HOMESCHOOL: LIVING IN CONVERTED SCHOOL BUILDINGS

September 26, 2012 By 2 Comments

 

HOMESCHOOL: LIVING IN CONVERTED SCHOOL BUILDINGS


When I was younger, I often fantasized about being locked in school overnight. While I was never very gung ho about school during the day (you could often find me doodling away during math class), there was something oddly alluring about the idea of having the whole place to myself. I imagined strolling around deserted corridors, drawing murals on the chalkboards, climbing ropes in the gym and wreaking havoc in the auditorium. Sometimes this fantasy extended beyond the idea of being stuck in school to actually living there. School never particularly caught my fancy as a place of education, but as a place for living? By golly — it was palatial! I would sometimes express my living-in-school fantasy to friends, but nobody seemed to share my enthusiasm. “Why on earth would you want to spend any more time at school than you need to?”, they would ask. Still, the idea never really left my mind. Today, I still wonder what it would be like to buy an old, crumbling schoolhouse and turn it into anactual house. Luckily, in recent years, I haven’t had to imagine. Across the country, developers have been turning old elementary and high schools into apartments and even hotels. Here’s a quick roundup of some notable ones! — Max


The Oak School Lofts, Buffalo

Built in 1915, the building at 362 Oak Street in downtown Buffalo, NY, housed Buffalo’s Alternative High School until 2004. After the school shut down, Rocco Termini, a visionary developer responsible for rejuvenating many of Buffalo’s forgotten spaces, took over the property and converted it into loft spaces. Although the lofts at the Oak School are luxurious (many feature gas fireplaces and plasma televisions), efforts were taken to preserve the look and feel of the building’s original purpose. Many of the classroom-converted apartments still have their original chalkboards, hardwood maple floors, ceiling molding and giant 5 x 10 windows. Additionally, the public spaces of the building have been lovingly renovated to their more or less original state. When one enters the building, one gets the sneaking sense that they are actually at school — original water fountains and bookshelves populate the halls, and frosted windowpanes on apartment doors still have their classroom numbers emblazoned on them. According to Jason Termini, Rocco’s son, the goal of repurposing such gems is to combat suburban sprawl and bring life back to the urban center. “You don’t throw out a person when they get old,” he says, “so why a building?”

TheBuffaloLofts.com. Above images courtesy of Jill Greenberg and Oak Street Lofts.


Kennedy School Hotel, Portland

Like the Oak School Lofts in Buffalo, the Kennedy School in Portland opened its doors to students in 1915. Over the course of the 20th century, the school pulled double duty after hours, serving as a public meeting hall, polling place, blood donation center and weekend playground. Unfortunately, the school was forced to shut its doors in 1975 due to lowered enrollment and disrepair. Heartbroken, community activists petitioned to preserve the school and ultimately saved it. In 1997, McMenamins, a local hospitality group dedicated to repurposing old buildings, converted it into one of Portland’s most unique destinations. With 57 guest rooms (many with classroom features still intact), a couch-filled movie theater, its own brewery, soaking pool and charm to spare, the Kennedy School hotel is the perfect home away from home.

5736 NE 33rd Ave, Portland, OR. Above photos courtesy of Liz Devine and McMenamins.


Old St. Francis School Hotel, Bend, OR

Also owned by McMenamins, the Old St. Francis School Hotel was built in 1936 and was originally a Catholic schoolhouse. Today, the school’s classrooms have been converted into lodging spaces, and the hotel boasts dozens of unconventional amenities such as a pub, a bakery, a brewery, a movie theater and a majestic soaking pool with delightful arabesque features.

700 NW Bond St., Bend, OR. Above photos courtesy of Liz Devine and McMenamins.


Above images: 279 Sterling Place and 205 Warren Street in Brooklyn, both old schoolhouses converted into lofts and condos.

More

While this post focuses on just three school-to-living-space conversions, there are dozens more where these came from. All over, it seems, developers are feeling the itch to go back to school and are turning once abandoned local treasures into rejuvenated homes. Here are a few more notable conversions:

COURTESY OF YOUR NUMBER ONE ARCADIA REAL ESTATE AGENT

 

Filed Under: Community, Make Over Tagged With: , ,

Sales of New U.S. Homes Hover Near a Two-Year High

September 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Purchases of new U.S. homes hovered in August near a two-year high, adding to signs that the housing market is on the way to recovery.

Ty Wright/Bloomberg
New home construction in Lancaster, Ohio.

Sales of New U.S. Homes Hovered in August Near Two-Year High

Sales of new homes, tabulated when contracts are signed, are considered a timelier barometer than purchases of previously owned dwellings, which are calculated when a contract closes. Photographer: Ty Wright/Bloomberg

Sales fell 0.3 percent to a 373,000 annual pace following a revised 374,000 rate in July that was higher than previously estimated and the strongest since April 2010, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. The median estimate of 71 economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for a rise to 380,000.

Record-low borrowing costs continue to attract buyers, lifting demand for homebuilders, while a drop in the supply of foreclosed homes is easing downward pressure on prices. Federal Reserve policy makers have targeted the housing market with further accommodation measures in order to spur growth and reduce unemployment.

“Builders are a little more optimistic about future sales and buyer traffic and the mortgage environment is favorable,” said Anika Khan, an economist at Wells Fargo Securities LLC inCharlotte, North Carolina. “New homes sales will continue to improve over the next few months and in the coming year.”

Stocks held earlier losses after the report. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell 0.3 percent to 1,437.17 at 10:15 a.m. in New York amid concern Europe’s debt crisis is worsening. Treasury securities rose, sending the yield on the benchmark 10- year note down to 1.63 percent from 1.67 percent late yesterday.

Estimates of economists surveyed ranged from 360,000 to 400,000. July’s reading was previously reported as 372,000.

Regional Breakdown

Purchases fell in only one of four regions as demand in the South dropped 4.9 percent. Sales jumped 20 percent in the Northeast, rose 1.8 percent in the Midwest and 0.9 percent in the West.

The drop in sales in the South, where median prices are generally lower, paired with the surge in the Northeast, where property values tend to be higher, caused the median costs nationally to jump. The median price of all sales last month was $256,900, up 17 percent from August 2011. The 12-month advance was the biggest since December 2004. The 11 percent gain from July was the largest one-month increase in records going back to 1963.

Sales of new houses were up 28 percent from a year ago, today’s report from the Commerce Department showed

The supply of homes at the current sales rate held at 4.5 months. There were 141,000 new houses on the market at the end of August, matching July’s record low.

Record Low

A lack of supply may also be playing a role in limiting sales. The number of completed houses on the market dropped to a record-low 38,000 last month, today’s report showed.

Sales of new homes, tabulated when contracts are signed, are considered a timelier barometer than purchases of previously owned dwellings, which are calculated when a contract closes. Newly constructed houses accounted for 6.7 percent of the residential market in 2011, down from a high of 15 percent during the boom of the past decade.

Existing home sales rose more than forecast to a 4.82 million annual rate in August, a two-year high, from a 4.47 million pace the prior month, the National Association of Realtors reported last week.

The NAR figures also showed distressed sales, comprised of foreclosures and short sales, in which the lender agrees to a transaction for less than the balance of the mortgage, accounted for 22 percent of the total, the lowest since at least October 2008 when record keeping began.

Builder Outlook

Improving demand is bolstering homebuilders such as Miami- based Lennar Corp. (LEN) and allowing for longer-term construction strategies.

“Simply put, the housing market is recovering, not only are our sales margins and backlogs improving, but the beginnings of a sense of visibility are coming back to underwriting land acquisition and planning for the future,” Chief Executive Officer Stuart Miller said on a Sept. 24 earnings call.

“The home building business is beginning to revert to normal and that’s positive for the U.S. economy in general, which is in turn good for a sustained recovery in the housing market,” Miller said.

Toll Brothers Inc. (TOL), the largest U.S. luxury-home builder, reported a better-than-estimated profit and an increase in revenue for its third quarter ended July 31. The average price of the homes that the Horsham, Pennsylvania-based company delivered in the quarter climbed to $576,000 from $557,000 in the previous three months.

Revenue Climbs

KB Home (KBH) of Los Angeles reported on a Sept. 21 earnings call that third-quarter revenues increased 16 percent over the same period last year.

Borrowing costs continue to boost housing demand. The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage dropped to 3.49 percent in the week ended Sept. 20, matching a reading two months ago as the lowest in records dating to 1972, according to McLean, Virginia-based Freddie Mac.

Among other signs of progress, builders began work in August on the most one-family homes since April 2010, figures from the Commerce Department showed last week. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index of builder confidence climbed in September to the highest level since June 2006.

Home prices in 20 U.S. cities climbed more than forecast in July from a year earlier, a report from S&P/Case-Shiller showed yesterday.

The Fed has committed to purchasing $40 billion of mortgage debt a month to lower borrowing costs, helping the housing market that Chairman Ben S. Bernanke called “one of the missing pistons in the engine.”

“Our mortgage-backed securities purchases ought to drive down mortgage rates and put downward pressure on mortgage rates and create more demand for homes and more refinancing,” Bernanke said in a Sept. 13 press conference after the central bank announced the debt-buying plans.

To contact the reporters on this story: Michelle Jamrisko in Washington at mjamrisko@bloomberg.net

By Michelle Jamrisko - Sep 26, 2012 7:11 AM PT

COURTESY OF YOUR NUMBER ONE ARCADIA REAL ESTATE AGENT

Filed Under: Bussiness, Buyers, Lending, Mortgage Tagged With: , , , ,

Inaugura Eddie D Stakes — Autumn Meet Opens THIS FRIDAY at Santa Anita Racetrack!

September 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

ARCADIA, Calif. (Sept. 25, 2012)—Santa Anita’s 24-day Autumn Meet will get underway in style on Friday, as a near-capacity field of 13 have signed up to contest the inaugural Grade III, $100,000 Eddie D Stakes, for 3-year-olds and up at about 6 ½ furlongs down the Camino Real Turf Course.

“The race proved to be just as popular as Eddie D.,” said Santa Anita Racing Secretary and Vice President of Racing Rick Hammerle. “Let’s hope this is a good omen for the entire meet.”

Formerly run as the Morvich Stakes, the Eddie D is named in honor of retired Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Delahoussaye, who will be on hand to sign autographs from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and he will also present the trophy for the race named in his honor later in the afternoon.

Comma to the Top, a hard-hitting 4-year-old gelding trained by Peter Miller, figures to get plenty of pari-mutuel attention and is expected to show his customary early zip in the Eddie D. The Kentucky-bred son of Bwana Charlie is in top form, having prevailed by 1 ¾ lengths over 10 rivals in the 6 ½ furlong Pirate’s Bounty Stakes at Del Mar on Sept. 5.

Prior to the Pirate’s Bounty, Comma to the Top was a close-up fourth in the Grade I Bing Crosby Stakes going six furlongs at Del Mar on July 29.

Second in last year’s Santa Anita Derby and last in the Kentucky Derby, Comma to the Top has a 4-2-0-1 record on turf, but has never run down Santa Anita’s unique hillside layout.

Owned by Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum and Kevin Tsujihara, Comma to the Top sports a lifetime record of 21-9-2-1, with earnings of $916,096.

Trainer Steve Asmussen sends out perhaps the biggest question mark in the 13-horse field in Unbridled Note, who will try turf for the first time Friday and comes off a troubled third in Saratoga’s Grade I King’s Bishop Stakes for 3-year-olds at seven furlongs on Aug. 25.

The Kentucky-bred colt by Unbridled’s Song has an impressive 2 ¾-length win over a sloppy track to his credit three starts back at Churchill Downs on June 17, which could be an indication that he’ll take to the grass. Owned by Mike McCarty, Unbridled Note has a 6-2-0-2 record and $135,741 in earnings.

While contention runs deep in the 13-horse field, California-bred Red Sun would appear to rate a solid chance for trainer Carla Gaines. The 6-year-old Harris Farms homebred gelding by Redattore overcame a one-year layoff to finish second, beaten a half-length while attending the pace in a first-condition allowance at 1 1/16 miles on turf at Del Mar Aug. 30.

Lightly raced, Red Sun is a perfect two for two down Santa Anita’s hillside layout and has an impressive overall record of 9-5-2-2 with earnings of $227,988. He too figures to be on or near the lead Friday.

In addition to Red Sun, Gaines will also saddle Shrug, a winner of the $93,000 Green Flash Handicap at five furlongs on the turf at Del Mar on Aug. 15. Although he has never run down the hill, he possesses a versatile style that should serve him well. The 4-year-old Kentucky-bred colt by Medaglia d’Oro is one for two on turf and has an overall record of 15-4-2-1 with earnings of $190,380.

Trainer John Sadler will also send out a pair, Koast, who was fourth, beaten only a half-length in Del Mar’s Green Flash and Calimonco, who never threatened while running fifth in the Grade II Del Mar Mile (turf) Handicap on Aug. 26.

Koast, who retains the services of top rider Rafael Bejarano, is a 3-year-old Kentucky-bred colt by Lawyer Ron. He’s two for two over the course and has the necessary speed to attend and/or make the early pace. Koast is owned by Hronis Racing and has a career record of 8-3-0-2, with earnings of $128,566.

Calimonco is a turf veteran, who at age six will be making his 34th career start on Friday. Reunited with jockey Martin Garcia, who guided him to a second-place finish two starts back in Del Mar’s one mile Wickerr Stakes on July 25, Calimonco was third in his only start down the hill on Jan. 9, 2010. Bred in Kentucky by Pam and Martin Wygod, he is owned by the Wygods and Ballena Vista Farm.

The complete field for the Eddie D Stakes, carded as the eighth on a nine-race race program, with jockey and weights in post position order: Crimson Giant, Modesto Linares, 115; Chosen Miracle, Alonso Quinonez, 118; Calimonco, Martin Garcia, 118; Koast, Rafael Bejarano, 118; Shrug, Victor Espinoza, 118; Comma to the Top, Martin Pedroza, 118; Boxeur des Rues, Mario Gutierrez, 118; Octane, David Flores, 118; Red Sun, Joe Talamo, 118; Tale of a Champion, Garrett Gomez, 118; Mensa Heat, Juan Hernandez, 118; Canuletmedowneasy, Edwin Maldonado, 115; Unbridled’s Note, Corey Nakatani, 115.

First post time on Friday is 1 p.m. For additional information, visit www.santaanita.com or call (626) 574-RACE.

COURTESY OF YOUR NUMBER ONE ARCADIA REAL ESTATE AGENT

Filed Under: Arcadia News, Santa Anita Racetrack Tagged With: , , , , ,

Home prices rebound

September 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment

By Chris Isidore @CNNMoney September 25, 2012: 10:11 AM ET

Home prices are back to 2003 levels in the latest sign of an improved housing market.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — In another sign of a turnaround in the long-battered real estate market, average home prices rebounded in July to the same level as they were nine years ago.

According to the closely watched S&P/Case-Shiller national home price index, which covers more than 80% of the housing market in the United States, the typical home price in July rose 1.6% compared to the previous month.

It marked the third straight month that prices in all 20 major markets followed by the index improved, and it would have been the fourth straight month of improvement across the full spectrum if not for a slight decline in Detroit in April.

The index was up 1.2% compared to a year earlier, an improvement from the year-over-year change reported for June. While home prices have been showing a sequential change in recent months, it wasn’t until June that prices were higher than a year earlier.

The July reading matched levels last seen in summer 2003, when the market was marching toward its peak in 2006. The collapse of the market after that led to the financial crisis of 2008.

“The news on home prices in this report confirm recent good news about housing,” said David Blitzer, Chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “Single-family housing starts are well ahead of last year’s pace, existing home sales are up, the inventory of homes for sale is down and foreclosure activity is slowing.”

Record low mortgage rates and a tighter supply of homes available for sale have helped to lift home prices. Lower unemployment also has helped with home prices, although job growth in recent months has been slower than hoped.

Earlier this month, the Federal Reserve announced it would buy $40 billion in mortgage bonds a month for the foreseeable future. This third round of asset purchases by the central bank, popularly known as QE3, is its effort to jump start the economy through even lower home loan rates.

Related: Best home deals in Best Places

Mike Larson, real estate analyst with Weiss Research, said part of the improvement in the housing market is due to investors using the low mortgage rates to buy up homes that are in foreclosure and renting them in a strong rental market.

But he said that he doesn’t think there’s much chance of housing prices forming any kind of new bubble in the foreseeable future.

“Clearly the worst is behind us for this market., but this is not a market that is going to take off again,” he said. “While you have a firming up, you still have tight lending standards and people who have been burned are reluctant or unable to get back in the market.” He predicts it will take several more years before housing prices can gain more than 1% to 2% a year.

Related: Buy or rent? 10 major cities

But that is good news for a housing market that was plagued by plunging home values and high foreclosure rates for much of the last six years. And the good news has the potential to build on itself, said Joseph LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist for Deutsche Bank.

“Housing remains a rare bright spot in an economy that is otherwise muddling through,” he wrote in a note to clients Tuesday. “The price trend for housing is significant, because it provides economic stimulus via stronger household balance sheets.”

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that home prices had reached a 9-year high. In fact, they rebounded to the level last seen in summer 2003, before their peak several years later. To top of page

COURTESY OF YOUR NUMBER ONE ARCADIA REAL ESTATE AGENT

Filed Under: Market Tagged With: , ,

America’s Hippest Hipster Neighborhoods

September 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment
America's Best Hipster Neighborhoods

Want to roll out of bed and pick up a cup of single-origin java from a coffee shop on your corner? Or grab a gourmet grilled cheese sandwich from a food truck parked down the street? Does a dream weekend include foraging for organic veggies at a farmers market and watching the latest hot indie band play on a small stage through the wee hours of the morning? Then, my hipster friend, Los Angeles’ Silver Lake is the neighborhood for you.

Silver Lake takes the top spot on Forbes’ inaugural list of America’s Best Hipster Neighborhoods. Nestled between Echo Park and Los Feliz, the trendy community boasts some of the nation’s most lauded food trucks and farmers markets, a multicultural blend of residents with eclectic professions, and a booming arts scene. Even the buildings exude an avant garde aesthetic a hipster could love: Silver Lake is home to some of the most celebrated modernist architecture in the country, including Richard Neutra’s VDL Research House and John Lautner’s Silvertop.

“It is amazing how many artists, musicians and designers and more traditionally ‘hipster’ occupations live in Silver Lake,” says Dabney Lawless, a vice president of Nextdoor.com, a private social network for neighborhoods. “It just blows every other neighborhood away.” In other words, if you want to slurp Pabst Blue Ribbon in your skinny jeans, you won’t be alone.

Merriam-Webster somewhat vaguely defines a “hipster” as “a person who is unusually aware of and interested in new and unconventional patterns.”  While what exactly qualifies someone as a hipster may be up for debate, to compile our list, we took a quantitative approach to determining the 20 places in which hipsterdom is most likely to flourish.

The San Francisco-based startup Nextdoor.comhelped us dig through data on more than 250 neighborhoods in the biggest U.S. cities. We assessed each area’s walkability according toWalkscore.com; the number of neighborhood coffee shops per capita (with some help from NPD Group’s report); the assortment of local food trucks (and their ranking according to Zagat’s); the number and frequency of farmers markets; the selection of locally owned bars and restaurants; and the percentage of residents who work in artistic occupations. We also factored in Nextdoor’s Neighborhood “Hipness” Index, which is based on how often words associated with hipness (for example art, gallery, designer, musician) appeared on each Nextdoor neighborhood’s site pages, and Nextdoor conducted a survey in which members sounded off on their communities.

Silver Lake is followed closely in second place by another Golden State hotspot, San Francisco’s Mission District. The city’s oldest neighborhood boasts a bevy of mom-and-pop eateries and watering holes, thrift shops and galleries. And artists here like to leave their mark: the Mission has the highest concentration of street murals in the city,according to the San Francisco Travel Association.  Lawless notes that rents are lower in the Mission than many other city neighborhoods, making it “a great neighborhood for young trendsetters.”

In third place is the unofficial East Coast birthplace of hipsterism, Williamsburg. The Brooklyn enclave has it all: coffee shops, food trucks, nightlife, farmers markets, restaurants, boutiques and a gaggle of artsy residents sporting Keds sneakers and idiosyncratic tattoos.

Gallery: America’s Best Hipster Neighborhoods

Williamsburg may have spawned the hipster craze, but the neighborhood is evolving in a direction that’s far less hospitable to the patchily employed, fedora-wearing crowd.  “The more successful neighborhoods like Williamsburg become in attracting people, the real estate prices go up and a lot of the urban pioneers end up moving on,” says David Morley, a research associate with theAmerican Planning Association, a nonprofit educational group for community developers.

Real estate prices in the north Brooklyn neighborhood have been steadily rising, says Justin Daly, a Williamsburg-based realtor with MNS. His firm reports that Williamsburg rents in July were 23% higher than a year ago. More interesting, as of June, the mean rent for a studio apartment in Williamsburg was $200 higher than for a comparable (albeit smaller) apartment in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, according to the firm’s research. It has led to a slight exodus of artists and a new influx of families.

Portland, Oregon’s Pearl District, which has been undergoing urban renewal since the 2000s, has a similar migration tale to tell.  The neighborhood, currently hosting MTV’s latest edition of “The Real World,” is No. 5 on our list thanks to its intense caffeination (it has the second-highest concentration of coffee shops of neighborhoods on our list), a flourishing foodie culture, and a colorful collection of art spaces. As gentrification progresses, some hipsters are fleeing the rising costs of new high-rise condos and warehouse-to-loft conversions for the less established (and less pricey) Mississippi Ave and the Alberta Arts District neighborhoods. (Probably the MTV reality show doesn’t help either.)

In fourth place on our list is Chicago’s Wicker Park. Morley, a Wicker Park resident himself, touts its easy transit access, range of housing types, variety of shopping and services, and lively streetscape that affords a high degree of social interaction.  “I love being able to do my shopping in the neighborhood and being able to see lots of people in the streets.”

Gallery: America’s Best Hipster Neighborhoods

COURTESY OF YOUR NUMBER ONE ARCADIA REAL ESTATE AGENT

Filed Under: Community Tagged With: , ,

The Door Is Now Open to Home Builders

September 23, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Housing is hot again.

[image]

It was a sign of renewed investor enthusiasm last week when real-estate-information firm Trulia Inc.’s TRLA -4.04% share price rose more than 40% on Thursday following its initial public offering. So was the surge Friday in KB Home KBH +16.40% shares after KB reported an unexpected quarterly profit. Although home prices turned the corner just this past spring, shares of home builders have more than tripled on average since their 2009 nadir.

Next up is Lennar Corp., LEN +2.49% which is slated to report fiscal third-quarter earnings Monday. Analysts expect earnings of 28 cents a share for the period ending in August, up sharply from 11 cents a year earlier.

For a while this spring it was possible to debate whether the long-awaited turn had come in house prices, as some measures turned positive while the widely followed S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index lagged behind. Now that measure, due Tuesday, is pointing up as well, although its originator, Robert Shiller, says he isn’t convinced we have hit the bottom yet.

In any case, there is cause for at least short-term cheer, particularly for home builders that rallied after last week’s housing-starts data. Single-family housing starts rose at the quickest pace since April 2010—a period artificially boosted by a tax credit for first-time home buyers. Lennar’s share price broke above $37 Friday for the first time since June 2007, ending at $38. Is it deserved? In its last reported quarter, the company sold 3,222 houses, up 20% year on year. But in 2006 it sold nearly 50,000 in a year. Even though its operating margin nearly doubled to 9.2% in the second quarter, that is still shy of the mid-to-low teens Lennar enjoyed in its heyday.

image

Bloomberg NewsKB Home shares surge Friday after the company reported an unexpected quarterly profit.

In a way, that is encouraging, because there should be more upside even with the stock trading at nearly 27 times 2013 earnings estimates. Housing starts have slumped mightily since their peak, and pent-up demand is significant. Between 1992 and 2007, single-family starts averaged nearly 1.3 million a year, while they averaged just 500,000 the following four years. The Fed’s recent steps to further boost housing by buying mortgage-backed securities bode well, too.

While not home-free, home builders have given investors some grounds to justify recent gains.

By Spencer Jakab

COURTESY OF YOUR NUMBER ONE ARCADIA REAL ESTATE AGENT

Filed Under: Buyers, Market Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Space shuttle Endeavour makes its last landing at LAX

September 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment

L.A. NOW by LA Times

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA — THIS JUST IN

Space shuttle Endeavour makes its last landing at LAX

September 21, 2012 | 12:50 pm

Endeavour City Hall
Space shuttle Endeavour has touched down at LAX, marking its final landing after a three-decade career in space and bringing an end to NASA’s space shuttle program.

As elsewhere along its choreographed flyover in California, eager fans of the shuttle — filled with both curiosity and nostalgia — gathered at the United Airlines hangar to watch the Endeavour taxi in. A man holding an American flag popped out of the roof of the cockpit of the 747 carrying Endeavour on its back.

As the shuttle flew low over LAX, Kathy Sanders-Phillips was teary-eyed.

PHOTOS: Space shuttle Endeavour 1991-2012

“Oh my god,” she said. “Oh my god.”

Sanders-Phillips watched the shuttle from the United hangar with her husband, Ken Phillips, the aerospace curator at the California Science Center who first thought to bring an orbiter to the museum in 1991.

Phillips said he feels a personal connection to Endeavour — his college friend, Ron McNair, was one of the astronauts killed when Challenger exploded. Endeavour was built to replace Challenger.

“I have to hope Ron is looking down on this,” Sanders-Phillips said, her voice breaking.

A welcome ceremony will be held in the hangar for donors and employees of the California Science Center, NASA and local foundations.

Nine-year-old Julian Caldera was there and excited he had been able to meet three astronauts on hand.

“Not many little kids get to do that,” he said.

Astronaut Mike Fincke, who flew Endeavour’s final mission last year, explained to Julian how shuttles land and where they sit. Fincke said he wanted to go to space as a 3-year-old, after watching astronauts walk on the moon.

FULL COVERAGE: Endeavour’s final journey to L.A.

The former Endeavour astronaut said he’s glad to see the shuttle being well-received in Los Angeles

“I can feel the vibe; it’s just electric” — but is more excited to see how it affects children like Julian. They’re going to be inspired, and they’re going to be the next generation to come of doctors and engineers and scientists and astronauts,”Fincke said.

“It happened for me, and I know it’s going to happen for all these other kids.”

Some gathered at the hangar couldn’t believe this moment had finally arrived.“It’s here. It’s really here,” said Science Center President Jeffrey Rudolph.Ken Phillips, aerospace curator for the museum, described it as an “adreniline-charged day.”

“It’s hard to find the words to describe today,” Phillips said.

In Santa Monica, crowds lined the pier as well as points along the beach as the shuttle entered L.A. County.

“Amazing, amazing, amazing,” said Derek Johns, 41, of Los Angeles, who shot photos at the pier.

“I got chills,” said Dave Atkinson, an El Segundo councilman who watched the shuttle from the city’s overlook. “This is America at its finest.”

At the charter school near the California Science Center, children cheered and ran as Endeavour made a low pass over its future home.

“That was awesome,” said fifth grader Yaslynn Thomas. “Awestruck. I never thought a space shuttle would ever come to a school. I always thought it would go to a special space landing place.”

ALSO:Space shuttle Endeavour: Where to spot the shuttle

Space shuttle Endeavour in California: Submit your photos

‘Space geeks’ welcome shuttle Endeavour to Edwards Air Force Base

— Kate Mather at LAX, Jeff Gottlieb at El Segundo bluffs, Matt Stevens at Santa Monica Pier and Rosanna Xia at California Science Center

Photo: The space shuttle Endeavour flies over City Hall in Los Angeles during flyovers of Southland landmarks. Credit: Marc Martin / Los Angeles Times

 

COURTESY OF YOUR NUMBER ONE ARCADIA REAL ESTATE AGENT

Filed Under: Technology, Trending Topics Tagged With: , , , ,

Make Your Fixer-Upper Fabulous on a Budget

September 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

So many makeover projects, so little time and money. Here’s where to focus your home improvement efforts for the best results

When the to-do list around your house includes everything from “new roof” to “gut kitchen” and “buy furniture” (and you could easily pour your entire budget into just one room), you know it’s time to make a plan. These 12 ideas will help you make the important decisions on where to put your money (and sweat) to make your house budget stretch the furthest.
traditional exterior by Allison Ramsey Architects
Where to begin? Big projects, including repairs to the roof, the foundation and systems (like heating and cooling), should be prioritized, for obvious reasons — with one caveat. If a major project needs to be done but is not totally urgent (say, your home inspector said you’ll need a new roof within the next few years), you might want to put more of your current savings toward cosmetic fixes you will appreciate right away.Landscaping is a good example. Early on is the time to begin planning (and planting) upgrades to your yard. Mature trees and plantings add significant value (and curb appeal) to your home, and the most budget-friendly way to get there is to buy small, young plants and give them time to fill in.How to boost your curb appeal
Think about functionality first. Fancy appliance upgrades can wait if what you have works. Focus your budget on essential big-ticket projects as needed, and after that on beautifying projects that will give you the most bang for your buck.
eclectic kitchen by Keep Smiling Home
Get creative to keep costs down in the kitchen. Katherine Fugit and husband, Conan, whose kitchen is shown here, were able to accomplish an impressive transformation in their kitchen for less than $400. Rather than purchase new appliances, they scored a cool vintage stove for $45 and painted their old fridge with chalkboard paint.See the rest of this house
by Keep Smiling Home
Be willing to learn a new DIY skill. As a point of reference, here’s the before photo of the Fugit kitchen. Several layers of funky linoleum were removed, and the couple refinished the hardwood floors hiding underneath. By putting in their own elbow grease and forgoing expensive new products, they were able to create a warm and functional kitchen within their tiny budget.If you have never picked up a paintbrush (or rented a power sander), now is the time to dive in and pick up that new skill. If you are nervous, check your local home improvement shops — many offer free classes in everything from painting to building cabinets.
eclectic kitchen by Whimages
Paint or refinish cabinets rather than replace them. Kitchen cabinetry is one of the biggest-ticket items in a kitchen remodel, so unless your current cabinets are completely beyond repair, make do and mend them. You can’t go wrong with black or white, and new knobs and bin pulls will give the cabinets a completely different look for a few extra bucks.8 paint palettes for kitchen cabinets
Consider doing without the medicine cabinet and vanity lights. In the bathroom, consider choosing a regular flat mirror paired with sconces instead of the expected off-the-shelf mirrored cabinet and row of lights. This is a much more current look, and if you hunt for a sale, it should be a fraction of the cost of most products made specifically for the bathroom.
traditional kitchen by Stephanie Wiley Photography
Do swap out kitchen and bath faucets. Sleek new faucets can upgrade the entire room, and big-box stores often have great-looking options at a low cost.
modern pendant lighting by West Elm

Upgrade outdated light fixtures. Many can be found for well under $200, and the difference that beautiful lighting makes in a home is immense. Go for simple shapes and useful details, like a diffuser covering the bottom of a pendant light (as in the one from West Elm shown here), which shades your eyes from the bare bulb when you’re seated underneath.
Lettered Cottage Dining Room
Save on window coverings. Surprisingly, drapes and blinds can add up to be one of the most expensive purchases in decorating your home. If you need to cover lots of windows, save your pennies by choosing off-the-rack curtains (hem them yourself) and simple matchstick blinds.Style tip: Inexpensive curtains look far more chic in solid, neutral hues; natural fibers (cotton, linen etc.); and pole-pocket or clip-top style. Tab tops tend to look a bit saggy, so I would avoid those.
eclectic by Kate Jackson Design
Decide what to cover up — and what to reveal. A before shot shows how this living room needed some serious TLC. The dingy brick fireplace stole the spotlight, while hardwood floors hid beneath scratchy industrial-blue carpet. But then …
eclectic living room by Kate Jackson Design
Paint outdated brickwork for an amazing after. Here is the after. Interior Designer Kate Jackson gave the space a coat of fresh, white paint and removed the carpeting to show off lovely hardwood floors. The whole space feels completely transformed.See the rest of this project | What to know about painting brick
traditional exterior by Stephanie Wiley Photography
Enhance curb appeal with key details. Have you noticed a theme? Embrace the details. They are the budget decorator’s best friend. When it comes to curb appeal, try painting (rather than replacing) the front door, freshening up trim (rather than painting the whole house) and adding potted flowers, new house numbers, and fresh chair or bench cushions.

COURTESY OF YOUR NUMBER ONE ARCADIA REAL ESTATE AGENT

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

Can You Afford to Buy a Second Home?

September 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

By Jeff Brown
With more and more signs that the housing market is inching off the bottom, homeowners with good credit and lots of resourcesare once again asking the question: Can I afford a second home?There’s something irresistible about the dream of a vacation place at the beach, lake or in the mountains. Summer vacations, the clan gathering for holidays, a place to pass down through the generations… It’s the American Dream, Act II.

The problem, of course, is coming up with the money. If you don’t have a trunk full of cash, the next easiest option is to borrow against your primary residence, thus avoiding the complex issues raised by a loan application specifically to buy a second home. But to borrow against your main home, it must be worth substantially more than you owe on a mortgage or home equity loan.

To take out a new loan to buy a second home you will have to convince the lender you are an especially good risk. That’s because lenders know that people are more likely to default on payments for a second home than a primary residence, or to skimp on maintenance or fall behind on property taxes or insurance.

So the first issue is your debt-to-income ratio, figured by dividing your total monthly debt payments for everything — existing mortgage, the new mortgage, car and credit card payments, and so on — by your gross monthly income. If the figure is less than 36 percent, you have a fair shot at a loan, if your payment history and credit rating are good. Some lenders will approve applicants with higher ratios; you’ll have to shop around.

Also expect lenders to demand a down payment of at least 20 percent, possibly twice that much, or even more. A large down payment reduces the loan-to-value ratio, figured by dividing the loan amount by the property’s current value, estimated by an appraiser approved by the lender. The smaller the loan relative to the value, the more likely the lender would recover what it is owed if you default and the lender must foreclose and sell the property.

You’re also likely to pay a higher interest rate on a mortgage for a second home — again, to offset the greater risk to the lender.

Discouraged yet? Don’t be. After all, even if lenders are more conservative these days, they make money only if they approve loans.

To make all this easier, try this calculator from The Mortgage Professor website. In the Occupancy Type window click Second Home. Note that in the Monthly Debt Payments window you should include your current mortgage payment if you will add a new mortgage for the second home.

Also play with this calculator from SmartMoney.

Before going too far down the road, check with some lenders for down payment requirementsand interest rates on second-home loans. Until then, experiment with down payments of 20 percent, 30 percent and 40 percent, and add 0.5 to 1 percentage points to the mortgage rates from the Bankingmyway.com survey.

For a sense of how lenders approach second-home applications, look at this site from Wells Fargo. It shows, for example, that it is difficult to get potential rental income included in the loan qualification calculation, a key consideration if you plan to rent out your second home part of the time.

Even if a lender will approve your loan, think about how comfortable you would be with this new financial obligation. You’ll need a healthy financial cushion for unexpected repairs and upkeep, a drop in your pay, a shortfall in rental income or a jump in taxes or insurance fees.

Finally, give your dream a reality check. Many people find, for example, that they lose interest in vacationing at the same place all the time. And a second home can someday become a bone of contention among the buyer’s children or grandchildren.

COURTESY OF YOUR NUMBER ONE ARCADIA REAL ESTATE AGENT

Filed Under: For Sale, Market, Mortgage Tagged With: , , , ,

U.S. existing home sales rise in August, prices up from year ago

September 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment

WASHINGTON, Sept 19 | Wed Sep 19, 2012 9:59am EDT

(Reuters) – The pace of U.S. home resales rose in August to its fastest in over two years and the price for sold homes climbed from a year earlier, hopeful signs that a budding housing market recovery is gaining traction.

The National Association of Realtors said on Wednesday that existing home sales increased 7.8 percent last month to an annual rate of 4.82 million units last month.

That was the fastest annual rate since May 2010 and well above analysts’ expectations of a 4.55 million-unit rate.

Nationwide, the median price for a home resale rose to $187,400 in August, up 9.5 percent from a year earlier as fewer people sold their homes under distressed conditions.

The nation’s inventory of homes – those for sale on the market – rose 2.9 percent during the month to 2.47 million.

“The housing market recovery is becoming much more convincing,” said NAR economist Lawrence Yun.

The price increase is measured against August 2011, and since then distressed sales have fallen to 22 percent of total sales from 31 percent. Distressed sales also fell in August of this year compared to the prior month.

While the broader U.S. economy appears to be losing steam, housing has gained traction and has become a relative bright spot

 

COURTESY OF YOUR NUMBER ONE ARCADIA REAL ESTATE AGENT

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,
Next Page»