have no need to sell now. I never plan to move from the house I am in now. I will raise my children here, and a much better environment (for us at least) than what we had in CA.
My wife wants to leave CA (LA area) to move to NYC. I told her we would be trading one rat race for another, but she loves NY as she is originally from there. I will probably cave in and give it a try for a few years as I too have had enough of this plastic little place.
There MUST be a more than a little FRAUD in West LA too. Yahoo has the Median Household Income $21952
That median income is BS.
Housekeepers make more than that. The median is more like $55K on the West Side.
So IS most of California….You HAVE a point
This sort of stuff is the wave of the future for LA…communal SFH
housing. Come to Hollywood…the immigrants from R-ussia and A-rmenian
are doing it. All ethnic groups are doing it in their areas.
Let’s face it folks…LA is DONE. It’s a real craphole with no great
place to go. None of the benefits that people touted about LA are
available anymore. Surf and ski on the same day????? Good
luck…haha.
I’m AR-rmenian by heritage and I’m amazed at where some of these R-ussian
A-rmenian clowns get their money. Shaven heads, cigarettes hanging out
their mouths, Nike track-suits that makes them look incredibly stupid
and low-class…yet they pull up to a coffee shop with an S600 Benz
purchased yesterday and a house at the top of the hill.
If this is the A-merica everyone talks about, they can keep it and do
you know what with it.