About Long Beach's California Heights

California Heights in Long Beach, CA - A Historical City Treasure!

California Heights is one of my favorite historic Long Beach, CA neighborhoods! If there is an area that says "lovely" this is it! You'll know you're in California Heights when you start to see the beautifully restored antique lamp posts. There are many style of homes to be seen in the area, such as the Tudor, 1938 Ranch and the occasional Craftsman Bungalow. But what I'm most partial to, are the many Spanish Revival homes that feature red spanish tile roofs, welcoming terra cotta courtyards and vines growing over arched doorways.

To enchant you even further, you'll see these historic California Heights homes while driving down picturesque tree-lined streets that have trees reaching across the street to one another in a great arc. *SIGH* Interestingly enough, almost all of my male colleagues that saw the tree photos didn‘t share in my enthusiasm as they immediately pointed out the dusting off their cars would need if parked underneath. Ok, so I may have romanticized it a bit. But I also believe this may fall under the "Men are from Mars" category!

What does California Heights historical preservation entail?

Living in Cal Heights or any historically preserved district, though very rewarding, can be quite challenging for the homeowner. Due to the preservation mandates, the homes are to remain unaltered and "preserved" due to the many architectual nuances and details that reflect the era in which they were built.

Deteriorated features are normally repaired rather than replaced which can be quite costly if the item has been discontinued. When repair is impossible due to damage or condition, replacement materials must match in design and quality among many other criteria. No mickey-mouse jobs here! There's no calling cousin Freddie on those occasions!

What Kind of Buyer Moves to California Heights?

California Heights home buyers are hopefully those who have a great respect for historical preservation, pride of ownership and most importantly are team players. Why team players? California Heights is just one of 17 historical districts located in Long Beach, CA yet it is one of the most distinguishable in all of the city. The line of demarcation isn't as blurred as with other historical districts which could only mean there is stricter enforcement to the adherence of these guidelines and those that will occasionally challenge them.

When buying in a historical district, you are signing on to not only preserve history, but to be a part of it. Does this mean that someone on "the board" who doesn't have a life should be harassing you at every turn, absolutely not! It just means that when you buy in a historical district such as California Heights, you have to play by the rules and color in-between the preservation lines so to speak. Anyone who takes the time to willingly preserve and respect a home, will preserve a street. Those that preserve a street, will preserve a neighborhood. This will undoubtedly help to maintain or increase home values in the area. Increased value while being a part of history and continuing a legacy is the bigger picture.

California Heights Historic District boundaries are:

Bixby Road to the north, Atlantic to the West, Wardlow Rd to the South, Cherry to the East

For detailed information regarding historical preservation guidelines.

For more information about California Heights, please visit CalHeights.org

If you would like to get more information about buying in the lovely California Heights neighborhood or for a free Home Value Quote, do not hesitate to call me at 310-508-4354.

Be sure to check out my blogs on Bluff Heights and Belmont Heights.

California Heights Long Beach Map

Long Beach, Ca. Twenty thousand State employees will receive their termination notices this week. Considering there are over 200,000 State employees, that may not be a bad thing. There is a great brouhaha in Sacramento as State Senators fight it out over the new fiscal budget, which will have over a 40 billion dollar deficit by next June. Unthinkable as it seems in a recession, the State politicos want to raise taxes by 14 billion. There is rebellion amongst certain California Counties who do not want to send the State anymore money until they get their act together. It is like watching frustrated passengers argue over who gets which deck chair on the Titanic. Although it has never happened, murmurs of a State bankruptcy can be heard. This type of volatile market is forcing people to reconsider the real estate markets over the equity markets considering the safe harbor of real property. I'm receiving many investor calls who want to purchase property for cash in lieu of having any debt. The key there is cashflow. Indeed, cashflow is king, not cash these days.

The Obama administration is expected to unveil a foreclosure-prevention initiative on Feb. 18 that includes carrots and sticks to encourage lenders to lower monthly payments for struggling borrowers. For example, Obama is likely to offer government subsidies for reducing a borrower's interest rate; but he also could push for legislation that would allow bankruptcy judges to restructure mortgages. If so we are concerned this will increase future costs of mortgages. It will also encourage people to consider bankruptcy when perhaps that is not the only alternative. The plan to subsidize lower interest rates for distressed homeowners would involve the government and the lender each contributing matching amounts to reduce a person's monthly payment, possibly by several hundred dollars a month. Supporters contend that the measure will be comparatively simple to execute and less expensive than many other options that have been considered. Mr. Obama's top advisers have vowed to spend at least $50 billion to help homeowners keep their houses, and they already have the authority to tap the remaining $350 billion in the Treasury Department's financial industry bailout fund. Now, not sure how this is going to be decided, but my guess is those people that have paid on time, might start feeling a bit of resentment. Isn't government intervention grand?

While waiting for the Obama administration to announce plans to curtail foreclosures--which may include possible assistance to borrowers who are not yet delinquent--temporary foreclosure bans lasting a few weeks have been put in place by JPMorgan, Bank of America, Citi and Morgan Stanley. Meanwhile, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac continue to delay foreclosures. So we are wondering, perhaps we will declare a foreclosure holiday. That will probably bring the housing crisis to a quick halt. No one loses their house. Wonder why they have not come up with that one yet.

The new Stimulus Bill includes an expansion of the first-time homebuyer tax credit ($8k, no pay-back) and restores to $729,750 (in the 2008 Stimulus Act) the upper loan limit in high-cost areas for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA loan guarantee programs. For HECM (reverse mortgages) the Act allows for an increase in the current loan limits. The bill has over $50 billion in it for foreclosure mitigation.

Stocks tumbled on Tuesday as investors confronted fresh signs that the recession is worsening and worried that efforts to stabilize the beleaguered financial system may not prove sufficient. The slide took the benchmark S&P 500 below the 800 level for the first time since the bear market low of November 21, weighed by financials, energy companies and big manufacturers.

President Obama signs the $787B stimulus package today. With little economic data this morning Treasuries are rallying as investors are seeking safer assets as the equity market seems to be concerned about the lack of details from the treasury and continued bailout money need for the domestic car manufactures. Currently, the Ten Year yield is at 2.73% (2.78% Friday). Our 30 year fixed rate mortgage pricing should be better dependent upon how aggressive our investors choose to reflect the improved pricing which at the moment are better by .375%.

Kirk Mulhearn, a Long Beach real estate broker and Professional Mortgage Planner, may be contacted at: 562-989-4608 ext. 110

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Long Beach, Ca. A few reflections on the current real estate market place, while awaiting Super Bowl 2009 and the Cardinals inevitable doom by being sucked up into the engines of the Steelers' finely machined aircraft; hey, didn't that cause a plane crash last week?

There are a couple new trends in the universe of Foreclosures and REO properties. Where, the unemployed and employed alike have begun to re-group and look at more options then just, "letting the house go back to the bank." Where in the past a property may be foreclosed on without much of a fight from the financially fatigued and down trodden home owners; now, potentially hapless and homeless occupants are beginning to organize and take up the fight against the banks with a renewed gusto, frankly not seen since the stampede was on to buy the properties in the first place.

The sort of industry standards of dealing with the foreclosure problem, in recent history, can be reduced to the same old usual suspects: allowing the foreclosure to go through, taking cash for keys, negotiating a loan modification, granting the property back to the bank with a deed in lieu of foreclosure, implementing a short sale, and utilizing special refinancing offered by banks for those in need, not to mention the bankruptcy options. Now; however, resourceful attorneys finding weakness in the armor of the lenders have found a new type of law to practice.

To continue reading this article, go to: http://www.longbeachrealestateandloans.com/new-bellicose-trends-in-the-foreclosure-markets

Long Beach, Ca. The U.S. House passed President Obama's $819B stimulus package without any Republican votes. In the Senate, where the Republicans have more power to demand changes, they will likely ask for more tax cuts, less spending and a bigger focus on housing. It is too bad that Washington is so divided. Without working together, nothing will ever get done properly. Rush Limbaugh's comments not withstanding, what we really need to do is to come up with a new plan that will positively affect everyone immediately. It is disappointing that Pelosi thinks that funding birth control is really going to stimulate the economy.

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Long Beach, Ca. Well, if we could just isolate all the bad prisoners and put them in a place that has high walls, surrounded by machine guns and moats, extra guards with tear gas we just might be safe....in the current financial world and credit crisis, that high security prison would be the new, BAD BANK. I really like that name, it sounds cool and dangerous. And who do you think would be the CEO, Shaft? Just kidding.

President Obama may appoint the FDIC to run a "Bad Bank" which will buy the toxic assets that are clogging up bank balance sheets, in hope that it will subsequently free up lending. The FDIC would probably issue guaranteed bonds to finance the undertaking. Stocks around the world are rallying off of the news that this plan may finally be the answer in solving the credit crisis. After all, in the early 90's the RTC was created for all of the failed Savings and Loans. It did work then and has a strong possibility of working again. However, George Soros seems to think it is a bad idea. "That (the "bad bank" proposal) will help relieve the situation, but it will not be sufficient to turn it around," Soros said during a live interview at the Davos economic conference in Switzerland. Instead, Soros said he would create a "good bank" and re-capitalize the good assets. He admitted his alternative plan is not likely to get support because it too closely approaches nationalization. "The political will to do that is not there," Sorry George, remain in Europe please.

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