patrick.net

A 720K house is almost too much for one HaHa.

Trader Joe's is having a two-for-one special on strawberries. Perhaps I should stock up --after all, if the berry pickers are all buying $720K houses, prices are bound to shoot up real soon.

Oh.....K!

Goes hand in hand with what I was thinking. So just what ARE some of the most humiliating moments in the history of finance? This is not only a worthy entry, might just take the CAKE!

(Oh btw, the "agent" that sold them the house and her firm were, unavailable for comment)

You could tell Carol Lloyd was choking back tears mixed w/disgust as she wrote the story. Escellent choice El-Harmo!

Food and housing. Yummmm.

I had an excellent strawberry short cake on University Ave yesterday.

My grocer just told me, "they're not making any more strawberries".

1996: Randy & wife experience intense scrutiny when they borrow a little shy of $300,000 to buy a $365,000 house. They have $300,000/year in income.

$300,000 in 1996 equals $383,930 in 2006.

===

2006: (Maybe a tad earlier). Banks fall all over each other for the privilege of "loaning" over $700,000 to a strawberry picker who wants to buy a house. He makes $15,000 a year.

In 1996 his wages would have been $11,720.
In 1996 his house would have been $562,601.

===

Summary of the decline, in strawberries to strawberries comparison terms (1996 dollars):

Borrower Price Tag Wages Mortgage Lender's Behavior

Randy $365,000 $383,930/yr Given crap about being self-employed
Alberto $562,601 $ 11,720/yr Given a wheelbarrow of money

*correction, 1996 salary = $300/000/yr

This sort of thing is ridiculous. And if there is a bail-out, guys like this will get their 13k worth of counseling and restructuring.... and then lose the house. Somebody will reposess the house... and take a 50% haircut as prices tumble.

Then the gubberment will probably want to give them their 50% back to 'preserve the market' which means we're on the hook even more. This isn't going to be people losing their life savings/retirements in banks that should have been guarenteed like in the S/L scandal... this is going to be investors losing their shirts and people going back to renting.

The people are already getting screwed, no need to screw them again with badly thought out bailouts that won't work. The people that COULD be helped by a bailout are in a position to bail themselves out. If your ARM is going down in flames, but you point out to the mortgage owner that a 6.5% fixed could be managed by you, they'll bend over backwards to let you do that if 20% of their mortgages are going into forclosure. Let the bag-holders deal with it.

Randy, self-employed citizens are not viewed as favorably as illegally-employed document-challenged pre-unionized aliens.

If you haven't read the article it was actually TWO couples applying for the loan! (The other couple worked at a mushroom packing plant, or something like that). The agent said that she would help them with their payments until they got the loan re-fi'd in 2 or 3 months. WTF?

How much money did this gal make off the deal!?! She can afford to help you with your payments? The more I read, the more depressed I got. Oh and the agent was like a 24 year veteran in the biz. How long has this been goin' on? :(

Oh, and the agent was also hispanic:

They spotted an ad in the local magazine La Ganga for Maria Avila of Rancho Grande Real Estate and called her.

Well, at least it's reassuring to know that latin people can f**k over their own just as badly as white people.

Randy, self-employed citizens are not viewed as favorably as illegally-employed document-challenged pre-unionized aliens.

Disclaimer: I was not necessarily referring to any mentioned persons, real or fictional, in the article.

DinOR,

She probably hoped to help them unload it at a higher price... i bet she double dipped the first sale and was planning on double dipping the second sale.

This skyrocketing market was good for Realtors and MBs in that it allowed them to get serial customers with a timeframe in the months instead of decades. I bet if we look hard enough, we'll find strawberry pickers who've had 3-4 homes in the last 5 years, and made a little money on each one until this last one, and now need 'bailing out'.

I also recall that this $720,000 (now "worth" $520,000) home is outside of Hollister. Evidently they couldn't afford the bustling metropolis of Hollister proper so the home is at least close to their work. It should also be apparent that the long time residents view the new arrivals as being "there for the taking".

Back in 2000, we were looking to trade up to a bigger house from a townhouse. We made a little money from dot-com options and the stock market so the downpayment was substantial. I didn't want to use my wife's income and also wanted a 15 year mortgage. With that in mind, I figured the most expensive house we can afford was $650K. I was just not happy about what $650K would get us and refused to pull the trigger. There were many fights between the wife and I because she would say I am too conservative. I guess I am comparing to the strawberry picker and the couple who bought the 1.3M house on 200K downpayment.

SFBB,

In that light, it makes sense. Who knows how many otherwise decent people this lady ef'd over? And how many are there just like her?

This guy definetly deserves a bailout! After all, how could he have possibly known that he couldn't afford it?

I move to call any mistake, snafu, error, quagmire, etc. "Iraq."

Ex: The war in Iraq is an Iraq because it landed us in Iraq.

I reserve my judgment on Iraq. It is still too early to ascertain whether there might have been an error. Time will inevitably tell.

Just to clarify:

National Council of La Raza (NCLR) = hispanic/immigrants rights advocacy group
Lladró = Spanish manufacturer of fine porcelain figurines.

I reserve my judgment on Iraq. It is still too early to ascertain whether there might have been an error. Time will inevitably tell.

You've gotta be kiddin' me.

Sorry to have spoken in Greenish.

I hope the troops can come home soon. But I will let history judge any war.