Timely Real Estate News…………………………..15 June 2010
Happy Father’s Day….. The first Father’s Day was celebrated on June 13, 1910, conceived by the efforts of Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington. But our female counterparts will be quick to point out that it was the inspiration of a ‘woman and mother’ who felt that if there were going to be a holiday to celebrate Mother’s Day, then why not one for fathers also? There are over 55 countries around the world who celebrate Father’s Day — from Serbia (January 6) to Russia (February 23) to Tonga, May 16 (this year), and to the United States, June 20. After listening to a church sermon at Spokane’s Central Methodist Episcopal Church in 1909 about the newly recognized Mother’s Day, Dodd felt strongly that fatherhood needed recognition as well. And rightly so. She wanted a celebration that honored fathers like her own — William Smart, a Civil War veteran who was left to raise his family alone when his wife died giving birth to their sixth child. It took more than six decades for Father’s Day to be officially recognized and it was actually the butt of many jokes and parody because it was believed that we were inventing holidays to promote more commercialization. Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Calvin Coolidge tried to make it official, but believe it or not — it wasn’t until Lyndon Johnson actually officially proclaimed the third Sunday of June as Father’s Day….and six years later, it was signed into law by President Nixon.
It’s a day of wonderful memories and some sadness, too, as I wish my Dad were still around to celebrate with. He was a great guy and we all miss him a lot! Happy Father’s Day to all of you Dad’s out there!!!
*********************************************************************************************************************************************
Westside sales volumes shows spring power and the uncertainty of what lies ahead
As Winnie the Pooh once said, “…it’s get murkier and murkier out there.” It certainly does, Winnie. We see the traditional strong spring sales flowing through the escrow companies as sales volume for the year has peaked at $691 million, compared to $472 million for this time in 2009. That’s a 46% increase (compared to 61% for January-April period) over the past year, a clear indication of the continued strength of the buyers market. If you’re a seller, however, it doesn’t automatically ‘make your day.’ Median sales prices — always the key indicator for true home values for the areas I report to you on — have shown continued weakness compared to a year ago: Beverly Hills was down 12% compared to year-to-date prices for 2009; Beverly Hills Post Office was down 20%; Bel-Air was down 29% and Brentwood prevented a total wipeout with a model 2% increase in year-to-date median sales prices.
There is ‘modest’ good news in the MLS data — when you compare May 2009 to May 2010, Beverly Hills Post Office was up a median sales price of 11% and Brentwood was up 14%. But then the smiles quickly disappear when you see that Bel-Air is down 47% compared to May 2009 and Beverly Hills is down 25%. Not good news. Yes, we have all read the news reports of the largest sale of a home in the country taking place in Bel Air recently. The non reported sales price is between $50,000,000 and $70,000,000 (as soon as the price is part of public record, I will report it to you, but for now it is not figured into the stats). So, how are we trending? April to May 2010 have shown relative strength in sustaining current home values — Beverly Hills Post Office and Bel-Air are practically even from April to May, each up 1%; Brentwood is down 2% and Beverly Hills is down 25% from April to May. All of these numbers clearly indicate the on-going volatility of the marketplace.
At the end of the day, Winnie would tell you — “it’s going to be murkier for awhile”…..until we emerge from this economic gloom. June is the traditional month for “gloom”, so why bother to complain about the weather or median sales prices — it is what it is. And as I tell my clients, every house in every neighborhood has its own assets and liabilities. Pricing continues to drive the market — and I am not expecting that to change until the economy starts moving faster than it is doing now.
**********************************************************************************************************************************************
Help with those traffic woes!
Have you tried dialing 511 yet to help with the traffic and travel times? I have. It is great. All you need to do is dial 511, it is free service that will advise you of the traffic conditions where you are and where you are driving to. In the last month or so since it has been operating, it has been a huge help to me.
**********************************************************************************************************************************************
John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success!
Attached you will please find a copy of Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success. One of my favorite jobs, besides selling real estate is the job I had at the UCLA Alumni Association, and one of my many responsibilities was the handling of athletic tickets for all of our very important alumni. As a result, I got to work with Coach Wooden and the ticket office many times in arranging for some of our very important alumni and major donors to obtain tickets. Everything he had on his pyramid is how he lived his life, and it made it a pleasure to deal with him and provided a great model for me.
**********************************************************************************************************************************************
Old medication and the environment.
I cannot tell you how many times I have taken some meds out of my medicine chest only to find that it had expired years ago! Please consider the environment when disposing of old medicines. There are many areas of our lives where we can lighten our environmental impact just a little; and one of them is how we deal with medication.
I’m certainly not about to recommend that anyone using prescription medication to cease taking them for the sake of the planet, but how we handle the waste related to our pills and potions does have an effect on the environment. I’m not referring to the packaging, but the drugs themselves.
Old, past-expiry date medication are a common occurrence in the home and these drugs pose a risk to others in your household, so it’s certainly a good idea to dispose of them. Old medication should be considered as being household hazardous waste and careful consideration given to their disposal.
Unfortunately, old medication often goes straight down the toilet or the sink, but the problem is sewage wastewater treatment plants aren’t equipped to filter out drugs; so they wind up in our waterways.
US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) studies have found pharmaceuticals present not only in waterways, but also in aquatic creatures. Minute levels have also been found in drinking water. In addition to antibiotics and steroids, over 100 different Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products as Pollutants (PPCPs) had been identified by 2007 in environmental samples and drinking water.
Not a lot is known about the environmental and human health impact of the presence of pharmaceuticals in waterways as more research is needed; but it’s a disturbing situation.
While most drug residues enter waterways through people taking medications and then passing them through human waste, the addition of old medications that are flushed is just an additional burden on our waterways that can and should be avoided.
How to dispose of old medication
It’s important not to flush prescription drugs down the toilet or drain unless information accompanying the medication specifically states you can do so. You can locate a list of medications that can be flushed on the Food And Drug Administration web site. Something to bear in mind though is that the FDA’s
recommendations have little to do with the environment. Its opinion is the potential risk to people and the
environment from flushing the listed medicines is outweighed by the “life-threatening risks from accidental ingestion of these medicines”.
Probably the best first course of action is to contact your local pharmacy and ask them if they have a drug take-back program as these initiatives are becoming increasingly common. Pharmacies that do will ensure the medications are disposed of in the proper manner.
Failing all that, the general advice is to dispose of the medications in your household trash, but to take some special safety precautions by take the medications out of their original containers and placing them into another airtight container, mixed in with something undesirable – such as used kitty litter or other substances equally as unappealing. It’s not ideal as the drugs can contaminate the soil when land filled and possibly contaminate groundwater; but that’s really the only other option and according to authorities; the “lesser of the evils”.
*********************************************************************************************************************************************
What about my listings?
I have two beautiful Custom homes listed for sale and one for least as well in Bel Air Crest. One is listed at $5.9 and $20,000 for lease, and the other for sale at $5,350,000. I also have an exciting, newly constructed home in Brentwood north of Sunset that is also for lease and sale at $3.899, 000 and $16,000 respectively. It is 6 6.5 contemporary with a salt water pool and wonderful views of the Getty. In addition in the next few days I will be listing a lovely, sweet home, also in Brentwood, north of Sunset on a really wonderful lot that is being sold as a teardown. We will be listing and pricing it in the next few days. For information on any and all of my listings, please go to my web site..www.caroleschiffer.com, there you will find photos of all of my listings. As always I look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you to all of you who attended the Emergency Preparedness Event we had at Bel Air Crest a few weeks ago. It was very well received.
