SchifferLine 15 September 2013

Timely Real Estate News………………………………………………….15 September 2013
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Rich in California history, there’s more to Temecula than great wineries

One only has to read the history of this early California city to realize that its history mirrors California’s history, replete with early Indian settlements, famous Spanish explorers and land grants, establishment of missions, and rancho life one can only envision what was a beautiful inland valley that became a world-famous wine-growing region 200 years after its first Spanish visit in 1797. One year later, Spanish missionaries established Mission of San Luis Rey de Francia and 22 years later, a second mission was created — Mission San Antonio de Pala.
“Temecula”, the city’s official name since its incorporation in 1859, was original Temecula Valley or “Exva Temeeku”, which meant the place of the union of Sky-father and Earth-mother. While there were other interpretations of the city’s name, Temecula is only one of two cities in California with its original Indian name (the other being Malibu).
What we so often overlook is the rich heritage that many of our Southern California cities have from the earliest settlement days of California. For example, the Pechanga Indian tribe (yes, of the same Casino Pechanga) has traced its history back thousands of years to this area, but it was the American settlers in the mid-1850s who traversed across the United States to California, often using the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach line to travel between St. Louis, Missouri and San Francisco, stopping in Temecula. Perhaps the biggest change came with the sale of the 87,500-acre Vail Ranch to developers in 1964, who built Rancho California, which was expanded to 97,500 acres and it served as the residential and commercial catalyst for the city, which encompasses more than 30-square miles.

Temecula Wines — some of the best
But what brings many to Temecula today is, of course, its fine wines that are produced on approximately 33,000 acres. The Temecula wine appellation is known as Temecula Valley AVA, and because of its rich soil and moderate, year-’round climate, the area is brimming with world-famous wineries, including Callaway Vineyard and Winery which began farming grapes in 1959, and it opened its first winery in 1975. There are now 25 wineries in the Temecula Valley — a small, but significant regional wine-producing center. It is certainly worth the drive to Temecula to spend a weekend visiting the wineries, the Mission, and it’s especially a festive time during the famous Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival (held in June each year) and the Harvest Wine Celebration, which occurs between August and October.
You’ll love visiting Temecula — it’s a wonderful area, rich in California history and pleasures abound with quality restaurants, shops, and some awfully good wine tasting rooms.

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2.5 million properties return to positive equity…..good news

Is it over? That’s what everyone is asking these days now that we are seeing signs of our “recovery” — at least faint signs that our nation’s economy is slowly mending. Perhaps one of the best “signs”, however, is that according to reputable national reporting firm, Core Logic, a new analysis shows approximately 2.5 million more residential properties returned to a state of positive equity during the second quarter of 2013. The total number of mortgaged residential properties with equity currently stands at 41.5 million.

The analysis shows that 7.1 million homes, or 14.5 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage were still in negative equity at the end of the same quarter (June 30). But this figure is down from 9.6 million homes or 19.7 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage at the end of the first quarter 2013.

This is really excellent news for the “residential mindset” — for both buyers and sellers (and agents, too). While there are still a number of homeowners here in West Los Angeles that are in trouble, we have not had the negative equity factor that we have seen in grand proportions in other parts of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Florida. And what we are seeing is that residential areas in these parts of the country are making it back — but their challenges remain as most of the negative equity is still prevalent in those counties that have experienced this challenge since 2007.

“Equity rebuilding continued in the second quarter of this year as the share of underwater mortgaged homes fell to 14.5 percent,” said Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for Core Logic. “In just the first half of 2013, almost 3.5 million homeowners’ returned to positive territory, but if the past is any indication, improvement will likely slow as price appreciation moderates in the second half,” he said. According the CEO Anand Nallathambi of Core Logic, despite a substantial decrease in negative equity, there’s still a lot of positive ground to gain back’ he remarked.

Here are some interesting real estate “factoids”:

* The bulk of home equity for mortgage properties is concentrated at the high end — with 91 percent of homes valued at greater than $200,000….while only 80 percent of homes valued at less than $200,000.

* Nevada has the highest percentage of mortgaged properties in negative equity — 36.4 percent, followed by Florida at 31.5 percent, Arizona at 24.7 percent. These three states were followed by Michigan at 22.5 percent and Georgia at 20.7 percent.

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The Fowler Museum at UCLA is a crown jewel right in your backyard

It’s right under your nose — the richly endowed and highly respected collections of the Fowler Museum cannot be overstated. What makes this museum unique is its collections that comprise more than 120,00 art and ethnographic and 4 million archaeological objects represent the ancient traditional, and contemporary cultures of Africa, Native and Latin America, and Asia and the Pacific Rim cultures.

The Fowler is generally home to three to six art exhibitions and also acts as a venue for lectures on cultural topics, musical performances, art workshops, family programs, festivals and more. The museum was established in 1963, and moved into a new facility on September 30, 1992. The majority of the Museum’s holdings have been acquired through a variety of donations from individuals, researchers, scholars and dedicated collectors, who have enabled the Fowler to build its world-class collections. One of the most prominent collections was from Sir Henry Wellcome of 30,000 objects assembled early in the last century by Wellcome and given to the Museum in 1965. It forms the core of the African and Pacific holdings and represents the largest single gift.

The Museum’s collection includes beaded arts of Southern Nigeria to pre-Columbian ceramic vessels of Peru….to elaborate batik textiles of Indonesia and papier-mache sculptures of Mexico. Objects from the Fowler Family Silver Collection include 400 works representing 6th- through 19th-century Europe and the United States. Among these are vessels from renowned workshops of Paul de Lamerie, Karl Faberge’s and Paul Revere. What is important to note is that Fowler’s collections offer a comprehensive resource for exhibitions and scholarship central to the Museum’s mandate.

Current exhibits — worth visiting!
• Resplendent Dress from Southeastern Europe: A History in Layers
• Ernest Cole Photographer
• Spomenik: Photographs of the Monuments of Former Yugoslavia by Jan Kempenaers
• Fowler in Focus―Mandela for President: South Africa Votes for Democracy
• Reflecting Culture: The Francis E. Fowler, Jr. Collection of Silver
• Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives

The Fowler is located in the northern part of UCLA’s Westwood Campus, adjacent to Royce Hall and Glorya Kaufman Hall.

Conversations and Lectures: Current and ongoing exhibitions provide the starting point for programming that touches upon scholarly as well as general interest topics. The signature series, Fowler OutSpoken, features speakers in a lecture, conversation, or panel format, and provides audiences with access to emerging and established artists, curators, scholars, performers, and other cultural figures.

Concerts and Performances: The Fowler offers exciting events throughout the year showcasing world music and performances by local and international artists. Fowler Out Loud is the museum’s one-of-a-kind performance series that takes place on Thursday nights throughout the academic school year and features international music, dance, poetry, theater, and performance art by UCLA students.
Events and Tours: From artist walk throughs to the monthly Culture Fix gallery chats, the Fowler offers numerous opportunities to engage with our exhibitions. In-depth study programs and our signature Fowler on the Town series feature site visits to places of interest in Los Angeles and surrounding areas.
Film Screenings: The Fowler presents film screenings throughout the year—the summertime High Noon Film Series offers documentaries and features that relate to the current exhibitions.
Workshops and Courses: Cooking programs, hands-on demonstrations and classes, and dance and yoga are offered on occasion.
Family Programs: Families–from the youngest members to seniors–are invited to participate in the Museum’s entertaining and engaging art-based experiences. Approximately twice per month, kids and kids-at-heart drop-in for art making workshops and world music experiences in the Fowler’s
The Museum is closed Mondays and Tuesdays and usually open from noon to 5 p.m. although open until 8 p.m. on Thursdays. Admission is free, making it one of only a handful of museums in Los Angeles that charge no admission. Beginning in the fall of 2013, the Fowler will observe its 50th anniversary. Fowler at Fifty will feature a year of special exhibitions and programs.
The museum is operated under the jurisdiction of UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture.

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Hollywood and Wine — “stars” in this latest news on Westside real estate

Making news these past few weeks were two blockbuster sales — one sold by a Hollywood star and the other to a new winemaker in our neighborhood. Both sales were in the mid-$20+ million range, and both showing the continued strength and world-renowned reputation of the Westside. In the first transaction, Jeremy Renner — star of The Hurt Locker and The Bourne Legacy — ‘flipped’ a home he purchased for $7 million three years ago that sold for $24 million. Renner’s flip sale is one of many he has been doing in recent years, but this last one made a handsome profit of more
than $4 million after spending another $10 million and three years in redesigning and re-habing this 10,000-square foot home that also contains a theater, tennis court, and spa. The home features many of the ‘roaring 20s’ style of the Great Gatsby film.
Renner’s flip sale is one of many he has been doing in recent years, but this last one made a handsome profit of more
than $4 million after spending another $10 million and three years in redesigning and re-habing this 10,000-square foot home that also contains a theater, tennis court, and spa. The home features many of the ‘roaring 20s’ style of the Great Gatsby film.

The other sale was for the slightly famous, boutique vineyard — Moraga Vineyards — which went to media and entertainment mogul, Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch paid $28.8 million for the 16-acre estate, which sits five miles from the Pacific Ocean in the Sepulveda Pass and can be seen from the 405 Freeway and is considered a “rare trophy” property in Los Angeles. Moraga was the first commercial winery to be bonded in the City of Los Angeles after Prohibition ended in 1933. The asking price was $29.5 million.

What is especially charming about this hillside vineyard estate is that it has an 8,000-square foot home and lush gardens and some of California’s finest grape-growing terrain which features deep gravel soil — which is perfect for growing wine especially with the 24-inches of annual rainfall it gets compared to 15 inches in downtown Los Angeles (drought years excepted).

The acreage was purchased from former Northrop Corp. Tom Jones and his late wife, Ruth. Moraga wines are pricey — although a few sell for as low as $69 for a red or white table wine, they generally range in the $125-price area….and some previous vintages are selling for as much as $2,000! The wines are sold in some of the area’s finest restaurants and can be found at Wally’s Wines in Westwood.

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Mortgage rates rise….but jumbo loans remain cheap

There may not be a “free lunch” anymore (there isn’t)….but with interest rates rising, it’s harder to find a great deal on a home loan these days, unless, of course you are looking for a jumbo mortgage, which the majority of the loans made with West Los Angeles purchases are. The term is actually quite deceiving in that the cut off for a “conforming loan is $625,500. The Mortgage Bankers Assn. says jumbo loan rates are now lower than those for smaller, so-called conforming mortgages that can be sold to or guaranteed by Freddie and Fannie. It’s a trend called “unprecedented” according to Wells Fargo Home Mortgage EVP Brad Blackwell. “…we’ve never seen this before.” Mortgage rates edged upward — lenders are offering 30-year fixed home loan to solid borrowers at an average of 4.57%, up from 4.51% last week….and that’s a full percentage point higher than a year ago.

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The Monthly stats on the local real estate market

You are probably wondering where the stats are that I always provide you in this issue of the Schiffer Line for the market in Beverly Hills, Beverly Hills Post Office, Bel Air & Brentwood. Unfortunately, the manner in which I receive the information has been changed and I want to make sure that I totally understand this new delivery system so that I can provide you with the most current and correct information. Until I get this figured out, I am not including the stats in this issue. Once I get there, the information will be much more complete and comprehensive. I promise I will get them to you as soon as I can.

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Disposable and rechargeable battery types

Disposable, or dry-cell batteries are usually the alkaline type. They used to contain very high levels of mercury, but the amounts used have greatly decreased over the last couple of decades and some brands use none at all. Still, some do contain a small amount of mercury and given the massive waste involved should be avoided, or at the very least, recycled.

Unfortunately, it can be difficult finding places that will actually recycle disposable alkaline batteries. Many recyclers separate them from rechargeables and they wind up in landfill anyway.

Button batteries are a problem as a great deal of metal is used for their comparatively small size and they can contain mercury, silver, cadmium, lithium, or other heavy metals as their main component. Thankfully, due to the increasing price of raw materials, these are a desired recyclable item.

Rechargeable batteries used to be quite environmentally toxic beasties, containing cadmium (NiCad batteries). These days, one of the more common AA and AAA rechargeables are Nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH). NiMH batteries have a better life and performance than Nicads and don’t contain as much in the way of toxic heavy metals, so they are a “greener” choice.

If you own a notebook, it’s likely the battery in it is Lithium-ion. These arethe top of the line in terms of performance and the type we’re seeing in electric cars. Again, these are a more environmentally friendly option than NiCads. Here’s a bit of rechargeable battery trivia: – the Tesla Roadster’s battery pack isn’t one big battery or even a few – it uses 6,831 18650 Lithium-ion batteries!

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I have been catching my breath as an extremely busy time for me winds down a little.. I still have my lovely lot listing in Bel Air Crest, and am gearing up for some new listings in both Bel Air Crest and Mountaingate which will coming on line in the next few weeks. I also finally got my client settled into her new condo home in Santa Monica after we made at least 10 offers on other condos, all of which were multiple offers, and will be closing escrow on a lovely condo on the Wilshire Corridor that we are having 20 years after I sold it to the parents!!! Please don’t forget that I am here to assist you with any of your real estate needs be they big or small.

Who You Work With Matters!