Approaching by foot from the south

There were maybe six potential buyers hanging out in the sales office talking to salesmen. We went to see if there were models we could inconspicuously walk in and look at. There weren't, although one salesman did say that interested parties could be taken out to units under construction. Later we saw one salesman and a couple walking toward some of these units, all wearing hard hats.

Inside the community

I looked around in the sales office and found the infamous Centex coloring book*. I really wanted to get a copy of that coloring book to scan it and post it here, but that would have required that I talk to a salesman and ask for one, and I didn't really think it was fair to occupy a salesman's time when I wasn't there as a truly interested buyer. I was also disappointed that there was little in the way of useful literature available about HOA dues and other expenses.

Centex is having an Affordability Days promotion right now. This is an example of the mortgage terms they are offering - $3,120 a month on a high-end Fusion home. I am no financial wizard. It looks waaaaay too complicated for my taste, and I don't like prepayment penalties at all. Why all the complication? A fixed rate 150 year mortgage would be easier to understand than this gobbledygook! Show me a table of what my payment, principal, and interest are for the next umpteen years, that's what I want to see.

6 - 6.875% / 7.453% APR: Payment fixed for 5 years, based on a purchase price of $723,231 with ZERO DOWN PAYMENT, first five years monthly mortgage payment on the 1st TD fixed ($578,584), interest only at a rate of 3.875% and a note rate of 6.875% APR of 7.453%. The loan allows for buyer to defer 3% of the interest due each year for 5 years and apply it to the principal balance. Monthly payments of $3,120 fixed for the first 5 years – does not include taxes, insurance or HOA dues. After 5 years rate adjusted to fully indexed rate of a 2.25% margin over the monthly Libor Index, currently at 5.542% amortized over the remaining 25 years. Life cap of 11.875% and adjustment caps of 5/1/1. The 1st has a prepayment penalty for 3 yrs, a 1% origination fee. The 2nd TD($144,647) is at 10.375%, APR 10.872 fixed for 25 years, interest only payments for 10 yrs at 1% origination fee and one year prepayment penalty. To qualify for this program buyer must have a FICO score of 720+ on full income documentation.

Is this some kind of joke? Do people really finance their homes with terms like this? Why is this legal still?

When I studied the Centex complex, the units, and then the pictures I took, I decided it wasn't the colors that made the place seem drab to me, it was the architecture. The Centex complex strikes me as very "institutional" looking, with the units looking almost like the city tenements of 80-100 years ago.

Fusion at Hawthorne, south side

If that is true, Centex is not by any means the only builder guilty of building bleak-looking places. Here is a photo of a property on the corner of Manhattan Beach Blvd and Blossom Lane, which Bruce thought had a Fusionesque feel to it.

Fusion Forerunner in Redondo

I had noticed similar "institutional" design condos going up near Blossom and Ripley earlier this year. The condo being built in the photo below sort of reminded me of the jail that Clint Eastwood sprang Gian Maria Volante out of in that old spaghetti western. My own opinion is that this condo looks a bit brighter and perhaps more stylish (thanks to the stonework) than the condos in the previous photos, but institutional-looking nonetheless.

21st Century Nouveau Southwest Jail Cell?

* - The Centex coloring book is a coloring book for kiddies to get them pumped up about moving into a new house where they can color their new room! A gimmick to put yet more pressure on Mom and Dad to take the plunge.