Local stores are running out of Ramen noodles!!!
Hurry - buy Ramen now while you still can. They're not making more Ramen you know. If you don't buy Ramen now, you may not be able to afford Ramen in the future.
Blown Mortgage has the scoop
For Keith: Any Correlation Between OC Ramen Sales and Latest Mortgage News?
A long day for your blogger here at BlownMortgage - how about a little levity? For our friends over at Housing Panic:
For Keith: Any Correlation Between OC Ramen Sales and Latest Mortgage News?
A long day for your blogger here at BlownMortgage - how about a little levity? For our friends over at Housing Panic:
I just took the below photo tonight at my neighborhood Pavilions. I live in the heart of Orange County. Any correlation between the run on Ramen and the recent events in the mortgage industry? I mean our whole county is based on lending the folly of real estate according to Slate - there has to be something to it … RIGHT???!?!
And this from the Slate article on why the run on Ramen:
It's not entirely surprising that Irvine is a center of reckless real estate lending and borrowing. It's a classic industry cluster of the type seen in areas that lack natural resources. Detroit's auto manufacturers encouraged the local growth of auto parts suppliers, companies that finance auto purchases and publications that cover the auto industry.
In Silicon Valley in the 1990s, the people who created dot-com companies were co-located with the venture capitalists who funded them, the investment bankers and brokers who helped take them public and with many of the investors who got killed when the NASDAQ tanked. Irvine may have built up a diversified economy, but it remains a company town -- one whose fortunes are highly leveraged to the highly leveraged real estate industry.
24 comments:
Thanks for the laugh first thing in the morning.
Ramen Bubble!
Realtors lining up outside the Piggley Wiggley waiting to bid on chicken Ramen! Ramen hedge funds, forcing the hoi polloi out of Ramen market, forcing the bitter commoners to drink boiled hot-dog water soup.
The horror.
well, I used to live in Orange County; specifically Newport Beach for 10 years. I can tell you it seemed like 90% of my friends were/are working in the real estate industry. I even had a buddy who packaged up toxic loans at New Century before it imploded.
Moved to Santa Monica about a year ago for work and a much needed lifestyle adjustment. Life here isn't as easy, but it's real and a lot more interesting. Life was easier in OC, but more tiresome at the same time if that makes any sense.
I get where the money comes from here in LA. Some of it's old, a lot comes from the entertainment industry. In contrast, I never understood where all the money was coming from when I lived in Newport. Everyone was selling something to someone else - getting rich on nothing. Glad to see the physics of economics at work.
pwnd
Well something has got to give to make that $4K ARM monthly nut. What are the long-term effects of a ramen diet? Similar to scurvy?
Not surprised.
I hate to break the news to you all but there has been money in Orange Co for a long time. I grew up there in the 80s. Dad was a lawyer, mom stayed home. Everyone's mom stayed home. As far as I can remember we lived in a McMansion. I drove a BMW - 7 years old but still very nice - when I was 16 and I felt like the poor kid on the block since my BMW wasn't brand new. And yes we all know that OC declared bankruptcy. Doesn't mean every resident went broke too.
I'm mot saying Irvine isn't somewhat f**ked by this. But let's keep in perspective, this is not the equivalent of Detroit and autos. It's more like San Jose and .coms. 5 years after the .bomb crash San Jose is doing just fine.
Ramen always goes up.
You CAN buy Ramen.
Suzanne researched it.
It's always a good time to buy Ramen.
..is there a "ramen secondary market" where it (Top Ramen) is repackaged and sold as lobster bisque?
ANON: "Real Money in Orange County". . .yes, would agree - a lot of retirement money, a lot of entertainment money that moves down from LA (weekend homes) and of course some companies surrounding UCI. . .but Orange County also attracts a lot of grifters - both big time and small time. . .always seems to be the poster boy for "boom and bust". . .lots of Reagan defense money in the 1980's then the crash in the early 1990's. . .similar now - mortgage companies are imploding one a day. . .will be interesting to see how low housing prices will go this time.
As for SD county - at least we have the Navy and Marines. . .
Buy Ramen now or be priced out forever.
I'm mot saying Irvine isn't somewhat f**ked by this. But let's keep in perspective, this is not the equivalent of Detroit and autos. It's more like San Jose and .coms. 5 years after the .bomb crash San Jose is doing just fine.
Agreed, I currently live in Newport Beach and half the people on my street, myself included, don't work. Nobody in my neighborhood is in the r.e. industry.
Having said that, anyone who works in r.e. and is living here is royally screwed. Coastal OC is the most expensive place to live in America. It's one thing to be a realtwhore who goes bust in Phoenix or Vegas where the cost of living, despite the bubble, still remains cheap relative to any other major cities. But OC? How do they expect to make that $8,000 mortgage payment when the realtwhores are making $30k/year????
Oh yeah and unlike Phoenix and Vegas which have them on every corner, strip clubs are practically non-existent here, so the realtwhores don't have that "career" to fall back on ... lol
Frank@coldcall. . .
Interesting how many of us in coastal Calif don't work, or work from home - I am basically an at home private fund manager (don't want/need more clients) so I stick around till 1:30 PDT, till markets close or 1:10pm bad news is dumped on the aftermarket. . .then it's out to bike, swim, kyak, etc. A lot of my neighbors are in the same situation - consultants, wealthy retired, or family money - that is why coastal Calif will likely not see much of a meltdown - "if you can see the ocean, your house probably will not loose more than 10% max." There is always money along the coast. . .but even a few blocks inland, things are not so great around here - probably the same in OC?
Does Moody's rate Ramen tranches?
I live in an apartment complex. And I am so happy that I do. Since I moved to Irvine at the beginning of 2005, I looked at houses and said screw this, I am not going to live like a dog just to buy a house.
Skip forward to present day, my neighbor is a realtor who lives two doors down from me. He told me it's the best time to buy a house, and that OC is different. I told him that the local supermarket was having a RAMEN sale today. It amazes me still are they liars or are they just stupid?
ANON Is TOO FUNNY-
ramen only goes up- LMFAO
Their not making anymore RAMEN-LMFOASM
I shoulda went long RAMEN.
Happy Irvine Renter - no, RE agents ARE that stupid. . .I judge any agent by how many times they say, "anyways" or "irregardless". . .most haven't got a clue. . .they are kind of like RE Zombies taking their orders from the "mothership" = NAR
LauraVella said: Keyer is too funny...Ramen tranches anyone!?
LOL!
I was visiting a friend in Orange County a couple weeks ago. We drove up and down the PCH from Newport Beach down to La Jolla.
There are for sale signs everywhere. You smell the stench of the real estate industry in Newport Beach area where you can't throw a stone without hitting someone whose a realtor or works in the real estate industry. I was walking around the big shopping mall in Newport called "Fashion Island". You've never seen a bigger collection of gold-digger trophy wives walking little dogs and racking up their husbands credit cards. I imagine the divorce rate is going to sky rocket around that area in the coming year as the real estate market falls off a cliff and the sugga daddy tell their gold digging wives and girlfriends they need to cut back on spending.
wait a minute...happy irvine renter sez "I live in an apartment complex...realtor lives two doors down from me...says its the best(!) time to buy..."
so why is HE renting?
Mark -
You're right, the coast is solid but north county is crashing hard. Lots of sub prime trash that's killing the market.
"Newport Beach Gold Digger" -
If you think Fashion Island is a collection of fake gold digger trophy wives then you REALLY need to travel more ... are you from Arkansas? The one disappointment of moving to Newport Beach is that I DON'T see the hot hardbody trophy women I saw dozens of each hour while living in Phoenix & Scottsdale, Arizona. I love how the naysayers can't admit that Newport Beach is such a close-knit family oriented community and feel the need to trash it out of jealousy and envy.
I know who has all the ramen! Unemployment money goes a long way with ramen! Perhaps they are buying low to sell high? What's the market rate on ramen anyway? I think they are hedging with umeboshi. Hahaha!
Frank and Mark you seem to be smart guys but your area's will tank just as bad. Its not different this time. I have a buddy who bought a house in malibu for about 600,000 in 96 it worth 2 to 3 million now. He bought from distressed buyer in 96. When one house drops in price thats the comp for the area. You sound like the guys who were telling in 99 to buy yahoo at 260 because it's different this time.
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