People Were Just Buying Anything In California
The Recordnet reports from California. “Home-sales auctions have popped in the Central Valley since last summer, but the latest twist is an online auction for new homes with a bidding process similar to that used by eBay. In its first California online auction, the company will be auctioning off 61 new homes in four Central Valley cities - Lathrop; Gridley, north of Sacramento in Butte County; and Madera and Kerman, both near Fresno.”
“Some residents there aren’t happy about the impending auction. Richard Provencio lives at the north end of a lane that has 14 of the 18 houses to be auctioned off - the remaining four are model homes a block south.”
“‘I feel very robbed,’ he said. ‘These are the same houses I paid $620,000 for, and now they could be selling for $300,000 to $400,000.”‘
“The decline in the foreclosure-riddled neighborhood - and the value of the homes there - has been tough to watch, he said. ‘Bad timing,’ Provencio said. ‘It’s just the luck of the draw.’”
“Recently, he counted 15 houses for sale down the long street from his house, and many sit empty because of foreclosure. ‘Our ghost town,’ he said. ‘It’s just sad, man.’”
“Many of the homes in the development were bought initially by investors, he said. His neighbors — at least until this week, when the landlord lost the house to foreclosure — were renters, he said. Provencio said he had to mow their front yard because the renters wouldn’t.”
“Another development resident, Matt Mettler, wasn’t happy, either. ‘It (stinks) that we paid top dollar, and somebody’s going to get it for half price,’ Mettler said.”
“He bought his house for $472,000 in January 2006 — a house originally listed at $585,000 with $80,000 in upgrades thrown in. He believed then that he had a steal — the model of the month.”
“He found out later that a neighbor down the street bought his same-style house eight months later for nearly $100,000 less. All in all, it’s bad timing, Mettler said. ‘I could have saved $100,000, but what’s done is done,’ he said.”
“Minimum selling prices for the two-, three- and four-bedroom houses will start at $195,000, which is about 40 percent below the previous asking prices of up to $413,900.”
“Harp and Pindy Johal, sisters whose family rents in Tracy, this week toured the four model homes representing 18 homes to be auctioned off next month for San Ramon-based Pacific Mountain Partners.”
“They say they likely will be bidding. ‘I think this is cool,’ said Harp, 19. ‘It’s not like you lose anything for trying. What the heck?’”
The Press Enterprise. “The San Bernardino County district attorney’s office has taken five people into custody and is seeking two more who are suspected of running a bait-and-switch ring using lies and forgery to sell mortgages at predatory interest rates throughout California.”
” District Attorney Michael Ramos said the scheme was marketed over the telephone by callers who said they represented a company called Lifetime Financial. He said victims were told they could refinance their homes and cash out funds at fixed interest rates.”
“Instead they got mortgages with high interest rates they could not afford, Ramos said, and most of the money obtained from refinancing went to the brokers in the form of fees.”
“He said in most cases the terms of the mortgages were set without the borrowers’ permission. That was done, he said by falsifying loan documents, forging borrowers’ signatures, using notary services illegally and padding home values above their market value by using phony appraisals, Ramos said.”
“Tracylyn Sharrit of San Bernardino, said when she went to sign the loan documents at the company’s Studio City office she found the terms had been changed. She said she refused to sign the documents and demanded that they be rewritten. But she said when she called to find out when the new paperwork would be ready, she was told the loan was already in escrow.”
“Sharrit said she and her husband, Ronald, struggled to make the monthly payments on the new mortgage, which she said increased from about $1070 to more than $1800. ‘For the first time in my life I am late on my mortgage,’ Sharrit said.”
The LA Times. “State and local prosecutors said Tuesday that they had shut down a mortgage fraud ring that allegedly victimized thousands of seniors and others, some of whom lost their homes.”
“The six companies were operated by Eric Michael Pony, 25, of Tarzana and family members, the lawsuit said.”
“In a coordinated action, San Bernardino DA Michael A. Ramos announced that Pony, a former real estate salesman, was expected to turn himself in to authorities Tuesday. Pony gave up his state license in September after an investigation by regulators. If convicted, Pony could face 24 years in prison, Ramos said.”
“California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown’s statement described the plight of 75-year-old Luis Garcia. Garcia agreed to a 50-year loan with $1,000-a-month payments but instead was hit with a monthly bill of $2,254.”
“Garcia later found that Lifetime Financial had falsified his income and work history. He couldn’t afford the payments and lost his house.”
“The criminal and civil actions against the Pony family members and associates and their companies are believed to be the most ambitious by law enforcement since California’s once-booming housing industry was hit last year by a crippling downturn. Brown said it was only the first of several legal actions planned to fight mortgage fraud.”
The Associated Press. “In the coming weeks, Brown said he intends to bring additional legal actions, both civil and criminal, against other unscrupulous mortgage lenders and foreclosure consultants.”
“Notary Eli Hassine, 25, is accused of falsifying signatures and even misspelling names in the process.”
“As part of the seizure of the mortgage group’s assets, prosecutors froze multiple bank accounts, seized 16 properties in Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Antonio worth more than $6 million, and claimed at least 10 luxury cars, including four Mercedes Benzes, two Ferraris and a Bentley.”
The Voice of San Diego. “Most of the homes in Pacific Beach and Mission Beach aren’t actually on the beach. And so the beaches are a tale of multiple markets. Where overzealous homebuyers bid up homes on busy streets a dozen blocks from the beach a couple of years ago, it’s difficult to sell for anywhere near what they paid.”
“What causes a foreclosure east of Interstate 5 causes one here, too. The foreclosure activity is more ‘on the condo side,’ said area real estate agent Rustin Rulenz. ‘Basically it’s all kind of the same thing as anywhere else, people who bought 100 percent financing.’”
“For area real estate pros, the boom market meant sometimes selling houses within three hours of putting them on the market, other times collecting more than a dozen offers on a property before letting it go to the highest bidder.”
“‘People had this anxiety,’ said Karen Dodge, a veteran real estate agent in PB. ‘I gotta get a piece of Pacific Beach! I gotta get a piece of Pacific Beach! They were just buying anything.’”
“Sellers of homes in bad spots — on busy streets, far from the beach — fall into trouble in the uncertain market. One such home in PB was listed in 2005 for more than $1 million and sold for $829,421 in June of that year. Last August, the owners listed it for $699,000, and it didn’t sell. They took it off the market in the last month, the Dodges said.”
The Union Tribune. “February was the 35th consecutive month of year-over-year increases for both home foreclosures and notices of default (in San Diego County). There were 1,316 residential foreclosures countywide…a rise of nearly 244 percent over February 2007, DataQuick reported yesterday.”
“‘We are watching a very long train wreck in process,’ said John Hokkanen, a San Diego real estate agent. ‘Every indication is that it will continue for some time. I’m not sure the measures the government has put into place will be able to slow it down.’”
“‘There is an incredible amount of uncertainty all the way up the food chain,’ about the housing slump, said DataQuick researcher John Karevoll. ‘The Fed, the Treasury, everybody is more or less at a loss as to what is happening. It could that the worst is behind us. It could be that it is not.’”
“Real estate agent Jan Wright said one result of the rise in foreclosures is that lenders have improved underwriting to guard against future loan failures. ‘All of this subprime stuff is what allowed the marketplace to get where it did,’ Wright said. ‘We are going to heal up and start doing transactions the way they should be done: true documentations, down payments, the real deal.’”
“As prices fall, many prospective buyers are delaying purchases, said Rich Martinez, a Carlsbad resident who invests in foreclosed properties. DataQuick last week reported that the overall median price for San Diego County homes in February was $415,000, a drop of nearly 20 percent from the housing boom peak of $517,500 in of November 2005.”
“‘The mentality for buyers right now is, ‘I’ll just wait for six months because prices will be less,’ Martinez said.”
The Mercury News. “After spending five years and $17 million, developers who dreamed of building 25,000 homes in San Jose’s pristine Coyote Valley have abruptly abandoned their controversial venture.”
“The group of developers walked away Tuesday, opting to no longer fund the planning process, and leaving the fate of Silicon Valley’s largest chunk of undeveloped land again in limbo.”
“Just days ago, developers were poised to dump an additional $2.5 million into the proposal. Then reality sank in. The troubled economy, dismal housing market and costly planning delays have created too much uncertainty.”
“‘The realities of the current situation just don’t warrant continuing funding,’ said Adam Alberti spokesman for the developers coalition.”
“Mayor Chuck Reed said they made the right decision to back off. Reed has repeatedly sounded alarms about the city’s financial straits and insisted homes that would demand services be added only after businesses that would produce sales taxes.”
“‘We need to get the jobs before we get the housing,’ Reed said.”
The Bakersfield Californian. “The Sacramento-based developer behind a half-built Wasco neighborhood and several other troubled projects in Kern has defaulted on a $35 million construction loan, documents recorded Tuesday show.”
“The money was borrowed against a site near the intersection of Central Avenue and 7th Street, south of Highway 46. No development has taken place there, though Wasco officials have OK’d construction of 246 homes.”
“Liens and lawsuits from unpaid building companies have piled up at various sites, including the partially finished Hidden Grove community in Wasco. A half-dozen or so families there now live on the only finished street in the subdivision after construction was halted in late 2007.”
“Amber Graham, her daughter, and husband live on Quaking Aspen Avenue in the Hidden Grove project of Reynen & Bardis Communities Inc., a Sacramento-based developer. The Grahams say they don’t mind the fact the neighborhood isn’t finished. ‘It’s quiet.’”
‘Notary Eli Hassine, 25, is accused of falsifying signatures and even misspelling names in the process.’
20 somethings making fools of the REIC at this stage of the bust. Hmm.
‘Capital Corp of the West of Merced, parent company of County Bank, one of the Central Valley’s largest community banks, says it expects to report a net loss for 2007 of about $4 million, once everything is added up.
The bank says it’s “primarily as a result of the rapid decline in real estate values in California’s Central Valley in the fourth quarter of 2007.”
It’s telling the Securities and Exchange Commission that it still cannot file the financials for last year because of the number of its loans it has to review “and the inability to obtain timely appraisals and other supporting market information.”
The company says certain of loans require an adverse classification and a substantially greater provision for possible loan losses. ‘The company has also concluded that it had material weaknesses in its credit/lending and accounting functions,” it says. “The material weaknesses relate to the proper credit risk classification of loans, establishing the level of its allowance for loan losses, accounting for housing tax partnerships and certain other matters.’
It says it’s correcting for the weaknesses and ensuring that other items related to them are correctly accounted for. ‘This remediation process has included independent evaluations of more than 70 percent of the dollar amount of the $1.3 billion of commercial loans outstanding at Dec. 31, 2007,’ it says.’
She should be in prison for forgeing documents.I cannot beleive the outright fraud by the real estate industry. They might need to build a new prison just for all the realtors going to the poky soon.New reality show, realtor meets bubba????
Anybody know anything about Ace Mortgage Funding? They have an SD office.
I’m happy that they are making all these arrests regarding these crooked loan firms . Apparently in these cases that Ben reported about ,they have proof that the borrowers were really victims .
“All these arrests”? Try a tiny handful. Most of the perps will get off scott-free.
Yep. You need to knock off a liquor store for $50 to do any real time in this country.
–
“I cannot beleive the outright fraud by the real estate industry.”
Booms, especially, bubbles lead to fraud in all instances. Fraud only gets discovered after the boom turns into a bust. What a coincidence!
Jas
He.
“New reality show, realtor meets bubba????”
That’s why it’s long been called “the pokey!”
–
March 19, 2008
Santa Clara Co. Resale SFH Stats:
Active Listings (Ex Pending Sale Cont. Show): 5112, +83%, YoY, at multi-year high. They generally peak during Aug-Oct. Last year the peak was 4918 in Oct. We should see the number reach higher than 6,500 later this year. In Feb’08 only 424 homes were sold. All year we should have more than 12 months of supply on the market.
Listings in Cupertino, Los Altos and Palo Alto (very high demand towns until very recently) are up 50% in just two weeks. Looks like local tech Scams having taken a drubbing is behind this.
Gilroy and Morgan Hill are dead markets with 28 months of supply (29 homes sold with listings of 836). I think that people who keep their homes on the market for 2 years have a serious mental problem. These people have been dropping prices by 1%, 2%, 3%, etc., at a time and are always way behind the curve, i.e., market price of their homes. More than 200 homes listed in Morgan Hill are above $750K! How many buyers of these homes are out there?
Jas
“Listings in Cupertino, Los Altos and Palo Alto (very high demand towns until very recently) are up 50% in just two weeks.”
Yep, at long last, it’s apparent that inventory is climbing quickly.
How many buyers of these homes are out there?
29 per month.
Last downturn a friends father was serious about selling. Home on the market… no looking. Cut the price 10%… buyers bid up the home to 96% of his old list price. Market value! You really cannot underprice a home too much; there will be a bidding war if you are more than 5% under the market today. Buyers are anxious to “time the bottom of the market.” Of course the question is, how much under other listings is there a market that pulls one more buyer off the sidelines?
Now ask me about that in a year about bidding wars… (I won’t participate.)
Got Popcorn?
Neil
WOW!
I love parts of Cali - last tour was 1999/2000?
I understand things are heating and falling faster than I imagine - but that is very telling. Bid down a home only to have it bid up?
The new upside down - go low, purchase high.
Ya just can’t make this stuff up!
Leigh
P.S. Friend of da popcorn man, but an air-popped geek.
And yet, look at what is available in Los Altos or Palo Alto for
And yet, look at what is available in Los Altos or Palo Alto for sub 1.5m. 1600 ft unremodeled houses, often on a busy street. Same as last year. Cupertino is not much better, at least in the Monta Vista High area. Multiple offers in Saratoga. Still waiting for the bust…
“He bought his house for $472,000 in January 2006 — a house originally listed at $585,000 with $80,000 in upgrades thrown in. He believed then that he had a steal — the model of the month.”
“He found out later that a neighbor down the street bought his same-style house eight months later for nearly $100,000 less. All in all, it’s bad timing, Mettler said. ‘I could have saved $100,000, but what’s done is done,’ he said.”
Ouchie. I’m sure the guy thought he was getting a “real deal” and was patting himself on the back for being so “savvy”.
Can we revisit this dude in a year? I do believe his “what’s done is done” attitude of acceptance will be a little more tweaked by then.
Don’t worry, Bagholder Boy. Next year he’ll be commiserating with his his neighbor down the street as the latter, a newly-minted FB-to-be, wails about overpaying by $100K as the Great 2009 Housing Firesale picks up steam.
Yah, I laughed for a long time when I read that one.
Knifecatcher, defined.
Potential walk-a-way . People get pissed when they don’t get the best deal and they time the market wrong .
A knifecatcher is one who bitches and moans about his house value dropping far more than the discount he got. Suppose he bought his dream home and could afford the payments on it, but the comps are now $100,000 cheaper. If it was his dream home, he would not have even cared to check on what the comps are after a year or two. The only reason to see what the other house values are is this: You are considering “what if I sell.” If you are in your dream home, you never care about selling, so you never care about opportunity costs.
“‘I feel very robbed,’ he said. ‘These are the same houses I paid $620,000 for, and now they could be selling for $300,000 to $400,000.”‘
Well, seeing that real estate NEVER goes down and you can ALWAYS sell, he should sell his house for $620,000 and then buy two of the same ones selling for $300,000. He can even pocket $20K on the deal. Then he can rent one of them out, because you can ALWAYS rent it out a property.
Fantastic idea…”dollar cost average” into the place!
You forgot the part about maxing out your HELOC each month and using the funds together with your rents to keep buying more until you own the whole damn community. I read something a few months back where someone said they were not a real estate novice because they educated themselves by watching Flip This House religously, and studied the materials passed out at get rich quick real estate seminars.
I was going to be a novice, watched the show, got the t-shirt.
Now I am fully aware of what to do on a show. Real life? ??
No, getting robbed is when someone takes something from you against your will. Your case, Mr. FB is quite different. You actually WENT OUT OF YOUR WAY to borrow $620k so you could buy it from the seller. No one robbed you; You are merely stupid.
What scares me about this attitude is that Congress buys it. The PTB are out there trying their damdest to recover this guy’s stolen $$ right from out of my bank account. I feel like I’m being fingered as the theif.
This guy was truly stupid, but there does not seem to be any evidence for your assertion about Congress. Remember, this whole mess happened because of people being fast and loose with facts. Do you have a specific representative or proposal in mind?
And what do you mean by PTB? Surely, neither the Brazillian Labor Party nor the Communist Party of Belarus have any involvement in our housing and credit debacle!
It’s the new American way. Blame someone else for the “shiyate” that you put yourself into. The same people are the ones who think a politician should “do something for me.” That is always in the form of robbing someone else to pay you. Welcome to the irresponsible society. Certainly not anything like the society along the east coast of North America in 1776.
A nice soft landing.
This guy should be grateful that people are buying the surrounding houses to fill in the neighborhood. The odds are better that they will be solid citizens with current lending requirements, than idiots like he is!
–
“‘I feel very robbed,’ he said. ‘These are the same houses I paid $620,000 for, and now they could be selling for $300,000 to $400,000.”
How is he getting robbed? Is there a mental problem with this guy? Nothing for him should change based on what price others pay, no?
Could it be that he was stupid to pay such high price for his home in the first place and now his stupidity is being exposed for all to see?
Jas
Right. You felt justified (for whatever reason) when you bought it. STFU and enjoy your dream home.
Dream house….doesn’t that mean it’s not real, like a nightmare?
What’s the difference between just plain “robbed” and “very robbed”? Isn’t that like being a little bit pregnant?
Well, let’s transend rhetoric and empathize. (*snort*. Supress giggles.)
Hmmmm. (furrowing brows)
I think that to this guy, in this case, being just plain ‘robbed’ means it was impersonal-like, like a business transaction, could have happened to anyone, and then he could get over it, and in about 4 years even admit it had happened to him.
Whereas in this instance, he was ‘very robbed’, so that it was a time when he, himself, Mr. Idjit, was made to feel like the dupe of the Universe and personally beset upon.
Very robbed. It happens to us all the time, even if we are careful frugal types. I had my wallet lifted out of my purse in a few moments of trust at my workplace. Total take for the bandit-my only two (paid-off monthly) credit cards and a wad of $500 in cash (cash functioning gal that I am). Put a stop on the cards and kissed the cash goodbye. Only difference is that I won’t be kissing it goodbye every month as is the fore-mentioned mortgagee. Caveat emptor.
–
“People Were Just Buying Anything In California”
More accurately, they were paying any price for land and homes in CA and some other states and sometimes they were buying without a good reason and in wrong places.
Jas
“He found out later that a neighbor down the street bought his same-style house eight months later for nearly $100,000 less. All in all, it’s bad timing, Mettler said. ‘I could have saved $100,000, but what’s done is done,’ he said.”
..good thing he bought the model of the month…
I have got to believe that the “model of the month” should have been a big red flag.
I wonder if Spitzer asked for the model of the month.
That is mean.
I am sure that she gave full measure for the money. And as opposed to a house which only goes up in price, physical appearance is a depreciating asset.
But she finished in 2 hours instead of the alloted 4. Quite efficient.
Pizza commercial.. Just 30 minutes..
guy in red silk bathrobe, wife says,”what do we do with other 28 minutes”
2 hrs, not.
Physical appearance is a depreciating asset…HAR!
To funny,
Leigh
Which is why he leased, vs. purchased. Reminiscent of the “extraordinarily beautiful” New Yorker on Craigslist a while back asking where to find men who made more than 500k/year.
HA! Ya got it!
Leigh
“Bad timing”.
Try pulling out next time; It’s more effective.
“State and local prosecutors said Tuesday that they had shut down a mortgage fraud ring that allegedly victimized thousands of seniors and others, some of whom lost their homes.”
This news of one ‘discovered’ mortgage fraud ring is about .0001 % of potential mortages fraud activities ocurring in CA last 3-5 yrs duiring the insane house price runup. Tons of mortgage fraud committed in inner city ghetto slums, which i had discovered thru probings of sales activity in only three selected LA slum zips:pacoima, inglewood, La 90011. I saw prices for Sfh’s in such gutted slimzones going for $ 600,000-$700,000- even $900,000 in one 3-1 bed 6000 sq ft property in LB in area in which comps were in $450,000-500,000 range. This was during the height of inner city RE runups in 2005 thru early 2007.
The city,state, fed mort fraud investigators wil not go after RE fraud comitted in tough gang-infested inner city heavily minority zones for PC reasons, and also due to the fact that these areas are not worth nvestigating at the cost of shattered windshields, trashed vehicles, whizzing bullets, and menacing gangbangers guarding their hoods against intrusions in their territory by Gov’t investigators.
State is a day late and a $ short: Most of the perpetrators of the mort fraud have already fled the coop, changed identites, stashed the loot in accts under different names, fled across the border, or simply walk ed away with the loot with little consequence or fear from the authorities.
The state of CA is about as effective in going after/ prosecuting RE mort fraud as it is in collecting Franchise sales taxe revenuess in LA inner city, where estim ated 40% of all sales transactions are underground and underreported or not reported at all,
peter m, your last paragraph is jaw dropping. I have been thinking about how families with drug dealer’s make tons of money and never pay tax. These big families will get thousands of dollars with the bush bailout, and I get a deduction.
Do you have evidence for this? Drug dealer incomes have been studied in some detail. The extremely low profitability of drug peddling is considered to be the primary reason that most of them still live with their mothers. How will these families get money from a bailout while you get nothing? The deduction is related to claimed income, right? It sounds like you are struggling with a conjured bogeyman.
I suspect you’re right on most of your comments, especially the scope of the problem and the likelihood of little prosecution. Said in sarcasm, you mean the name change from “South Central” to “South LA” wasn’t what boosted prices? Tough neighborhood? Maybe they should send in the Governator.
Nobody cared about the fraud while the money was rolling in by the truckload.
Now, things are different.
Jerry Brown sleeping at the switch.
This blog detailed frauds years ago, but no one cared.
State and cities were too busy spending the windfall fees and RE taxes.
Governator was heard today complaining about legislators spent
much of their time last year finding ways to spend money instead of saving money. Now CA has huge deficit.
Isn’t something wrong with the fact that you can’t loan red-line (refuse to lend )in areas that the cops won’t even go to . The lenders use to be able to get out of making bad loans they really didn’t want to make ,based on area, because of health and safety violations .
ACORN?
Sad,
Leigh
Let’s just say the Community Reinvestment Act had some, well, uh, unforseen yet readily forseeable consequences, shall we?
Isn’t something wrong with the fact that you can’t loan red-line (refuse to lend )in areas that the cops won’t even go to . The lenders use to be able to get out of making bad loans they really didn’t want to make ,based on area, because of health and safety violations .
I have been into some LA hoods which were so polluted from dumped garbage, discarded furniture, auto repair waste that these hoods should have ben declared EPA superfund sites. One prime exapmle is LA zip 90011, the inner ring wasted ghetto just south of LA dtwn. I saw in that hood all sorts of dumping, foreclosed abandoned properties stinking with strewn garbage, waste scattered in the streets, as bad as any tijuana sewer zone. Right under the noses of LA City hall.
Yet this area saw SFH prices go as high as $500,000 back in mid 2007 for 80 year old claptrap craftsmans . That is when i decided that the LA civic leaders were a corrupt greedy bunch of hacks who didn’t give a rats ass about quality of life ,neighborhood cleanliness and the environmenmt.
LA was and still is under the thumbs of the developers.
Villarrigosa is a brought and paid for politician hack.
“…That is when i decided that the LA civic leaders were a corrupt greedy bunch of hacks who didn’t give a rats ass about quality of life ,neighborhood cleanliness and the environmenmt…”
They would consider that a compliment I’m sure…
“In a coordinated action, San Bernardino DA Michael A. Ramos announced that Pony, a former real estate salesman, was expected to turn himself in to authorities Tuesday. Pony gave up his state license in September after an investigation by regulators. If convicted, Pony could face 24 years in prison, Ramos said.”
______________________________________________
I hear his future cell mate loves to ride Ponies. What are the chances?
I heard he loves to ride bareback.
Perfect! Absolutely Perfect! Hahahahahahahaha!
Seeing how the chances are great that his cell-mate has a dear loved ones who have been screwed by someone just like him, I’d say he’s as good as cornholed. They’ll probably superglue his weiner to his bellybutton for good measure. He’ll end up looking like one of those over-ridden nags with the saggy backs. Ride the pony indeed!
Any he’s only 25, young fresh meat. There’ll be a line outside Pony’s cell every night. Who says the punishment can’t fit the crime…a reaming for a reaming.
Nah, he will get one of those Countryclub ‘prisons’. Minimum security jobs. I suspect he won’t have such a hard, I mean difficult time.
‘What are the chances?’
What are the chances he shows up, to take all these chances? I’m gonna bet…about 7%; IF he has fallen on his head recently. If he hasn’t, then .05%
Chances Are his cell mate likes Johnny Mathis too…
Chances are ’cause I wear a silly grin
The moment you come into view,
Chances are you think that I’m in love with you.
Just because my composure sort of slips
The moment that your lips meet mine,
Chances are you think my heart’s your Valentine.
In the magic of moonlight,
When I sigh, “Hold me close, dear,”
Chances are you believe the stars
That fill the skies are in my eyes….
Wright said. ‘We are going to heal up and start doing transactions the way they should be done: true documentations, down payments, the real deal.’”
Second part of the statement is true, but it renders the first part of the statement false. That is, no transactions until things become affordable again. We’re only half way there.
lol. So true.
It will be full documentation as no one will want to buy the bonds without a proctology exam. If there are any remnants of a Joshua Tree… denied!
Got Popcorn?
Neil
“Tracylyn Sharrit of San Bernardino, said when she went to sign the loan documents at the company’s Studio City office she found the terms had been changed. She said she refused to sign the documents and demanded that they be rewritten. But she said when she called to find out when the new paperwork would be ready, she was told the loan was already in escrow.”
“Sharrit said she and her husband, Ronald, struggled to make the monthly payments on the new mortgage, which she said increased from about $1070 to more than $1800. ‘For the first time in my life I am late on my mortgage,’ Sharrit said.”
Somebody please explain this to me. Sounds like, after insisting that the loan be re-written, she was told it was too late and just said “Well, sigh, OK then, I’ll sign”. Am I reading this right? I don’t get it.
You missed the paragraph in between:
“Sharrit said her name was forged on the loan documents and misspelled.”
This leads to another related puzzler: after finding out that her signature had been forged on the loan documents, why didn’t she immediately contact the police –and a lawyer? Why “struggle” to make payments on a forged refi?
“But she said when she called to find out when the new paperwork would be ready, she was told the loan was already in escrow.”
At that point, why didn’t she immediately take legal action? Why did she make any payments on the new fraudulent loan with the onerous terms?
Yep, my guess is they bluffed and she didn’t call them on it. If her story is true, that is….
wellll, maybe, when I was in first escrow closing, I didn’t know half the things they were talking about, nor did I know I needed insurance to close. Learned alot that one day.
Alot.
many yrs ago.
She should of contacted the law or a attorney as soon as possible. God ,how passive they were about being ripped off .
I know a guy that a crook was trying to cheat him .My friend told him he wasn’t going to do the deal ,and the crook started yelling at him at the top of his lungs . Crooks are not nice people when their mark tries to get in the way of their pay-day. Some crooks feel that they worked hard for their ill-gotten gain .Weird ,isn’t it .
desertdweller, you’ve heard of “caveat emptor,” yes?
OH yes, but that was a foreclosure in Palm Springs, ‘94
@ $70k, so I was okay.
Thanks for being concerned!
It was just lessons learned. I absolutely would not have done it if it were more.
No, it sounds like she refused to sign, told them to correct the documents, and left. Later, she called to check the status of the new documents, and they told her “Don’t worry about it, we FORGED your signature and you now have to pay the loan”!
If this actually happened and this lady did not call the FBI the second she hung up the phone, then she sadly deserves everything that she gets. If someone forged my signature and expected me to perform on a fraudulent contract, I’d equate it to them holding a knife to my throat, and react appropriately, to put it mildly.
Good point az-lender . People have a duty to try to mitigate damages,( concept in law about what you did to try to lesson your damages ).
Thats why I don’t get some of these borrowers that are claiming that they were a victims way way way after the fact .
az_lender here, but it was az_owner to whom you replied
“No, it sounds like she refused to sign, told them to correct the documents, and left. Later, she called to check the status of the new documents, and they told her “Don’t worry about it, we FORGED your signature and you now have to pay the loan”!
If this actually happened and this lady did not call the FBI the second she hung up the phone, then she sadly deserves everything that she gets. If someone forged my signature and expected me to perform on a fraudulent contract, I’d equate it to them holding a knife to my throat, and react appropriately, to put it mildly.”
Can she get out of the loan on the basis of fraud or is it too late because she made payments already?
I have heard a few stories of brokers who have people sign the loan documents at the last minute, when they only have a few days to be out of their current digs. I don’t know if that happened in this case, but I’m sure that has been a factor.
Big V: So what if it’s the last minute. Before I would sign away my freedom and become a debt slave, I’d go stay with family friends, motel 6 or a shelter.
–
“Another development resident, Matt Mettler, wasn’t happy, either. ‘It (stinks) that we paid top dollar, and somebody’s going to get it for half price,’ Mettler said.”
No it doesn’t, Matt. I bought a nice TV last month for half the price of what someone paid just last year. I had to be patient and wait even though I could have bought two years ago and paid 3 times. No one seems to have complained!
If you are impatient and in a hurry than you pay the top dollars. Welcome to reality, Matt.
Jas
This is a really good point.
My men folk are gadget heads, and want it all the minute they *see* said gadget.
My favorite line is WAIT!
Ya know Jas, half the time (or more) they forget about said gadget.
Ya just can’t make this stuff up!
Leigh
Leigh,
I wish it wasn’t true about us men…
Hey, I’ve been holding off buying a HDTV for two years! A relative is moving and we get the “old” 32″ LCD. Good enough.
I’m not too proud for hand me downs.
Got Popcorn?
Neil
Men = gadgets, food, sex, naps.
Gadgets,food, sex, naps = men.
lol
You forgot to add “beer.” My list of favorites is sex, food, beer, and naps.
Niel,
You’re a keeper!
Tell wifey to hug you extra tight tonight (and…er…you know)
Smiles,
Leigh
Heck we don’t even own one LCD or flat panel yet. Still have those huge CRT (Tube) TVs. Some day….
32″? Dude, the one we just bought (new but half off— one of those “end lot” places where they may only have one of each item) was 29″ but seems huge.
Of course, it replaced a 19″ ‘94 CRT. And the only reason we got the new TV is we were sick of not being able to watch DVDs on the television since the VCR died. (It talked to both the TV and the DVD.)
‘My men folk are gadget heads, and want it all the minute they *see* said gadget.
Ya know Jas, half the time (or more) they forget about said gadget.’
I know. Men. They’re like cats. Big cats with thumbs, who get mad when you want them to wear bibs. But otherwise very much like cats, and easily distracted by simple noises, bells, chasing things in the forest, perky gestures, and so forth.
I think it’s adorable, though, so I don’t mind.
Ya crack me up Oly - yes big cats - my son is a Leo - think the lion logo (MGM?).
Most adorable, and I take them to the forest for such distractions, as it is good for their prowless, and my pocketbook!
I love the way that you twine words!
Leigh
Upon reflection, I have little trouble picturing my husband and two sons as large cats with thumbs. And I have always said “no” to requests for gadgets. The boys stopped asking years ago. Thanks for the giggles, girls.
Training manual for us guys:
1. When loved ones come home, always run to greet them. (Look bored)
2. Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride. (Look bored)
3. Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy. (Cold brrrrrrrrr)
4. When it’s in your best interest, practice obedience! (Always act superior, whatever the circumstances)
5. Let others know when they’ve invaded your territory. (Take up the best spot on the sofa, and admire your nails when the owner asks for it back)
6. Take naps. (Sheesh, goes without saying).
7. Stretch before rising. (Six above)
8. Run, romp, and play daily. (And get all dirty? Groom all day)
9. Thrive on attention and let people touch you. (Allow the occasional petting. They had better not mess with the fur)
10. Avoid biting when a simple growl will do. (Scratch to show displeasure)
11. On warm days, stop to lie on your back in the grass. (Grass if for indigestion)
12. On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree. (Prefer milk)
13. When you’re happy, dance around and wag your entire body. (Nothing can please me)
14. No matter how often you’re scolded, don’t buy into the guilt thing and pout. Run right back and make friends. (Scold me?)
15. Delight in the simple joy of a long walk. (Are you saying am fat?)
16. Eat with gusto and enthusiasm. Stop when you have had enough. (Please…)
17. Be loyal. Never pretend to be something you’re not. (Don’t need to. Even the Egyptian royals thought am something special)
18. If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it. (Dirt. See 8 above)
19. When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently. (I am the only one allowed to have a bad day. And everyone had better cater to my needs).
from Men are like dogs women are like cats
That was definitely written by a man who likes dogs and doesn’t like cats and women.
Bears with furniture.
One of our expressions at work is “Shiny thing.” As in “Why didn’t you finish ‘x’?” Answer “Shiny thing.”
“accused of falsifying signatures and even misspelling names”
A couple of folks on this blog would but her away for life for misspelling the names. Ha !
“State and local prosecutors said Tuesday that they had shut down a mortgage fraud ring that allegedly victimized thousands of seniors and others, some of whom lost their homes.”
The City, state, Fed mort fraud investigators simply lack the manpower and resources to investigated more than a miniscule fraction of all the mortgage fraud out there. There was a tremendous amt of teardowns , quick refurbishmnets, buyin up and doing quick cheap fixs of old SFH s, or cramming cheap twnhome/condo units on former wasted weedy plots which was a prominent feature of the inner city crapburgs last several tears. There will naturally be accompanying fraud in the transactions.
The massive fraud rings prosecuted in Temelula- riverside, and recently in Beverly hills, were in middle class/upper class areas, and investigators are more likely to go after mort fraud rings in these safe areas because they are mostly pasty-faced fat cubilcle workers who don’t want to dirty their fingernails or shiny Gov’t- provided vehicles going into nasty grimy graffitited trashed-out impoverished ghetto pockets to investigate RE fraud.
This is why $500-700,000 RE loans were given out like candy in extreme ghetto parts of LA, then sold and packaged to wall st . The lenders never bothered to see exactly i n what neighborhoods and what types of homes were given the 100% toxic loan using faked/lier/ stated income . Later on the buyer(s) simply walk out or resold to family members or relatives or fake scam buyers and ran up another $100,000 on the sale price. Plenty of fraudulent equity extracted from these ignorant pasty faced lenders/bankers in their isolated cubilcles in South OC or across the country.
The LA city planners, permitting depts, development depts were part of the problem as they were extremely lax and still are in enforceing any code enforcement or zoning laws in Central and other impoverished LA burgs. They in effect created the conditions which allowed for rampant out of control small unit developments in the LA ghettos,and in the abundant marginal areas abutting the ghettos. Two examples of this rampant development binge are East & central SFV, and multiple districts surrounding dwtn and in SScentral, NE LA areas.
–
Officials, political or not, like booms because more money and more power come their way during the booms. Hence, regulation is lax and people look the other way. Everyone seem to be making money and no participants seem to complain. Only HBBers and the likes complain while the problems, including fraud, are taking place.
Jas
Jas Jain,
These are a few selected areas, maybe 20-30% of the total inner ghetto zips and the ones i have some familarity with. My inclusion of these particular ones is because these are where mortgage fraud was running most rampant, and these contain some of the nastiest gutted hoods in america. Bell and Maywood are for all intents and purposes controlled by the 18th st gang lock stock and barrel.
Where mort Faud activity was the highest u will see the steepest drops in YOY drops.
La inner city runups were based entirely upon fraudulent appraisal and subsequent 200-300% markups. have been so since about 2005. They should revert back to under $200,000 when the smoke clears.
Bell 90201 5 $420 -11.6%
Huntington Park 90255 5 $385 -16.3%
Inglewood 90301 2 $400 -22.3%
Inglewood 90302 4 $450 -25.6%
Inglewood 90303 5 $295 -49.1%
Inglewood 90304 1 $417 -16.2%
Inglewood 90305 3 $469 -20.6%
LA 90011 5 $360 -18.2%
LA 90018 4 $343 -43.6%
LA 90047 17 $350 -26.7%
LA/View Park/Windsor Hills 90043 8 $363 -30.3%
LA 90062 9 $380 -23.4%
Long Beach 90805 17 $378 -16.3%
Maywood 90270 2 $325 -29.3%
Norwalk 90650 30 $352 -27.8%
Pacoima 91331 17 $320 -37.9%
Paramount 90723 9 $260 -46.8%
San Fernando 91340 2 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
Wilmington 90744 5 $355 -20.7%
Winnetka 91306 11 $360 -35.7%
Well to give them the benefit of the doubt, they MAY be prioritizing by dollar amount. Would you rather spend 100s of hours investigating a 200k case of mortgage fraud or a 50k case?
“‘I feel very robbed,’ he said. ‘These are the same houses I paid $620,000 for, and now they could be selling for $300,000 to $400,000.”‘
easy, walk from your house…. wait a few months, and go get one for 250K. It is the bank’s house, not yours…
The funny thing is that he paid 4 times what the house was really worth and folks are still paying double. I guess you could call that robbery. Did this idiot not know the place was not worth $620K? In an area where homes seldom sold for much over $150K prior to the bubble?
“‘People had this anxiety,’ said Karen Dodge, a veteran real estate agent in PB. ‘I gotta get a piece of Pacific Beach! I gotta get a piece of Pacific Beach! They were just buying anything.’”
________________________________________________
In previous years, the most common phrase heard in PB was ‘I gotta get a piece of @ss! I gotta get a piece of @ss! They were just fooking anything.’
You have had an exciting life, is what I think.
Earlier today, before I got distracted, I was going to ask you: do you have a tonsure? Or is your name just for style?
No tonsure to speak of, but I do have a codpiece.
The name is from my favorite character in Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais. If you like satire and have an active imagination, do spend the time and enjoy this book.
Too true. Watching films like Boogie Nights makes you wistful for the good ol’ days when hot blooded males chased a$$ instead of a$$ets.
probably a fan of San Diego Padres MLB team. aka the friers. before they got that crappy wave logo.
On the dog theme its like where’s the ball ? where’s the ball ?
should be put rather than but.. oops !!
lifer
Two years probation.
–
CA City Chart is out:
http://www.dqnews.com/Charts/Monthly-Charts/CA-City-Charts/ZIPCAR0802.aspx
Median drop from the peak for cities that I track and the counties that were reported is 25.8%. It is safe to say that general price decline in CA is above 20% from the peak prices. I would guess that 30% of the home-debtors in CA are under water now (at least half due to cash-outs). Foreclosures should continue to grow. We have entered the vicious cycle.
Jas
We have entered the vicious cycle.
You mean how foreclosures will beget foreclosures?
You wouldn’t believe how many intellegent people wouldn’t believe that concept 18 months ago.
I agree, the Dam has broken. CA foreclosures are going to take down the entire Jumbo market. Heck, who will move in Jumbo in most other states? So many of the buyers were Cali Equity locusts.
First foreclosures on the market where I want to buy. Not *what* I want to buy… but that just takes patience.
Got Popcorn?
Neil
Someone at work is trying to find a buyer for his townhouse. He’s “only” asking $700k, which he says is 20k below market and 70k below peak. I don’t know how much this guy and his wife make, but I’m pretty sure it’s less than what my hubbie and I make, just based on our jobs. He’s an FB fer sure.
My nephew finally talked to me over the weekend about his situation. I warned him not to buy a condo in north Hollywood in 2004, but he did, with an interest-only ARM. They financed $400K. Now they’re worried. They brought in a realtor last week who told them they could get $407K for it. I doubt it. But they are stuck, because they have no money to bring to the table. And they looked at rentals in LA last week and said they were $3000 plus. He said that they have almost 2 years left before their mortgage adjusts up from 5.25%. So they’ll prolong the agony another year or so.
And they looked at rentals in LA last week and said they were $3000 plus.
Nonsense. I’m paying $1895 for a 2bed/2bath apt in Playa Del Rey about 1/4 mile from the beach. Just moved in a few months ago.
Palo Alto $1.2M to 597K, down 48%?! Wow. Just wow.
So now there are significant drops almost everywhere except ritzy communities like Pacific Palisades, Laguna Beach, Cardiff, Los Gatos, etc. These will be the last to fall.
…The Voice of San Diego. “Most of the homes in Pacific Beach and Mission Beach aren’t actually on the beach. And so the beaches are a tale of multiple markets. Where overzealous homebuyers bid up homes on busy streets a dozen blocks from the beach a couple of years ago, it’s difficult to sell for anywhere near what they paid.”…
I can just visualize the ads for these places over the last few years…
…conviently located near beach, easy access, great “in town” location, smell the ocean, hear the waves, don’t miss out, blah, blah, blah..
OT–
More and more lately, Santa Barbara’s mainstream media (including both print and online news outlets) are enlisting volunteers from the local REIC (e.g., Realtors, mortgage brokers, title/escrow company officers) to provide housing-market news, data, forecasts, and advice for their readers. This week at the Santa Barbara Housing Bubble Blog: Saint Barbara gets religion and tows the party line. Enjoy.
St. Barbara
“California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown’s statement described the plight of 75-year-old Luis Garcia. Garcia agreed to a 50-year loan with $1,000-a-month payments but instead was hit with a monthly bill of $2,254.
Garcia later found that Lifetime Financial had falsified his income and work history. He couldn’t afford the payments and lost his house.”
There’s no way to describe the feeling of celebrating your 125th in a home that you own outright!
So, why would anyone write a 50-year mortgage to someone that’s likely to be dead within 10, and almost certain to be dead within 20?
Methinks this is a question Mr. Garcia should have asked himself.
Because when I think about it, I don’t come up with any reason that isn’t criminal.
Because when I think about it, I don’t come up with any reason that isn’t criminal.
Actually, once someone is 18 (or 21) considering someone’s age as part of a mortgauge is criminal. (Age discrimination.) I bet Mr. Garcia is so happy his rights were looked after so well…
Got Popcorn?
Neil
The “kid” writing the loan, probably did not even look at Mr Garcia’s facts/data. Just sign and off you go.
It’s not discrimination if it’s material. They guy can’t possibly work long enough to pay off the debt, and social security won’t pay it after he’s dead. If he has the $$ in his estate to pay it, then the bank can get that, but then he wouldn’t have need a loan in the first place. The investor behind this loan will be asking the bank to buy it back, methinks.
OK yeah, I know that in a legal sense. But in a practical sense??
I guess it goes the other way - why do you want a 50-year mortgage if you’re gonna be dead long before it’s paid? Do you want your family to have to get saddled with the debt, or get the house taken away?
Although, if his payments were actually $1000 a month, that might have looked like cheap rent…
Lenders use to cut back loans that had any kind of risk ,so the equity would take care of the risk after death and going through probate or wage decreases .The fact that lenders thought they could make loans without actually underwriting them is a pity .
It makes sense as long as real estate always goes up. Then the $1,000/month can be levered into thousands of dollars of profit as the house’s equity increases at a rate of 20%/year.
It works … until it doesn’t.
I make 15 year loans to people who may easily die sooner. I don’t worry about their deaths, because the property value in every case should cover the loan. If the property value did not cover the loan, people could walk away. They wouldn’t need to die.
–
“‘We need to get the jobs before we get the housing,’ Reed said.”
And jobs will be moving to China and India even faster in a recession, Mayor Reed. BTW, mayor what was the return on $60M that the City spent to help Cisco with the land purchase in Coyote Valley ten years ago? How many jobs were promised, Mayor, 15,000 or 20,000 or more?
Jas
Sounds like Gov. Deval Patrick’s 30K casino construction jobs. The BIG DIG, at its height, employed something on the order of 6K people. Sure, building three casinos will employ 5x the number of people. Don’t get me wrong, I think the casinos might be a good idea, why not?, afterall the buses head to the CT and RI casinos all day long, along with the cars and suvs. BUT, I am not so naive to think this will bail the state out.
I will pay good money, real money, in any currency (including gold) to the first person who:
(a) didn’t read it on this blog (or similar ones), AND
(b) can explain why it is “OBVIOUS”.
It’s like freakin’ having a tooth pulled without anaesthesia!
How will a recession force more jobs to go to India/China? That is determined soley by trade agreements and tax structure. The jobs going overseas is what’s causing the recession.
I just can’t fathom where this guy’s neural pathways are taking him. First he tells us that subsidizing businesses is good for a capitalistic system (they’re trying to do that in downtown San Jose right now, even), then he tells us that cheaper labor at home will produce more outsourcing. Please don’t let this guy run for Governor.
Let’s work this in a way that even your miniscule brain can fathom.
In a recession, people don’t buy stuff.
Hence, margins must shrink to ensure profitablity since unprofitable businesses go bankrupt.
Once margins shrink below a certain level, either people must get fired, or cheaper people must get hired.
So either people must take a paycut, or jobs must get outsourced, or both.
This isn’t freakin’ rocket science, you know!
Inflation has already taken a huge chunk out of everyones paycheck. Combine this with loss of pension and healthcare benefits and US manufacturers have become much more competetive. Of course they have fewer customers which is a problem. When China is forced to more rapidly revalue their currency then you will see big changes. My guess is they will have to see riots before they make rapid adjustments.
China is having its own problems right now and the economic honeymoon may be coming to an end, especially as the glare of public opinion gets focused on them in this Olympic year. As the urbanites consume the world’s concrete, metal and toxic recyclables in their efforts to emulate “us”, the poor rural folks are starting to complain about having to ship their clean water and their best pork to Beijing for the sake of showcasing so-called Chinese progress. Besides for their ongoing “issues” with world opinion concerning Tibet, they’ve shut down climbing Mt. Everest for a bit. Combine that with top marathon runners dropping out of the Olympics for practical reasons such as Beijing having some of the filthiest air in the world, and the fact that the Chinese are now faced with the same issues that other consuming cultures have faced. Yep- they’re going to have some problems.
There may be a great future in plumbing fixtures ahead though- read…
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/19/china.olympics.toilets.ap/index.html#cnnSTCText
Problem with that analysis is that business are presumably *always* seeking to maximize their profits. Which means that you ought to see as much outsourcing during good times as bad. A rational business would outsource right up to the point where the marginal savings gained by hiring a bunch of Indians is outweighed by the additional cost (in inefficiency, time delay, etc.)
Just cut the hours, the WalMart way.
“This is why $500-700,000 RE loans were given out like candy in extreme ghetto parts of LA, then sold and packaged to wall st . The lenders never bothered to see exactly i n what neighborhoods and what types of homes were given the 100% toxic loan using faked/lier/ stated income.”
about 25 - 30 years ago, there was a banker in Boston, that said/whose policy was, something like, “don’t lend money on anything that you can’t see from your office”.
Sort of like Warren Buffet’s “don’t buy what you can’t understand” or Peter Lynch’s “buy what you know”.
Sounds like good advice to me!
–
Before the bubble, I came up with my own rule for prudent lending on homes — lesser of the two amounts, the lowest price of a similar home in the past 5 years or 80% of the current price. This has enough factor of safety to call the loan a secured loan. This would avoid lending mistakes during bubbles because no bubble lasts for five years.
Jas
and Cerberus buys back LBO debt for less than .80 cents on the dollar. Might wanna rethink borrow short and lend long.
That was a great “cutting losses” move by GS. I personally think Chrysler has serious problems.
Hi Pen,
This will end well.
Lazy thinking - group think - on many economic levels.
Sociological phenomenon.
Sigh,
Leigh
Just visited the central valley a few weeks ago. I go there to visit a relative one or two times a year. I REALLY believe all these houses in the Central valley will drop to $80,000 - $150,000 tops. I just don’t see the income that warrants 250K to 500K homes. It’s a wasteland out there. Ugly new communities with huge Mcmansions with small lots.
If they are crying now, they’ll go insane when it goes down another 80%.
Preach it! That’s my home territory. Even 150K is expensive for most of the wages there.
Good to see Wasco in there. Having worked there once, I can honestly say it is one of the worst h*llholes in the world, maybe outside of Trona.
And what’s with 19-year-olds bidding on houses?? That’s NUTS!!!!
what’s your problem, mister? you didn’t read what she said?
“‘I think this is cool,’ said Harp, 19. ‘It’s not like you lose anything for trying. What the heck?’””
It’s cool. What the heck?
You’re confusing nuts with popcorn
I’m, sadly, half-looking to buy in Fresno later this decade. Back in 2002 you could get a REALLY nice place for ~$300K — 15,000 sqft lot, pool, mature landscaping, primo part of town. Prices for this zoomed up to $600K in 2006, are back to $500K now, and if they fall to $400K it’d be a tempting knife to catch.
(I work at home)
FP, I agree. I was born in Fresno and lived there nearly half my life. I check on prices there from time to time and there is no way to justify the current zillow prices there. The current Zillow prices are about 60% too high still.
There will be an East Bay HBB party at 7 PM (not 2) at El Burro outside of Newpark Mall in Newark this Saturday, March 22nd. Who wants to go?
-Big V
I’ll be there, Big V. I’m idiot enough to drive 100 miles for some shoes that my niece and nephew want that they can’t get in Michigan. But it will be nice to stop in and meet some HBBers to thank them in person for keeping me sane for the past 3 years.
Confirming I will also travel a distance to join HBBers. Hope there are more than 3 of us, but 3 would be better than 1, and California seems to be HBB’s home state even though Ben J’s in AZ
Trying a second time to post my positive response. Confirming I will be there if mapquest directions are any good.
“‘I feel very robbed,’ he said. ‘These are the same houses I paid $620,000 for, and now they could be selling for $300,000 to $400,000.”
I know it’s easy to say at the present, but perception needs to be hedged with context. Prices were shooting up double digits every six months in a place where they were building houses faster than local population could support.
Oil drop biggest in 17 years
Prices decline as dollar strengthens and demand weakens. Biggest dollar drop since start of Gulf War in 1991.
OIL CRASHED TO 104..
boo!
oil still pays, upstream downstream, its a flow of money….oil didnt crash, oil didnt even get my attention other than to get longer Natural Gas, its a growth story. The growth story never ends.
I feel very robbed,’ he said. ‘These are the same houses I paid $620,000 for, and now they could be selling for $300,000 to $400,000.”‘
Now, how many of us would feel bad if we bought, like a TV for $2000, and then found the same tv at a half off sale the next week. Too bad, so sad dude. Should have waited for the half off (and soon to be more) sale.
But isnt that what price guarantees are for. Too bad bestbuy doesnt sell houses. 110% price match policy, baby.
Idiocracy at its finest. The show has only just begun.
“Another development resident, Matt Mettler, wasn’t happy, either. ‘It (stinks) that we paid top dollar, and somebody’s going to get it for half price,’ Mettler said.”
Bitter Owner
Big V and EB crowd. I will be with you in spirit. That was near where I used to live before leaving California.
“‘I feel very robbed,’ he said. ‘These are the same houses I paid $620,000 for, and now they could be selling for $300,000 to $400,000.”‘
Yes, but think of that $45,000 or so you didn’t throw away on rent! Hehehehehehe….