patrick.net

Also, Costco on weekday noon only works if you're in a largely working town. In the Pleasanton Costco, we find about the same amount of traffic on weekdays and weekends. The weekdays bring out all the bored stay at home moms with three kids in tow. The best time is probably early morning or right before closing.

Glen Says:

"...I remember the early ’90s: Japan-bashing, Pete Wilson, Pat Buchanan, Gulf war I, prop 187, three strikes law, etc.. Ugly times call for ugly politics."
_____

In terms of the proposed conservative solutions (whose response was only proportionate to the severity of the problems at hand), to the madness of the ineffectual and deleterious liberal policies of the day, I thought those were beautiful times.

But I guess beauty, truly, is in the eye of the beholder.

I question your political aesthetic, my friend. I question it with a curious
eye (and one hand on a chocolate chip cookie and the other grasping a cold glass of Hi-C fruit punch).

OO,

Couldn't agree with you more. Whether you're a Costco checkout clerk, grunt engineer or corporate law firm associate, as long as you have the overhanging threat that if you lose your job you won't be able to meet your monthly financial obligations, you're still working class.

Working class -> time worked = wages
Wealthy -> money in investments work for you

So all this talk of techies getting so-and-so salary and what constitutes a "high" salary in SV is overshadowed by the fact that one's financial security is still tied to keeping that job.

Space Ace,

Keep it up with the jaded Silly Valley rants. I love it. :D

astrid,

Excessive visits to Costco constitutes a serious but treatable medical condition. If you can't bring it under control of your own accord we might have to do an intervention. :)

Remember your friends at patrick.net are there for you!

PS, (I know, you don't care!)

allah,

Ed Munteanu... A Real Financial HERO!

skibum,

"Green" flips. Now I've heard it all!

OO is spot in with his appraisal of quickie flips. True, long term homeowners realize to let a place slide into disrepair creates an insurmountable situation. Rather than become overwhelmed we realize it takes a genuine balance not bite off more than you can chew.

Every year my wife and I sat down and penciled out the things that 1) absolutely needed to be done, 2) things that "should" be done and 3) things that "would be nice" to be done.

It's really not that difficult. Anyone renting a truck, enlisting co-workers they barely know (regardless of their qualifications) and scrambling around at the last minute just doesn't impress me. Sorry. Home maintenance is an ongoing and constant project. The whole "bang for the buck" and curb appeal approach really messes with me.

spot on?

In terms of the proposed conservative solutions (whose response was only proportionate to the severity of the problems at hand), to the madness of the ineffectual and deleterious liberal policies of the day, I thought those were beautiful times.
But I guess beauty, truly, is in the eye of the beholder.

It was not conservative policies or liberal policies that ended the recession. These things just need to play themselves out. My point was just that the worse things get, the more the public supports aggressive law enforcement and scapegoating as the "solution." This may placate voters in the short run, but it can be dangerous in the long run.

OO,

I'm almost in complete agreement with your interpetation of "independently wealthy". Dipping into your principal is something most truly wealthy people are loathe to do.

In my mind (and I'm sure this won't fly without "some" criticism) it hinges on whether or not you intend to leave a "financial legacy"? If it's your intent to have children/surviving spouse that won't "have" to work then yes, that's absolutely essential. For the other 94% of us, if your last check to the undertaker bounces, you timed it just right!

To quote one of the old navy chiefs I used to work for: "I don't want my wife to have to go down to the street corner and sell p$ssy, but I'll be DAMNED if she's going to go around town BUYING d!ck!"

"This one takes the cake, the house just closed in March. It’s got good schools but look at the price.

Type: Detached Single Family
Status: Sold
List Date: 02/21/07
Sale Price: $1,168,000
Sale Date: 03/07/07
Location: 1125 POME AV, Sunnyvale, CA 94087 (map)
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 2
Approx. Sq. Ft.: 1772
Approx. Lot Size: 7,840sf
Approx age: 44
MLS#: 708446"

You got to be kidding me. I think the schools are: Cumberland, Sunnvale Junior High, and Homestead HS. $1.2M Not worth it for those who lived in the area for awhile. Probably someone from abroad that doesn't know any better. Proabably will foreclose in 24 months.

Signed up for a free trial in a foreclosure sight. It's amazing how these homeowners take out a HELOC or second mortgage. $65,000 here, $150,000 there, I need $50,000 now... By the time they are set a done they turned a regular $375,000 initial mortgage to a $800,000 ARM. Paper wealth and a match waiting to be lit at any given moment. Poof! it's gone.

Delta Pappa,

You're obviously just a JBR that doesn't understand the "new rules for money"! Why you hate Amerika? :)

Oh and speaking of "the new rules for money" how IS Ric Edelman getting along these days? (He's the original NEVER pay off your mortgage) and the very first debt =wealth disciple!

Some of his original basic ideas made sense but like Walter E. Kurtz "his principles became... unsound... unsound".

Okay - so how about this for a story - heard about a family who have bought a 2 bedroomed house in Cupertino (not sure how much they paid but over $1m) for the school district - still got their old house - which they plan to rent out (not ready to rent out yet and they have to start paying for both mortgages in the next month or so). They have four children - the idea being this is cheaper than paying for private school - any comments as to the validity of this?

DP - on the foreclosure site - are there many in Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Los Altos, Cupertino area? It would interesting if you could give us an update as the year goes on as to whether the numbers rise significantly.

One couple we know just threw in the towel and bought a house in Los Gatos. They bought at 6-7x income, and the wife doesn't work. No kids, yet. Some people are still jumping in.

I'm seeing a slow, steady growth of inventory in parts of Central SJ, Rose Garden & Willow Glen. Do these areas have bad schools?

Claire Says:

> Okay - so how about this for a story - heard about a
> family who have bought a 2 bedroomed house in
> Cupertino (not sure how much they paid but over $1m)
> for the school district. They have four children - the idea
> being this is cheaper than paying for private school –
> any comments as to the validity of this?

Here in San Francisco the base tuition for a top K-8 school (like Town, Cathedral, Burke or Hamlin) is over $20K so when you add in Books, Uniforms and the minimum mandatory fees (and blew off all the semi mandatory giving) you would be at about $88K or $7.3K a month after tax dollars or just about the same after tax out the door as having a $2mm IO loan. If the good private schools in the Cupertino are about $10K per kid the tuition will cost about the same per year after tax as a $1mm loan…

Someone wrote:

> The Casey bailout is in full swing,
> he’s up over a $1000. Wild.

Then allah Says:

> I don’t know who is dumber, Casey or
> the people who are giving him money!

I went over to Casey’s site to see what he did to get so much money and it turns out that he got a fake $850 donation (but is still over $300 since he sold the blue ball)…

that’s precisely the reason immigrants target areas with good school districts. Going to public school saves a LOT. Can you imagine sending two kids through private schools at $30K each after tax? That is a big ouch.

I think my 300K NPV calculation assumes public school education.

There’s all kinds of discounts associated with the second kid if you time it (yes, I know what I said) close to the first kid. Clothes, nanny, pre-school, bulk diapers, room sharing after the kids are able to sleep through the nights.

Maybe you are right. No discount in Education though.

Here's a conversation I had with a immigrant parent awhile back.

"Hi, your son goes to school around here"

"No, he goes to Challenger, but I think he's gifted, I'm sending him to Harker in a couple of years"

"Oh, he looks big for his age"

"Yeah when we go to Hometown Buffet, they don't believe his age"

I leave the reader to find the humour in this.

" are there many in Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Los Altos, Cupertino area? It would interesting if you could give us an update as the year goes on as to whether the numbers rise significantly."

I just ran a quick query for Santa Clara County. Here are the results:
1800 - Pre-Foreclosures or foreclosed
351 - Auctions
933 - Bank Owned

Another site had higher amounts in each category. Looking at the mortgage history in these houses tell a telling tale. Tons of houses bought in 2004/2005 (ARMS), or owners using their houses as virtual piggy banks.

I don't like restaurants except on special occasions, I can't control the environment or the time. Good restaurants are very expensive and I usually prefer to spend money elsewhere. Cooking is also fun and therapeutic for me, and the results are as good or better than run-of-the-mill restaurants.

Also, how else am I going to get rid of all that bread I keep baking?

Glen Says:

"...My point was just that the worse things get, the more the public supports aggressive law enforcement and scapegoating as the “solution.” This may placate voters in the short run, but it can be dangerous in the long run."
_____

Fair enough.

Take, for instance, the subject of liberal ultra tolerance when it comes to Illegal Aliens. It's to the point that you cannot even say the words "Illegal Alien." One must now use the politically correct words "undocumented immigrant," or even "undocumented American."

An illegal is now morally equivalent to a US citizen, or even has more freedom than a law abiding citizen who must live by the rules. And if you object, of course, you are an anti-Mexican, xenophobic, nativist racist.

In effect, all dialog or antithesis has been squelched by the left-wing fascist name callers, in the name of anti-racism. Anti-racist is a component of the fascism of the left.

It has come to the point where there are millions of illegal aliens in this country, many carrying deadly diseases such as Tuberculosis and Chagas disease, that are telling other people/cultures/races from around the world, that play by the rules and come try to come into this country legally, "Get to the back of the bus."

Kind of like the situation in housing market. Those that played by the conventional rules of common business sense and financial prudence in our ostensibly "free market," were punished for waiting the bubble madness out on the sidelines, while the more adventurous (unethical?) seem to have had their cake and ate it too!

Here's a negative stat: One third of the prisoners incarcerated in the US are illegal aliens from all over Mexico, Central and South America.
And yet law enforcement and our politicians do virtually nothing. Why?

Now you've got huge real estate/mortgage fraud rings being discovered, like the one recently reported in Colorado, comprised mostly of Illegal Aliens.

And what invariably happens is that things get so bad, there's an overreaction to the situation that's tantamount to a right-wing backlash.
And then the left-wing points a bony, wretched finger at the authorities they despise, who finally act, (or overreact) saying, "Ha! I told you they were right-wing fascists all along!"

In other words, the left-wing never takes responsibility for the lax standards, be it housing, or illegal immigration, or national security, or whatever that gett us into these untenable positions in the first place.

And when criticized for so doing, they just roll along as if criticism doesn't exist.

Same faces, different administration. Same sh-t, different day!

Michael Holliday,
You just described the Bay Area to a T! Welcome to political hell!

Not to subvert the thread, but whatever happened to forced labor for prisoners? They are supposed to be improving themselves to become part of society again. Well, the best way to build dignity is a hard day's work. In their case, it's a hard day's work with your feet chained to the next guy and a sheriff with a shotgun standing guard. If we're going to pay for their incarceration, I think we should get something back.

Why are we detaining illegal aliens in our prisons? We should either deport them immediately or send them to various forced labor institutions. Maybe that could be our answer to ultra-low cost manufacturing in China. Or we could just send them to Iraq. Sort of like an involuntary French foreign legion.

As much as I like reading posts on the site, watching what these people post sometimes is like watching a 4 year old play with your prized porcelain. I am almost ready to start a profile there and send them some real good articles. It's almost like they're reading articles from last year! :roll:

Interesting side note. I did my usual MLS queries on "REO", "lender owned" and "bank owned". That inventory has plunged since Jaunuary. Lots of REO in backup. I wonder if someone is exploiting this subprime chaos to cut some good deals with the banks?

When dealing with a company like New Century or Countrywide, is it possible to nail them pretty hard on the offer because they are badly strapped for cash?

Ah so true Skibum and OO,
We are all wage workers. Infact if you are one of the uber rich why live here and not somewhere else where you dollars goes further.

Sat morning SJ Mercury healines.....

Home sales run hot, cold

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_5564641?nclick_check=1

CB:

I enjoyed your anecdote about Hometown.

But there is a big disconnect between the sentiment you expressed, and what I see on the ground: lotsa Lexus and other expensive vehicles, frequent trips "back home" during peak holiday travel time, shopping bags from the expensive stores at Valley Fair. And worst of all, an arrogantly smug attitude towards the lower castes of folks who do most of the labor in Silicon Valley.

All that swagger, in the context of the salaries in Silicon Valley, it doesn't add up. You can see why it's logical to conclude that these folks are not wage slaves. They must have imported a lot of wealth from "back home". In fact I am personally acquainted with someone like that, a Cupertino resident who sends his kids to a private Mandarin school in P.A. He doesn't even have a job.

syrib,

private mandarin class costs nothing, it is no Harker or better yet, philips exeter. You can afford one if you want to, $100 a month to the most. There is no such thing as private Mandarin school, you see, the elites from China all speak English to each other, just like the elites from India. Parents in SV send kids to Mandarin classes just for the remote possibility that one day they may be able to go to China to dig gold, if China survives the upcoming worldwide recession set off by America. It is purely profit-driven.

Uber rich Chinese don't live in Cupertino either, they live where the uber rich white folks are, Los Altos Hills, Woodside, Atherton, Hillsborough etc. The Chinese you see in Cupertino, Palo Alto or Saratoga are all working class Chinese (just making a few bucks more) who still care about the savings from the good public schools. The real rich Chinese send their kids to UK, Swiss boarding schools and US prep schools, they don't give a damn about school district.

"Los Altos Hills, Woodside, Atherton, Hillsborough"

How true ... everyone has gone nuts on MV and PA ... thinking its somehow worth 1M for a 1000 sfr.
Some guy was telling he how MV/PA was wonderfull. I asked him if he been to Los Gatos or Woodside... "No never been there". I doubt they know where Hillsborogh is. The fact is many people have come here and have ventured very little outside a few miles from work.

LOL... what a joke...

"shopping bags from the expensive stores at Valley Fair"

Let them. Its their own money they are burning.

"lotsa Lexus and other expensive vehicles"

lots of Lexus and BMWs for sale after a few years of use down the road from Valley Fair half the price. Spendaholics...they like their name brands and have to have one just like the Jones' from down the street. While they are burning theirs Im saving mine.

Brand Says:

> Not to subvert the thread, but whatever
> happened to forced labor for prisoners?

Liberals (who generally hate to work hard) thought it was mean to make prisoners work (and it cuts in to the time they can spend with left wing attorneys suing the taxpayers for things like food that they don’t like)…

> Why are we detaining illegal aliens in our prisons?

Because the prison guards union has passed he trial lawyers as the number one donor to California politicians and more prisoners means more over time (and more guards making over $200K a year)…

P.S. The liberal trial attys. love the illegal aliens since they can sue the state for “cultural insensitivity” and require that they put more expensive bilingual signs in the prisons…

I don't think the Mandarin classes ever amount to anything. Most ABC kids in the DC area gets Sunday Chinese lessons, but I've yet to meet a proficient speaker. Also, do they get the Mainland Chinese version or the Taiwan version? I always found Taiwan Mandarin to be quite rustic.

"> Not to subvert the thread, but whatever
> happened to forced labor for prisoners?"

That sort of thinking goes away when the concept of natural rights gets carried too far. We can blame the Sixties for going from equal rights to egalitarianism. The inflated expectations lead to everybody wanting more pie and no one thinking about how to pay for it.

Of course, it really doesn't help to have a Reagan era harsh drug policy in place. Most people in prison are the there for drug offenses.

HARM,

Can you please take my post out of moderation. I don't know why it didn't go through, there is only one link.

GC,

you need to see the second generation of the ruling class from China. The second and third generation of the ruling class from China are generally educated overseas and take pride in speaking fluent English to each other. Take Bo Gua Gua, the grandson of Bo Yi Bo for example, he went to a UK boarding school and now is attending Oxford.

I went to a few parties thrown by investment bankers for the grandsons and grand-daughters of the Chinese ruling class, they all speak English to each other.

Cultural colonization only takes one or two generations to complete.

Bab33,
Drug abuse is wide spread in the Bay Area, not just the street people you see. Even in more desirable areas like Palo Altos and Los Gatos, drugs by kids of rich folks is common. Cocaine was in wide spead use in my hometown of Los Gatos in the 1980s particular with very rich.