LA city Leaders break ground on San Pedro Waterfront project

The Port of Los Angeles is putting its best face forward.

A brand new waterfront revitalization project has broken ground in San Pedro, and with it comes restaurants and a full promenade.

Newly elected city councilman Joe Buscaino, whose district includes the Harbor area, compared the construction effort to another big project that broke ground a few years ago, L.A. Live.

"[L.A. Live]'s weeded out poverty," insisted Buscaino. "It's put people back to work and made the great downtown Los Angeles a destination.”

Buscaino joined Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, U.S. Rep. Janice Hahn and others at the Port of Los Angeles as they tossed dirt with gold shovels, fire boats spouting water behind them.

Leaders say capital improvement investments worth over a billion dollars will bring more than an acre of waterfront real estate to life over the next several years. The plan will create about 20,000 jobs, many set aside for Angelenos in surrounding areas.

Councilman Buscaino said the project hits home.

“My dad worked the fishing boats, the docks, the Sea Queen, the Southern Monarch," recalled Buscaino. "This is a port where I grew up as a kid.”

Leaders plan to choose a developer this summer. The $35 million project should be completed by 2014.

by: Corey Moore | Follow @KPCCcorey on Twitter

Every Tuesday look for more Local Real Estate News for the South Bay

Kitchen Lighting

Beautiful and functional kitchen lighting breaks down into three categories: Ambient, Task and Accent lighting. Incorporating all three into your kitchen layout will provide you with a well-lit and attractive space. Considering how much money goes into outfitting a kitchen with cabinets, counters, sinks, appliances and flooring, it's a wise to approach the task with a solid grasp of kitchen lighting options.

Ambient lighting
Ambient lighting is the overall background lighting of a room. The obvious benefit is that it enables you to navigate the room without bumping into things, but when put on a dimmer it can also serve as mood lighting for entertaining. Here are some popular kitchen ambient lighting options:
• Drum chandeliers are the hottest kitchen-lighting trend. These playful lighting options look like giant, illuminated lampshades suspended from the ceiling.
• Casual chandeliers add drama, style and function in larger kitchens that have a ceiling height of nine feet or higher.
• Ceiling fixtures add style and function in smaller kitchens with a ceiling height of eight feet or lower.
• Recessed lights spaced evenly through the kitchen.
• Up-lights tucked behind decorative objects on top of the cabinets.
• Rope lighting tucked behind crown molding or beneath the upper cabinets. These lights will illuminate softly and cast a glow over the kitchen, which looks particularly elegant for evening entertaining.

Task Lighting
Task lighting is exactly what it sounds like: lighting to help you accomplish the tasks you set out to do in your kitchen. Whether it's preparing meals, washing dishes, paying bills, or helping kids with homework, all of these jobs would be difficult to complete with poor lighting. Task lighting sources include:
• Recessed or "can" lights -- there should be one over the sink, one for every four feet of counter space (at a minimum), and also over the island, if not using pendant lights.
• Pendant lights over the kitchen island serves three purposes -- they provide task lighting, make a design statement, and serve as a visual distinction between the open spaces.
• Under-cabinet lighting, in the form of compact fluorescent lights, is another great option for task lighting in the food preparation areas.

Accent Lighting
Accent lighting is used to draw attention to the unique details of your kitchen. Accent lighting sources include:
• Puck lights to illuminate glass front cabinets, much like in a curio or china cabinet.
• Toe-kick lights to focus attention on flooring with a unique texture or design. They are also helpful to those who like a midnight snack but don't want bright overhead lighting waking them up.
• A table lamp on the counter adds a warm glow to visually soften the hard surfaces of a kitchen. This looks particularly attractive near the desk area of the kitchen, keeping it away from the prep stations and kitchen sink.

One final recommendation: Put each light source on a separate control and a dimmer. This gives you infinite options for creating the perfect ambiance for any situation.

Home Buyers Willing to Pay More for Good Schools

Would you rather live in a home with a pool or a home near good schools? Most home buyers say they would be willing to give up amenities and pay more for a home to live in their desired school district, according to a Realtor.com survey.

Three in 5 homebuyers in the survey said school-district boundaries will affect their home-purchasing decision, and the majority would be willing to go above their budget to afford a home in an area with good schools.

"While the back-to-school survey results did not surprise me, they did confirm the impact school boundaries have on families looking for a home," says Leslie Piper, consumer housing specialist at Realtor.com. "It is never too early to think about the importance of your child's education."

They'll Even Exceed their Budgets
The survey was based on answers from 981 participants who plan to buy a home in the next two years.
More than 44 percent of respondents say they would go over budget by up to 10% to live in a highly rate school district. About 9% of the respondents say they would be willing to pay as much as 20% above their budget. Potential homebuyers need to determine their buying power before moving forward with a home search, Piper says

"Don't bite off more than you can chew," she says,"If a home within certain school-district boundaries is a must, then they must know what price range they are comfortable with and what they would be willing to sacrifice."

What Buyers Are Willing to Give Up
These dedicated parents are willing to sacrifice a lot, including giving up on some highly desirable home features.

• More than 60% would give up having a pool or spa.
• More than half would give up accessibility to shopping
• About 43% would pass on a bonus room
• About 42% would give up on having nearby parks and trails

* Daily Breeze, by Polyana da Costa

What You Should Know Before You Consider Refinancing

If you have a high interest rate, you may have considered refinancing .  However, you should do some research to learn all you can about refinancing before you proceed.

Here are a few things you should know before you consider refinancing.

1.  Often times the cost of refinancing can offset the savings you were expecting to get .  The average fees range from $1900 to $3650 and this doesn't include the loan origination fees, PMI or discount points.

2.  In some states, if you refinance your home, your new loan is then considered a "recourse product."  That means if you default on your loan and the sale of your home doesn't completely cover what you owe, the bank can seize your other assets.

3.  Your current loan may include a prepayment penalty.  So you will need to consider the prepayment penalty fees you will incur to determine if refinancing your loan is really worth it.

4.  If you refinance your mortgage, you will need to make sure you are able to stay in your current home for at least two to five years to recoup the cost of the refinance; otherwise, you could lose money.

5.  If you have recently refinanced your mortgage and you are considering refinancing your loan again, you will not see much if any savings at all.  It's not a good idea to refinance unless you can drop your interest rate by at least a point and a half - two points or more is preferable.

6.  Qualifying  for a loan is even more difficult than ever due to the recent housing market debacle.  Therefore, you will need a credit score of at least 720 to get a reasonable interest rate.  Anything less than that will earn you a higher interest rate and it's possible you may not even qualify at all.  Not to mention the mounds of paperwork you will have to wade through and a long drawn out couple of months to get through the approval process.

Before you consider refinancing, you should talk to your realtor.  In the state of the current housing market, your realtor may be able to find you a more suitable home for less money than it would cost you to refinance your existing home.

Additionally, if you have equity in your home, you could use that as a down payment on your new home, which will better your chances of getting your new mortgage approved.

Looking back through 125 years of San Pedro History

Every Tuesday we will post a new blog about the History of San Pedro, California!

1888-1889

• March 1, 1888- The city of San Pedro was officially incorporated. The first Board of Trustees, sworn in four days later, included president E.W. Webster, J.A. Dufresne, N.O. Anderson, E.M. Phelps and Alex Oleson.
• The newborn city began to take shape as new groups and societies were organized.. Fifth Street School was established during this decade as well as the citys first library and the volunteer Fire Department.
• In May of 1888, Augustus Timms donated the land for Harbor View Cemetery (22nd & Grand) on the condition that the center plot be aside for him. He claimed that spot only two months later, upon his death. 
• In September of 1888, President Grover Cleveland designated the land for a military reserve that would be the future location of Ft. MacArthur.
• Seaside Pharmacy, arguably San Pedro's longest running business, opened its doors in 1889. It remains in operation today at 599 W. 7th St.
• Plaza Park is dedicated July 31, 1889. The park pavilion would be added in 1892, many celebrations and musical performances would be conducted from the gazebo in the years ahead. 

More to come on the History of San Pedro next Tuesday!

*San Pedro Today Magazine

Home Prices Still Rising at a Torrid Pace

Key gauge surges 12.2% from a year earlier the largest gain since March 2006.

Home prices shot up in Americas largest cities in May, rising at a pace not seen since the bubble days, according to a closely watched gauge.  The Standard & Poors Case-Shiller index of 20 large U.S. cities released Tuesday, rose 2.4% from April and 12.2% from May 2012- the largest year-over-year gain since March 2006.

Average home prices across the 20 cities have now reached their spring 2004 level. For the first time, two cities- Denver & Dallas  surpassed the peaks they reached before the 2008 financial crisis. All cities tracked by the index saw prices rise from a year earlier and the previous month.

"The long-awaited housing recovery is in full swing," Senior Economist Erik Johnson of IHS Global Insight wrote in an emailed analysis. "We expect housing to remain a key driver of growth for at least the next couple of years."

Low mortgage rates, a shortage of homes for sale and heavy investor demand have sent home prices sharply higher this year, providing an economic lift but also sparking concerns that some markets are overheating.

Las Vegas and Phoenix, two cities where prices fell hard during the bust, have come roaring back, in large part because investors have scooped up many foreclosed properties to flip or rent out. Year-over-year prices rose 23.3% in Las Vegas and 20.6% in Phoenix. Those gains were surpassed only by the San Francisco market, a tech mecca where prices skyrocketed 24.5% from May 2012. Southern California price increases maintained their breakneck pace in May. Prices rose 19.2% in the Los Angeles region over the year and 17.3% in the San Diego area.

"The market is on fire right now," said Max Nelson, a senior partner at Deasy/Penner & Partners Beverly Hills office. Nelson said his company has already received  multiple offers for a Pacific Palisades home it placed on the market Friday for $1.65 million--- before even holding an open house. Those gains are rapidly eating away at affordability, further hampering the efforts of first-time home buyers who often must compete with all cash investor offers in many markets. Stuart Gabriel, director of UCLAs Ziman Center for Real Estate, said the recovery is pricing out some home buyers--- a disconcerting trend.

"The rebound has been striking," he said.

The median home price in the six-county Southland rose 28% in June to $385,000, a record year-over-year gain, according to research firm DataQuick. The median is the point at which half the homes soold for more and half sold for less, so it reflects the mix of homes selling as well as rising values.

- Andrew Khouri

L.A. Planners to take up Ponte vista proposal

Long-stalled development plans for the former Navy housing property in San Pedro move to the Los Angeles Planning Commission on Tuesday, when the latest vision for the Ponte Vista project will be reviewed.

A hearing on the city's final environmental impact report , released June 27, will be held during the commissions 10 am meeting at the Port of Los Angeles Administration Building at 425 S. Palos Verdes St. in San Pedro.

While the new Ponte Vista plan calls for developing 830 homes- much smaller than earlier proposals that went as high as 2,300 homes- there remains strong opposition among those who want the 61.2-acre property to remain R-1, which would cut the numbers back even further.

Board members of the Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council continued to express "serious concerns" about the proposal in its July 8 resolution. Those concerns include a lack of traditional single-family housing and not enough public open space.

Supporters, including the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce, believe the project will work in concept.
Developing the entire parcel at 26900 S. Western Ave. with detached single-family homes would not be financially feasible, according to iStar, which currently owns the property.

Supporters also say its time to move forward on the project after nearly a decade of discussion. As originally planned in 2005, Ponte vista called for building 2,300 homes on a long-vacant and dilapidated site still dotted with old Navy homes.

The proposal encountered wide-spread opposition from residents who said it was too dense and would cause more traffic congestion in the area. The project went through numerous revisions after that as the property also changed hands. It was purchased by iStar Financial in 2010.


Daily Breeze