Brian Jones Realtor - ZipRealty Orange County, CA.

Located in the heart of Irvine, Rancho San Joaquin, a public golf course has terrific views of the newly evolving city. The just built high rise condos, the corporate buildings and proximity to John Wayne Airport make this area the new business center of Orange County.

I've played similar courses in other cities, such as Encanto Golf Course in downtown Phoenix and always enjoy the park like setting of a golf course surrounded by city. You can't help thinking how nice it is that those people in the buildings are hard at work and you're not.

Rancho San Joaquin Golf Course has 3 small lakes which luckily don't come into play too much but the potential for disaster is always there. Palm trees are everywhere and one of them was nice enough to knock down one of my errant shots and keep me on the fairway. Speaking of the fairways, many of the public courses in Orange County use a kukuya type of grass which is not my favorite type of grass to hit off of. The pros wouldn't go near it. If you don't mind an occassional wrist sprain go ahead and try taking a divot with a wedge.

But for us average hackers it's the thrill of that one big drive, a wedge shot that lands softly on the green or the bending 30 foot putt that finds the bottom of the cup that keeps us coming back for more.

As I've mentioned before I play with a group of local Realtors with the very accurately descriptive name "The Laguna Hackers". Our team captain for the day, Andy, was able to get a very good group rate of only $37 including the cart. It was a beautiful day, the course was in great shape and it was a good day to ponder life's injustices: Why can't we do this everyday?

Laguna Beach Homes - Sales 2008

There are currently 281 Homes For Sale in Laguna Beach, ranging in price from $599,000 to $23,000,000

• Average Price: $3,290,062

• Average Days on Market: 141

There are currently 19 Laguna Beach Homes in escrow, accepting Back-Up offers.

• Average Price: $1,907,836

• Average Days on Market: 121

And 16 Laguna Beach Homes are Pending in escrow:

• Average Price: $2,786,156

• Average Days on Market: 134

138 Homes in Laguna Beach have closed escrow in 2008

• Average Price: 2,251,644

• Average Days on Market: 114

Laguna Beach Homes For Sale

Brian Jones, Realtor

Contact at 949-422-1636 or 800-225-5947 x5220

ZipRealty - #1 Internet Source for Real Estate

Whenever I need perspective on this crazy real estate market I stop by a mortgage broker that I've known for many years. These are the people that actually pay attention to the movement of the 10-year treasury, the ever changing guidelines and the economic reports. What's even more amazing to me is that they actually enjoy it!

Nothing makes them happier than a small blip of economic activity that means interest rates may drop an eighth of a point. But they also love expounding on the news that some small storm in some unknown country means that the price of oil will go up which means that the value of the dollar has gone down which means that they should carpool to the office and not stop at Starbucks.

With the demise of Merrill Lynch the conversation turned to the banks where the mortgage broker and the other loan officers started their careers. California banks such as Crocker Bank were eventually swallowed up by Wells Fargo which also took over the popular First Interstate Bank.

Before Bank of America's recent purchase of Countrywide, Security Pacific merged with Bank of America in 1992 in one of the largest bank mergers in history.

We believe and trust in banks and count on them to protect and look out for us. It's a tremendous shock when banking institutions fail. We lose a little faith each time this happens. Even worse is the fact that people lose savings and investments that they can't afford to lose.

I don't have any answers but in speaking with my mortgage broker we agreed that the housing industry is an integral part of our economy which in turns affects the world economy. Any recovery has to start with the housing sector; get the inventory started downward, increase the opportunity to refinance and have better and more realistic guidelines.