One of the few great things about watching Laguna Beach was looking at the house Kristin Cavallari lived in while she was in high school. Yes, I watched Laguna Beach. My hatred for all things Hills came post Laguna Beach. I think two years was plenty to spend with that cast and did not need to follow them for the rest of their lives. I think the same thoughts about Jersey Shore. What is borderline sad right now with all the clubbing and smushing and no other existence in life is going to seem really bad when each of the guys is 45 and still trying to only date women in their teens. Anyway, Kristin's parents' place was incredible. I hope she has lots of memories and some clips from the show, because her parents had it foreclosed on and then sold at public auction last month when they could not pay their mortgage. According to TMZ, her parents still owed over $7.5M even after living there for such a long time. When it was sold at auction it only sold for $6.1M so you can see how much the housing market has collapsed here even for places right on the beach.
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ReplyDeleteI never watched that show. The house in this photo is spectacular, though. So pretty!
ReplyDeleteI would love that home.
ReplyDeleteThat house is gorgeous. I wonder what the story is there. Were they living beyond their means and remortgaging the house for liquidity?
ReplyDeleteI watched Laguna Beach and agree, the show should have stopped there. That house was amazing.
ReplyDeleteWas this their house in season 2? Because I only watched season 1, and I remember her house being a tiny little thing that was not on the beach.
ReplyDeleteNo one is safe from this horrible economy. It's such a beautiful home. It must have been tough for them to let go of it.
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ReplyDeleteHere are more pictures of the home
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ocregister.com/articles/home-346731-beach-records.html?pic=2
Kristin's house was not a dump. This is Kristin's house. If you watch the first 5 minutes of Season 2 she walks through the entire house while narrating.
ReplyDeleteSeason 1 was when Lauren's dad was having their house build. He and Kristin's dad were very competitive. So Kristin's dad bought his own multi-million dollar home in between the seasons. This would be it. Also probably why they could not sustain the payments.
@Gin Royal - Thank-you for correcting yourself and reposting after calling the house a "dump". smh research should always come before the snark.
ReplyDeleteThis has NOTHING to do with people "not being safe from the economy". It has everything to do with them borrowing way too much against the house. Usually is called greed, and it got the best of them.
ReplyDeleteagree with @whocaresnow you can only keep up with the jonses for so long. People using their homes as personal piggy banks is never a good idea.
ReplyDelete@crila - they didn't let go of the house. It was taken from them by the bank. We all forget that until you pay off the mortgage, you don't really own your house. You are just borrowing it, and it can be taken from you if you don't adhere to the loan terms. You don't have a right to a house that you haven't paid for.
ReplyDeleteEspecially true in Orange County (where I grew up). There is such intense pressure to keep up with the joneses there that you wear all of your wealth on your exterior - your house, car, clothes. People borrow outrageous amounts to show that they are wealthy, and then -- when the economy takes a downturn or something topples their house of cards -- it all disappears. Many of my classmates have worse lifestyles than the upper middle class ones they grew up with, because they can't afford it and their parents were mortgaged up the ying yang so they can't inherit it. So sad and so ridiculous.
@seachica, that happens in all kinds of places. I live in the South where housing prices are a fraction of what they are in California (especially high-income areas like Orange County). Even so, real estate prices have taken a real beating here, too. However, keeping up with the Joneses is alive and well here, too. Middle aged people are living large on the surface, but paycheck to paycheck in reality. One serious accident or significant illness and they would lose it all. Now that their children are grown and getting married, they think their "starter home" should be some magnificent house like they lived in while they were kids. They are truly mystified that banks aren't just handing them bags of money to finance the lifestyle that they feel "entitled" to have. Their parents raised them to believe that all they had to do was want something and it would be handed to them. An entire generation of young adults are feeling the cold, hard reality of the bad decisions their parents made, and in many cases, are still making.
ReplyDeletewow. That is a beautiful house.
ReplyDeleteAlso, with the current federal restrictions on foreclosure the odds are they didn't make a single payment on that house for the past 2 years. It pretty common in the REO market.
ReplyDelete@RJ - I lived in the south (Atlanta) for 8 years, have lived in the Midwest and New England, and am now in the Pacific NW. I have *never* seen it as bad as in Orange County. The culture there attributes your social value to what car you drive and the size of your house, so people do anything to make sure those are good. They will live like paupers, just so they can drive a BMW. It's hard to explain, but they just take it to another level entirely. I blame it on the proximity of the film industry. Everyone is looking to make a big score with a script or film idea or reality show, and big bucks success is always just around the corner, if only they can impress person A or B. And there's so much pressure to look like a movie star, even if you're an accountant or office manager. It's just severely screwed up.
ReplyDeleteOh dear jeebus, OC is hardly that bad. A majority of it is rather normal. Also, blaming the entertainment industry? Really? That's a huge cop out. Most projects aren't even shot in LA. As for appearances......it's like you got all of your information from watching The Real Housewives of OC or Beverly Hills. It hardly depicts the reality of living here or working in the entertainment industry.
ReplyDeleteI can't describe how much I hate the term "starter home."
ReplyDeleteDon't borrow against your equity, folks! Of the people I know who lost their houses the last few years, 100 percent of them had taken out loans against their equity until they were completely fucked. Don't touch that money!
ReplyDeleteanita_mark, I'm not crazy about the term either, but it was the best one to use for the situation and the people I was describing.
ReplyDeleteThink you are confused Enty, Kristin lived in a really normal, average, house compared to the rest of the gang. Lauren had the huge gorgeous house and her parents sold it and built a palace practically. Kristen's always looked... pretty run-down in comparison.
ReplyDeleteBut didn't her dad get in trouble for financial scams a couple years ago?
Is that a waterfall cascading from the veranda?
ReplyDeleteYou bought this house for me, Enty. Right?
You dollbaby, you.
Speaking of chemically assisted weight loss, here's a story about Kristina Caravaggio or whatever her name was. Thin girl. Really hyped up a lot. Kind of sweaty and nervous and jittery. Emotional jags. Hmm.
ReplyDeletei'm sure it was financially to their advantage to let the house go. in california the bank can't come after you for the difference between what you owe, and whatthe house goes for at auction. my kids have some friends who's parents don't work. dad's family started some mega-business, so they get a check every month for doing nothing. anyway, they had a HUGE mansion and then when the market tanked they decided to stop paying because it wasn't "smart". the one kid was very up front about saying they planned to atay in the house until the bank kicked them out. (all the while paying zero rent). they were there almost 2 years. they rent now in another school district, but it does not seem to have affected them, the 10 year old texted my kids on her new iphone last week with details.
ReplyDeleteAnita_Mark said :I can't describe how much I hate the term "starter home."
ReplyDeleteTOTALLY, right?!
I've just begun to watch Real Housewives of New Jersey (haha dont judge) on dvd and Teresa G. (the one with the odd Sesame Street Count's hair line) said in the first episode that she was having her house built because "living in a house somebody else's family owned was disgusting"
Do i blame Wall Street and big banks for our recession? Hell yeah. But it's people like these that really do personify corrupt greed.
@RJ, I totally got the impression that expression annoyed you too.
ReplyDeleteKristin's dad moved into this house post Laguna Beach. During the series Kristin lived in a more modest house. Lauren's house was the big hollywood mansion-esque one.
ReplyDeleteStarter house.. GAH!
ReplyDeleteWhy not call it what it is, the house you could afford at the time, or better yet, your home. And when you sell and buy another home, you can call that "My new home"
The best finacial decision hubby and I ever made.. not becoming house poor. By the time we pay it off, all of the kids will be out of school and we can focus on where we really want to live!
I find the O.C. to be pretty normal of higher income cities in California. I lived there for one year with my cousin while he was in college. Pretty cool place.
ReplyDeleteAs for the house, very often when you see 800k+ homes in the bay area foreclosed on, there is usually a strategic financial move behind it. My sister and my cousin are both going through this. The fact is the value of their homes isn't nearly close to what they are paying, so they tried to restructure their loans. One is BOFA and the other ING. Neither bank was willing to modify, so they both stopped paying. ING forclosed and "sold" the home within two months. The money my cousin is saving by not paying her mortgage, she went and got lawyers who slapped ING with unlawful retainer. My cousin is most likely gonna get to stay in her home for the next 2 years payment free or so while in litigation with the result most likely being her being able to buy her home for less than what ING would have been paid if they just re-modified. My sister hasn't heard from BOFA in about 6 months. Neither is broke or poor, but are doing it to strategically pay what the house is worth. So for-closed doesn't always equal broke.
@2:01 UGH! That is why this country is in shambles (financially). People can be so f'in entitled.
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying that it's expected or anything...but couldn't Jay Cutler have helped him out?
ReplyDeleteNot at all. Nothing to do with entitlement.
ReplyDeleteAllow me to explain:
The fact is AIG and other brokers were banking on mortgages failing. They saw the trend in numbers and increased loans to people who A.) Couldn't afford it or B.) Didn't read the fine print i.e. - Interest only loans on Jumbo Sub-Primes. So when these people defaulted, it kick started a whole trend. At the end of that trend is where we are: Properties that were purchased at fair market value that are now under water because other people got duped by unscrupulous banks. The fact that BOFA hasn't even gotten around to my sister after 6 months should show you at what rate these foreclosures are moving and how many of them BOFA alone has (obviously the purchasing of Countrywide affected their numbers since CW was a part of the "Ground Zero" group that started the bad loans and predatory lending to help bolster the hedges the brokerage firms were making on the bets against sub-prime mortgages).
If none of that makes sense, try this: You just bought a Toyota Camry for 20k. The car is worth 20, but your bank say because other people bought so many Camrys that yours is now worth 15k. Then the market says the bank lied and your Camry is only worth 3k 'cause all the people the bank gave loans to to buy Camrys have defaulted has pushed too many Camrys onto the market.
You would continue to pay your 20k loan knowing your Camry is only worth 3k? I think you'd dump the car. And I wouldn't say you were entitled.
@3:10--Oh, I get it and apologize for sounding callous. I've known too many people who have just walked away because "their house wasn't worth what they paid for it." Different situations.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I don't remember this house on Laguna Beach. I remembered Lauren's parents incredible house.
http://www.casasugar.com/Lauren-Conrad-Parents-Home-Goes-Market-1704643
@Seachica, I am totally with you on this one.
ReplyDeleteI grew up on the east coast and moved to Laguna Beach in my late teens. Of course people wanted cool new things when I lived in MD, but it was out of control in CA. I like nice things, but I never felt compelled to have them. I was blown away by people (new friends, acquaintances, co-workers, even strangers) asking flat out 'what kind of phone do you have?', 'what kind of car do you drive?', etc...
People would not say 'car' and would correct me if I said it. If we were going somewhere and wanted to carpool I would ask, "Your car or mine?" They'd say, "We'll take the Camaro" or "Yes, the BMW"... I was driving the same car I'd had since high school so I never had to drive anywhere because none of my CA friends wanted to be seen in it :)
And the people I was hanging out with were not poor, but definitely not wealthy. I hung out with people from all walks of life, but could always tell if they had been born and raised in SoCal. It's just that appearances matter so much there. And IT IS the proximity to the entertainment business, @whocaresnow12. Even if the individual is not trying to get into the entertainment industry they want to catch the eye of someone who is. That's not to say that Orange County can't also be amazing (trust me, I love it there despite its quirks and starfuckers), but it is totally different from most of the U.S. (in the best and worst ways)
Nice house. Home buyers should be well aware of what they can afford before they buy. It's just logical !
ReplyDeleteI feel a lot less sympathy for people who live above their means than people who live within their means and still lose everything. I used to live in LA and the whole materialistic attitude made me sick. I loved LA for other reasons though. I'm happy to live in the rural countryside now. Where I live now, character is worth more than your "stuff".
ReplyDeleteI lived in Northern Cali for 6 months, a decade ago, and I was shocked at how concerned everyone was with wealth. Everything I've heard says it's even worse in the South. I worked shipping stuff for the Crate & Barrel bridal registry, and the amount spent on California weddings was astronomically larger than anywhere else, even NYC.
ReplyDeleteOh, and this house, and in particular, it's location, is frikkin' gorgeous, and I'd be seriously tempted to try to live there too, whether or not I could afford it.
ReplyDeleteAm I the only one who can only look at gorgeous, ridiculously huge mansions for a little while because I physically ache with wanting ???Seriously, I want to know.
ReplyDeleteI definitely remember this house and the views. At one point during the real estate bubble it was valued at $16mil. Wonder what kind of screwy loan her dad had?
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything trogdor said, but I definitely think people do tend to live well above their means. The house we just bought last year was in foreclosure & we got a sweet deal on it. The previous owners could not keep up with the payments, as they owned 3-4 other houses?!