patrick.net

We will miss you, and good luck for your house hunting. :P

I apologize if I offended you Some Guy. I wish you the best of luck. I'm going to try to stay away from the forums myself for similar reasons. Patrick, my apologies to you as well for watering down the forums with my bizarre sense of humor and off-the-wall comments.

My fault. I thought people could be polite to each other without policing. Not true. You just have to delete the guys who are not polite. I've started, but it will probably take a while before they understand I mean it.

Yeah; you gotta delete them. Just keep doing it, to the people you agree with as well as those whom you do not. Ironically, that thread, which annoyed Some Guy, was the thread which I chose to come back in after a long time, I thought I had detected a more serious effort on Patrick's part to get rid of those people. Anyway, you lost one, and regained another. Although I doubt I'll be able to match Some Guys post count.

what about Marin? Its my understanding many of the homes in pre-forclosure and auction never make it to market due to loan modifications and all the voluntary moratoriums on foreclosures by the banks. THis coupled with low interest rates are keeping prices artificially high. It is still possible to buy a million dollar house if you can convince your parents to reverse mortgage their house to give you the 20% down payment needed to qualify for a jumbo loan. This is apparently how young families are able to come up with the money needed to buy homes in good school districts according to a mortgage broker I spoke with last week. I guess everyone in these areas makes at least 250k to pay the mortgage. I just dont get it.

"My fault. I thought people could be polite to each other without policing" Patrick : you sound a lot like greenspan after the bubble :-)

frodo says

Yeah; you gotta delete them. Just keep doing it, to the people you agree with as well as those whom you do not.

Five or six are now deleted, along with all their comments. I hope I remain pretty impartial about it. I'm going to add a "report as impolite" link. If many users report someone as impolite, they will automatically get blocked. You know what's weird? After I delete people, sometimes they seem to appreciate it, as if I'd done them a favor by showing them the line they crossed. Then they're pretty polite.

The old forum had a section for non-real estate discussions. This new format mixes everything together. I prefer keeping the posts seperate...somehow political agendas always get mixed in with the housing market discussions now, which can be interesting, but more often than not, very annoying. That seems to be happening on all my favorite forums whether it is related to parenting, real estate, fashion, travel or restaurants...many posters seem to be interjecting their political perspective into everything...or it may just be that I now live in the bay area and people here politicize everything anyway.

Good bye, some guy. But, hey Frodo! How's ya? Yes, this forum seems polarized (lib/conservative/dem/repub), but the housing problem, healthcare and such do have their political leanings. Obviously I have a problem with people who blame everything on illegal immigration, perhaps they should start their own forum about how badly they hate people who want to attain the same freedoms they enjoy. :)

samsmom says

what about Marin? Its my understanding many of the homes in pre-forclosure and auction never make it to market due to loan modifications and all the voluntary moratoriums on foreclosures by the banks. THis coupled with low interest rates are keeping prices artificially high. It is still possible to buy a million dollar house if you can convince your parents to reverse mortgage their house to give you the 20% down payment needed to qualify for a jumbo loan. This is apparently how young families are able to come up with the money needed to buy homes in good school districts according to a mortgage broker I spoke with last week. I guess everyone in these areas makes at least 250k to pay the mortgage. I just dont get it.

County: Marin Pre-Foreclosure / Auction / Bank-Owned 174 / 97 / 46 (July 2009) 191 / 89 / 29 (August 2009) 51 / 46 / 17 (Sept 1 - 14)

I'm doing good Ellie! I tried to participate in the Google Android Developer contest, but only had three weeks to do it in. . . and didn't finish it. But it was fun, and I am well on my way to a working Android Application, maybe when I finish it someone will hire me. How the heck are you? Have you recently tried to match wits and words with Mikey? As for the request for better segmenting of topics, I can see the value in leaving the current situation as it is . . . but would expect it to change in the future. Oh, and big cheers for Polite Discourse! May it thrive here, and serve as an example.

its not just this website. I've noticed in on the other (non-political) forums I read regularly. The hateful extremist wackos seems to be everywhere and voicing their opinions loudly and viciously attacking anyone who questions them. I consider myself a moderate conservative, but I see a big swing towards a fear & hate fueled political platform, and the sheeple are eating it up.

Recently read an interesting article http://www.housingnewslive.com/us-housing-news-articles.php

frodo says

I’m doing good Ellie! I tried to participate in the Google Android Developer contest, but only had three weeks to do it in. . . and didn’t finish it. But it was fun, and I am well on my way to a working Android Application, maybe when I finish it someone will hire me. No "funemployment" for you? How the heck are you? Have you recently tried to match wits and words with Mikey? Yes. Please check out the misc forum, where I've successfully shown that I'm woefully inadequate trading puns with the Master. But I still try, and fail. Sometimes I hurt my brain in the process. As for the request for better segmenting of topics, I can see the value in leaving the current situation as it is . . . but would expect it to change in the future. Oh, and big cheers for Polite Discourse! May it thrive here, and serve as an example.

Hip hip, hooray!

For the HTML impared: FORECLOSED PROPERTIES: Hidden costs ambush buyers Investors in foreclosed properties billed for former owners' fees, fines Sep. 14, 2009 Michael Evans bought the bank-owned fourplex near Monroe Avenue and H Street at an auction without seeing it first. The condition of the property might have scared off other investors, but he has been rehabbing and renting out property for a long time. Broken, boarded-up windows? No problem. Stripped plumbing and stolen air conditioners? You expect that. Holes in the walls? Ho-hum. Feces in the bathtub and dirty mattresses left by squatters? Goes with the territory. Then he ran into something new. "I thought everything was great until the letter came in the mail," Evans said. The letter, from the city of Las Vegas, informed him that a previous, neglectful owner had racked up more than $60,000 in fees and fines because the city had to hire someone to board up the building and pick up trash. Those charges stay with the property, meaning Evans was potentially on the hook for a bill that was far more than the property's $37,500 auction price. So far, two cases like this have made it before the City Council. More are expected because of the number of foreclosed and abandoned properties being snapped up by investors who might be receiving clean titles to places that shouldn't have clean titles. It could be partially the buyer's fault if he or she isn't checking the property's history in the Clark County recorder's office, said Devin Smith, neighborhood response manager for the city. "I probably get a phone call a day from someone who bought a property, and now they want their fees waived," he said. "People are just showing up, they're buying properties and then they're saying, 'I didn't know about this.'" But some people, like Evans, are telling the city they were given a clear title, though title to the property should have been "clouded" by city notices that work was done on the property. Mayor Oscar Goodman recently sent a letter to title companies urging them to be vigilant about the issue and warning about potential legal liability. "I feel sorry for these folks who are sort of being middled here," Goodman said. "But they certainly, in my opinion -- and that's the reason I wrote the letter -- have a potential cause of action. "The title policy should pick up any kind of liens or any kind of notice that's properly recorded against the property." Title companies research the ownership history of a property and check for liens and judgments that might be encumbering the property. When the city gets a report about a blight, it hires a contractor to bring the property up to basic standards. Broken windows are boarded up, open doors are secured or blocked, unsanitary pools are drained, weeds and trash are cleared away. In extreme cases, buildings are simply demolished. The city incurs "hard costs" for that work, usually a few thousand dollars. Since the foreclosure crisis deepened and abandoned properties proliferated, the City Council has started imposing civil fines of up to $500 a day in an effort to scare owners into maintaining properties rather than face tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. In the two cases heard before the counci -- Evans' property and one on Stacey Avenue near Lake Mead and Decatur -- the new owners bought the properties after the work had been done but before the council met to establish the fines. In each case, the council left the "hard costs" in place as a lien against the property, which must be paid if the property is sold. For Evans, those amounted to $2,416. The large civil fines were waived. That's the approach the council most likely will take with future cases, Smith said. "The council wants to know what you're going to do to bring the property up to standard," he said. "I don't think they're going to waive the hard costs." Evans said he understood that, though he doesn't agree that the approach is fair because he is not the one who neglected the property. It allows him to proceed with the renovation of his four units in a part of town that has seen hard times and needs investment. "By the 25th, it'll look good. If you didn't care about the neighborhood, you would say, 'Yeah. I can live here,'" Evans said. "You've got to start somewhere. Somebody's got to do something nice and hope that people appreciate it."

Anyone else thinking that the city charges are excessive, and at best counterproductive sinec it will keep people from buying foreclosures?

Is there any real freedom in developing Android apps, or is it all locked down like the iPhone? I mean, can you get at the APIs and really make the phone do whatever you want without signing away all your rights and paying thousands for some development kit? I tried to do a startup thing with a friend which would measure cellular signal strength at various locations, but you couldn't get at the signal strength API or the location API without a pretty elaborate certification procedure which made you sign away all your rights to it anyway. How about an app for Android which lets you pull out your phone and take a picture of a house, automatically posting the picture and location to patrick.net with some comments? Re the right-wingers, I think it's not all random, but they are being encouraged to vent their anger, and maybe even organized to some degree. I should check to see which ones are actually the same, by comparing IP addresses.

Is the topic illegal immigrants? Just kidding. I have noticed an increase of such people on many blogs, especially some that were formerly liberal. It must be the keyboard brigade of the teabaggers. Oddly, some site formerly conservative sites are more even-handed. Whatever -- I have not been a big contributor anyway, but the new format is confusing. The topics seem to come and go rapidly. It is too much for my tiny mind.

Is there any real freedom in developing Android apps, or is it all locked down like the iPhone? I mean, can you get at the APIs and really make the phone do whatever you want without signing away all your rights and paying thousands for some development kit?

Yes, no. Yes. Respectively. :) It is open. You can hack the living daylights out of the system. BUT, don't let anyone tell you it is easy, it is fun, not easy. There is a significant learning curve, and scant resources. But that is changing. It reminds me of the DOS days programming in C, except its OO. You *really* do have to be concerned about resources, this ain't a core i7, with 6GB of DDR3 and an SSD. Fortunately, Google is *THROWING* itself at this paradigm. The system is not buggy, but as with all new tech, there are undocumented gotchas. I never tried developing for the iPhone; I am under the impression that a contributing factor to the steep learning curve of Android, is the fact that they labled some similar concepts differently. At any length, the picture post idea ain't so bad. . . You take a pic with your phone, fill out the address and price, and press send.

Wow, even staynumz is here. . . How are things in your neck of the woods? It's nice to see you posting, I look forward to your commentary.

Hey Patrick, This is your Dutch Uncle. I'm curious why I was deleted? Please cite my "impoliteness". Your favorite Poster writes you a dramatic "Dear John" letter stating he's not going to hang out in this forum anymore, because his feelings are hurt, and you start deleting people trying to win him back? I think you may be a little too impressed by your own importance and forum. Please don't mistake my spirited debate for impoliteness. D

I basically did a search for the words "asshole", "libtard", "Mexifornia" and then poked through the results to see who was actually speaking seriously and with good will, and who was simply spouting hate or insulting the other commenters. Just a judgement call. Maybe I was wrong on your case.

Maybe I was wrong on your case.

No big deal. I still enjoy the Housing Crash portion of this forum ; )

Owning a house is no longer the American dream. It's just gonna run you in debt. The key is to have cash & investments. With money, you can rent anywhere and landlord will complete for your money.

I kinda stopped posting in this forum because to be honest, the housing market discussions are really all the same and can be summed up in a FAQ (actually that's a great idea; let's make a Patrick.net FAQ!) Q: Should I buy now or wait? A: Wait until median house prices in your arae are no more than 3x median family income in your area. Q: But I really, really want to buy now, can't I go ahead? A: No, you should really, really wait... Hehe! Not that I don't enjoy this conversation, but after a while it gets kinda old and then of course the political bs gets really old fast. I love having political discussions, but when people start the conversation with Obama=Hitler (sorry for the Godwin) it's pretty much guaranteed you're not getting through to them on any type of intellectual level. Lately I've been hanging around more in the Old Forums, which surprisingly enough, are spam free now. I really enjoy our discussions about economics, the stock market, and gold more than I do the housing discussions. Of course housing really is the core of our consumer economy so it's all related. Thanks for running the forums and trying to clean them up Patrick! It's appreciated. Maybe I'll come back and post a little more often here now.

lyoungblood says

Lately I’ve been hanging around more in the Old Forums, which surprisingly enough, are spam free now.

The old forum is spam-free because I blocked all new registrations there. This forum is spam-free because I can control it better. But it still lacks something in usability. Please write me with suggestions: p@patrick.net

patrick what do you think of posting the 'users (to be) deleted' in one thread.

It's pretty rare to delete any user. I think there have been only six so far, and no one could say they were polite. Well, maybe I made one mistake in there. Staynumz, that was actually relatively polite. I myself really don't like Obama's cooperation with the banks and posted a link about it today. I'm also annoyed he doesn't seem to be getting us out of Iraq at all. Every other country does health care much better than we do. Half the cost, universal coverage, and longer life expectancy. How do they do it? The French smoke and drink like crazy, so you can't say it's just our lifestyle. Anyway, if someone tries to tax me more for drinking moderately (and living longer because of it!) that would put me over the edge. I've got some hard cider bubbling in the back room right now. Really.

I too have noticed that most other forums are now serving as outlets for "conservatives" who have decided to blame all of the countries ills on Obama, liberals and foreigners. I don't know if they are being paid and organized to do this, or if there is just such hate there that we are doomed to a new generation of brown shirts, and I don't care. It's noise, pure and simple. Thanks for filtering them out and improving the noise to signal ratio.

Dear Ian: Lazy, stupid Americans who don't vote and who would rather watch "American Idol" are to blame for the country's problems. The noise is just scapegoat-ism and the entertainment morality so prevalent today. We are devoid of communication. I have noticed this in social interactions. Most commoners (idiots) in this "consumer" culture glaze over when I try to engage in cultured, literate conversations about real issues, meaningful books, poetry, etc., unless of course, I can recite chapter and verse about television, which I cannot because I don't have one. So, you get noise. What else can you expect from a culture of illiterates and a media that is part of the entertainment game?

The French smoke and drink like crazy, so you can’t say it’s just our lifestyle.

They also die at the rate of over 10,000 in a heat wave. Perhaps the French are a bit lacking on elderly health care.

Every other country does health care much better than we do. Half the cost, universal coverage, and longer life expectancy.

Half the cost and universal coverage, yep. But you might want to check on that "life expectancy." The life expectancy figures you are getting may not be just for natural deaths, but may be skewed by including expected deaths from war, traffic deaths, accidents, natural disasters, and murders.

HeadSet says

The French smoke and drink like crazy, so you can’t say it’s just our lifestyle.

They also die at the rate of over 10,000 in a heat wave. Perhaps the French are a bit lacking on elderly health care.

Nice anecdote. Do you have any actual EVIDENCE that elder care is better in the US than in France, or even that heat waves kill more people in France than in the US on average? HeadSet says

Every other country does health care much better than we do. Half the cost, universal coverage, and longer life expectancy.

Half the cost and universal coverage, yep. But you might want to check on that “life expectancy.” The life expectancy figures you are getting may not be just for natural deaths, but may be skewed by including expected deaths from war, traffic deaths, accidents, natural disasters, and murders.

Well, here is the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy Of course there are different factors involved in life expectancy but surely health care is a HUGE one. Just look at the rankings! Every single country in Western Europe has a higher life expectancy than the US. Every single one! If you want to claim that our health care system is better than all of theirs but somehow other extraneous issues cause them to have longer lives you need to come up with something pretty convincing before I'll believe you, not maybe this, maybe that. If your just going to assume your right and assume that evidence to the contrary must somehow not be telling the whole story then you are just being an ideolog.

We have war zones all over this country caused by the Drug War & Welfare State - which both parties still support! Of course we have lower life expectancy with all these animals killing each other of drug money!

I think the premise of this site was 'hang on, don't buy, prices are ridiculous'. Now that it has proven true, there isn't much to discuss. People now are losing jobs, and have a bleak outlook for the near and longterm future. No reward for not getting caught up in the hype. I think more exciting topics might help (not to insult your site, you've done a fantastic job). I get caught up reading posts on abovetopsecret (not a plug, but I get fascinated with some of the topics there like 4 big name financiers suicides in 48 hours, potential crashes, etc). I also think a more {hmm} picturesque background would make people want to hang around... maybe a choice of music. I also moved to local news postings, to read their posts. Every article about foreclosures leads to a plethora of comments from 'stop building' to 'dumb for buying', etc. The democrat vs. republican comments really ire and irk me, but ... well there's another topic that could suit this site. I think this particular thread should boot some postings (Patrick included :) as "off topic" Just my 2 cents which I wish I could redeem in actual copper.

I also got annoyed when posters here used incomprehendable financial lingo. I think I may have annoyed people with drunken lingo, sorry 'bout that, but Thunderlips was just too funny...

bdrasin says

Well, here is the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy

Interesting article. According to the UN chart, the life expectency difference between the longest lifespan European country (France) and the USA is 3 years. With England and Germany, the difference is a little over one year. In fact, the life expectancy of England and Germany is right there with the US Virgin Islands. Considering the minor differences shown, and the fact that the life expectancy includes estimated future deaths by drunk drivers, war, and murders (all which are higher in the USA), I would say the difference caused by medical care is insignificant. This does not mean I an against heath care reform, I just thing the "life expectancy" is a bogus argument.

Stress in the US is the killer. Worried about paying your bills... what a life. Other countries may have found a way around this, like... you don't have to worry about basic necessities. You exist, you need to make money to pay for it, or else no basic rights for you. If you or your family gets sick, and you can't pay the bill, nobody cares, just die already. I'm living in this environment, getting by for now. But I think given the current economic climate, there should be more discussion like "okay you don't need me to work right now, but let me relax."

bdrasin says

Nice anecdote. Do you have any actual EVIDENCE that elder care is better in the US than in France, or even that heat waves kill more people in France than in the US on average?

Are you serious? 10,000 deaths is an OUTRAGEOUS number of deaths. Too bad it was really more like 14,000. That particular French heat wave lasted about a month with about 7 days hitting 105 degrees F. We have had several USA heatwaves of longer duration and higher temperatures (and some shorter). The one that hit in 2006 lasted over a month, affected nearly the whole country, had temperatures up to 120 degrees F even in cold states like the Dakotas, yet killed less than 230 people. And we are talking about an area affected that is larger and more populated than France. And in both th USA and France, the overwhelmingly biggest number of deaths were elderly that did not get taken care of in time. Even Earthwatch, which has an ax to grind, only puts the total USA heat wave deaths at less than 3,000 during the period 1955 -2003.

French eat lots of good food and have a hard time leaving the kitchen. Most of the French deaths were kitchen related.

JboBbo says

French eat lots of good food and have a hard time leaving the kitchen. Most of the French deaths were kitchen related.

I was in France for about 6 months in the 90s flying out of LeTube near Salon de Provence. Salon was a typical beautiful French country town with great food at restaurants, griils, and even street carts. But right in the middle of town, among the very French environment, was a popular McDonalds. Go figure.