Money/CNN has a great tutorial on FICO and just how hard it is to get near 400 like our Young Snowflake has so galantly managed. Look at the difference and tank your parents for teaching you responsible behavior. Note; the data is a month old. Add at least 40bp to the low end and 60bp or more to the worst borrowers. 
So, we buy one of Casey's notes for 5¢ on the dollar and threaten to force him into bancruptcy unless...
VenCo Star:
The Ventura County Fire Department is investigating whether it withheld public documents in violation of state law to cover up its record on a Moorpark manufacturing plant that played a role in the devastating Shekell wildfire.
What did the Sheriff think? That a compassionate society would understand that equal* protection under the law was trumped because Paris couldn't handle the discomfort? 
Fellow realtors, mortgage brokers, gang memebers; thank you all for joining me today for our seminar entitled "Getting the Most Out of Your Client." First a recap of our past successes. ARMs, I/Os, balloons, 40yr, piggybacks. Unfortunately as you all know those so called deceptive and predatory practices are on our "marks' radar" so we need a whole new slew of ideas. Let me introduce our first speaker Mr. "GainMaxPretender." Understand not his real name. You'll understand once he opens his mouth. Anyway GMaxPre is an expert at the opposite of settling bad loans. His job is to set up the worst terms and conditions for we lenders tp generate the bad loans that result in the most profit. Best of all, the more we divert into bad lending the less there is and more we can charge for good loans. Listen to his pitch and then guard against his pitch.javascript:void(0)
Last year in Feb '06 the median home price in Ventura County was $680690 and Gary Watts said "17% is in the bag." So how would that have worked out? Let's do a timeline comparison. Any guesses?
Yep. Tis' true, there is no price, no person who will pick crops, no matter how hungry, how desperate. That is UNLESS we change our immigration laws. I heard it on NPR. It must be true.
Where there's smoke there's fire. Right?
Okay, a week with the "new" camera. Everything works perfectly. The suspect "play" in the 70-300 AF/IS lense is normal and necessary for both functions. Nothing more than my out of the loop existence in a world of expensive film and tight optics. The body seems to be fully functional and I've downloaded the manuals. Talk about a steep learning curve; the manuals are interesting social experiments in and of themselves. The transfer cable I ordered arrived long before the 1Gb CF was full. Not so much as a smudge on any of the optics, lucky. The 1800mAh battery is/was fine and didn't even need reconditioning. Mechanically; Good speed, decent shadow detail, the built in flash is for interior and barely capable of birthday parties only. The USB transfer rate is 1.1 speed IOW pathetic but normal for 2002. The body has good ergonomics but very is heavy and bulky by the standards of today only 5 years later. I am comfortable with these traditional grip/controls/dials but I also know they are no longer as efficient as the newer interaction methods in a digital world. The preceding comments are but introduction. Truth told; This collection of components takes very good pictures. My littlest seven year old took this unretouched, uncropped picture:
Not since my $5.80 DVD collection of "Ray Bradbury Theater" at Ross Dress for Less have I been so pleasantly surprised. An alert reader tells us that U.K. LeGuin's "Lathe of Heaven" is available. This got me thinking. I know, I know, it is dangerous for me to even try but sometimes near unavoidable. What other stories, (not necessarially sci-fi), are being ignored or have been made but butchered? Face it, like the 007 movies most sci-fi titles are not even remotely respectful of their origins. For instance, "I, Robot" with a socially functional and attractive Susan Calvin? NFW. Sure, a good movie and good sci-fi but not true to Asimovs' stories. 
Gotta love a group that makes Nigel Swaby look like prophet. Yes, such an organization exists; the California Association of Realtors. In a press release the CAR predicts "a 14 percent decline in single-family home sales this year, and forecast a 1.8 percent increase in the median price of a home. "
Nature makes it real clear when to stay away. Take this Dandelion fish. Beautiful to look at from a distance but get close it is all pointy bits and poison. 
Welcome to the Goldilocks economy where despite economic numbers being scattered all over the place, most people are doing just fine. 
Stalking the 10yr was almost like waiting for IAFF. Now it is off to the races. No telling why this happened when it did but everyone will tell you they predicted it. I kept mum but did buy some nice out of the money futures speads that are now solidly in the money. The HBs are starting to erode and I can only hope I'm not too late to get on the lumber train.
My head hutrz™. Family? Legal? Financial? I do want to know but I don't want to spin in place. Everything that gets pulled into the event horizon surrounding caseyworld gets harmed by the proximity. Besides, it is all just so dirty. Orbit, observe but respect the prime directive.
Iamfacingforeclosure, Ablebuyer, Ibuyappartmentbuildings and some other thing that wassqueezed out from between the thighs of she who holds me back. I don't care about that last as it isn't my own.
Wow, this is tough. I have had so many Nigel comments, emails and various inquiries about Swabtard in the last 5 days they started running together like so much pleather dissolved in AXE. We know he lies, we know he is a hypocrite, we suspect he has serious image and self-worth issues. All the evidence of being reality challenged remains uncontested when presented. Now recently repromoted Mortgage Broker Nigel Swaby has decided that not only have Casey, Duane, En, CR, SDCIA and others gotten him wrong but USA Today has made the very same errors. Turns out he who moderates comments has lashed out at the factual revelations that two years before having recently talked up the housing market he himself had cashed out. In a case of poetic justice his choice of reinvestments has yeilded less than half what sticking with SLC RE would have generated. Stupid hypocrite with issues. As paublic service post the comments here where Nigel reads more often than SLCRE and there is no censorship.
Our Promise to the Heterosexual Community:
Our good friend Wagga makes excellent points. Where's Benoit™ for a start. 
I watched the first "Pirates" movies on my 50" plasma before attending a movie screening of "Pirates 3." Nice loge seats good quality presentation and lousy popcorn. Thing is I wasn't all that more wowed by the theatre experience versus the home experience. We got 10 free tickets so it isn't about the price this time but two adults and three kids is $40 or twice the release price for the typical DVD. 
My good friend Angelo has his offices just up the hill. Nice guy, great tan. Unfortunately while he's been collecting options in dollars his company has been collecting houses instead of the expected mortgage payments. Lots of houses. Lots and lots of houses. Everywhere. The beauty of CFCs REO list is that you can just see where the bubble was biggest. Choose California and run down the list. CFC is now the greater fool by default. You also have to wonder, for every first loan that ends up in their REO portfolio how many times was CFC the second lienholder and lost their entire stake? I'm thinking also for every REO there has to be a dozen loans in trouble.
Longtime readers know that on principle I generally object to the waste and abuse that characterizes transit in the US. Thus it should come as a surprise to not only hear mild praise but mild praise for that poster child of bad government; the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Agency (LAMTA). This has been in the planning stages for several years because the MTA has been resisting success at least as effectively as somebody we know. Nonetheless more Metrorapid bus lines are coming. Rapid buses are plain old buses except they run limited stops and go places people go. 
Reuters has an interesting "horse gone, barn door still open" article. In the face of surging foreclosures Massachusetts is trying to reign in foreclosure rescue schemes. 
Gerson Alvarado-Veliz was on a bus in Guatemala in 2002, he says, when three men toting AK-47s boarded and pointed the assault rifles at his face.
"Get off the bus!" they screamed. "Gangster!"
Alvarado-Veliz assumed the men were with the Sombra Negra, the Black Shadow vigilante death squads that conduct killings aimed at "cleansing" Guatemala of suspected gang members. And Alvarado-Veliz's more than 20 tattoos from his life in a San Fernando Valley gang clearly marked him as a onetime gang member.
... had been deported after serving a sentence in California for selling and transporting crack cocaine ...
Now the 23-year-old is sitting in an Arizona immigration detention facility after an arrest related to charges of marijuana possession and driving on a suspended license. He's citing his past as a gang member as the reason he should be granted asylum and allowed to remain in the U.S.
My first CD of photos in the late 80s included a copy of Photoshop 1.5 Tryout. There are lots of people with stories to tell. Let's listen here while i set up the poll of who to focus upon next and rip Rick Cole another orrifice and other tasty raw meat type posts. Expect a few housing bubble realted to illegals topics as well.
Oh, man is my blood boiling. 
ZDNet has another followup to the IAFF whiteout. 
Then here's to the City of Boston, 
Go to dinner == miss the floor show. I can't even read as fast as posts are going up. 380 posts later just a new thread to keep things tidy.
Where will they be in 2 years. You see it was a mere 2 years ago, Jun 2005 that the very same Realtor magazine named David Crisp one of their 30 realtors under 30. Today? Multiple NODs and a crumbling empire. Bakersfield Bubble is the place to go to track the Crisp & Cole Realtor Version of Casey. The article is here.
The Ventura County Star is usually good for the latest Fry's ad and high school sports scores but even the blind squirrel occassionally finds a nut. 
