When a property is improved beyond what is needed and little value is added, it is called superadaquacy.

Address: 1 Whitney Irvine, CA 92620
Asking Price: $1,190,000

Nothing you can make that can’t be made.
No one you can save that can’t be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time.
It’s easy.

All you need is love.
All you need is love.
All you need is love, love.
Love is all you need.

All You Need Is Love — The Beatles

All you need is love… and a 42″ flatscreen, a new Cadillac Escalade, Pergo wood floors, granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, weekends in Vegas, vacations in the Seychelles…

Do you remember the
Castle at Kron and Ecclestone Circle? Or perhaps the monstrosity at Angell and Michelson? Or the Joke on Karen Ann Lane? The trend in over-improvement during the bubble is most noticeable in the omnipresence of pergraniteel.

During the bubble, the more you spent, the more you made. People
actually believed that adding common improvements — something anyone
could do to their own taste — would add more value than the
improvement cost. Flippers made money because they were there; breathing was the only prerequisite to success. Skill
and financial acumen had nothing to do with it, as evidenced by the losses they took when they were left holding the bag.

Home improvement and flipping shows became so common, they developed
their own channel. Like moths to a flame, fools flocked to flip houses.
The infamous flops are profiled here.

Today’s featured property is another one where you have to ask yourself, why?

Why did someone take an ordinary house — overpay for it — then proceed to demolish it in favor of something that is vastly over-improved for the area. This makes no sense. If this made sense, we could drive our entire economy on building and rebuilding homes… wait, we tried that once, didn’t we?

Address: 1 Whitney Irvine, CA 92620

Asking Price: $1,190,000

Income Requirement: $219,023
Downpayment Needed: $238,000

Purchase Price: $1,317,658
Purchase Date: 6/3/2009

Net Gain (Loss): -$199,058
Percent Change: -9.7%
Annual Appreciation: -29.2%

Monthly Payment $6,165
Monthly Cash Outlays $7,653
Monthly Cost of Ownership $5,158

Redfin Property Details for 1 Whitney Irvine, CA 92620

Beds 5
Baths 4 full 1 part baths
Size 3,990 sq ft
($298 / sq ft)
Lot Size 7,020 sq ft
Year Built 1979
Days on Market 7
Listing Updated 9/25/2009
MLS Number P704661
Property Type Single Family, Residential
Community Northwood
Tract Cust
According to the listing agent, this listing is a bank owned (foreclosed) property.
RE-BUILT IN 2007. JUST UPGRADED. FRESH PAINT, NEW CARPET, NEW APPLIANCES. CUSTOM LIGHTING. MOVE-IN READY ! ! !

This owner buys the property for $640,000 on 4/7/2005. By the time he finished construction, he hit the peak of the housing market. Unfortunately, he did not find a mark(et) for his monster.

Washington Mutual loaned this guy $1,200,000 on 1/12/2007. I imagine there is a fair amount of mortgage equity withdrawal in that number. Then on 8/24/2007 he got a HELOC for $250,000. WTF was WAMU thinking? The builder made his profit.

The rest is history…

Foreclosure Record
Recording Date: 10/10/2008
Document Type: Notice of Sale (aka Notice of Trustee’s Sale)
Document #: 2008000471693

Foreclosure Record
Recording Date: 06/13/2008
Document Type: Notice of Default
Document #: 2008000285894

Interesting fact of the day: if you do a Google image search for pergraniteel. You get page after page of IHB images.

And so concludes another week at the Irvine Housing Blog, chronicling the Irvine home market since September of 2006.

Have a great weekend.

🙂