Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Smoking the dream pipe

This is another Real Homes of Genius award winner.



3847 Ellis, Corona, CA 92879. This 3 bedroom 1 bath home with a whopping 854 sq/ft of living space can be your's for the amazing price of $450,000! Yes, that's right $527 a square foot to live in HOME GARDENS (the ghetto of Corona). Let's look at the sales history of this home. This baby was built in 1936 but Redfin only has history back to 1989.

04/03/2006 $370,000

11/06/2002 $143,000

03/01/1989 $80,000

The $80k paid in 89 is high, I bet you could have bought this in 96 for $50k. The $370 paid in 2006 is insane and the current asking price is beyond comprehension. Even with the "unpermitted" shack in the back yard (no doubt the old garage) this thing is not worth $100k.

$450k for a 70 year old shack in the worst area of Corona?? WTF are they thinking. For that kind of money you can drive over to Eastvale and get a brand new, huge home in a much better area. It's just amazing that these types of listings are still around.

It does have one thing going for it. It's only about 100 yards away from Angel's strip club!








20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is Eastvale suppose to be the good part of Riverside or something?

golfer_X said...

No, Eastvale is the left armpit of Corona. However, Home gardens is the anus.

Maybe you misunderstood, when I said "a much better area" I meant a much better area than Home gardens. I did not mean that Eastvale is a great area. I can't stand it over there. All the streets are screwed up, the place still stinks to high heaven from the dairy farms and there are more foreclosures than just about anywhere in the IE (on a neighborhood basis). But it's still way better than home gardens.

Anonymous said...

For my own reasons I keep tabs on Escondido and I'm seeing the same thing. The houses that are started dropping are the burnt out hellholes that sold forty years for $60k and now some purblind lizard wants $370K for it. All these ads have one phrase in common, "AS-IS" and very few pictures (I guess that's two things). Regardless of the price now and what the "bottom" was on X date, these properties are in for the proverbial ass-whooping.

golfer_X said...

Usually those "as-is" listings are REO's. That's the give-away phrase for a foreclosure listing. That and the one out of focus picture of the front of the house

Anonymous said...

Golferx-

Eastvale is not the armpit of Corona. It's not even in Corona. Its just north of Norco.

It's a wonderful area to live in and yes I live there. I bought way back in 2001. I have great neighbors, a huge back yard and new Carl's Jr. to boot. And all for the low, low price of 200K.

PS.

And the cows and the flies aren't too bad.

golfer_X said...

I know Eastvale is north of Norco, but the address is still Corona. Just like Angels Strip Club, it's South of the 91 but the address is Norco. That whole area is screwed up. It makes me dizzy......

$200K is a decent price for Eastvale. In another year or 2 most of those new homes will probably be around that. Who, you trying to kid, the flies are terrible over there, I used to work in that area.

Anonymous said...

So what are the good parts of Corona? Are there any?

Tyrone said...

...and new Carl's Jr. to boot.

Good god! Isn't this just the fat ass thing to say. People value their homes due to close proximity to fast food?? Personally, I would prefer to be near a state or county park; heck, even a long trail would be an attractive feature--but fast food??? It's a messed up world we live in.

p.s. Perhaps there is something wrong with me since I run, hike, bike, or work-out ~5 times per week.

Anonymous said...

Maybe they really meant 45k

Anonymous said...

I like Eastvale, it's "only" 20 miles from Walnut, Diamond Bar, Rowland Heights. I mostly hang out there as there is NOTHING to do in IE. The only thing that's keeping Eastvale down is the darn smell and flies! Anybody who says the smell and flies don't mater is kidding himself. The wind isn't too helpful either.

Anonymous said...

Hey Fred, how big is the house you bought for 200k? More than 3000 sf?

Golfer_x: I think you're exaggerating just a bit on the "most homes will be ~200k in 2 years (in Eastvale)" part. I don't see the >3500sf. homes falling beneath 350k when the crash reaches the bottom.

Anonymous said...

I live in Eastvale. I moved here from Lubbock, Texas last summer. So if anyone has experience with what a real armpit locale might be, it would be me. I've also lived in Lincoln, Nebraska and Columbus, Mississippi, so I think I have this market cornered.

That said, Eastvale is fine. I like the cows. Yes, there's a little smell sometimes but they were here first, so they have more right to complain about the car exhaust than we have to complain about their exhaust.

Eastvale is just another suburban bedroom community, no better or worse than any other. And my actual mailing address is Mira Loma, not Corona.

I'm planing to move from here when my lease is up, but not because of smell or flies or anything else any of you have mentioned. I just don't like paying 40% of my net salary for an apartment. I plan to move somewhere where I'll be paying only twice what I paid in Texas rather than three times as much. With all the flippers trying to rent, I'm sure I'll be able to do much better and much closer to work.

golfer_X said...

Yes, I am exaggerating a bit I think. most of the homes over there are large and will probably not fall quite that far. BUT you never know. If you would have asked me 6 months ago, When will homes in Corona be $100/sf?" I would probably have said never. But I found a few last night that were right around $100/sf (one was $99/sf). There are already homes in Perris and San Jacinto down below $90/sf. How long before Corona starts seeing that? Will it end there. I dunno, this is happening far quicker and harder than I ever thought it would.

I think the $3500 sf homes will selling in the high $200s at the bottom in the average areas. Norco hills, The Rereat, Dos Lagos will be higher but I think Eastvale will go under $300k.

Anonymous said...

How about looking at Palm Springs in a future post? I'm intrigued by the place, and if I buy anything in California (and who the heck knows how long I'll stay here; this is the 9th state I've lived in) I think it'll be in Palm Springs. I always said I wanted a modest house with a really nice pool and that seems very possible to do in Palm Springs, especially after prices drop just a little farther.

Of course, the commute to Ontario would kill me.

Anonymous said...

3500sf homes in Eastvale will not go under 350k at the bottom. Time will prove me right, or wrong, but I've made my call.

golfer_X said...

Briar

Palm Springs? Are you nutz. That place is a friggin furnace from May thru October. If you like golf and have a home on one of the better courses (La Quinta, PGA West etc) then it's nice. Otherwise it's just a blazing hot wasteland. Not that the IE is the coolest place on the planet but add another 10 or 15 degrees for PS.

Anonymous said...

Palm Springs furnace.

As long as I have a pool, i'm fine with the summer temps.
It's humidity I hate. I grew up near the chesapeake bay and lived in Mississippi. I HATE humidity! Hate it, hate it, hate it.

Anonymous said...

"Good god! Isn't this just the fat ass thing to say."

BTW-I was being sarcastic. On the 5th day of your workout, try Yoga instead to mellow out a bit.

golfer_X said...

I'm working out tonight with a wee glass of Glenfiddich single malt (not my favorite, but it will do). Back to my 2oz curls.....

Anonymous said...

Home Gardens makes Lennox look like a safe neighborhood. The only way they could fix Home Gardens is to flatten the whole place down and start over. Every house there has illegal additions with at least four families to a plot. I don't think the term armpit is proper. I think the correct term is $hithole. It is so bad that even the local church was robbed. Pipebombs at the Am/Pm, gas stations robbed every few months, cars broken into everynight, grafiti everywhere. And they want how much for that POS.

But don't worry, there is a Carl's Jr close by and a Lowes, so maybe it is worth over 400,000. Some greater fool will be lead to the slaughter.