patrick.net

OO - you haven't been the otherside of the 101 then, close to the bay - there are some really run down pocket areas of Sunnyvale - although they were being regenerated - rather some had been bought and bulldozed.

Claire,

you are right, I almost forgot the commerical part of Sunnyvale. But I never hear from anyone exalting Sunnyvale as the "upscale" neighborhood, while I hear about Belmont as the jewel of the peninsula quite a few times, so I decided to check it out since I was traveling to the City today.

Maybe I missed the really posh parts of Belmont, but for the areas that I drove by, all I can say is, I am real happy that I don't live there.

GC seems to have urges he/she cannot control, which make him/her not able to fit in with most people.

OO

The nice neighborhoods are mostly up off of Ralston at the top of the hill before 280. To the North there are a couple of McMansion developments. In the homes ringing San Juan Canyon -- many of which are older homes with elders living there and thus looking unkempt -- there are some pockets of $1.5m-$2.0m homes with spectacular views and even acerage.

The other side of Ralston has the "prime" neighborhoods, nearly all of which have curb appeal. Caremark is what it's usually called; past and behind the middle school.

Belmont is not a "jewel". It is a nice little "bedroom community" that has managed to gentrify itself and contain the blight fairly well. Most people I knew with kids in Belmont loved the primary schools. Some used the middle school. Most resorted to private schools and avoided Carlmont HS.

Belmont is like San Carlos in many ways, just a bit more foothills-ish.

I'm encouraged to hear I'm not the only one who sees GC for the wretch he (I believe he's a he) is.

Randy H,

Our "intellectual anarchist" as you aptly termed him seems determined to test the precise limits of our tolerance here. So be it. I plan on ignoring him for now, as he seems to feed off the negative attention like a spoiled child. I could care less about Freud excerpts, but I did remove the "poop report" links.

Yeah, whatever...

I like to spice up the conversation. All these housing talks can become boring very quickly. Please tell me what new insights has someone uttered recently?

But there is always sushi.

The reason why some people jump to conclusion and want to ban me is because I ticked their nerves.

Huh?

Since people complained about the inaccuracy in using the median price, can someone come up with a scientific method to depict the trend in the RE?

I suspect the trend also has something to do with the number of pirates.

GC, why don't you level with everyone about what GC stands for, and why LILLL called your shit out. I won't mince words. You are one sick fuck, and as a father of a child, if I ever had the pleasure of meeting you in person you'd wish you'd never discovered blogs.

All I can say is if you're just assuming some pseudoidentity to sew anarchy you'd best beware of getting burned by fires you set.

Or are you going to pretend you're a culturally blind immigrant again (who just happened to choose pseudonyms signifying a notorious internet paedophile chat ring)?

GC, you do enjoy conflicts. Why are you pushing so hard?

But there is always sushi.

I went to Kyo-ya recently. It was definitely good quality sushi, but about 2X what I expected it to be and I expected it to be expensive. I think Koo is better and definitely less expensive.

Has anyone been to Sebo or Naked Fish? I am especially intrigued by Sebo, but I guess I would have to get a sitter to go there. It does not sound "kid friendly."

I’m just defending myself and be very open about it.

Why do I never have the need to defend myself? Just a thought.

So, perhaps the four horsemen of the housing apocalypse have reached Danville by now (wow, I hadn't realized they were so wealthy out there: the median income for a household in the town was $114,064, and the median income for a family was $125,867. ). Not that I doubt they won't reach my hood, but it still seems a bit crazy here. The two houses I have been keeping tabs on via the bike ride home look to be in contract. Also, two single family detached condos have sold, one for over $750k and the other was priced at $800k in a nicer part of town. Maybe we are prime for now. Well, we do have intangibles -- one of the few places besides SF that you can get attacked by marauding bands of bicyclists....

Has anyone been to Sebo or Naked Fish? I am especially intrigued by Sebo, but I guess I would have to get a sitter to go there. It does not sound “kid friendly.”

Sushi restaurants are generally not very kid friendly. Raw food is still a bit risky.

Danville is a nice little town. There is even an automobile museum.

GC,

I've about reached the limits of my patience with this stupid cycle of you trying to bait others by posting bizarre sex or scatological content followed by pointless back-and-forth between you and... just about everyone else on this blog. Either cool it and let the subject drop, or say goodbye.

Last warning.

All these housing talks can become boring very quickly. Please tell me what new insights has someone uttered recently?

IT'S A FUCKING HOUSING BLOG.

@everyone

I apologize for my outburst last night.

Coincidences do happen. You judge for yourself how likely a coincidence someone would choose "GC" as a handle, then indulge repeatedly in veiled pedophilia references -- often so he can put himself in the role of defending such. Remember, "GC" posted for a long time as various handles beginning with G.C. like Gentle Cheetah before shortening his pseudonym, perhaps after he was certain no one here got it.

For reference:

http://www.childlover.org/index.php/Annabelleigh.net

Annabelleigh.net referred to as "Girl Chat" or "GC", founded 6 May 2000, is the longest running known Girl Love board. The way it works is based very much on how "Boy Chat" works

Some pretty frank talk from Heli-Ben in Chicago. In spite of the candor I'm not convinced the Fed can make the claim that they were aware of the implications of the credit/housing bubble all along. Many of his comments seemed to be in response to MSM observations.

Randy H,

There's absolutely nothing wrong with having parental instincts. They're a good thing. Governor Conan or GC or whatever "costume" he's wearing that day suffers from 'John Mark Carr Syndrome'. Just smart enough to realize acting on his fantasies might curtail his freedom so he has satisfy his desires by making shocking and outrageous claims.

NIA

DinOR said:
Governor Conan or GC or whatever “costume” he’s wearing that day suffers from ‘John Mark Carr Syndrome’.

I would say GC and the other trolls are more of a 'Fart In The Elevator' syndrome.

The experience of being here would be much better if said FITE were forcibly removed (and subjected to corrective induement by RandyH :grin: ), but since the time for which we are forced into interaction is somewhat limited, we hold our noses and get by.

SP

%s / induement / inducement

SP

SP,

LOL! O.K.... I can get on board with that. You do have to wonder if that's how some of those clowns (and I do mean clowns) got started. I'd read accounts that John Wayne Gacy started molesting younger boys as early as 10 and had committed his first murder before he was 13. If you have a really strong stomach you can rent "Dahmer" to see first hand how serial killers get their start although I will warn, it's one of those things you can't "un-see".

Person,

That sounds verbatim from The Stagecoach's personal spokestool "The Instant Millionaire!"

Randy, where in God's name do you find this stuff?

At work I just saw a poster promoting homeownership and dispelling some nasty “anti-homeownership myths”.

When something is so actively promoted, that something must have something wrong in it.

Lisa,

Yeah, that article made me want to vomit. Those shills at the Chronicle really turned on the spin machine, didn't they! I wonder how much "pressure" they got from the REIC ad sponsors to write that piece (of $hit). Did you also notice that their explanation for the "sizzling hot" high-end market is the so-called "wealth effect?" Not once did they mention that a HUGE portion of those purchases in the past several years were done on funky mortgage products. IE, the "wealth effect" is in large part the "loose credit" effect. Let's see how this article holds up after a year or two of tightened credit and ARM resets...

From the sfgate article:

"Local home prices are still going through the roof"

Um, according to DQ: San Francisco 591 568 -3.9% $779,000 $790,000 1.4%

1.4%? Yeah, "through the roof"

DinOR,

http://blogs.ocregister.com/mortgage/archives/2007/05/guest_blogger_pushes_solution_1.html

I seem to recall reading a post here (maybe even two or three ;)) from your good self making the same point about loan suitability tests, and using somewhat more vigorous language.

"if home values rose at the avg. rate they have over the last 30 years"

More REIC cherry picked data. On the surface it sounds generous enough but if it's all the same to you (Mr. Instant Millionaire) can we run the same data from 1966 to 1996? When you take 1996-2006 out of the mix (total abberation) does the hypothetical still look like a no-brainer?

What amazes me is that the "Dummies" book publishers hasn't come out with "Statistics for Realtors" yet.

1. When the sample size is *decreasing* from sample-to-sample, the median or mean values can *increase* even while internal samples are exhibiting a downward trend.

2. That means less homes are selling on the bottom end, and only more expensive homers are selling. And even those homes are coming *down* in price. But compared to the previous month, the average/median price is higher.

3. WTF do Realtors actually get tested on? How to park a Lexus?

4. The media? ugh. Journalism is dead.

@SP,

What does "FITE" stand for?

@ozajh,

Thanks so much for that informative link! Really, think about it. What good would it do to implement some sort of "suitability standard" for mortgage brokers interfacing with the public when there are basically NO barriers to entry? In many cases, zero licensing requirements!

It just goes to show how far lenders have to go to reign in "bad actors" b/c in a lot of cases we don't even know who the actors are? How do you enforce "suitabilty" when we can't even monitor who is allowed to write loans? Man... that IS pathetic. Good observations from their guest blogger though!

"WTF do realtors actually get tested on? How to park a Lexus?" LOL! :)

Freaking hysterical! Evidently it's a higher criteria than becoming a mortgage broker!

At first, I didn't think that SF Chronicle story was so bad by typical "rah-rah" MSM cheerleading standards. It did have this bit:

"The Bay Area numbers come with some caveats, however. The median price is skewed by strong activity at the upper end. Real estate in the region is composed of numerous micro-markets, which vary tremendously. In fact, affluent Bay Area housing markets are getting stronger, while poorer areas are softening.

"The volume (of sales) being low tells you that we've lost the bottom 20 to 30 percent of the market that can't qualify for mortgages," Rosen said. Banks have tightened lending standards in recent months since numerous homeowners started defaulting on subprime loans. Subprimes are higher-cost mortgages sold to people with poor credit."

And then I read this:

"It's safe to say that the more expensive the neighborhood, the more likely it appears to at least temporarily be stabilizing now," LePage said.

"I feel our market is immune to decreases in value," he said. "We might slow down a little and just hover, but then it picks up again."

WTF do Realtors actually get tested on? How to park a Lexus?

Nah. Lexus parks itself nowadays. :)

HARM,
Honestly, for the casual observer, the banner front page headline that reads, "Bay Area's housing prices buck national trend" emblazoned just below the masthead should have been a dead giveaway that this was a spin job.