What I saw on today's Studio City Realtor caravan

Today, I saw some pretty interesting things on the Realtor caravan, in addition to three homes for sale in Studio City.

The first home I saw is way up in the hills, on Wrightwood.  It's about $2.5 million.  As you can see, it's all about the view -- that's Universal City in the distance.  The house was nice, too; built in the 1960's, lots of high ceilings, redone kitchen and baths, etc.  But the pool and view is certainly the best part.

The next noteworthy item is this very whimsical front yard, on Alta Mesa.  As you see, not all homes in the Studio City and Hollywood Hills are modernist semi-masterpieces.  It may not be visible in this pic, but the yard contains statues or plaques of Jesus, Mary, Joseph, an angel, a scarecrow, lots of butterfles and a hula girl, in addition to lots of flowers. It is very pretty in a really different way.

And finally, here's a kitchen with all-steel countertops.  This is in a nice home on Bloomfield.  I am seeing steel being used more and more for kitchens.  Think about this if you're planning to remodel your kitchen any time soon -- this is the latest thing, and granite countertops are looking a bit dated already, believe it or not.

Why foreclosure reform might be a good thing

This property is 10633 Chiquita in the Universal City area of Toluca Lake.  I sold this to Carlos and Elaine back in 2007 for $867k.  It had been extensively remodeled and was gorgeous.  Unfortunately, Carlos and Elaine fell on hard times (didn't everybody?) and attempted to modify their loan last year.  RCS, the servicer, gave them the run-around.  At the beginning of this year, just as the owners began to consider the short sale process, the lien holders foreclosed on the owners.

And then turned around and sold it to an investor for $440,000, stating that it was a 2+1 instead of a 3+3.

But somehow, before that, RCS couldn't be bothered to reduce the interest rate for Carlos and Elaine even a little bit, let alone write down principal.  Or give them time to short sale it.

Why not? If the lien holders were willing to take such a big hit, for way under market value, why couldn't they modify the original loan? Your guess is as good as mine.

Something is really, really wrong here.

By the way, the house is back on the market now in the mid-$500's and the listing agent (and I) think it will go for the mid-$600's.  That's a tidy little profit for the current owner.

Universal City expansion: necessary for growth or traffic nightmare?

Update 11/10/10: the terrific Burbank, CA blog has a great post about this. As you may know, Universal City plans to expand by adding more buildings to its lot.  This includes almost 3,000 housing units.  Here's the article about the environmental impact report from today's L.A. Times.  Some of the more interesting items in the article with my comments in color:

"The 39,000-page report identified noise and solid waste removal during the construction process as the primary negative effects of the development. " Hmm, since construction is slated to go on for twenty years...

"Our principal concern continues to be traffic," said Daniel Savage, president of the local residents group Hollywood Knolls Community Club. "Especially traffic driven by the apartments on the back lot." I'm with you, Daniel.  Traffic comes to a standstill on Barham on a regular basis.

"About half the $100 million would be spent on improving traffic flow on nearby streets and intersections, which would have to handle an additional 2,750 car trips each afternoon.  That's similar to the traffic generated by a regional shopping center (italics mine), said Patrick Gibson, a traffic consultant for NBC Universal. Mitigation measures such as street widening would ease the flow at most intersections, though Lankershim would remain a bottleneck where it is flanked by the subway on one side and an office tower on the other." Yes, that's similar to a regional shopping center -- especially on those days when all 2,750 cars try to get into the Costco lot between 6:05 pm and 6:15 pm.

I just don't see that traffic won't be a nightmare.  I also don't see that the area needs another 3,000 housing units.

14 Reasons why the San Fernando Valley and L.A. are superior to San Francisco and the SF peninsula

I just spent a weekend in Palo Alto and San Francisco visiting my in-laws. Yes, everybody loves San Francisco with its big-city vibe and 20 kinds of olive oil, blah, blah blah, big vacation destination, etc. But really, I missed our land and think we have it all over the SF Bay Area. Here's why.

1. We have more homes for sale. Many more. (Had to get that search term in there, but it's true.)
2. We have Universal City and Disneyland. They have Pier 39. Please.
3. We have less traffic. Really.
4. They have Stanford. We have UCLA, USC and Makeup Art Designory.
5. There, everybody wears hoodies and looks like the Unibomber. We have Aloha shirts and fat kids in baggy, calf-length shorts. Way more cheerful!
6. We have more tattoos and piercings.
7. We have Zankou Chicken.
8. Many of us can see a Costco or Target from our houses. What can they see? The Golden Gate Bridge, maybe? Meh.
9. We have more parking. You can actually turn your car off close to your house here.
10. Housing costs less here.
11. We have more Armenians, and more of every other ethnic group, too. Except maybe Chinese.
12. We have the Lakers. (We'll leave the Dodgers v. Giants argument for another time.)
13. We have The Arclight(s).
14. They have upscale shopping in Union Square and Stanford Shopping Center. We have upscale AND downscale shopping everywhere.

So let's stop with the inferiority complex, folks, and learn to appreciate where we live!