Many people reading this blog from states with moderate housing prices have a very hard time understanding how a family earning $100,000 a year is having a challenging time staying in the middle class ranks. The idea of a six-figure income certainly doesn’t connote the same wealthy status as it did a decade ago. [...] Related Posts: ■ The Credit Conundrum: The New Loan Shark is the Fed. ■ Are you a Don Quixote or Hamlet of Housing? ■ Massive Inventory Decrease in Southern California. Is This the Fabled Bottom? ■ Real Homes of Genius: Today we Salute you Downey. $100,000 off in 3 Months. ■ The Invisible Mortgage Hand: Analysis of a Society That Forces You Into Debt.

The DataQuick numbers for Southern California were released today and the numbers were astounding. Yes, I’m sure that you’ve heard that line probably a thousand times in the last year but in reality, each month gives more and more insight into the absolute corruption and malfeasance that propelled this housing bubble to its [...] Related Posts: ■ Do the Herd Dance: I’ll Sell if you Sell! Woo Woo! ■ Real Homes of Genius: Today we Salute you Monterey Park. 800 Square Feet for $479,000. ■ The Short Sale Report: Volume 1 – The True Barometer of the Housing Market ■ Top Ten Housing Markets to Fall. The Answer May Surprise You…Not! ■ Southern California Housing Numbers Exposed: The Bottom Falls out of the Housing Market, Again.

Don’t you just love how they are calling this fiscal boondoggle a stimulus package? Since we are all about “stimulating the consumer” they will also throw in a few syringes with heroine, methamphetamines, and two Red Bulls for good measure. This way, consumers can load themselves up and spend for 48 hours straight [...] Related Posts: ■ Real Homes of Genius: End of $1 Million Home in Pasadena and the Extinction of Mortgage Equity Withdrawals. ■ Real Homes of Genius: Today we Salute La Mirada. Housing has Entered Stage 2 of the Bear Market. Middle Class Areas $100,000 off in one year. ■ Flipper Nation Episode 2 ■ Et tu Subprime? Why This Mortgage Proposal is Hot Air…As of Today. ■ Wrong and Wronger: Compounding the Mortgage Mess with Bigger Mortgages.

Since Governor Schwarzenegger took office in October of 2003, he rode in promising no tax hikes and sent a very unpopular vehicle fee out the door along with Gray Davis. He has faced issues with budget delays but nothing like the current short fall. The Governor announced plans for declaring a fiscal emergency [...]

It is becoming commonplace to hear negative news regarding the housing market. Dollar signs get thrown around in conversations with no real practical sense for the public to grasp the magnitude of the problem. HSBC for example announced that they are pumping $35 billion into their ailing SIVs to avoid a fire sale [...]

I’m sure many of you have seen TLC’s Property Ladder show.  It is a similar show to Flip This House except I’ve noticed that Property Ladder is more willing to show flips that have gone bad.  If you haven’t seen the show the premise is simple.  Someone buys a home, has a budget and time [...]

As human nature would have it, we love hearing stories in narrative form. From our evolutionary history, story telling has always been a way of passing on the past to future generations. We are good at this. In fact, that is why we thrive in reading novels and movies with a consistent [...]