Burned, gone, up in flames. Built in 2002. Any guesses why a house 50 feet away from a raw canyon with limited access would catch fire?
You can use the LATimes database to search for destroyed homes.
Personally I'm thinking the devil. She did it. Actually this is a classic failure of planning but if I said that I wouldn't be able to put up this picture.
Hat tip to MaxedOutMama for both her recent concern and for reminding me that we need the occasional nekkid lady to keep things exciting.
41 comments:
First, Hell spelled backwards is LA.
Second, Damion is lame and I have no interest in his bottom feeding exploits. Casey hooked up with another foreclosure vulture.
I subscribe to the Gilbert Gottfried e-mail list. I got this yesterday:
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To the people of California,
SORRY... I knew I left the iron on.
Sincerely,
Gilbert Gottfried
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Well, I thought it was funny.
Funny is watching the nice lady in the picture trying to put on black fishnets with those fingernails.
Gilbert Gottfried is those same fingernails on a blackboard.
Insurance inspectors are going to have to take a very close look at the homes destroyed. I have this feeling that some of the homes burnt to the ground weren't quite in the path of the fire, but just "happened" to be for sale, underwater on the mortgage . . . oh yes, and fully insured.
PV,
We don't disagree very often but this time I think you are too soon and the fires came too quick. Besides I don't see the results of an insurance check coming out better than even fire sale prices.
Rob, I don't suspect a lot of suspicious activity, but it shouldn't be ruled out. Some of the speculators have been holding onto empty homes and dying a slow financial death for months and months now. Then they hear in the news that there's a massive wildfire . . . most of them would simply cross their fingers and hope for the best (worst?), but I also suspect that a few of them were tempted to make sure that the fire took a path that was convenient for them.
I'm reminded of the Arrested Development "Banana Flambe" episode . . . just hope that GOB Bluth isn't the one who was supposed to have delivered the insurance check.
We don't disagree very often but this time I think you are too soon and the fires came too quick. Besides I don't see the results of an insurance check coming out better than even fire sale prices.
So what happens in this case? Does insurance pay the current market value, purchase price, amount mortgaged, or something else? If insurance pays less than the amount of the mortgage, can the lender go after the buyer for the deficiency? If so, what leverage do they have?
. . . And CFC keeps going up. The wildfires will actually be good news for some of the mortgage lenders with heavy exposure in Southern California, as they'll be rid of some of their more troublesome "assets". But probably not enough to make a difference . . . even if it's 2,000 homes total, or even double that, it's not enough to bail out the companies in more serious trouble like CFC.
I'm tempted to short CFC, but I've got better places to put the money for now. Also, it's likely to go up before it goes down, although I don't think it'll get too much higher than 18/shr.
Waiting for the nov 17.5000 calls to settle and I'll have a post up all about CFC. What a nasty, unfair market.
Ogg: "So what happens in this case? Does insurance pay the current market value, purchase price, amount mortgaged, or something else?"
What happens is the insurance company pays what they think it's worth, the homeowner complains that that's not even close to what it's worth, and then, enter the lawyers. Just like Katrina, only this time the lawsuits will be over home prices more than wind vs flood damage.
As far as settling the mortgage, I suspect that the homeowner owes any difference in the insurance payout and the balance of the loan. That used to be less of an issue, as back in the good old days people had equity in their homes so the bank got its money back, but, well, it's 2007 and this is Southern California, so who knows how that will work out. My guess: more lawyers.
Oh yeah, right. Go waaay out on a limb there. "More lawyers." Cripes there's gonna be so many layers that if we gave every one a hammer we could rebuild in a week. Some guess. ;-)
The problem is as you note. So much of the price is tied up in development rights and land value that getting paid for the pile of sticks nailed together that burned won't reduce the total debt by much. Lots of lots are gonna be on the books in short order.
Therein lies another danger. Those damn planners are getting ready to change the nature of some of these neighborhoods. Higher densities of a more urban character with an even greater portion of public space paid for with even higher densities and punitive policies for those who didn't burn.
Embers can fly pretty far. When all this first started, Sunday morning in Malibu, the fire there had not yet leaped over PCH, but a few stray embers had landed on the roofs of homes right on the beach and one or two were destroyed or damaged before firefighters could get to them.
You could see it happen live on copter cam, there was no suspicious business but if you hadn't actually seen it happening and looked at the scene afterward it would look very strange.
There'd be one home completely destroyed while one immediately adjacent (they're so packed together on the beach) would be untouched. Sort of like a tornado trail.
It seems to me that only the pathetically stupid burn down the house to get out of the mortgage. There is absolutely no penalty to walking away anymore, except a temporary blip on the credit report.
PV:
"Insurance inspectors are going to have to take a very close look at the homes destroyed."
It usually doesn't take much...
"Where's the remains of your widescreen TeeVee?"
"Where's the remains of your computer?"
"Where's the puddle of melted gold and silver and gemstones that you're claiming was your jewelry?"
"Where's the charred shards of your rare wine collection?"
As a rule, amateur desperate arsonists have NO appreciation of the TRUE value of the Goodwill and Salvation Army stores...
(Not that I do....)
May I introduce:
The Real Deal
Sliding home prices and desperate home builders are coming to a NY/NJ town near you. This is the first time I know of they have this kind of fire sale around here. It was obvious for a while that they where not selling anything but now they will officially screw their full price customers and give up their incentive whoring.
P.S. Mad IT skillz(tm) at work....never leave a forward slash at the end of the URL
Santa Ana means Santana and that means Satan.
3.38 Sweet Cashback
That sale is nothing.
Boston is suppose to have a real auction in a couple weeks ala the Michighan meltdown.
Those prices on that link you have are by crackheads who still have their heads up their cracks. 10% off the original prices. Flaming morons are going to lose that much if the taxes come due before they dump them.
Who the heck wants a whipped up townhouse in Morristown on some ex pasture with no trees, vinyl sides, and a stainless/granite kitchen.
Insane taxes, bad schools and heavy congestion round out this "deal".
Hurry soon. Only 4589 left in town...
@Sweet Cashback
P.S. Mad IT skillz(tm) at work....never leave a forward slash at the end of the URL
Unless you quote the URL section when using the a href= tag.. covered that quite a while back. The blog entry end up having the rest of the entry as the link, and the link reference text not show. Bug in the blogging software. From what I remember, the problem doesn't show up in preview, but does show up when the entry is committed..
BTW, ™ is code 0157. Set numlock, then hold down the alt key and type 0157 followed by releasing the alt key. Some machines can use other codes as well to get the same thing. ☺
BTW, ™ is code 0157. Set numlock, then hold down the alt key and type 0157 followed by releasing the alt key. Some machines can use other codes as well to get the same thing.
For those with proper computers, it's option-2. Much easier.
@Homer
It's the first time they advertise it all over the radio in the area. There will for sure be much more fire sales to come on these McMansions that nobody around here can afford...
@BJ
Took me multiple tries to find out again what was causing that behavior. My different tests can be admired further up there.
™ == Alt 0153 or ™. What is this strange talk of option 2 and proper computers?
HTML Tags
option 2 and proper computers
Oh you know, the overpriced, luxury design computers. Less useful then IBM compatibles but kinda cool for kids that want to be special....
Ahem. Your gracious host has a proper computer. TCO far less than those mayflies with a virus masquerading as an operating system. Wait, that's not fair. Virus don't stop working if you fail to register.
Oh Rob, I knew you where a young, hip kid!
So which color did yours come in? Pink, racing Red? Did it come with all the available "proper" computer software on a whooping 2 DVD set? ;-)
On the internets, nobody knows your computer's a dog.
I think the funniest thing at IAFF 2 was the comment
"Enough with the organ grinder...bring out the dancing monkey!!!"
Wasn't there a late 70's TV commerical for Milton Bradley's Battleship game where some kid says "Battleship down!"?
Wow those ascii codes are fun. Just found the one for the Euro sign (€) and some funky Greek stuff. Heh. My Friday night is complete. (Sigh.)
Yep, CFC was horrendous today. When it stabilized at 2 dollars up I knew it wasn't gonna drop and I bailed. Still got out 10 cents per share up. What kills me is that you can have amazon do well with a porr prognosis for the 4th quarter and the stock gets creamed. Then you have a POS like CFC that loses 1 billion...1 billion people! But they say that they will be profitable next quarter and for years to come.. say what?!!? Based on what? The coming turn around in the housing market? It's gonna get worse!!!
Well I made my 100 grand for the year with CFC, but if people are dumb enough to believe their bullshit...that's just too illogical for me to stay in....I would do better at the blackjack table, at least there people are rational.
Wait a minute...that devil girl...isn't she orange?
Yeah, she's orange.
At this point, I'm wondering if I may have mixed up the Battleship game and Watership Down as a kid and assumed it was a television commercial like everything else.
@Legion,
You sank my battleship!
Yeah, that's trite, but wtf happened to battleship down? Were those fishnet quadrants only in my mind?
The Watership Down version of Battleship.
I think I saw that. Instead of ships, you moved small furry animals.
If you're well underwater, why not pocket the insurance check and stick your lender with the charred remains?
If you've kept a decent inventory (videotape -> DVD) personal possesions can add a nice kicker to the check.
You probably didn't need all that stuff anyway.
You'll take a credit hit as a result of the foreclosure, but there's no deficiency judgment allowed on purchase money loans in Kalifornia.
Y'know, I thought Satan would be at least a "C" cup.
Strange, huh?
Rob, that is one heck of a nekkid lady.
Bilgeman said...
Y'know, I thought Satan would be at least a "C" cup.
Strange, huh?
Ahhh, but you see? That's precisely how the devil works. You are led to expect AAA tranches and end up with junk.
MaxedOutMama said...
Rob, that is one heck of a nekkid lady.
The perils of through research. I had to scrutinize and reject hundreds and hundreds of possible candidates to get just the right picture.
This week I suspect both of us will be wasting a lot of electrons looking at the re-insurers.
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