Southern California Real Estate Bubble Crash Blog

What is the world coming to when official stats finally show what anybody with a brain has already figured out?  Home prices are falling throughout the southland, but Orange County has always held a special place in our hearts.  No bad things could ever happen there, right?

And, a mix shift to higher priced units doesn’t hide declining prices anymore.

The OC Register tells us about CAR’s (California Association of Realtors) sheepish admission to the fall:

The median price of a Orange County resale house fell to $688,610 in January, down 1.5 percent from January of 2006, the California Association of Realtors reported Tuesday.

The median price has been down from the year before for five of the past six months in the CAR index.

Prices for Orange County resale houses peaked in June at $725,190, association data shows. Last month’s median was the second-lowest since April 2005, when the median price was $682,197.

So, we’re in for a soft landing, huh?  Not if you bought at 725K and how sell at 682K.  To put it in perspective, the median price has fallen nearly $43K in 7 months.  Annualize that fall, and we’re shedding prices at $73K per year.  That’s the median household income… Where in years’ past, we were gaining value in our homes about that much per year, we’ve got to take it on the downside.

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Just thought I would throw in some humor… after all if you can’t laugh.

… well, then you’d better cry.

Wondering where to put your money now that the housing bubble has burst? Check out what the general public is saying:

Spring smackdown meet commodities bull market.

***************Follow up*********************

The poll was conducted by Yahoo finance.  Ever since I wrote the infamous Yahoo Effect posting, I use their frequent online polls to get an idea on what is going throught Joe 6Pac’s mind.  Here’s the proof that it’s Yahoo’s doing

:

For all of our readers that were amused by the lovable little scamp, the thereisnoshousingbubble blog is back up!

Old articles are there, but comments are not enabled.

You might remember some of the better articles such as:

 Illegal Immigrants are the Granite Countertops of Immigrants

also:

The Outsourced Entry to Rajeev 

and others.  We welcome the return of an old friend after being abducted by webspammers.

The Big Picture recently quoted a Minyanville article on some of David Lereah’s potentially drug-induced rantings and ravings. Take a look at the incredible list of gibberish that Lereah has spewed over the past few years in the face of the largest drop in housing prices on record.

Take a look at the stunning put-together from Kevin Depew’s article. Jan Housing

A number of blogs have taken Lereah to task on his in-your-face optimism in the face of direct evidence to the contrary. I even took a swing at his supposed insanity. One might assume that he is a certifiable moron, or has drunk too much of the Koolaid and is fitfully hallucinating. I have often wondered if he consumes vast quantities of illegal drugs to keep the hallucinations real, or if there is some even more sinister plan.

Much like Darren Meade of Victory Lending (Yes, the homeless boy turned bodybuilder turned nutritional supplement king turned mortgage lender) , one wonders exactly how much koolaid they might have consumed, and if there will be any long-term mental health impacts to the frequent regurgitation of bull. However, at least with David Lereah, there is at least some formal education to qualify him as a somewhat credible source; if my personal trainer began giving me financial advice, I might have to ask him to stick to what he knows best… it’s the ultimate expression of the shoeshine boy offering stock tips.

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This little gem popped up from Rhode Island.  Sorry Socal’ers, nothing from the local fare of stupid realtorspeak today.  I just couldn’t pass it up.

“In Newport County, we’re very fortunate that we’re islands,” Lawrence said during the presentation in the dining room of The Bay Voyage Inn. “There’s only so much land and we have a lot of special events that only happen here and make this area attractive.”

In other news, Japan is no longer an island, having merged into the Asian continent immediately preceding the Newport County Board of Realtors President’s remarks.  Oh, and there is nothing fun to do in Japan, making it an unattractive place.  That’s why Japan’s housing prices fell for 15 years.  Not because of a housing Souffle, bubble, or balloon.

One of the big stories of the day was the trouncing Novastar subprime lender received today. As of the current moment, the stock is down more than 39% so far today.

Since the housing bubble is the manifestation of the credit bubble, we’re likely to see a lot more of these. However, if you’re waiting for this to trickle through to the housing market, it won’t immediately. Sellers still haven’t figured out that without subprime, very few can afford their homes. When Option ARMS start getting pulled, that’s when we’ll see the bloodbath.

Until then, you’ll have to make do with the current stock skewering we are seeing now.

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