The Most Exciting Thing In The World
The Great Falls Tribune reports from Montana. “Zahara Valley Golf Club and a nearby residential development were hit by the national economic downturn and the credit crunch, but things are looking brighter, officials said. The golf course closed early this year, sparking rumors that it would close for good. That’s not the case, said Brad Davey, development coordinator for the housing development. ‘This economy just really kicked us, just like it did everyone else,’ said Davey.”
“Davey said that while the course isn’t on the open market, Zahara Valley did recently sell some of its equipment. ‘We had way too much stuff,’ he said.”
The Idaho Statesman. “September was the third month in a row in which default filings increased in the Treasure Valley. From January through September, 3,662 foreclosures have started in Ada and Canyon County, a 137 percent increase over the same period in 2007, according to Idaho Data Providers.”
“‘The filings during the first part of October are pointing toward another record month,’ said Charlie Nate, president of IDP. ‘In fact, I am projecting that locally we may see over 500 new foreclosures in October. That number was incomprehensible only one year ago when we were already well into this crisis and only experiencing just over 200 filings a month.’”
“‘Lenders are beginning to foreclose on spec homes,’ said Lance Churchill, president of Frontline Cos., which specialize in buying homes in foreclosure. ‘It looks like the banks are finally losing their patience with the builders.’”
“‘It is a double edge sword,’ Churchill said. ‘There are so many of them that there are a lot of great opportunities if you want a home to live in. But flippers are having trouble because there are fewer buyers and it is much harder to fix a house up and sell it.’”
“Capitol West Appraisals of Boise says in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle that Countrywide Financial loan officers pressured its appraisers to increase valuations or otherwise compromise appraisal standards in three loan transactions and, when the company refused, Countrywide put Capitol West on its ‘Field Review List.’”
“‘Countrywide is in a position to force out of the business honest appraisers,’ said Steve Berman, the lead lawyer in the case. ‘They can use their market power to basically blackball these people.’”
The Register Guard from Oregon. “While Oregon-based banks have fared better than counterparts in some other areas, they have not been immune. The Legislative Emergency Board last month approved a request by state regulators to increase the state’s existing staff of 12.5 bank examiner positions by 40 percent. The letter requesting the additional positions revealed much about the condition of Oregon banks. It pointed out that of 22 banks examined by the state in the past year, 10 received ‘less than satisfactory’ composite scores in the confidential rating system used by both federal and state regulators.”
“‘We’ve all gotten a black eye from some of the things that have happened in the brokerage firms,’ said Tom Widmer, CEO of Eugene’s Century Bank.”
The Mail Tribune from Oregon. “The collapse of the credit and housing markets has put a halt to resort development in central Oregon. ‘With the state of the economy, we’re not going to see new resorts in the next couple of years. That’s an absolute certainty,’ said Steven Hultberg, a Bend attorney who represents several resorts.”
“In recent years, new resorts such as the 1,800-acre Brasada Ranch between Bend and Prineville boasted of selling more than 200 lots for between $200,000 and $450,000 in a matter of hours. Now those buyers have disappeared.”
“At the upscale Pronghorn resort east of Bend, partner Scott Denney likes to share the story of one of his buyers, a person with excellent credit and worth hundreds of millions of dollars who was seeking a loan for a $625,000 lot. First the bank told him he’d have to put 25 percent down. Then it was 40 percent, and finally it was 60 percent.”
“‘”Right now the banks are just taking a position that they are not in the real estate lending market anymore,’ said Dennis Pahlisch, a Bend home builder and partner in a proposed 4,125-acre resort in Crook County.”
The Oregonian. “The deal that Gresham City Hall brokered to build the first phase of residential development in Pleasant Valley is ‘very unlikely’ to go forward now that Pacific Lifestyle Homes Inc., one of its three private partners, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the city’s executive manager said.”
“Pacific Lifestyle owns 37 acres in Pleasant Valley. Matt Lewis, the company’s planning manager, said he wasn’t sure how it would be disposed of as part of the company’s larger restructuring. ‘Unfortunately the downturn in the market didn’t allow the private sector to make the needed investments,’ he said.”
The News Tribune from Washington. “How’s the market for condominiums in downtown Tacoma? ‘What market?’ says Judy Mayfield, head of sales for The Esplanade, the 162-unit project on the Foss Waterway, now nearing completion. After two years of extolling the virtues of the nine-story luxury project, Mayfield and her staff have yet to close a deal on a single unit.”
“Median prices of downtown condos dropped more, too, going from $274,000 in the first three quarters of 2007 to just $224,000 in that period this year. ‘The timing couldn’t have been worse,’ Mayfield said.”
“This weekend, a dozen new condominium projects in the downtown area, The Esplanade included, will open their doors for the sixth annual Tour of Urban Living sales event. That’s fewer participants than in past years, said Debbie Bingham, the City of Tacoma community coordinator who helped organize the tour. The reduction is not because there are fewer new projects, Bingham said, but because some developers decided economic conditions were so bad it wasn’t worth putting up the marketing costs.”
“About half of the projects on the tour are finished; the rest are in various stages of construction. J.J. McCament, who worked with the City of Tacoma for six years to recruit condo developers to the downtown area, remains confident in the long-term condo market and says, bad as things may seem, the current situation is just a pause in the action.”
“‘This is a normal predictable market correction,’ she said. ‘I think that our pricing was starting to get out of adjustment with the wages in the area.’”
“Jim Allotta is in a tough industry. His business, Allotta Appraisal Services, has faced some challenges in the past year including a declining housing market and predatory lenders who try to dictate appraisers’ work. The previously booming housing market brought appraisers who didn’t know much about the process and told lenders what they wanted to hear.”
“Q: What role did appraisers have in this?”
“A: Before we hit the crunch, we had a period of extremely fast appreciation in the industry. Real estate was appreciating faster than any time in history. A lot of the predatory lenders took advantage of the fact that we are in a turmoil with respect to the appraiser process – prior to that a lender would choose an appraiser based on the quality of work. But when we went through this rapid appreciation, there were no holds barred. New appraisers were coming into the industry not ever appraising before … and it’s just like shooting fish in a barrel.”
“They got in the industry and they were immediately successful. And the more successful they were was because they didn’t know how to appraise correctly, but they were appraising to numbers instead of the characteristics of the property.”
The Seattle PI from Washington. “The tower cranes piercing Seattle’s skyline won’t vanish because of the banking crisis, say local developers, architects and commercial banks. But economic woes may cut the number of new cranes. ‘All the cranes in the sky now are likely projects approved by banks over the past 18 months,’ said Tracy Edgers, senior vice president of Wells Fargo Bank, a significant source of Seattle construction lending. ‘My guess is you won’t see too many new cranes going up any time soon.’”
“‘There are fewer lenders making loans today, so we’re taking the lower-risk transactions — the best-conceived projects, being built for something there will be demand for,’ Edgers said.”
“To justify a loan, a proposed building might have to generate more income for a given level of debt than was true a year ago, said Edgers. ‘What’s going up now has to be absorbed — condos have to be sold, office space has to be leased.’”
The Seattle Times from Washington. “Thousands of desperate homeowners — people like David Hall and Cheryl Miller — have fallen behind on their house payments and face foreclosure. They’ve turned to their lenders and local housing-counseling agencies for help, quickly overwhelming both. Statewide, August foreclosure activity was up 64 percent from the previous August, reported RealtyTrac. That represents 2,762 households in the state in trouble.”
“‘This is terrible,’ Miller, a county employee, said of the descent into foreclosure. ‘I’ve never seen anything like this.’”
“It’s a far cry from the experience of buying their Auburn home in 2006, Miller said. ‘The most exciting thing in the world … like having a new child or winning the lottery’ is how Hall described the purchase.”
“When her adjustable-rate mortgage reset, the payments on Carol Clark’s Kent condo rose from $1,297 to $1,825, including homeowners’ dues. A single mother with a good job and two kids in college, Clark fell behind. Late fees added to what she owed, putting her farther behind.”
“‘I can afford my home if it gets refinanced at a fixed rate,’ she said, hopefully.”
The News Miner from Alaska. “The number of single-family homes sold this autumn in Fairbanks is almost 4 percent less than the numbers from last fall, according to the Greater Fairbanks Board of Realtors. The average reported sales price of $215,967 in the borough was down by about 4 percent from last fall.”
“Gwendolyn Jenkins is finally set to close the sale of her family’s Harvard Circle house next month after watching it sit on the market since mid-summer. Jenkins, who is set to move with her husband and children to the San Diego area to be close to family and take advantage of rock-bottom California home prices, said she grew nervous after hearing of an eight-month backlog of homes for sale in Fairbanks this summer.”
“‘We’d talked to numerous other people that have had their houses on the market. And they are just having terrible luck,’ Jenkins said.”
“Alaska Housing Finance Corp. chief Dan Fauske said the statewide housing market may be slower than during red-hot construction years earlier this decade but stressed that it remains relatively stable. ‘When you’re doing 100 miles an hour and you slow down to 55, it seems slow,’ Fauske said. ‘So you have to caution people, ‘Look, we’re back to normal.’ … It doesn’t mean we’re in a decline.’”
‘It’s a far cry from the experience of buying their Auburn home in 2006, Miller said. ‘The most exciting thing in the world … like having a new child or winning the lottery’ is how Hall described the purchase.’
It’s stuff like this that shows clearly that what we experienced was a mania. The press will use the words ‘housing bubble’ and then move on like it’s something that can be repeated, or papered over.
BTW: ‘Alaska Housing Finance Corp. chief Dan Fauske said the statewide housing market may be slower than during red-hot construction years earlier this decade but stressed that it remains relatively stable. ‘When you’re doing 100 miles an hour and you slow down to 55, it seems slow,’ Fauske said. ‘So you have to caution people, ‘Look, we’re back to normal.’ … It doesn’t mean we’re in a decline.’
I bet I’ve heard this car slowing down line in every single market in north America. And it’s always ‘we’re back to normal.’
This is better…
‘When you’re doing 100 miles an hour and you hit a brick wall, it seems slow,’ Fauske said.
Oh c’mon guys, we’ve had to endure that tired hackneyed phrase in the stock market too?
The ones that get me are the “This economy just really kicked us, just like it did everyone else”
( No @$$clown! It was YOU guys that dried up every last bit of liquidity available and then some for your pipe dreams! If the rest of us ‘did’ get kicked, we have only the likes of you to thank )
“We’ve all gotten a black eye from some of the things that have happened at the brokerages” ( Tim Widmer CEO of Eugene’s Century Bank )
( Wrong again @$$boy. The “brokerages” didn’t o-r-i-g-i-n-a-t-e these cr@p loans. YOU did. They’re, no rather the taxpayers, are now stuck with them as a result of your handi-work )
How did we reach a point in this country where everyone thinks that the rest of us are ‘complete’ idiots and anyone can do this “spin thing”?
This economy just really kicked us, just like it did everyone else.
Riiiiight. The e-c-o-n-o-m-y…
( Just like we made SURE it kicked everyone else )
When I asked my cousin (Cale Yarborough) why he quit racing, he told me that he was getting too old to hit walls at 200 miles per hour!
Let your cousin know that a lot of us lost interest in NASCAR when the “real racers” quit, and the “Driver/Spokesmodels” took over…..
“At the upscale Pronghorn resort east of Bend, partner Scott Denney likes to share the story of one of his buyers, a person with excellent credit and worth hundreds of millions of dollars who was seeking a loan for a $625,000 lot. First the bank told him he’d have to put 25 percent down. Then it was 40 percent, and finally it was 60 percent.”
Interesting. Last Friday a coworker who knows I watch the bubble asked me “Have you ever heard of Pronghorn resort?” I hadn’t and he told me lots there had been going for $625,000 but that he had a friend who had offered 150,000 and expected to get it. Quite a difference!
one of his buyers, a person with excellent credit and worth hundreds of millions of dollars who was seeking a loan for a $625,000 ??
Worth hundreds of millions and you need to borrow $625k ?? Not even pocket change…What a bunch of bullshi$$….
Someone with that net worth can surely set aside that paltry sum in a few months just by cutting his lunchtime tips in half.
wow, can you believe it that the banks require speculators to have some major skin in the game?!
my, my, how times have changed . . . now that the banker boyz can’t quickly offload the loans while raking in huge fees !
heck, anyone w/a few nickels to rub together would use the same proven strategy if possible; no need to risk one’s own money when you can use OPM!especially when you can dazzle the lenders with yer “high net worth” & lull ‘em into a false sense of security that mr. megabucks(like Donny Trump) has the financial standing/acumen to handle any problems.
just one oh-so-slight glitch; mr. megabucks sets up holding companies to speculate & provide a godfather-esqe “buffer” between him and personal accountability, like sleazeball armando m.
1st rule ‘o bidnezz; safeguard yer gains.
we’ve seen this all before. and we’ll see it again. and again. unbridled greed with no oversight equals social misery.
Who pays cash? It’s all about leverage. Oh wait, what year is this? It would be funny to find out what he is actually worth today.
Guys you have to install your “Debt=Wealth Filter”
This… this… CLOWN has hundreds of millions of dollars of DEBT! And just like the rest of these turd burglars he needs “just another “small” loan” or his Empire of Debt is going to come crumbling down!
( Why anybody would be forking over 625k for a LOT in Bend is highly suspicious. Highly. )
As W.C. Feilds would say when asked for cash….
“Sorry,All my Money is tied up in currency”
‘With the state of the economy, we’re not going to see new resorts in the next couple of years. That’s an absolute certainty,’ said Steven Hultberg, a Bend attorney who represents several resorts.”
Hooray! HooorayyyyyYYYYY! I wish I had a tamborine, ’cause I’d run around smacking it with wild enthusiasm. In fact, all these articles are making me cheery as can be. I guess it’s NOT ‘different here’, hmmm?
Hell yeah! That means we probably won’t be seeing Bitterroot Resort here either. Maybe in another generation.
It’s always fun to smack a tamborine. Especially at a party with annoying people. Sometimes it’s just best to smack people too if you don’t have a tamborine handy. Why deny yourself the basic pleasures of life?
Faster,
Just in regard to “resorts” on the whole… well who the hell is going to have any time or money to be loafing at one of these things anyway!?
Another HB mystery. All of this high end leisure was predicated on a fluffy stock market and ever spiraling RE prices. Now that we have neither..?
What I’ve -always- admired is the UK’s “beach cottage culture”. They’re about 10′ X 16′ and Britons flock to them every summer. Many don’t even have a bathroom or running water. ‘They’ seem to have a wonderful time?
What I’ve -always- admired is the UK’s “beach cottage culture”. They’re about 10′ X 16′ and Britons flock to them every summer. Many don’t even have a bathroom or running water. ‘They’ seem to have a wonderful time?
In New Zealand, there are caravan camps all over the place, with brightly colored tents in many hues, and Kiwis spend a week or 2 here on holiday, many of the spots being awesome and close to nature. it’s probably a 70/30 mix of tents & small camping trailers.
Very civilized, but not too much…
aladinsane,
I suppose a great deal of having that culture flourish is ALLOWING it to flourish! One of the maddening aspects of the Bubble/Wealth Effect was that everything had to cost money! If it wasn’t good and expensive, well then we didn’t want it.
( Is it too late to reconsider? )
When a busted bat of a steroid user that hit a lot of home runs*, got to be more valuable with his sharpie signature on what was left of the sweet spot, than when the bat was useful, I took it as a warning sign of both the cult of celebrity & money combined…
* baseball was just like big business, who gave a damn about singles hitters like Rod Carew?
Had a great aunt who was quite wealthy. She wasn’t one to flaunt it, however. But she did enjoy her annual trip to the Wiano Club on Cape Cod. If you’ve ever been near this place, it costs quite a few shekels to get in. (No, I’ve never been there)
To this day, I think that one of Aunt Fray’s reasons for going to Wiano was to provide the rest of the family with stories about the other people there. I mean, some of them had their noses so high in the air that they couldn’t see where they were going. Fray’s descriptions kept the rest of us in stitches.
Oopsy-daisy. That place is called the Wianno Club. My bad.
Googled Wianno Club, and that area is beautiful. Talk about a lush green visual.
Trust the local kids to get it: From the “Urban Dictionary”:
“Tourist 1: Woah we haven’t driven for more than half a mile and we’ve already passed 23 real estate offices.
Tourist 2: Oh, we must be in Osterville.”
Also, from same Dictionary:
“Osterville is one of the preppiest places in MA. There are two different country clubs, Oyster Harbors and Wianno Club. Most of the people that belong there are stuck up….Osterville probably has about one f*cking million real estate offices because they make so mcuh money selling mansions.”
As for my self, had no idea, the last time I was in Osterville, many years ago.
While your aunt was at the Wiano Club OR the Wianno Club, mine was at the Wino Club.
‘zaggly. Seems lately, a ‘resort’ is a hotel that charges mandatory ‘resort’ fees ($ 10 per person and up) for something that used to be included in the room rate, such as a swimming pool.
‘Sometimes it’s just best to smack people too if you don’t have a tamborine handy.’
Best of all would be to smack them with the tamborine. Make a pretty jingle and express displeasure all at once. Multi-tasking, see.
“Alaska Housing Finance Corp. chief Dan Fauske said the statewide housing market may be slower than during red-hot construction years earlier this decade but stressed that it remains relatively stable. ‘When you’re doing 100 miles an hour and you slow down to 55, it seems slow,’ Fauske said. ‘So you have to caution people, ‘Look, we’re back to normal.’ … It doesn’t mean we’re in a decline.’”
===================================================
Alaska seems to have more than it’s fair share of delusionists, no shortage of potential V.P. material…
I saw the part about Appraisers filing lawsuit because they were pressured to inflate vlaues. This is a joke! They are professionals and can make the proper judgement not to inflate. I’m so tired of these fools (borrowers too) crying foul.
If someone tells you to break the law or they won’t give you business. You take a hike. If someone told me to commit a crime or I risk not getting the deal. I’d say F - OFF.
poor victims - the sad thing is our government sympathizes with them.
KR,
You… have managed to change my position on this. For the longest time I saw the appraisers as sort of… unwilling accomplices but had they collectively sacked up, this would have never been an issue. In ways, they alone could have prevented a LOT of damage.
I believe all are responsible and they (the appraisers) carry their fair share. In fact, without their inflating, none of it was possible. That makes them the most important part of the process.
Again I’ll agree, especially where SFH’s were involved. Where the loft/condo “projects” were concerned it may have been harder to draw a line in the sand when you’ve got people foaming at the mouth and lined up around the block waiting to throw borrowed money at you?
But that’s the way NAR has always run things. When they and the developers are knocking down major bucks on every deal, the appraiser is really more of a low wage adminstrator that’s just there to do as he/she is told.
STILL… if they thought it was a problem, they have channels to express those concerns and should have had plenty of opportunities to share them!
i’d say the biggest culprits were the mortgage brokers and their faulty ‘credit worthiness’ analyses
I was surprised back in the 90s with all the people, including a nephew, who were getting into the appraisal business. Before it was some grizzled old construction veteran, only one here for years. It seemed like it didn’t take much real experience at all - what, just a test or something?
Hard to argue with either. One time we had one of those old school appraisers come out and he called my “garage” and out-building. I said, why?
He said, When you get a garage DOOR on it it becomes a garage! Until then ( it’s an out-building ) I guess those guys just “didn’t get it” and were run off by a fresh crop of newly minted “order takers”?
The way MB’s got around any outward suspicions was to say “I use this guy b/c he “knows that area” or “he understands the borrower’s “situation” etc.
KR are you just talking about deals where the appraiser knows the buyer isn’t legit? If they were legit, albeit stupid, buyers, don’t they still set the market value? Is it the appraiser’s job to exclude ignorant buyers? Im not arguing, just thinking outloud.
Tim,
I can see that, and it ‘did’ occur. Of course none of that really matters because the entire process and discretion has been taken out of the appraiser’s hands now anyway.
If they can’t show legit comps within a mile and no more than six months old they can’t support the values. Underwriting will simply kick it back. Well, that brought it on themselves.
RE: I saw the part about Appraisers filing lawsuit because they were pressured to inflate vlaues. This is a joke!
Ever been in the appraisal business yourself?
If not, exactly what is the basis for your passing judgement on what the internal working conditions of the profession have been for the past 5 years?
The businesses, finances, and professions of thousands of honest, hard working, ethical people were destroyed by the processes of coercion, professional “blackballing”, and blatant rackeetering on part of the loan fraudsters.
You can only understand the scope and dimension of the problem if we were directly involved it.
My hope is this lawsuit is the first of many more to come.
“Davey said that while the course isn’t on the open market, Zahara Valley did recently sell some of its equipment. ‘We had way too much stuff,’ he said.”
How much equipment does a closed golf course need any how?
I’ll bet you can get a nearly-new golf cart cheap there.
But they will have to retain the groundskeeping equipment unless they decide to abandon the landscaping.
DennisN,
Or cut to the chase, beat the rush and turn it into a Walmart?
“… the experience of buying their Auburn home in 2006 …. ‘The most exciting thing in the world … like having a new child or winning the lottery ….”
… or like going on your first date … or like making the reserve squad of your high school football team … or like opening that acceptance letter from the University of Phoenix … or like watching a classic indie film, like Buffalo 66, for the eleventh time … or like graduating fifth from the bottom of your class at the University of Phoenix … or like stumbling upon a Web site that shows you how to buy investment properties with little or no money down … or like burying your first victim in the basement of your $5K Buffalo fixer.
Luv,
Jen
Jen,
LOL! Well said. Every last bit of it! I guess on Jeopardy the column would be:
“Things anyone with a pulse ’should’ be able to accomplish”
ROTFLMAO
“… the experience of buying their Auburn home in 2006 …. ‘The most exciting thing in the world … like having a new child or winning the lottery ….”
I think that it would be more akin to the town bully catching up to you and then have a cop appear on the scene. You tease, taunt and flip him off only to find yourself cornered in an alley a week later and finding yourself in a world of hurt.
“‘I can afford my home if it gets refinanced at a fixed rate,’ she said, hopefully.”
Everyday that I read these types of quotes, it still amazes me. I’ve been an avid reader for the last year or so.
People in this country buy only according to the monthly payment…whether it’s a new car they can’t afford, or a new house they can’t afford.
And then when life throws you a little curve ball (illness, job loss, etc and it always does) these same people are surprised and now are the victims.
This is why almost all people are 1 paycheck away from the street. No one plans for anything but today.
it’s funny you say that about monthly payment. I have friends who are riding me to buy a house and I tell them prices need to drop. They say I’m missing out on memories, quality of life and all that mumbo jumbo. I tell them for every 100k drop in price (prices have dropped about 100-150 in the hoods that I like), it saves closer to 250k over the life of the loan, even after tax deduction. That savings is always countered with if you can afford the monthly payment why does it matter - I say, cause I ain’t a monthly payment type of guy. I believe they get angry, but can’t be sure…
The ability of people to ignore such basic things as saving $250K over the life of the loan just never ceases to amaze me.
It’s just extraordinary.
They can’t comprehend the true costs of a loan - yet they all want to retire early. It’s these kind of folks that think taking a mortgage payment into retirement with them is a good idea.
Oh wait, they’ll make it up with their dynamo 401k!
it’s the same if they are purchasing a car or a tv at best buy. this is how they live their lives. how much a month and who gives a rats a$$ what the true cost is.
We all have “Joe Howmuchamonth” friends and relatives but it gets worse. Even using a “bank return” the difference *not paid on the mortgage will multiply when invested over the life of the loan!
So now that I say a difference of “millions” do I have your attention? ( I hate to say this but for so many Americans they are SO screwed, maybe they’re right… it really wouldn’t matter any more? )
As in *edgewaterjohn’s example of carrying mortgage payments into their retirement. I mean, when ‘that’s’ your situation, what’s the point?
And how about the goofs rolling the closing costs into the mortgage? Nothing like financing that couple grand or so for another 30 yrs…
And KR, hold tight. You’ll know when to buy. Memories can be made anywhere. When it makes economic sense you will take the plunge.
I saw an episode of Property Virgins a few months back. The Realtor said something like: “I know the purchase price sounds high, but you need to just look at your monthy payment. I have a lender that can get you in X a month for a few years, at which point you should be able to play with your equity and refinance or move on. You don’t want to be a renter all your life do you?” She also regularly tells ppl that low ball offers get sellers mad, and if you really want it, you should come in close to or at asking price. The amazing part is that I dont think her show got cancelled yet, but I could be wrong.
Her name is Sandra Rinomato. Sometimes they tell her they want to lowball anyway. It usually works, to which she responds, wow - I can’t believe what a great deal you got. Total trash. Her outfits match her personality perfectly. Think low rent Vegas in her little fur and sunglasses.
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/shows_hprov
“‘”Right now the banks are just taking a position that they are not in the real estate lending market anymore,’ said Dennis Pahlisch, a Bend home builder and partner in a proposed 4,125-acre resort in Crook County.”
This is some good news. Housing is getting more affordable day by day. Stocks are getting more affordable day by day. Commodities are getting more affordable day by day. The only people getting hurt are those who borrowed to buy expensive things they could not afford.
I see there are a couple other bloggers who see these stories of sadness and loss as basically cheeful. Hooray. Their are consequences.
Doubly so because these resorts are getting mothballed (hopefully forever) and there will be a halt to carving up Oregon countryside just to satisfy the whims of a few wealthy Californians or New Yorkers who don’t really know how to have a good time.
Thanks for the NW thread. I’ve been waiting to post this. Apologies if it’s old news. I only wish I could post the graphic from the print edition. The interior of Portland is being closed in on (foreclosed on?) by the surrounding areas in a sea of red. Kinda breathtaking and it’s only a matter of time until it hits the core. For most cities, I assume the core is 200 or 300 blocks from downtown so by some standards Portland is already getting hammered.
Mortgage Losses Mouting
There’s the usual disclaimer:
“Portland is no real-estate basket case like Las Vegas or Phoenix.”
They then quickly shift gear with this:
“But the national foreclosure crisis that initially spared Portland has arrived here in a big way, bringing more human suffering and dampening housing prices.
The number of Multnomah County residents in jeopardy of losing their homes has nearly doubled in the last year…”
They’re finally getting it:
“But Portland home prices kept rising during the last recession, he noted. If banks and besieged homeowners try to dump too many discounted properties, he said, “you could swamp the market and kill the guys who are OK.”
The guys who are OK. That’s the core of Portland. This is getting fascinating.
Not sure what happened to my link:
portlandtribune.com/news/story.php?story_id=122410849935409800
It’s the law of large numbers: Everywhere people assumed the large mass of the other 300 million would produce enough gazillionaires to buy whatever overpriced POS would be laid down…
its different in Oregon.
we’re already in a depression.
Ok Long time Lurker, and I use to post some!
Dont mean to change any subject but!
I Been watching the Huntington Beach Market for years now.
A house me and My wife looked at in 05, back then the price was $575k. Of course some fool bought it, not me found a house to rent and been renting since! Well we live around the block from this house which resently foreclosed about a month ago. Well theres another house on the same block 3 doors down, that’s been on the market for about 8-10months, of course it has been droping in price, last time I looked they wanted 490k, nice house!
Well i drive by both these houses everyday, and the Recently foreclosed house just SOLD for $614,258.00 ??????????????????
Address 18321 Lisa HB 92646
Does this sound like one of them scams or people that stupid?
This is what the back bought it back at. the house was 575 but they probably rolled it upto 625 or so.
Sure its not 18271 Lisa?
Bank owned purchased at the price you mention. Confirmed via realtytrac.
Hi HBBers, here’s an update from your man on the street in the North Seattle burbs:
I was relaxing at the steam/sauna/spa at my local national chain gym a couple weeks ago. I won’t say which national chain, but I will say that it is a twenty four hour operation.
Anyway, I started up a conversation with a couple guys sitting around the spa, and it turned out they were mortgage brokers. Well, the one guy claimed he was a MB, an appraiser, and a day trader. I think you can guess where a good HBBer like yours truly was about to steer the conversation….
I innocently asked about how the housing market looked. He gave me a major sigh, rolled his eyes, and said it was really bad.
Then I thought, “ok, maybe this is one of the good MBs.” It didn’t take long for that assessment to go out the window.
I told him that houses were WAY overpriced compared to family incomes in this area. He retorted by say “actually, there are some excellent opportunities out there right now.”
I immediately did what ANY good housing bubble blog devotee would do at that point. I let loose with a deep roaring belly laugh right in his face.
Truly this was turning farcical. I smelled blood and was now going for the throat.
He proceeded to start throwing out every cliche in the book - not making anymore land, housing always goes up(all evidence to the contrary), you can deduct all that interest(wow, you mean I can pay $1000 to the bank and get back $200 from the gubmint? Golly, what a deal!), etc. etc. etc.
I pretty much went on autopilot using nothing more than ordinary HBB-fu to counter each of his inane statements. It was like the scene in “The Matrix” where Neo starts countering all of Agent Smith’s moves using only one hand, without even really looking at him either.
The various onlookers were highly intrigued, dare I say impressed, with my performance. In fact I had a number of people come up and ask me for advice later, but I digress.
After about 20 minutes of this, our dear MB looked quite depressed. As he held his head in his hands, he declared something to the effect that he should just jump off a building. He sounded like he was only half joking, so I decided to go in for the kill: I told him that was rather messy and instead described this informational poster:
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/74210/
“Remember kids, it’s down the road, not across the street - make it count!”
I just want to thank everyone here for making this truly shining moment possible. Your voices, wisdom, knowledge, and good information were there with me every step of the way, and with any luck the world now has one less sleazy mortgage broker.
HBB: We eat sleazy mortgage brokers for snacks.
SR
Didn’t know I was in the County naming business! But alas I’m from the county that has both the Bulls and the Bears as professional sports teams.
“‘”Right now the banks are just taking a position that they are not in the real estate lending market anymore,’ said Dennis Pahlisch, a Bend home builder and partner in a proposed 4,125-acre resort in Crook County.”
And for all you Sopranos fans: I give you the Esplanade construction project!
“How’s the market for condominiums in downtown Tacoma? ‘What market?’ says Judy Mayfield, head of sales for The Esplanade, the 162-unit project on the Foss Waterway, now nearing completion. After two years of extolling the virtues of the nine-story luxury project, Mayfield and her staff have yet to close a deal on a single unit.”
it is gratifying to read this board. i wish only that the puke mainstream media would concede — they never will — that , ‘hey those nut bloggers we have ignored were right. we were stupid overfed overpaid s—ts as always who let down society and collected fat paychecks for doing so.’