Some time ago, I came across an interesting website dealing with the analysis of the California, and at times nationwide, housing market.
The site is appropriately named Dr. Housing Bubble and, in a recent article (12/26/07) it featured a special edition titled “Real State of Genius: Today we Salute you California with Our Real Home of Genius Award! 10 Homes throughout the Golden Bubble State.”
Here’s a snippet:
Happy holidays everyone! Hope everyone is enjoying the end of the year festivities. There’s a feeling in the air that everyone is maxed out. I was out in the Inland Empire this past weekend and saw very nice brand new homes going for $200,000. Prices are starting to take major downturns here in California. I’ve been getting a lot more e-mails from readers showing me Real Homes of Genius throughout the state. In fact, I would venture to say that this housing fiasco has enveloped the entire state of California into a Real State of Genius.
We featured 10 Southern California homes back in May and people still had doubts about a housing bubble. In today’s very special holiday report, we are going to show 10 homes throughout the state from Palo Alto, to Fresno, to Chula Vista that bring home this housing crisis. This should also show that this housing bubble is more than a subprime problem but a much larger and pervasive credit issue that will impact the entire economy.
Listening to the radio this weekend, they had a realtor from Las Vegas pleading his case that the government needs to bring back “alternative financing” to prime the pump. Yes! What a splendid idea. Instead of admitting the glaring problem, let us pump this bubble to the next dimension. This is tantamount to giving a meth addict more meth when they are in the middle of rehab because they cannot bare the withdrawal pains. Oh yes, our society is addicted to credit and even the rhetoric of “injecting” more liquidity should make you think about the psychological ramifications of comparing the Fed to some sort of doctor. Maybe they are comparing their valiant effort to that of Dr. Kevorkian.
If you have any doubts that we are in a bubble here in California, after seeing these 10 homes maybe your opinion will change. We’ll profile homes in posh areas, to not so prime areas to demonstrate that this manic housing bubble infected rich and poor alike. Greed crosses all socio-economic barriers. California is the golden state and land of Hollywood. Perfect weather and tan bodies are everywhere; that is if you are within a 10 mile radius of the coastline. Yet homes that are nowhere near the coast and have bad weather went up in price just like prime properties. It would seem that being in California was justification enough for sky-high prices. Today we salute you California with our Real State of Genius Award.
Read the full article to see pictures of the featured shacks and their price histories. If you’re not living in California, you will be simply amazed at the overpriced turkeys presented here. With no more Subprime borrowers and teaser financing available, there is only one direction for these home prices to go—and that is down.