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Land can drop hugely in value. The issue in SoCal is that just infrastructure costs are sometimes quite substantial and development takes a long time (I have actually seen some land parcels worth a negative value for development recently). Land values dropped 90% in the last cycle; this...

I guess that is like when I said to someone my goal is to buy a house in the OC all cash and they laughed at me. Perhaps I don't look like I can afford to buy around here whereas my friend who is making payments on a LS460 does when he has no cash in the bank and is feeding negative flow...

$110/ft for new construction is already the norm in Sacramento. $130/ft in the IE. So I would say somewhere in the $130-150 range for new construction in the OC is definitely within reason.

Deutsche Bank actually used the discount window:http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/699699f4-4f21-11dc-b485-0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=e8477cc4-c820-11db-b0dc-000b5df10621.html If your familiar with the discount window it is very rarely used.

EvalSeraphim: The key difference is one of citizenship status between a Hispanic person who pays the check cashing fee to avoid bank records and a white person who is at least equally guilty of tax evasion for running a restaurant that loses money each year for income tax purposes but maintains...

That bill is really damaging to Hispanics who are genuinely making money under the table and use check cashers to pay their bills. I do know some Hispanics that genuinely make $30+/hr all in cash so they can afford the mortgage payment on their home but none of it shows up in bank records or...

Contrary to the belief of many housing bulls I think August will mark the month the high end starts markedly weakening in inventory. When I talk to people buying in the $1-2M range they blissfully tell me the high end is not affected by this subprime/jumbo loan melt down since their neighbors...

I think it's about $500B short for Japanese retail investors (since both sides of the trade are counted). The RBOC is in a sense short $300B on the Yen since they prefer holding far less yen than their trade balance. Instead they hold $900B of their $1.3T in foreign reserves in dollars. If...

The GAO does not seem to be so...mellow:http://www.clarksvilleonline.com/2007/08/14/us-government-must-change-or-may-end-up-like-rome/

Why was the discount rate 6% at open? Banks saw an opportunity to turn their agency paper over to the government at 5.25%. Treasuries of all maturities are below 5.25%. So we end up with a Benanke put on Fannie, Freddie, and Ginnie at 5.25%? My understanding is most of the securities...

Why could we not have a similar experience as Thailand in 1997. Situation preadjustment: -Exporters kept funds abroad while importers prepaid and bought forward in advance of the currency adjustment. -Large Current Account Deficit -A sharp adjustment of the solvency of...

iirc school teachers with 1 year experience were upgraded to principal for their loan documents to pass underwriting then they signed off that they make 13k/month to support their investment properties in vegas. They then used someone else's bank account (AU) to qualify as SIVA. This...

I have all of my funds at Vanguard or Fidelity since they tend to have low fees. I'm at about 35% cash 65% equities. Of the equities tier about 40% domestic 60% international. Needless to say my stock portfolio has taken a fairly substantial hit in the past 2 weeks.

WCI projects: Miami: 4 Projects (Miami is still the center for Latin America so it actually isn't as hard hit as some of Florida) Ft Lauderdale: 5 projects (Canadian retiree destination. Hard hit) Naples: 8 Projects ( Naples is a haven for retirees from the midwest; it is getting...

<p><a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9900E0DD1639F937A15756C0A963948260">http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9900E0DD1639F937A15756C0A963948260</a></p> <p>OC median in 1985: $132,100</p> <p>Should be very feasible to compare prices and incomes against this...

<p>In 1976 median prices for new construction were:</p> <p>Chicago: $62,100 </p> <p>Washington DC: $67,700</p> <p>Los Angeles: $72,100 </p> <p>Source: <a...

The big advantage of those sorts of plans if your employer does not go bankrupt is you can pay TX or FL income tax on the amount disbursed by the plan if your willing to move to a income tax advantaged state upon retirement. If your in a lower tax bracket on retirement that also would be a boon...

It's clear to me that several of the posters here rely on the industry for our bread. So outing us will just show that we have been fairly pessimistic even though we rely on the real estate market to eat. A month ago I was eating lunch with my coworkers and one mentioned his house in...

No Manhattan is not on the list because its median income is not really that high. Even 10021 on the upper east side has a median household income of $149,367 in 1999. By comparison in the same year 90210 in Beverly Hills was $155,586. Both numbers are from the census so should be...

That is actually an equestrian term meaning that the horse has been ridden very hard and not put away properly in the stables. The realtor is implying that the house is in poorer condition that it's age would indicate. A suicide in the garage is definitely bad feng shui so getting a Chinese...