Real estate bubble still popping

Once high-flying hard-money lender Jeffrey Lubin has filed for Chapter 7 liquidation bankruptcy. His wife Barbara joined in the filing. Her given address was on Hidden Valley Road in La Jolla, in a home worth $4 million, according to the bankruptcy filing; his stated place of residence appeard to be an office building in Mira Mesa.

The couple lists assets of $4.3 million and liabilities of $19.9 million. They say they have a combined monthly income of $19,604.85 and combined expenses of $32,454.68. That leaves a monthly net loss of almost $13,000. The $4 million La Jolla home has extensive liens against it, including sizable ones from the Internal Revenue Service and Franchise Tax Board.

Before the real estate collapse of 2007–2008, Jeffrey Lubin was riding high. Like other hard-money lenders, he was charging unusually high rates to borrowers and paying high rates — 10 to 17 percent a year — to investors. He was loaning the investors' money to developers in California, Arizona, Nevada, and other places, and keeping a profit for himself.

His company had a name that is almost sacred in San Diego: Scripps Investment & Loans.

"Investors in Bernie Madoff made out way better than Scripps investors," said one of Lubin's customers.

The bankruptcy filing says that he has raked in $60,000 in income thus far this year and took in $150,000 in each of the two previous years.