[SDEngineer]

[quote=temeculaguy]What is the income ceiling? The current $7,500 credit phases out at 75k for singles and 150k for couples. If it follows the same formula it will help most of the country but so cal will get the shaft again.[/quote]

Currently, the phase-outs remain the same. To the best of my knowledge, there are no bills proposing to lift those limits as well, so if I were a betting man, I’d bet they would remain as currently written.

[SDEngineer]

[quote=afx114]I’ve had nothing but headaches working with Indian programmers. You get what you pay for, really. Sure you can get them for cheaper, but you’re not going to get the quality or support that you need.[/quote]

I’ll second this as well. We have several teams of Indian engineers on an outsourcing contract. Their work (on the whole) has been substandard.

Not that they are all bad – we’ve had some truly excellent engineers from there. The problem is that the truly excellent ones gain experience and reputation, and then either gain a toehold in a non-contract position over here, or go off to start their own business in India (we’ve lost several high performers from that team over the past few years to both).

This is probably true to a certain degree of the contract industry in general, but I’d think more so in outsourcing companies, since their main draw of outsourcing is cost reduction, the outsourcing companies are under pressure to hold their wages down, and thus probably attract a less-skilled employee base, whereas the focus for contracts in the US is less on individual cost reduction, and more on providing either manpower or skillsets that are not needed long term for particular companies – but as many here can attest, US based contract work pays quite well, so frequently can attract and hold high performing engineers.

[SDEngineer]

[quote=afx114]I’ve had nothing but headaches working with Indian programmers. You get what you pay for, really. Sure you can get them for cheaper, but you’re not going to get the quality or support that you need.[/quote]

I’ll second this as well. We have several teams of Indian engineers on an outsourcing contract. Their work (on the whole) has been substandard.

Not that they are all bad – we’ve had some truly excellent engineers from there. The problem is that the truly excellent ones gain experience and reputation, and then either gain a toehold in a non-contract position over here, or go off to start their own business in India (we’ve lost several high performers from that team over the past few years to both).

This is probably true to a certain degree of the contract industry in general, but I’d think more so in outsourcing companies, since their main draw of outsourcing is cost reduction, the outsourcing companies are under pressure to hold their wages down, and thus probably attract a less-skilled employee base, whereas the focus for contracts in the US is less on individual cost reduction, and more on providing either manpower or skillsets that are not needed long term for particular companies – but as many here can attest, US based contract work pays quite well, so frequently can attract and hold high performing engineers.

[SDEngineer]

[quote=afx114]I’ve had nothing but headaches working with Indian programmers. You get what you pay for, really. Sure you can get them for cheaper, but you’re not going to get the quality or support that you need.[/quote]

I’ll second this as well. We have several teams of Indian engineers on an outsourcing contract. Their work (on the whole) has been substandard.

Not that they are all bad – we’ve had some truly excellent engineers from there. The problem is that the truly excellent ones gain experience and reputation, and then either gain a toehold in a non-contract position over here, or go off to start their own business in India (we’ve lost several high performers from that team over the past few years to both).

This is probably true to a certain degree of the contract industry in general, but I’d think more so in outsourcing companies, since their main draw of outsourcing is cost reduction, the outsourcing companies are under pressure to hold their wages down, and thus probably attract a less-skilled employee base, whereas the focus for contracts in the US is less on individual cost reduction, and more on providing either manpower or skillsets that are not needed long term for particular companies – but as many here can attest, US based contract work pays quite well, so frequently can attract and hold high performing engineers.

[SDEngineer]

[quote=afx114]I’ve had nothing but headaches working with Indian programmers. You get what you pay for, really. Sure you can get them for cheaper, but you’re not going to get the quality or support that you need.[/quote]

I’ll second this as well. We have several teams of Indian engineers on an outsourcing contract. Their work (on the whole) has been substandard.

Not that they are all bad – we’ve had some truly excellent engineers from there. The problem is that the truly excellent ones gain experience and reputation, and then either gain a toehold in a non-contract position over here, or go off to start their own business in India (we’ve lost several high performers from that team over the past few years to both).

This is probably true to a certain degree of the contract industry in general, but I’d think more so in outsourcing companies, since their main draw of outsourcing is cost reduction, the outsourcing companies are under pressure to hold their wages down, and thus probably attract a less-skilled employee base, whereas the focus for contracts in the US is less on individual cost reduction, and more on providing either manpower or skillsets that are not needed long term for particular companies – but as many here can attest, US based contract work pays quite well, so frequently can attract and hold high performing engineers.

[SDEngineer]

[quote=afx114]I’ve had nothing but headaches working with Indian programmers. You get what you pay for, really. Sure you can get them for cheaper, but you’re not going to get the quality or support that you need.[/quote]

I’ll second this as well. We have several teams of Indian engineers on an outsourcing contract. Their work (on the whole) has been substandard.

Not that they are all bad – we’ve had some truly excellent engineers from there. The problem is that the truly excellent ones gain experience and reputation, and then either gain a toehold in a non-contract position over here, or go off to start their own business in India (we’ve lost several high performers from that team over the past few years to both).

This is probably true to a certain degree of the contract industry in general, but I’d think more so in outsourcing companies, since their main draw of outsourcing is cost reduction, the outsourcing companies are under pressure to hold their wages down, and thus probably attract a less-skilled employee base, whereas the focus for contracts in the US is less on individual cost reduction, and more on providing either manpower or skillsets that are not needed long term for particular companies – but as many here can attest, US based contract work pays quite well, so frequently can attract and hold high performing engineers.

[SDEngineer]

PKMan –

Can you email me? Me and the wife just got back from looking at these homes and we like the area & the plans (looking at one of the remaining 3 Plan 1’s at Stoney Creek). My email is bcmcneill2003(nospam)at(nospam)yahoo dot com.

I’m very curious about how much of a deal they were willing to make on the homes, which would give me an indication of what we should offer and accept as a counter from them.

BTW – the saleslady Brooke I think mentioned you – as an engineer, I was making typical nerdy comments about how well insulated the place was, and how effective the low-E glass appeared to be (it was a warm day out in Santee, I’m guessing in the low 80’s, but the inside of the finished unit we were touring – in late afternoon – was a chilly 62 with the A/C off – I was quite impressed), and she mentioned that an out-of-town buyer (I am guessing you, unless they have a fair amount of technical type out of town buyers there lol) had apparently done some rather thorough research on the window glass and had made some comments on the quality of it.

Cheers,

SD Engineer

[SDEngineer]

PKMan –

Can you email me? Me and the wife just got back from looking at these homes and we like the area & the plans (looking at one of the remaining 3 Plan 1’s at Stoney Creek). My email is bcmcneill2003(nospam)at(nospam)yahoo dot com.

I’m very curious about how much of a deal they were willing to make on the homes, which would give me an indication of what we should offer and accept as a counter from them.

BTW – the saleslady Brooke I think mentioned you – as an engineer, I was making typical nerdy comments about how well insulated the place was, and how effective the low-E glass appeared to be (it was a warm day out in Santee, I’m guessing in the low 80’s, but the inside of the finished unit we were touring – in late afternoon – was a chilly 62 with the A/C off – I was quite impressed), and she mentioned that an out-of-town buyer (I am guessing you, unless they have a fair amount of technical type out of town buyers there lol) had apparently done some rather thorough research on the window glass and had made some comments on the quality of it.

Cheers,

SD Engineer

[SDEngineer]

PKMan –

Can you email me? Me and the wife just got back from looking at these homes and we like the area & the plans (looking at one of the remaining 3 Plan 1’s at Stoney Creek). My email is bcmcneill2003(nospam)at(nospam)yahoo dot com.

I’m very curious about how much of a deal they were willing to make on the homes, which would give me an indication of what we should offer and accept as a counter from them.

BTW – the saleslady Brooke I think mentioned you – as an engineer, I was making typical nerdy comments about how well insulated the place was, and how effective the low-E glass appeared to be (it was a warm day out in Santee, I’m guessing in the low 80’s, but the inside of the finished unit we were touring – in late afternoon – was a chilly 62 with the A/C off – I was quite impressed), and she mentioned that an out-of-town buyer (I am guessing you, unless they have a fair amount of technical type out of town buyers there lol) had apparently done some rather thorough research on the window glass and had made some comments on the quality of it.

Cheers,

SD Engineer

[SDEngineer]

PKMan –

Can you email me? Me and the wife just got back from looking at these homes and we like the area & the plans (looking at one of the remaining 3 Plan 1’s at Stoney Creek). My email is bcmcneill2003(nospam)at(nospam)yahoo dot com.

I’m very curious about how much of a deal they were willing to make on the homes, which would give me an indication of what we should offer and accept as a counter from them.

BTW – the saleslady Brooke I think mentioned you – as an engineer, I was making typical nerdy comments about how well insulated the place was, and how effective the low-E glass appeared to be (it was a warm day out in Santee, I’m guessing in the low 80’s, but the inside of the finished unit we were touring – in late afternoon – was a chilly 62 with the A/C off – I was quite impressed), and she mentioned that an out-of-town buyer (I am guessing you, unless they have a fair amount of technical type out of town buyers there lol) had apparently done some rather thorough research on the window glass and had made some comments on the quality of it.

Cheers,

SD Engineer

[SDEngineer]

PKMan –

Can you email me? Me and the wife just got back from looking at these homes and we like the area & the plans (looking at one of the remaining 3 Plan 1’s at Stoney Creek). My email is bcmcneill2003(nospam)at(nospam)yahoo dot com.

I’m very curious about how much of a deal they were willing to make on the homes, which would give me an indication of what we should offer and accept as a counter from them.

BTW – the saleslady Brooke I think mentioned you – as an engineer, I was making typical nerdy comments about how well insulated the place was, and how effective the low-E glass appeared to be (it was a warm day out in Santee, I’m guessing in the low 80’s, but the inside of the finished unit we were touring – in late afternoon – was a chilly 62 with the A/C off – I was quite impressed), and she mentioned that an out-of-town buyer (I am guessing you, unless they have a fair amount of technical type out of town buyers there lol) had apparently done some rather thorough research on the window glass and had made some comments on the quality of it.

Cheers,

SD Engineer

[SDEngineer]

Just as a reasonably educated guess, I’d guess it’s a combination of a few factors.

Primarily, I think that for many of them, their loans – even at bubble prices – are still largely affordable, hence you don’t have the massive downward pressure caused by forced sales (either short or foreclosed). A couple of reasons for this:

1) Upper middle class buyers have larger reserves, and can hold out longer when rates reset, etc, before they have to give it up (typically, their credit rating is also substantially more important to them as well, meaning that they are more likely to cut expenses to continue to make payments. They also probably had more discretionary expenses that can be cut out to be able to stretch to make the payment.)
2) They probably weren’t subprime, meaning that for many (most?) of them, they’re still making probably the same payment they bought at. This might change when the alt-A neg-am mortgages start to hit their caps and go bad en masse, which I believe is predicted to start this year.
3) Many were move-up buyers, so they probably entered these markets with a down payment that was just as inflated by the bubble as the real estate they bought. It’s probably a lot easier for a household making 100K a year to afford a 600K home they bought in 2005 when they went in with a 300K downpayment from the sale of their previous Mira Mesa home for 450K that they bought for 200K 10 years before than it would be for a first time buyer who neg-am financed that 600K home. Dunno how common this was though, or whether most of these type of move up buyers took their bubble appreciation as a windfall and spent it.

My personal feeling is that they’ll still get hit (over the long run, they have to come down to the historical relationship between move-up housing and entry level housing), but it will probably take longer (though I expect them to get hit with the alt-A tidal wave this year most likely). They’ll probably also bounce along at their areas bottom for longer while inflation raises other areas that bottomed sooner and lower to the point where they reach that historical price relationship between entry level housing and move-up housing.

[SDEngineer]

Just as a reasonably educated guess, I’d guess it’s a combination of a few factors.

Primarily, I think that for many of them, their loans – even at bubble prices – are still largely affordable, hence you don’t have the massive downward pressure caused by forced sales (either short or foreclosed). A couple of reasons for this:

1) Upper middle class buyers have larger reserves, and can hold out longer when rates reset, etc, before they have to give it up (typically, their credit rating is also substantially more important to them as well, meaning that they are more likely to cut expenses to continue to make payments. They also probably had more discretionary expenses that can be cut out to be able to stretch to make the payment.)
2) They probably weren’t subprime, meaning that for many (most?) of them, they’re still making probably the same payment they bought at. This might change when the alt-A neg-am mortgages start to hit their caps and go bad en masse, which I believe is predicted to start this year.
3) Many were move-up buyers, so they probably entered these markets with a down payment that was just as inflated by the bubble as the real estate they bought. It’s probably a lot easier for a household making 100K a year to afford a 600K home they bought in 2005 when they went in with a 300K downpayment from the sale of their previous Mira Mesa home for 450K that they bought for 200K 10 years before than it would be for a first time buyer who neg-am financed that 600K home. Dunno how common this was though, or whether most of these type of move up buyers took their bubble appreciation as a windfall and spent it.

My personal feeling is that they’ll still get hit (over the long run, they have to come down to the historical relationship between move-up housing and entry level housing), but it will probably take longer (though I expect them to get hit with the alt-A tidal wave this year most likely). They’ll probably also bounce along at their areas bottom for longer while inflation raises other areas that bottomed sooner and lower to the point where they reach that historical price relationship between entry level housing and move-up housing.

[SDEngineer]

Just as a reasonably educated guess, I’d guess it’s a combination of a few factors.

Primarily, I think that for many of them, their loans – even at bubble prices – are still largely affordable, hence you don’t have the massive downward pressure caused by forced sales (either short or foreclosed). A couple of reasons for this:

1) Upper middle class buyers have larger reserves, and can hold out longer when rates reset, etc, before they have to give it up (typically, their credit rating is also substantially more important to them as well, meaning that they are more likely to cut expenses to continue to make payments. They also probably had more discretionary expenses that can be cut out to be able to stretch to make the payment.)
2) They probably weren’t subprime, meaning that for many (most?) of them, they’re still making probably the same payment they bought at. This might change when the alt-A neg-am mortgages start to hit their caps and go bad en masse, which I believe is predicted to start this year.
3) Many were move-up buyers, so they probably entered these markets with a down payment that was just as inflated by the bubble as the real estate they bought. It’s probably a lot easier for a household making 100K a year to afford a 600K home they bought in 2005 when they went in with a 300K downpayment from the sale of their previous Mira Mesa home for 450K that they bought for 200K 10 years before than it would be for a first time buyer who neg-am financed that 600K home. Dunno how common this was though, or whether most of these type of move up buyers took their bubble appreciation as a windfall and spent it.

My personal feeling is that they’ll still get hit (over the long run, they have to come down to the historical relationship between move-up housing and entry level housing), but it will probably take longer (though I expect them to get hit with the alt-A tidal wave this year most likely). They’ll probably also bounce along at their areas bottom for longer while inflation raises other areas that bottomed sooner and lower to the point where they reach that historical price relationship between entry level housing and move-up housing.

[SDEngineer]

Just as a reasonably educated guess, I’d guess it’s a combination of a few factors.

Primarily, I think that for many of them, their loans – even at bubble prices – are still largely affordable, hence you don’t have the massive downward pressure caused by forced sales (either short or foreclosed). A couple of reasons for this:

1) Upper middle class buyers have larger reserves, and can hold out longer when rates reset, etc, before they have to give it up (typically, their credit rating is also substantially more important to them as well, meaning that they are more likely to cut expenses to continue to make payments. They also probably had more discretionary expenses that can be cut out to be able to stretch to make the payment.)
2) They probably weren’t subprime, meaning that for many (most?) of them, they’re still making probably the same payment they bought at. This might change when the alt-A neg-am mortgages start to hit their caps and go bad en masse, which I believe is predicted to start this year.
3) Many were move-up buyers, so they probably entered these markets with a down payment that was just as inflated by the bubble as the real estate they bought. It’s probably a lot easier for a household making 100K a year to afford a 600K home they bought in 2005 when they went in with a 300K downpayment from the sale of their previous Mira Mesa home for 450K that they bought for 200K 10 years before than it would be for a first time buyer who neg-am financed that 600K home. Dunno how common this was though, or whether most of these type of move up buyers took their bubble appreciation as a windfall and spent it.

My personal feeling is that they’ll still get hit (over the long run, they have to come down to the historical relationship between move-up housing and entry level housing), but it will probably take longer (though I expect them to get hit with the alt-A tidal wave this year most likely). They’ll probably also bounce along at their areas bottom for longer while inflation raises other areas that bottomed sooner and lower to the point where they reach that historical price relationship between entry level housing and move-up housing.

[Author]

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