A Cliff May for 329K?

Here's a new regional low price for a Cliff May ranch house: $329,000 and change for this brown-lawn special in Pomona.

From Curbed LA: "What was once a proud Cliff May on a street full of Cliff May's in Pomona has been trashed by its previous owner, who has succumbed to foreclosure. Gack! That lawn! A reader emails, desperate for some good soul to buy the home: '...this 1955 Cliff May Modern Ranch House in Pomona really REALLY needs to find a sympathetic buyer or it might get 'remuddled'.'"

It's a 3-bedroom, 2-bath, 1,340 square feet. Cliff May? A builder known as the "Father of the California Ranch Home," he built thousands of houses.

Your thoughts? Insights? Email story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Photo Credit: Realtor.com.

Comments

[eprobert]

Pomona?

I guess if I had a job in the SGV that would be a cool place to buy, but there's no way in hell I'd even consider commuting down the 10 or 60 to get to work every day.

That's a fate worse than torture!

However, at $329,000 that does take some pressure off of how much income you'd need to earn.

Are there $80,000 jobs in Pomona or nearby?

[mike]

i think that they MAY just as well push it over a CLIFF for that price!

[Peter]

I hope the view from the other side of the house makes up for the fact that from the street this house looks like nothing so much as a storage facility.

[JK]

Ahhh Pomona... street gangs, illegal immigrants and crime. Even at $319,000 that house will be sittin' for a while!

[jaded]

we were looking at crappy houses just like this in nearby Glendora a couple of years ago, with prices in the 600s. Sellers didn't bother to paint, water the lawn, or even make minor cosmetic repairs, because hey, people were buying before the for sale sign got posted on the lawn.

We just laughed at the thought of a decrepit little shack for $600+K, and stayed put in our condo. I thank God every day for our refusal to join that bubble frenzy, and have no sympathy for those that didn't. We did ourselves the biggest financial favor of our lives.

[tarbubble]

there are some good employment sectors in the IE, but in a limited number of fields. if you're willing to do the train thing, metrolink runs right through Pomona. It's not all gangs & blight; some neighborhoods are very nice. i don't know this neighborhood, haven't been in it for probably 10 years, but the area is kind of nice - as you can see there are hills close by and it's actually fairly close to the 57/210 and Cal Poly Pomona. if there were any electrical engineering jobs in Pomona we might consider it, but alas we are stuck in south OC for a while. no $320k houses here!

[peter m]

Pomona is a pretty rundown city/community especially areas south of the 10 fwy along Holt Ave and Mission , and which is the old central ragged part of town . Even North of the 10 is not exactly primo either. Not exactly a city one would want to buy a home in as there are large residential areas which are really declining into out and out suburban ghettos . It seems as if the entire riffaff and outscourings of the SGV are concentrated in Pomona.
Depressed and ragged are the words which come to mind.
Not to say that all of Pomona is like this as it is a large community with maybe a few outlying decent hoods(Phillips ranch?) but the main central core dwtn district is a completely hollowed out exurban dilapidated slum.

[Problemwithcaring]

Good neighborhoods in Pomona?

One of the best areas of Pomona is its historical district, with its nice old houses and tree-lined streets, which host all sorts of colors in the fall/winter. People decorate their houses tastefully for Christmas and always pass out candy for Halloween.

Unfortunately it’s still in Pomona. This historical district is bordered by two main boulevards: Holt Ave to the South and Garey Ave and Towne Ave. to the east and west. Each are filled with pawn shops, the requisite liquor stores and $33 a night motels and are patrolled by more pimps than police. Gang intimidation and graffiti are facts of life in this "good neighborhood."

Commuting to Pomona is a nightmare. Within the city limits there is one starbucks and one 7-11. The town is tiny, but I have yet to find a non-drive-thru restaurant with sit-in dining that has greater than a "B" public health grade. A potential landlord told my non-Hispanic friend, "not to rent ANYTHING" south of Mission in east Pomona. Huh? Why? Too dangerous for “outsiders.” Just don't.

Pomona confounds me. Montclair, West Covina, hell even RIALTO I can objectively fathom a desire to live there by someone. But in 2007, why Pomona? I just don't understand....

I'm not trying to sh!t on it "just 'cause" - there really is no there, there.

[Martin]

A Cliff May house is not a Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece. It's a little ranch house in a marginal area. I confess you could pay me to live in it. How about a fantasy deal ... one year of occupancy in exchange for full house title? Alas, there is no Santa Claus and there is no chace in hell I would pay to live in Pomona or Cliff May's or Tweedle Dum's house.

[Bruce emerton]

People, who trash Pomona, without having visited Pomona, do our fair city a disservice. Pomona is an old city with and abundance of historic architecture from all periods. We now have 5 historic districts, and are working on a downtown historic district featuring the Millard Sheets pedestrian mall, the Welton Becket designed Civic Center and the soon to be open fully restored Art Deco Masterpiece: the Fox Theater. Pomona is the only city served by two Metrolink lines, its home to Cal Poly, Pomona and much more. The Cliff May in question is not in such bad shape, four Cliff May houses on Wright St. have been fully restored, including my own. All the original windows are still there, only boarded up, and the house could be brought back from the brink very easily. These Cliff May house were designed specifically to be rearranged and modified they will go back to original very quickly. As long as the house hasn’t had its original windows removed (and this one hasn’t) and as long as the dreaded stucco hasn’t been sprayed on (no stucco here) the house are easily brought back to original. Another plus, the house back up to the bucolic county owned Westmont Hills, one of the last green belts you will find in the county that aren’t covered with development. One last word on Westmont in Pomona, this area, featuring 4 different tracts, including the Cliff May tract, is home to the first modern tract in America to be financier by the FHA in 1951 (Los Angeles Times Home Magazine, Cover Story, July 15, 1951)

Bruce Emerton
Architecture Librarian
Cal Poly, Pomona