Title
The Forbes Group
Subscribe
Like what you're reading? 
Subscribe now to our RSS feed.
Categories
- Los Angeles Rich History
- Los Angeles Schools
- Hidden Gems: Los Angeles to the SouthBay
- Weekend Gettaways
- Money Matters
- The World of Design
- Communities
- Market Trends
- buyers
- sellers
- South Bay Listings
- Westside Listings
- Farmers Markets
Archives
Archive for April, 2010
Venice Art Walk: Art and Architecture Tour
Rustic Canyon: The Sequel
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Sponsored by DWELL
Picking up where last year’s historic walking tour left off, Leo Marmol, FAIA, takes visitors deeper into this architecturally bountiful neighborhood, stopping to tour a fresh collection of homes representing the old and the new.
Hours: 11:00 am to 4:00 pm
Registration: 10:30 am, Rustic Canyon Community Center, 601 Latimer Road, Santa Monica, free parking
Tickets: $175 per person, includes lunch, as well as private cocktail reception and tour preview led by architect Leo Marmol and historian Randy Young on Friday evening, May 21, at Marmol Radziner offices in West L.A. and VIP cocktail reception at Dogtown Station Lofts in Venice on Saturday evening, May 22. Tickets extremely limited and must be purchased in advance. Ticket buyers will receive confirmation prior to May 22.
www.abramsonteiger.com
www.tighearchitecture.com
www.trashforteaching.org
www.graymatterarchitecture.com
www.graymatterarchitecture.com
www.husseyrealestategroup.com www.700kingman.com
www.marmol-radziner.com
http://www.kappedu.com/RayKappe.html
Note: This is a walking tour of approximately two miles with visits to homes with many stairs. Guests are advised to wear comfortable shoes and clothing.Click here to purchase tickets.
Los Angeles Public School Rankings
Does Not include Santa Monica, Manhattan Beach, Culver City, and Beverly Hills as they their own are City
The median API score reports the 2008 test results posted by the school that falls exactly in the middle of the pack. California’s Academic Performance Index (API) combines several tests into a single number between 200 and 1000 for each school. The tests that make up the API and their weighting are listed on the California Department of Education website.
In 2008, the average score statewide was 742. The state’s goal is for every school to reach 800.
Source: U.S. Census 2000, California Department of Education
Credits: Robert Browning, Stephanie Ferrell, Megan Garvey, Mark Hafer, Thomas Suh Lauder, David Lauter, Maloy Moore, Sandra Poindexter, Doug Smith, Ben Welsh
State’s Home Default Cases Plunge
A 40.2% drop in the first quarter suggests that the foreclosure crisis is easing.
April 21, 2010 Alejandro Lazo Copyright 2010 Los Angeles Times
The California foreclosure crisis appears to be abating, new data show, as the federal government and big lenders step up efforts to keep troubled borrowers in their homes.
Mortgage default notices — the first step toward foreclosure — plunged 40.2% statewide in the first three months of the year compared with the same period in 2009, according to San Diego research firm MDA DataQuick.
Foreclosure sales dropped 1.7% from a year earlier and 16.1% from the last three months of 2009, DataQuick said Tuesday.
The numbers suggest that the housing market won’t be flooded by a fresh wave of bank repossessions, which had been seen as a major threat to the market’s recovery.
“It is surprisingly good news,” said Gerd-Ulf Krueger, principal economist at Housingecon.com. “There is still a lot of supply lurking out there, but at this point, it looks like it is pretty much under control.”
Stuart A. Gabriel, director of UCLA’s Ziman Center for Real Estate, said the declining foreclosure numbers are “consistent with a broad range of indicators that are suggestive of not only a healing economy but the beginning of healing in the housing market.”
Southern California home prices jumped 14% in March from the same month a year ago, to a median $285,000.
Even so, economists note that further gains statewide are jeopardized by continued high unemployment, particularly in the Inland Empire and the Central Valley.
Foreclosure activity remains concentrated in these inland areas, which suffer from above-average unemployment. DataQuick said mortgages were most likely to go into default in Merced, Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties. Defaults were least likely in the Bay Area counties of Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo.
“In coastal California, things are looking pretty decent,” said Richard Green, director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate. “I still think if you get into the Inland Empire, Fresno, Bakersfield, Modesto, people are really struggling because the unemployment rate is so high — so that people just need help to get out from under.”
California loan default notices peaked at 135,431 in the first quarter of 2009. Since then, the federal government has put increasing pressure on banks to work with homeowners behind on their payments. At the same time, experts say, banks have recognized that flooding the market with foreclosures weakens the value of the properties they have taken back and must resell.
Great News- Market Update-Things are continuing to improve!
From Scott Gibson
Great news-things are continuing to improve! Believe in it!
Data WatchRetail sales soared 1.6% in March To view this article, Click Here Brian S. Wesbury – Chief Economist Robert Stein, CFA – Senior Economist Date: 4/14/2010 Retail sales soared 1.6% in March while sales excluding autos gained 0.6%, both beating consensus expectations. Including upward revisions to January/February, retail sales increased 2.1% overall and 0.9% excluding autos.
In the past six months, retail sales are up at an 11.7% annual rate while sales ex-autos are up at an 8.4% rate.
Almost every major category of sales increased in March. The strongest increases were for autos, building materials, and clothing. The only one to show a decline was gas, a category usually driven by price changes, not volume.
Sales excluding autos, building materials, and gas were up 0.5% in March (0.9% with revisions) and up at a 6.7% annual rate in the past six months. This calculation is important for estimating GDP.
Implications: Today’s report should prove once and for all that the consumer is not dead, is not on life support, and certainly doesn’t need special government assistance. Including revisions to prior months, retail sales were up 2.1% in March. Some of the gain may be due to Easter, which floats from year to year, making it hard for the government to seasonally-adjust. But the underlying upward trend is unmistakable. Last summer, during cash-for-clunkers, many analysts said gains in retail were temporary. They thought consumption would slump once the incentive program ended. But retail sales are now up at an 11.7% annual rate in the past six months, after the program ended. Retail sales were up at a 7.9% annual rate in Q1 versus the Q4 average. These figures suggest “real” consumer spending, which means inflation-adjusted and including services, should be up at a 4%+ annual rate in Q1. Most importantly, the gains in sales are broadening out. For example, building materials are up in four of the last five months, a positive sign that home construction is picking up, perhaps leading to some hiring by residential builders. Consumer spending is growing for two major reasons. First, while debt is still declining, the pace of the reduction in debt is slowing. Second, incomes are growing and recovering while booming markets are boosting confidence about future income. The V-shaped recovery train has left the station. Now it’s time to sit back and watch other investors catch up. This information contains forward-looking statements about various economic trends and strategies. You are cautioned that such forward-looking statements are subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and actual results could be materially different. There are no guarantees associated with any forecast and the opinions stated here are subject to change at any time and are the opinion of the individual strategist. Data comes from the following sources: Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Federal Reserve Board, and Haver Analytics. Data is taken from sources generally believed to be reliable but no guarantee is given to its accuracy. |
Brief Window For Tax Credits
$18,000 IN COMBINED HOMEBUYER TAX CREDITS FOR A LIMITED TIME
Californians have a brief window of opportunity to receive up to $18,000 in combined federal and state homebuyer tax credits. To take advantage of both tax credits, a first-time homebuyer must enter into a purchase contract for a principal residence before May 1, 2010, and close escrow between May 1, 2010 and June 30, 2010, inclusive. Buyers who are not first-time homebuyers may use the same timeframes to receive up to $16,500 in combined tax credits if they are long-time residents of their existing homes as permitted under federal law, and they purchase properties that have never been previously occupied as provided under California law.
Under the federal law slated to soon expire, a first-time homebuyer may receive up to $8,000 in tax credits, and a long-time resident may receive up to $6,500, for certain purchase contracts entered into by April 30, 2010 that close escrow by June 30, 2010. Additionally, under a newly enacted California law, a homebuyer may receive up to $10,000 in tax credits as a first-time homebuyer or buyer of a property that has never been occupied. The new California law applies to certain purchases that close escrow on or after May 1, 2010 (see Cal. Rev. & Tax Code section 17059.1(a)(4)). California law generally allows buyers of never-occupied properties to reserve their credits before closing escrow, but buyers seeking to combine the federal and state tax credits will not be able to satisfy the timing requirements for such reservations (see Cal. Rev. & Tax Code section 17059.1(c)(1)(A)). Other terms and restrictions apply to both tax credits.
For more information, C.A.R. offers a Homebuyer Tax Credit Chart with a side-by-side summary of the federal and California laws. C.A.R. also offers a legal article entitled Homebuyer Tax Credit Update.
C.A.R. provides REALTORS® with many other legal articles covering a wide range of topics of interest. Some of the new or newly revised legal articles available at http://qa.car.org
Westside Listings
Forbes Featured Homes
South Bay Listings
Forbes Featured Homes
Sold Listings
Our Solds Since 1989
