TG: I realize that we are discussing the Temecula/Murrieta scam here, but doesn’t this apply to the California RE market as a whole? Between home builders, realtors, mortgage brokers and institutions, this whole market was one gigantic Ponzi scheme, and now it is collapsing.

While I can certainly understand the anger and humiliation of the Core “victims”, they aren’t any different from the other so-called “victims” of Countrywide, or Century 21, or First American Title.

Buying a home is a huge financial commitment; probably the largest one you will ever make. To not do basic diligence and ask a fairly simple set of questions smacks of nothing other than shame-faced greed.

As the old man used to say, “If it sounds to good to be true, it is.” Or better yet, “If it walks like a duck, looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck: It’s a duck.”.