patrick.net

LOL @SP

Very entertaining stuff there. :-)

In honor of WaMu's $1.14 billion loss, here a are couple of the listings from the "it can't happen here file":
First, let's start off with this one: $929900 CUSTOM BUILT 3.5 STORY HOME IN THE BERKELEY HILLS. Was sold in 2006 for $1.6 million and a year later WaMu took it back for $1,066,217. Oh, and the Relitter isn't wasting his time (err... money), listing it on the MLS. A bargain all around.

There is also a newly constructed home at 1871 Tunnel Road that is owned by WaMu. Appears that the lien was for $750k, so they might come out even as it is offered at $815k. As the MLS listing says: Contemporary 3 bed 3 bath in Oakland/Berkeley Hills. Bank's Loss is your gain.

if the raw land is improved with water tap and power, your property tax moves into the 10%/year assessed value range. There are $130K estate lots in town with $3.5K/year in taxes.

When I was recently looking at house prices in C-Springs and Castle Rock, I noticed the tax rates on property with houses was much less than that. Does Ft Collins lower the rate once a house is built on the raw land?

Does Ft Collins lower the rate once a house is built on the raw land?

As completely ridiculous as that seems... yes.

Comparison of a 1/4 acre improved lot with a decent house in the same subdivision. The locations are Harbor Walk Estates and Warren Shores, respectively; both are around the perimeter of Warren lake and do not have lake access. You can find both properties on Colorado HomeFinder.

1106 Devon Way Fort Collins, CO 80525
$180,000 - Land
Subdivision: Harbor Walk Estates
Property Type: Land
Property Tax: $3,772
Tax Year: 2007
Lot Size: 11,520

3701 Gull Way Fort Collins, CO 80525
$325,000 - 2495 sf, 3 bed 3 bath, 1973 Single Family
Subdivision: Warren Shores
Property Type: Single Family
Property Tax: $2,377
Tax Year: 2007
Finished Square Feet: 2,495
Car Spaces: 2
Lot Size: 7,971

This woman is a total Bay Aryan (warning: biodynamic farming alert), but you have to admit her 3,136 square foot pad in Napa is pretty sweet.
She is not home for the day's warmest hours, but with the insulation of the 18-inch pisé walls and ventilation from transoms atop the dining room doors, she didn't even consider installing air conditioning.

"It never gets hot, it never gets cold," she said. "It's a very efficient home."

OK, the shit just hit the fan. Fresh off the press from KGTV channel 10.

San Diego County median home price is $395,000 down from $490,000 in March 2007. (That was down from over $600K)
Sales down 35% (Last year was down 40%)

Craftsman and Tudor homes are so cute.

Peter, did you ever get my email forwarded from administrator? I was wondering if you looked down on the local architecture of the faux-craftsman houses.

Malcolm:

Link please!

Dennis, I got your email. Thanks for the pics. (Sorry for not replying earlier. Got distracted.)

I don't look down on any architecture, since I live in an apartment.

But I am free to hate. :twisted:

I hate Eichlers and I hate Ranches.

Link please!
I cribbed this from the HBB:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20080415-1114-bn15housing.html

I am envious of her Napa retreat. The pictures were quite inspiring; I've saved a few as reference. I loved the open living room. I've toyed with many diagrams of earth-sheltered and earth-bermed retreats. One green building site detailed shotcrete airforms that yielded dome-like structures with reinforced steel skeletons.

I've also thought that it would be awesome to basically just have a near-town summer mountain retreat that basically just have an elegant bathroom plus a little storage. The outside would have pillars for erecting a semi-permanent tent and shade. Cooking would be firepit, minimal power would be photovoltaic, hot tub would be solar. The view of the lakes and city lights would be exquisite.

I would love to have a large garden as well, but it's high and dry in the foothills. Haven't figured out how to solve that one yet. I did see a site where a local guy was experimenting with genetically toughened varieties of wine grapes.

Wow relative to latest San Diego numbers.

That's Armegeddon.

We should all keep in mind that this is all occurring on the front end of the downward cycle. We haven't even really seen much in terms of employment softness yet. Man, once that hits....is CA looking at an over correction from historical medians? 70% off peak? Yikes.

SP,

Tuscan Garage-Mahals is a great one, you're very inspired today.

But on the topic of Rice, I'd say her main traits are that she is double-minority, smart about being ruthless, not very principled, and not the least bit afraid of pandering to older white men that are part of the conventional power structure. These are all negatives for a leader in my book, except one that is neutral. Guess which one. Go Aunt Jemina.

OO,

Do you have specific knowledge as to what is the best solution to turn a BA crapshack (per building code) into something that is livable without forced cooling, 24x365?

Thanks for the link EB. I DVRd it.

My source for the high above 600K is from the CAR. Their figure is for single family homes. Their data has the median above 600K from April 2005 to at least April of 2006 which was when I stopped graphing it.
I should note that Dataquick data is for the county of San Diego whereas CAR's data is for all the regions of the city of San Diego and it's suburbs.

its

justme,

The most efficient way is to re-insulate the house. Double-pane windows, doors, insulation throughout, you can use wool or fiber glass if you want to be fancy. I believe that you can even get some tax break on your insulation cost.

Then you may want to see if you have enough windows and openings facing the right direction (south, east), and if you can find ways (adding covered porch) to reduce heat dumped into your house in the afternoon if it faces west, or reduce your windows and openings to the north.

justme Says:
Do you have specific knowledge as to what is the best solution to turn a BA crapshack (per building code) into something that is livable without forced cooling, 24×365?

One of the simplest ideas I know of is vents.

In the northern hemisphere, install vents low to the ground in the southern wall, and high near the ceiling (preferably under eaves) on the northern wall. In summer, this results in cold air getting sucked in near the floor from the south while hot air gets expelled from the top to the north. That alone drops your peak room temps by 5 degrees - which is a big deal because over the course of the day, that 5 degree temperature difference adds up to a huge amount of trapped heat. The vents can even be in different rooms, as long as there is some way for air to flow from one to the other.

You can increase the effect by having some kind of water-feature just below your south vent, which cools incoming air even more dramatically. The longer the air-way over water, the better it gets. And a couple of slow fans on the exhaust side can help too.

I have seen variations of this trick used literally all over the tropics - central and southern africa, Tangier, Iraq, Lebanon, Ceylon, Indonesia, Turkey, etc.

Forced cooling? In The City you almost never could imagine needing cooling. Maybe a few days out of the year, but on those days, I just go to the beach.

We have our house very thoroughly insulated though, per OO's suggestion. A breeze blows in almost every afternoon and it used to get chilly before the insulation.

Malcolm/NVR,

link please

StuckinBA gave you the full link at 10:41 am. It's the March SoCal numbers from DataQuick.

Alright, I know median is not the best measure available,

BUT

EVERY county on the DQ SoCal list has a YOY median down 15% plus, and the SoCal aggregate median is down 23.8% YOY.

Plus sales have taken ANOTHER big seasonally adjusted fall (up 18% from February when the normal Feb/Mar delta is 38%).

March Bay Area DQ numbers are due out in a few hours. :twisted:

SP,

Interesting summer venting idea. But why have the air intake on the hot southern side of the house? Why not draw in the air from the cooler, shaded northern side of the house?

Zephyr Says:
why have the air intake on the hot southern side of the house?

In the tropics, the sun's arc is to the north in summer. The base of the southern wall is usually in shade in summer because the sun passes overhead to the north.

However, I am not an expert :-) so there may be another explanation too.

I'm sure Different Sean would rig his vents differently.

Meanwhile, here I am in flyover country, sitting here bitter - bitter I say - and clinging forelornly to my guns, my religion, and my hatred of swarthy foreigners. ;)

I think the best ventilation in the tropics is to be in a hammock under a shady tree by the beach, with a cool drink...

Meanwhile, here I am in flyover country, sitting here bitter - bitter I say - and clinging forelornly to my guns, my religion, and my hatred of swarthy foreigners.

Here I am, sitting here bitter and jealous, clinging to blogs. ;)

I think the best ventilation in the tropics is to be in a hammock under a shady tree by the beach, with a cool drink…

The tropic is too humid regardless.

It is probably nicer to get an outdoor massage in Sedona right next to the red rocks.

Thanks for the responses detailing insulation and ventilation. Interesting reading. The ventilation technique was news to me.

The big question about insulation, to me, always has been whether non-invasive retrofitting techniques really are as good as the invasive methods, or how significant the differences are.

Probably so. The massage would be good. I don't like humidity, but I do like the ocean to moderate the temp. So I think San Diego and Santa Barbara sound pretty good.

Probably so. The massage would be good. I don’t like humidity, but I do like the ocean to moderate the temp. So I think San Diego and Santa Barbara sound pretty good.

I like Santa Barbara. San Diego is a bit warm.

US Peso falling again!

Oil 114.92

My gold is not back above 1030 yet. :(

Measured against oil, all (or nearly all) currencies have fallen in recent years.

Peter,

What do you think about the Norwegian Krone as an anti-dollar investment?

Paul

What do you think about the Norwegian Krone as an anti-dollar investment?

I don't know...

To me, currencies are more like trading instruments rather than investment vehicles. In trading, it is better to act according to market reactions, not economic forecasts.

There are also dollar index (or inverse dollar index) contracts and ETFs.

Not investment advice. Not trading advice.

Please tell me you didn't actually buy an ounce at 1030.

Please tell me you didn’t actually buy an ounce at 1030.

No, I did not.

Zephyr Says:
I think the best ventilation in the tropics is to be in a hammock under a shady tree by the beach, with a cool drink…

As long as there is a good breeze, and no flies or mosquitoes. :-)