Check YouTube or www.stearnslending .com for a painfully funny reminder of the housing bravura in OC’s recent past. The video by mortgage lender Glenn Stearns shows him jousting with three bullish industry reps on a May 2005 episode of KOCE’s “Real Orange.” While the others tell host Ed Arnold to “buy all the real estate you can” and “we are in for an absolutely phenomenal four or five years,” Stearns warns prophetically, “The bubble …
is going to burst.” He predicts widespread foreclosures and advises homebuyers, “Don’t overextend yourself.” That foresight, combined with some luck, has benefited his Santa Ana-based Stearns Lending. He says he unloaded his portfolio of Alt-A “liar” loans just days before that market imploded in late 2007 and focused his efforts on dull but safe FHA loans. Still, Stearns says he would have failed, too, without the recent federal bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. His payroll has rebounded to about 400, the same as in 2005. “It would feel better if there were more people to celebrate with,” says Stearns …
You didn’t expect a nasty fall to keep the General down, did you? “You’re surprised to see I’m alive,” quipped William Lyon, flashing a smile, looking dapper and holding court at a New Majority event at the Pacific Club, two months after he collapsed from an irregular heartbeat while speaking at a fundraiser …
The New York Post reports that Broadcom cofounder Henry Samueli is asking $28.5 million for his Gulfstream jet …
OC Sheriff Sandra Hutchens’ Thursday campaign kickoff ($250 a ticket) is a bipartisan affair. The 22-person host committee includes Republicans Mimi Walters, Dale Dykema and Lucy Dunn and Democrats Wylie Aitken, Frank Barbaro and Ruben Smith. Paul and Hadi Makarechian, who reportedly had their Mike Carona-issued volunteer badges recalled by Hutchens, are throwing the event at their St. Regis Monarch Beach …
The OCBJ-CalCPA CFO of the Year Awards dinner drew 500 …
Tour de force: Danny Scheie in the title role in Amy Freed’s romp, “You, Nero” through Sunday at South Coast Rep …
Former OC supe/assemblyman Bruce Nestande’s son Brian is a newly elected assemblyman in the Inland Empire …
In town: Provocative Harvard Law Prof Lani Guinier, Bill Clinton’s ill-fated pick to head the Civil Rights Division, speaking Thursday at UCI’s Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium …
Tech Cows? Tim Cooley-business consultant, community cheerleader, EE RR buddy and coiner of “Tech Coast” to describe OC’s tech industries-is going home. He’s been named economic development director for Madison, Wis., where he grew up and graduated from U of Wisconsin, and where his mom still lives. Cooley kids that he’s already getting results: Forbes just named Madison the best place to find a job. “It’s been an incredible ride being part of Orange County’s and Southern California’s growth over the past couple of decades,” says Cooley. And a parting shot: “El Toro would make a great airport.”
