Sonoma Housing Bubble

Pulling the cork out of Sonoma's bubbly housing foolishness

Sunday, January 28, 2007

One For the Fraud Files?

Update:

A reader last summer sent in some details about an open house he visited in Sonoma 660 East MacArthur












The house at that time was priced at $1,395,000 and apparently it is a 1950 cottage turn cliche. He said it was remodeled with all the cliches we have come to expect. The granite countertops, the pottery barn colors and yadda yadda yadda... but there certainly were no solid gold toilets or bathtubs and he said what he found most interesting is what Zillow had to say about it.

Zillow Sez:
660 E Macarthur St, Sonoma, CA 95476
Zillow Estimate:
$669,320


660 East MacArthur's Market Value Change for 1 yr.










Sales History:
12/24/06: $1,200,000
07/12/2006: $1,258,000
12/30/2005:
$600,000
10/18/2005:
$712,500

hmmm... in October 2005 this house was sold for $712k

Then sold two months later 12/05 for $600k.

$112,500k LESS just two months later... WTF?

Then a mere 6 months later it was up for sale again with an asking price of $1,395,000 and it sold for $1,258,000...
07/06

... and then just 1 month after the $1,258,000 sale it was put up for sale again with the same realty company, (Morgan Lane) low and behold, only the listing agents and the price changed. Listing price was $1,284,500

Then reported by SFGATE in their December 24th 2006 Homes sold report

660 Macarthur again changed hands... 12/06 going down $84,500

Homes sold week of: Sunday, December 24, 2006
660 East MacArthur Street $1,200,000,

Look at the zillow valuations...
January 2002 Value: $221k
January 2003 Value: $280k
January 2004 Value: $300k
January 2005 Value: $400k
August 2006 Value: $669,320


You have GOT to be kidding!!!

Tax Assessment History: 2004
Property tax: $2,218
Assessed value bldgs: $105,939
Assessed value land: + $44,606

Total assessed value: = $150,545

Something is not passing the smell test...

Sonoma House

9 Comments:

At 1/28/2007 12:20:00 PM , Blogger moonvalley said...

Here's one for the fraud files, in remembering the super hot hot hot RE market over in Sacto in the very recent past. I ran across this story in the Bee today.


"James and Beth Fullenwider are living inside a bad dream growing ever more familiar across the Sacramento region: Their 2,400-square-foot house in Elk Grove is slowly slipping away from them.

They can't afford their $3,300 monthly payment.

"If the credit people had really looked at our situation, they would have laughed and said, 'You can't come close to qualifying for this,' " says James Fullenwider, who runs a video production business at home. "We're in a house we have no business being in."

He says the couple didn't read the home loan's fine print. Only after moving into the $500,000 home last August did they learn the loan agent inflated their income to qualify them for the financing. "But we were stupid to do it," Fullenwider says."

Rest of the story here

How many others are finding themselves in the same situation alll over the state, and who will investigate al this fraud, and how many can really plead ingnorance? Are we just living in a state of Idiocracy?

Nearly $1.3 trillion in adjustable rate mortgages -- ARMs -- will reset to higher payments this year, according to mortgage giant Freddie Mac and other financial institutions.
That will cause some payments to rise $200 a month. Others will double or triple.

And once again, who are they asking for comments? Our old friends at DataQuick.
Last week, La Jolla-based DataQuick Information Systems reported 865 foreclosures in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties during the fourth quarter of 2006, nearly doubling from the previous quarter.

DataQuick also reported 3,071 notices of late mortgage payments -- known as notices of defaults -- during the same period. While that was a 16 percent increase over the previous quarter, the rate of growth had slowed somewhat from earlier in 2006.

But, but, I thought those were sales?!!

 
At 1/28/2007 03:23:00 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

yep,sales,one day on market for the note amount.DOM is so unreliable anyway this doesn't make much difference except to those who still believe in the tooth fairy.let me know when you want the data on 660,and i'll get it to you...coffee next week maybe?

 
At 1/28/2007 03:34:00 PM , Blogger moonvalley said...

tom,
sure. next week ought to work. is athena around or did she go down to LA?
by the way, our ex neighbor is thinking that the sb he bought 6 months ago for waaaaaaay more then he should have is gonna sell in a year for 1 mill.

 
At 1/28/2007 06:35:00 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

ooooohh,your neighbor sounds special,i have an old family friend who knows all there is to know about ET's and the illuminati,maybe we could get them together? some folk's don't need drugs,and putting several of them together in the same room can be real interesting,in an unhealthy way.I don't know if Athena is in LA or here...these superstars gad about so much i'd have to subscribe to the enquirer to be sure

 
At 1/29/2007 11:36:00 AM , Blogger Athena said...

Hey guys, I'm around next week. In L.A. today and tomorrow. But will be back tomorrow night.

MV- post that story on the blog. I upgraded to the new blogger, so you have to sign in with your google account login. grrrr...

 
At 1/29/2007 06:20:00 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Athena,what days work for you and MV?send me an email,i'll bring the docs on 660 e mac and we can go over them together.I'll wear my NRA cap,wear an aqua leotard,and be holding a copy of "the Tao of pooh" so you can recognize me...

 
At 1/30/2007 10:03:00 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Athena,

When you upgraded to blogger 2, were there any "gotchyas"? I still have not upgraded...like a good Marin resident I resist change. lol

 
At 1/30/2007 01:24:00 PM , Blogger Athena said...

Marinite... grrr... wish I hadn't upgraded. The dynamic html has bugs in it and I spend entirely too much time in the html window debugging the flipping code!

When you insert the picture div /div randomly insert themselves and adjust your line formatting. sometimes your span lines will repeat 4-5 times for some unknown reason. also, I have to sign in with my google account which is annoying to me. I don't want to do that each and every time. Additionally, the cookies expire and I am constantly having to re-login and it irritates me. Also, when signing in to your blog to make a comment for example, instead of reloading the comment page it ends up logging me in and sending me to my blog dashboard... grrr... Then I have to go to your page again and try to leave my comment. irritating.

 
At 1/31/2007 09:53:00 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

Athena -

Thanks. I didn't think blogger2 would be bliss. I won't upgrade for now. Not everything Google is golden it seems.

 

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