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IrvineRenter
ParticipantI have done work with Hunsaker Engineering’s Irvine Office. They are doing quite well right now. Things are slower, but the larger, well-diversified firms are keeping busy. If you friend can make it through the next 2 years without getting laid off, he will be fine. Residential investment with the homebuilders always bottoms out well before the resale residential market. Land planning and engineering are at the leading edge of the land development process, so when there is even a hint of a recovery, this work will pick up.
ParticipantI have done work with Hunsaker Engineering’s Irvine Office. They are doing quite well right now. Things are slower, but the larger, well-diversified firms are keeping busy. If you friend can make it through the next 2 years without getting laid off, he will be fine. Residential investment with the homebuilders always bottoms out well before the resale residential market. Land planning and engineering are at the leading edge of the land development process, so when there is even a hint of a recovery, this work will pick up.
ParticipantI have done work with Hunsaker Engineering’s Irvine Office. They are doing quite well right now. Things are slower, but the larger, well-diversified firms are keeping busy. If you friend can make it through the next 2 years without getting laid off, he will be fine. Residential investment with the homebuilders always bottoms out well before the resale residential market. Land planning and engineering are at the leading edge of the land development process, so when there is even a hint of a recovery, this work will pick up.
ParticipantI have done work with Hunsaker Engineering’s Irvine Office. They are doing quite well right now. Things are slower, but the larger, well-diversified firms are keeping busy. If you friend can make it through the next 2 years without getting laid off, he will be fine. Residential investment with the homebuilders always bottoms out well before the resale residential market. Land planning and engineering are at the leading edge of the land development process, so when there is even a hint of a recovery, this work will pick up.
Participant“IMO, it’s perceived demand that is sometimes more important that actual demand…The perceived level of always-high demand creates an impression (illusion!) that “prices will never go down”. When you have THAT in your mind, you decrease the perception of risk, and you inflate the prices.”
That is an excellent point. The “real estate never always goes up” delusion also had its part to play.
Participantgreekfire,
Good to know I am capable of parroting Powayseller…
“the reason that Minnetonka median home prices are so much lower than Irvine’s is simply due to supply and demand.”
“The point I am trying to drive across here is that there appears to be a measurable difference between the number of people that want to purchase a property in Irvine (nice weather year round), versus those that want to purchase a property in Minnetonka (nice weather May-September, crappy weather the rest of the year).”
One of the points I was trying to make is that those statements are fallacies not backed up by income statistics or availability of housing inventory. Although I will agree with you that Irvine is a more desirable place to live (otherwise I would move to Minnetonka), demand is measured in dollars, and Minnetonka has the same amount of dollars available to purchase housing as Irvine does. There is not so many fewer homes available in Irvine than Minnetonka to justify a median home price that is more than double.
ParticipantInteresting idea. Unfortunately, it will probably raise about 1/10 of 1% of the money required to bail out sub-prime borrowers.
ParticipantParticipantThe Irvine Company is in to everything. They rent apartments, build houses, and build commercial properties. They build through their subsidiary California Pacific Homes. You can find their rentals here:
If you are looking for a rental nicer than an apartment, try First Team’s website:
http://firstteam.com/Home.aspx
Craigslist is not as good as the above.
ParticipantI lived in San Diego (Mission Valley) from 2001 to 2003, and now I live in Irvine. Everything the previous posters said is true. There really are no bad areas in Irvine, but some are marginally more desirable than others. Like any area you move to, you should rent for a while and explore the different neighborhoods and see what they have to offer. Irvine is somewhat homogeneous, so don’t expect much difference between the neighborhoods. In fact, the only way to tell one from another is the signage. If you rent from the Irvine Company, they make it pretty easy to move among their various complexes, assuming you move up and not down. Living in Irvine is very convenient as it is a very large master planned community. Traffic in town flows well, but the freeways get congested just like everywhere else. The town itself is mostly flat, but you have mountain views all around. It is a great place to ride a bike if you are in to that.
I like Irvine, I am looking forward to prices coming down to a reasonable level. As SD Realtor pointed out, we are behind San Diego by about a year, so people are still in denial here that prices will decline at all. It is different here you know.
March 4, 2007 at 6:25 PM in reply to: If Convinced Stock Market is Heading South, How Best to Profit? #46888ParticipantPersonally, I have purchased puts on DIA, SPY, and QQQQ. I bought some with March and some with April expiration. If you don’t trade options, you can short the DIA, SPY and QQQQ directly. IMO, The market will not be going up in the next 60 days.
ParticipantLimit Lending
I have a crazy idea that might bring stability to the housing market: limit lending to a multiple of verifiable income.
Let’s say Sacramento passed a law that said any amount loaned on a primary mortgage over 3 times verifiable income on the date of loan origination did not have to be repaid. Further, any other mortgage claims which exceed 90% of property-tax value or one years verifiable income did not have to be repaid. What would happen?
IMO, the first thing that would happen is that lenders would stop lending insane amounts of money because there would be no obligation for repayment. This would effectively limit house prices to a multiple of income plus available savings. Exotic loan terms would not matter because the total amount is capped. Plus, the “verifiable income” provision would immediately eliminate all “liar loans.” Since the only way to get ahead at that point would be to save to increase a downpayment, people would actually start saving money. The limitation on total mortgage obligation would eliminate the 80/20 loan and ensure homeowners had some equity in the property ensuring foreclosure rates would remain low. Plus, by limiting this to “property-tax value,” people would be unable to take out HELOC’s to spend their equity once prices began to appreciate. Proposition 13 would force people to save.
If something like the above were passed today, it would be the apocalypse for the housing market; however, if something similar were put in place after the coming crash, we could ensure home price stability for years to come.
Participantvariable annuities were designed to enrich those selling them. Just say no.
February 7, 2007 at 8:17 PM in reply to: Considering Buying in Temecula – Can’t afford OC – ??? #44940ParticipantThe Inland Empire will likely drop rather dramatically over the next 3 years. See link below:
http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/business/ci_5169035
So will south OC if you can wait. The price declines in the Inland Empire will be faster and more severe than OC, but both are likely to drop over the next 3 to 5 years.
Don’t buy too early. You will just go underwater.
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