WOT 5-10-2008

In Da House — Crazy Frog

Part of our formula for success at the Irvine Housing Blog is to be entertaining. Reading about the housing market can be dry and boring, or it can be lively and entertaining. We always try to make it fun, funny and entertaining.

My wife cannot stop laughing at the crazy frog…

We have done many kinds of posts at the IHB:

  • Analysis

  • Flips

  • Fraud

  • WTF prices

  • Big losses

  • HELOC abuse

We try to inject fun and humor in our posts by adding music, making fun of bad descriptions, and creating funny graphics. If possible we try to weave all these together in a manner that informs as well as entertains. So tell us what you like about the IHB and what you would like to see more of. If you have ideas for other posts you would like to see, please share them here.

57 thoughts on “WOT 5-10-2008”

  2. granite

    Keep up the “big picture” analysis posts, especially the one you promised on a potential GSE blowup. That is a game changer.

  4. EdDunkle

    This might be too far afield, but I’m interested in what’s going on with the local banks. I’m not far from OC, and there are several small/medium lending institutions here which are fighting to survive. Is that true of OC banks and S&Ls;also?

    1. Hormiguero

      Agreed, this is all about the banks. It’s odd, but the consumer of housing has become a secondary factor relative to the strength of the banks’ hands in this market.

  6. Rkp

    I would like to see more analytical posts as well.

    Also, there were flippers in commercial properties in irvine during the bubble. Would be interesting to see that.

    2. NoWow!way

      The description is ridiculous considering the asking price. Typos and weird grammar. No pictures. It is a joke.

  8. ex-tangelo

    I know this is the *Irvine* Housing Blog, but you have readership from all over.

    What about making an occasional foray into interesting home sales in other places? It won’t dilute the Irvine-centricity of the blog. Like a “Friday night guest city” or something.

    Your readers can find examples for you. Your regulars keep coming up with doozies from Arizona, Chicago and Florida. You could highlight one of those with it’s own post.

    1. Surfing in Newport

      Even adjacent areas that will impact Irvine housing prices….oh wait, Irvine is special…nevermind.

    2. CK

      Please, please keep it local to Irvine. Yes, the housing bubble is not unique to Irvine, but this blog and its intense focus on what happened in one micro-market (and how it is unwinding) is what makes this blog so interesting, and unique. Noise from other areas will just dillute the core message.

      There are plenty of blogs looking at the broader picture, and plenty of other localized housing blogs.

      1. Zardeenah

        I’m with CK…The focus on one particular area with all of the specific data is what makes this blog special. IR also has special insights to reveal about Irvine’s situation specifically that I think would be missing if he wrote about Seattle, or FL or CT (no offense intended)

        PS: Alex – nobody’s gonna make you click the YouTube links. Think of them as extremely blurry versions of AZ’s pics.

    3. lawyerliz

      Yes, yes, yes. I vote for units for a finished
      high rise tower in Miami, Miami beach or Ft. Lauderdale. One with not too much fraud. (not the Jade, which is under investigation by the State Atty’s ofc.

      Or, if you wish to visit the INNER CIRCLE OF DOOM, try contacting Cobra Driver at Calculated Risk, for Cape Coral Ft Meyers, which will never
      recover.

  9. Priced_Out_IT_Guy

    There are several things I enjoy about this blog, some of which are:

    The daily featured Irvine real estate properties with in-depth financial anaysis (mortgage notes, HELOC, and other tid bits) that most of us do not have access to. This helps lend insight into the financial situation of sellers in the market and brings to light how unstable the market is.
    Entries like the “Ultimate Post” are just downright eye opening.

    I also enjoy the daily schadenfreude. As a renter it keeps me coming back for more.

    Among the more unique features of this blog that I really enjoy include analyses of buyer and seller psychology, local culture and market psychology of both real estate and investing in the broader sense. In fact what originally interested me about this blog was the informative analyses that now make up your book.

    Without diverging off topic, I would like to see more economic-related posts about the state of the local economy, as it also tells a story about the state of housing and where it is headed. Some additional local data and statistics would be great. Lastly, more information on neighborhood comps and follow-ups on existing properties would be great.

  10. MalibuRenter

    Maybe a guest author? An academic who understands what’s going on?

    Knowing some of these people personally, they often feel that the one or two sentence quotes in the general media don’t really convey the depths of their research. They are also often looking for intelligent feedback from nonacademics. They don’t get that in the general media.

  12. NoWow!way

    I’d like to see some more of the unique housing that exists. Such as UCI and Concordia type properties. The new towers and the lofts projects.

    Or just keep going with what you are doing. I think it’s all working fine at IHB. 😉

  13. fensterlips

    I think the other posters have nailed it. I love the featured houses and the analysis blogs the best. I find myself reading and then re-reading them followed by an email to friends with the link.

    If these aren’t already in your highly anticipated book, perhaps excepts from the book could add some nice spice — especially for those days when you can’t seem to want to write one more post (those exist?)
    I enjoy almost as much as you (I’m guessing) when I see mainstream sites quote your blog or commandeer terms that just seem so appropriate like “the Seventh Circle of Real Estate Hell” or “homedebtor”.

    If there’s ever a barometer on which posts are the best I guess we can just look to the ones generating the most interesting, not to mention the most total postings — forgetting those that wander off topic.

    Maybe you need one of those “Anadale Counters” at the bottom that show the number of readers that stop by?

    Keep up the great work. I wish I was more helpful.

    The frogs are ok, maybe once a year. Stick to the tried and true.

    Are you having success with finding a publisher?
    I’m looking forward to the printing….

    1. fensterlips

      Uh, “excerpts from the book”….
      I shouldn’t write when I’m tired. I’m not good as the rest of you guys at it…:-)

    2. lawyerliz

      I don’t think you should publish just yet.

      There’s too much to come, and what’s to come is
      gonna be way off the charts; whereas what’s already happened is only slightly off the charts.

      You will be itching to add later chapters. On the other hand, you could add Volume II and sell more books. On the other other hand, by the time Volume II came out, maybe nobody will be able to afford new books.

      Wait another 6 months for the carnage to pile up some more. Don’t you want to chronicle the effects of Lennar’s or Countrywide’s imminent demise? Don’t you want to confess how optimistic you were when the prices drop way below your median price chart.

      And by the way, can you publish the chart with what has happened in reality overlaid?

      1. Chris

        It’ll be quite interesting the next 6 months or so since we’re currently getting 2 different messages from so many pundits: the hard time is behind us and wait…there’s more to come.

        If the latter part proves to be true (and I’m kinda hedging on this), I wonder how much more arsenals does the Fed have since they only got 8 more points left (and 4 points above the historic low) to slash. Couple with inflation, I don’t think they got anywhere to go except to drop more USD from the helicopter. Those USD are going to be worthless anyway since banks are just going to horde them and lend them out at an outrageous interest rate for anyone to chew on.

  14. Thisblogsavedme100K

    Please show the house information on the main page like you used too. The you tube stuff can go.

    Great Blog! THANKS!

  15. Dave in FL

    OK, you’ve convinced me that buying a house is not the best idea at present, but I still need a place to live. Do you have any tips for renters such as how to avoid landlords that are milking you for rent before the house goes into foreclosure and how to keep your deposit safe? How can I find NOD/NOT information on a property? Should I use an attorney to review the lease? Thank you.

    1. lawyerliz

      Dave, Your are in Florida. Check the name of
      the landlord on the county web site, where it has the dockets for civil actions and see if your landlord’s name is there in foreclosure. If, so don’t rent unless your first month’s rent is enough to bring him current, which it won’t be.

      And if it were, pay directly to the bank.

      Also, you can look at land records on the net in most counties. Look for a “lis Pendens” notice–if you find one, don’t rent.

    2. lawyerliz

      Also, we have a different system in Florida. They have posting; we have judicial foreclosure.
      You can go down & read the court file, if you feel like it.

      No Notices of Default here. We do have auction sales; they are noticed in the local legal newspaper usually.

  16. madhaus

    As others have said, I love the descriptions of the properties and the price history and how the owners bought the places. You’ve got readers from all over, not just Irvine. And writing from “special” Silicon Valley, I’m wondering when our fair valley will wake up and realized they’ve been drinking Kool-Aid since 1996. Because it seems that even with the dot-bomb implosion, which hit here very hard, house prices did not drop all that much from 2000-02, and then just kept on going up.

    Right now the flood waters are rising, and only a few good zips are still holding on. Yeah, they’re special. But if nobody can buy the entry-level properties, then nobody can trade up to the Specialness of Cupertino, let alone Los Altos. So I’d love to see some comparisons of other cities to where Irvine is now, maybe Past, Present & Future, where you’ve got Stockton or Las Vegas or bits of Florida in total freefall, Irvine just realizing they’re falling off a cliff, and what’s left of San Francisco and Silicon Valley about to get pummelled… but not just yet.

  18. JD

    I always enjoy the HELOC abuse posts, as I have several friends in banking so I’ll just forward them the posts and say “hahaha, your whole industry was nuts”.

  19. crr

    Irvine Renter,

    what would really be great is a tracking tool:
    All the houses that you have presented, what happened to them/ how much have they sold for, after how long, etc …

    would be really good.

    thanks

    1. lawyerliz

      Excellent, excellent idea.

      And had any worse happened to my favorite
      Irvine house, the one with the pillars and
      the unfortunate death of the young atty.

  20. Anonymous

    It’d be nice to know more about the buyer experience. What kind of financing are still availble to buyers? What kind of people are the buyers (ex. jobs, ethnicity, local or relo) ?

  21. SCCalendarGirl

    I like all your blog posts about WTF pricing in Irvine, and the comments that follow making fun of the people’s decorating. I’d like to know what’s going on with the high rises in Irvine and when we can expect them to all go BK.

  22. covered

    IR,

    Definitely stay on the HELOC use/abuse. Helocs were the mainstay of the “housing ATM” that enabled the lifestyle enhancements that are now history for the over-leveraged consumers that used them and the key to the “Level 3 Assets” that are the subject of much consternation among both the investment and money center banks. The amounts are nothing but mind-numbing…and that’s just the ones we know about. There are still plenty looming that are trying to be kept off the books but that game can’t go on forever. Tick tock.

  23. LC

    My favorite bubble characteristic is the final one: where prices never again reach previous highs. Comments?

    2. lawyerliz

      Never is a long time.

      Never was 271 years in the case of a high value
      street in Amsterdam. It took that long (inflation adjusted) to reach the highs bid up in the tulip bulb craze.

      Those people at least had the excuse of never
      experiencing such a thing before.

      Please excuse the incorrect spellings in previous posts.

  25. C. Cammack

    You are doing a great job. The only thing I would request if you could have more posts of conods in Irvine that peaked in the 350-500k range. This is the stuff that when this whole mess settles, us poor Irvine folk (the ones making $55k-$70k a year) will be able to afford.

    As an added bonus may the scumbag Realtor of the week would be nice. 🙂

  26. small

    I agree with CK. I like how all the houses posted are located in Irvine. There are other blogs (via sidebar links) that feature similar analysis in random areas of Southern California, and I find that they can be too broad/general to fully understand. Most of all, I live here so I’d like to “see” what’s been happening behind the scenes.

    I like the analysis here. I learn a lot this way so I can be better prepared when I buy my first house (in Irvine). Also, this blog keeps me grounded and thinking realistically and will help me make better choices in the future.

    I think the songs are really cute – I haven’t heard of some of them before. My personal preference is the old format – having a full post on the main page rather than “continue reading”.

    Keep up the good work!

    1. small

      Oh yeah, more posts on the high rises please =) – I see them all the time, and I see their prices online, but everything else about them is a mystery.

  27. Eric U

    I see the posts about Helocs that probably aren’t going to be repaid on here. I wonder if this can possibly be the case. My phone number at work is inundated by phone calls from companies that have bought debt from someone, and are trying to collect it. Fortunately, I have another phone number I can use, and this isn’t a problem for me.

    From what I understand, all this effort is often in an attempt to collect $10 plus fees, and often on debt that is uncollectable. If the original loan was for $100k or more, I can’t imagine people are going to give it up, they are going to sell it to the dirtbag companies that collect these debts.

  28. TurtleRidgeRenter

    Stick to Irvine! The in-depth analysis of Irvine -and only Irvine- is what makes this blog unique.

  30. r€nato

    i can’t add much to the suggestions here, other than a big thumbs up for the blog and the style in which you blog.

    I’ll settle for listing the suggestions I like:

    -keep it local to Irvine.
    -tracking any sales of homes previously featured, or if that can’t be done, periodically going back and looking up to see if they’ve sold and blogging it
    -I like AZDavidPhx’s photo-comments, I hope he keeps it up.
    -condo blogging. I’ll never forget the time I was living in OC and someone told me about a friend who bought a 600 sq ft condo in Irvine for their daugther who was to attend UCI… for $360K. That blew my mind.

    And as I found out from this blog, condos like those went for as much as $420K. Yow.

  34. Rocker

    other test

    [img src=http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/roflmfao.jpg /]

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