Many years ago, we purchased a home in Carlsbad, using a realtor that was recommended to us - Jim Klinge. Fast forward to 2025, we recently had the privilege of selling 2 homes in Carlsbad, CA and didn't hesitate to reach out to Jim and Donna Klinge of Klinge Realty Group to guide us through the sales. The transactions were very different, each with its own unique situation, opportunities and challenges. From start to finish, Donna and Jim helped navigate the pre-sale preparation, the listing, showing of the house, buyer negotiations, the final close and all of the paperwork and decisions in between. What stands out with both transactions is the professionalism of Jim and Donna (and their team), wonderful communication (timely, relevant, concise), their deep understanding of market dynamics (setting realistic expectations), their access to top-notch contractors, and last, their ability to guide us across the finish line successfully. We wouldn't hesitate to use Jim and Donna in the future and highly recommend them for anyone looking to buy or sell a property in North San Diego County.
Give it up Jim, you will never convince them it was really a finance bubble, not so much a housing bubble.
Crazy financing was the fuel.
Today’s fixed rates were the teaser rates on the bubble-era ARMs. But Wall Street made a bundle!
Also you had “no-down no-doc” loans used to buy new homes, I even saw 125% loans with no doc’s.
It was truly a crazy time.
So is this bubble just a different kind of financing bubble? If the 30 year now is the same rate as the neg-am 3/1 from back in the day? It is just a bubble from the mountaintop as opposed to the back alley.
Big difference of course is nobody is going to get jammed on rate reset etc… if they pick the 30 year. These rates are being held low so the millennials can get off their hipster asses and buy a house at crazy low fixed rates. Of course they are different than generations before them… they aren’t going to marry and have kids and want them to grow up in a house and go to school…. sure, right, whatever.
Don’t forget that the manipulation has simply moved from the front end (getting a loan) to the back end (not foreclosing).
I still remember a mortgage broker calling me on the phone back then. She offered me $5K if I would get a “negative-arm” mortgage with her. She told me the best part of choosing that kind of mortgage would be some months I didn’t have to pay the full monthly mortgage amount if “there were other bills”. I declined.
Another mortgage broker was with Countrywide. We had (heated) discussions about the “Tan Man”. She insisted he wasn’t doing anything illegal and in fact, was her mentor. She raved about the guy! Once in a while I still think of her and wonder if she ever changed her mind — especially when she no longer had a job…
Some Countrywide loan reps were making $1,000,000+ per year – that’s a lot of cake!
Does any one still have one of those country fried option arms? Didn’t they all explode?
“…when the Tan Man was pushing exploding ARMs”
Jim!
You almost rapped!
Ask Kayla. She’ll back me up.
Since we’ve had such a nice influx of immigration the last 10 years, I think the next ten will be the landlord decade. Housing prices will remain steady up with interest rate increases and lack of “affordable housing,” will be punching up the rents nicely.
Maybe I am not remembering correctly but I seem to recall that the biggest culprit in the bubble meltdown was the no-doc stated income loans, where the borrower got into trouble well before the loan “re-set” or “re-cast” because they simply lied about their income level. Whether it was a 3/1 or 5/1 ARM or a HELOC on a previously-owned property to pull equity, the issue was servicing the loan right out of the gate because the stated income was BS. In fact, most of these loans ultimately adjusted to a rate based on the LIBOR, which plunged and actually resulted in a decreased monthly payment. But I think a lot of the loans were already bad by that time, and well before the interest-only period expired.
We obviously have a completely different environment today. Yes, I think values are higher in part due to lower interest rates, but that in and of itself does not scream “bubble” to me. To suggest that values are impacted by prevailing interest rates is – well, can’t you say that about any time in history?
JtR:
I dated a woman, who had intimate knowledge of the corporate financials of Countryfried during its heyday. The only thing TanMan wanted to know at their weekly meetings, was how much company stock could the family liquidate.
PS It just so happens that some of her education took place at a certain campus Kayla would know well.
“biggest culprit in the bubble meltdown was the no-doc stated income loans”
Yes I knew Realtor’s with 10 homes LOL.
It was truly crazy, yet almost no one seems to remember or will say that was the real reason LOL.
anyway IMO.
For the record, I love nicknames! From now on, it’s “Countryfried”. I’m shocked I’ve never heard that one before…
The three Cs all matter: credit, collateral, capacity. The last bubble was caused by completely ignoring all 3. Haters can write whatever they want but ANYONE who has obtained a mortgage in the past few years know there is NO getting around the Cs. Period. End of story.
So guess what? That means you only need to sell your house if something catastrophic happens. Interest rates go up? Oh well, you can stay in your house. Prices drop? Oh well, stick around and wait for inflation – your mortgage is fixed. So whatever bubble we might have is being fueled by people who can make their payments every. single. month. And since everyone needs a roof over their head? Guess what: no one is selling and no one is foreclosing (except the usual rate of divorce / job loss). That’s not exactly the definition of bubble.
Look to other industries (auto) for people ignoring the Cs. It’s not housing.