It’s finally Spring….the rain or what we had of it has for the most part come and gone, and we now we enjoy the full bloom of our incredible landscaping and trees that populate Bel Air Crest — we are so fortunate to have these gifts that truly enhance our neighborhood. How lucky are all are too live here!
We have seen so many changes over the years at Bel Air Crest since its ‘founding’ in 1990. It is hard to believe we are entering our 22nd year as a community. When I moved to Bel Air Crest in 1991, it was acommunity of “pioneers” — as we referred to ourselves. Our association meetings were raucous affairs. Homeowners were constantly fighting with the developer over ‘this and that’, and shouting matches occurred often, making the evenings long and exhausting. And having been on the association board for the past 20 years, we fortunately have gotten past those challenging times, and we no longer call ourselves pioneers. Today, Bel Air Crest is a fully mature community with a very diverse group of homeowners from all walks of life who have, for the most part, treated their Bel Air Crest home as their castle. Today, people drive up to their home, open their garage door, drive in and disappear. Like many of us in these challenging times, it’s a wonderful pleasure to live in such a beautiful community and, yes, pull up the drawbridge to recharge our batteries. Yes, Bel Air Crest is older….a bit more gentrified, if you can call us that
As you may know, myself along with a number of other BAC residents and Rick Cole have been working on helping get the community ready for a catastrophic emergency, i.e. fire, earthquake. We have been working very hard to not only make sure the community is ready, but to also assist in educating our residents on how to take care of themselves. All of the experts tell us that every resident in the City should be prepared to take care of themselves and their families for 4- 7 days. It is for that reason we are sponsoring an Emergency Preparedness Fair at the club house on Sunday April 29 from 11 am – 1 pm. We will have a number of suppliers available for you to either purchase some supplies or arrange for services such as a gas shut off valve or a handyman to make sure that your big pieces of furniture or electronics are properly attached to the wall. We will also have some food and games for the kids. If you have any friends or relatives who you think would benefit from joining us, please invite them as well.
So, to answer that question that I get asked on a regular basis, what is happening with real estate and in Bel Air Crest specifically? We have had a fairly active quarter. It is interesting to note how things change in that there are times when we have only one or two Custom homes on the market vs. a much higher number of Canyon homes, and at this point we have only one Canyon home on the market and eight Custom homes on the market. Last year for the same quarter, there were five Canyon homes listed for sale, 1 Custom lot, and three Custom homes. There were four homes in escrow, three Canyon and one Custom, and two closed escrows, both Canyon. There are a number of reasons as to the higher than normal Custom homes on the market and they range from the passing away of one of our long time residents to residents purchasing smaller homes because their family size has changed, and in some cases, they are purchasing bigger homes. As in any area the reasons vary. I have not seen or heard of anyone leaving because of the freeway construction taking place around us. If you own a custom home and would entertain doing a lease option, please let me know as I have a client that is not in the position to buy today, but most likely would be in about 6 – 8 months and would like to lease a home while they are putting their finances together. They are ready to move as their current lease is up at the end of Apri. I am still meeting people who have lived in Los Angeles for a number of years, who are coming to the community for the first time, and loving what they see. I also have clients for the area who live in other parts of the city, and have kids who will be attending schools nearby and want to relocate to be closer to the schools. The reasons to live in Bel Air Crest are still very compelling.
As always if you have or know of anyone with any real estate needs, please do not hesitate to give me a call. In the meantime, I will see you around and please do join us on the 29th. (RSVP is necessary).
Carole
