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Irvine is a well-done kind of bland suburbia with a very high job/house ratio, so it will always command something of a premium. But Beverly Hills has huge moviestar cachet, lots of extremely wealthy residents, and many unique jawdropping houses (in both good and bad ways). Irvine doesn't have...

<blockquote>The wife is accusing me of being biased toward houses with cathedral ceiling, or more established neighborhoods with more green trees, etc? </blockquote> Um, and what's wrong with those "biases"? Everybody has, and is entitled to have, things about housing they want. That you...

If prices didn't matter I'd pick Laguna Beach since it's so varied, walkable, and pretty. If I were considering price I'd go for Huntington Beach; I like the lively beach atmosphere and the housing prices are less outrageous.

If you hate sun and get sinus infections from dry dusty air, I'd question whether Socal is the place for you. Orange and Fullerton have good air by Socal standards, and better than Pasadena, but it still gets dry and dusty when the Santa Anas blow, a couple times a year. Smog isn't often a...

These numbers sound reasonable to me, but I don't think the stress test will show anything like that. Obama's going to release the stress test results on May 4th, and if that's what they show, he'll have to abandon his current approach, which assumes the banking system is fundamentally solvent...

Remember the official definition of "recession" says it "ends" when the GDP stops declining. By that definition, the Great Depression ended in (early) 1933! After a whopper recession like this one, and given the slow recovery from recent recessions, the economy will be bad for years after...

Daring color scheme too: light brown on light brown on light brown on light brown on ... That kitchen's almost usable for a <a href="http://www.fullsilence.com/parapsychology_ganzfeld_experiment.html">ganzfeld</a> experiment: <blockquote>This procedure is designed to present a changeless...

"Big Bud" fertilizer? OMFG! You probably don't need a floodlight. Vidcams don't always need much light. My old vidcam (sadly no longer working) could take good color video even in light so dim my color vision wasn't working. Something like <a...

Octaxpayer, can you find anything useful in this <a href="http://www.californiacondoguru.com/hoarticles/a1hobillofrights.html">Homeowner's Bill of Rights</a>? Some that might apply: <blockquote>Provide schedule of fines and penalties (if any are to be imposed on owners) (CC 1363(g))...

The 20 cents on the dollar (actually I think it was 12) was for unsecured Lehman debt so it's not directly linked to any particular house. That debt will be entitled to shares of the MBS and whatnot that Lehman owned, but not 1:1, because some other creditors come first, notably derivatives...

I am not seeing 70K worth of upgrades. Sure the custom doors are nice, but 70K? No way. Also, most of the upgrades (custom doors, granite counters) are fashion/trend oriented, which means when you sell they won't be worth much, any more than wood paneling and conversation pits are today. I'm...

33% is about what I predicted for the Irvine price drop (a little less - I expected high 30's). But high-end stuff is lagging and probably has some substantial drop left. I would consider that the 1.4M peak price was too high, even by the bubble standards. Was it just an asking price?

Did she redecorate to sell? The decor looks great, but it's in a blue-and-brown style. I thought that was really recent. Or am I not keeping up with the times?

I thought all the live-work places faced either the parking lot or main street. Aren't all the places in the back just townhomes? I've been a few times, and I've never been sure the Harvey Bags store was a real store and not just a Potemkin village show. Interesting that it's a real store. It is...