Photo of the Day: She's real fine, my $4.09

I didn't go looking for expensive gas this morning, it found me, on Lincoln Boulevard in Santa Monica. What does it have to do with housing and the economy? Not much if you live in Manhattan and take the subway to work. A lot of you live in Southern California and drive everywhere.

As always, send your best housing, real estate, foreclosure and random photos to Your Scene at LATimes.com.

Comments

[Patrick Duffy, HousingChronicles.com]

I think this is a long-term trend that will have a tremendous impact on land use patterns in the future. Clearly, access to public transit options (for example, I'm within walking distance to the Orange Line in the valley) will rise as one of the key attributes of 'location.'

I recently blogged about a story I'd seen at Breitbart.com predicting a doubling of oil prices by 2012 -- which could mean gas prices of $6 to $8 per gallon. What will THAT do to a real estate market still rising from the ashes of the current bust?

[Roger]

A few weeks ago, our President Bush, when asked what he thought about $4/gallon gas, responded he had not heard of it. Can he please comment now? Can he please walk the supermarket aisles and vist the gas stations? And can our leaders do something about it. We have kids to feed. and we need an affordable house. So please do not keep up the high price of houses.

[jaded]

I take the train into work (and no, public transportation is NOT a civic cure-all), but between driving to the station and a monthly rail pass, I'm out $250 every month just to get to work 20 miles away.

I cannot imagine what the cost of commuting is now costing people driving in from far-flung "affordable" suburban housing. Rising gas prices, rising mortgage payments, and higher food costs--how will those people hang on? Unfortunately, a lot of them won't.

[Karl]

56 cents to the State (new record?), 18 cents to the Feds

[MyLessThanPrimeBeef]

That just makes it a lot more expensive to drive around town looking for a Costco that will let you buy rice.

[mark g]

What, no sense of humor from these station owners...? Thought for sure they would price at $4.05...

[peter m]

It's about time the Santa Monican's extract the last bit of heloc out of their overpriced shantys before the values decline precipitously, say in last half of 2008. They need that heloc extraction(free money isn't it?) to pay that $4.00-soon to go up to $5.00- gas which will soon cost $20.00 just for a trip to dwtn LA or the SFV. Or time to max out those CC's before the banks cut off your credit, so as to keep that hummer gassed up at $100.00 a shot.

Don't worry, the fed will soon roll out bailout packages to rescue upsidedown FB'ers and stem the foreclosures, and all taxpayers in America will soon pay to absorb the RE financial mistakes of financially stupid Californians, plus make sure all those westside property values are propped up.

Never mind that the Central Valley ,IE and the less desirable 'Compton' zones of LA are dropping catastrophically in Re values by 60-80%: what matters is to keep those Westside property values up. The CA Inland areas and LA ghettos might as well be on another planet as far as the LA times is concerned: it is as remote as the mountains of the moon from the Westside/hollywood glitz and lives of the LA rich and famous.

[qzaki]

don't blame me if you drive a car like this:

http://autos.yahoo.com/chevrolet_suburban_
lt2_2500_4wd/

we all know stop and go traffic is even worse than "city" miles; yes you are getting about 12mpg and blocking my view of the road with your tinted windows.

i have no sympathy for your plight; your pandering congressmen gave you a stimulus with my tax dollars but it is only about 3000 gridlock miles for you and your fat children.

[Joseph...The Real Estate Guy]

One of the best ways to get people off their Suv's and into public transit is for the gallon of gas to go into the upwards of $7-$8 dollars a gallon.

Why not do it now by taxing gasoline $3.00 more a gallon and use it to subsidize Truckers.

Lots of benefits:

1) Would stop the waste on public transit.

2) Keep food prices down.

3) Cleaner air.

4) Oil independence.

5) Less money going into Terrorism.

[Steve]

This will impact the RE market and already has. I have rentals that are close to jobs and I just increased the rent on all of them by $100 and nobody bitched, which is a first. Gas prices is now a factor on where you live and work. Why can't the morons in Washington promote telecommuting, this alone is huge if down right and the technology is here now.

[Westside Bubble]

It's not just auto drivers, but the impact to the wider economy of diesel prices on stuff we buy and jobs lost as products are no longer economic to ship.

The resulting deeper recession should further drop housing prices.

See http://westside-bubble.blogspot.com/
2008/04/oil-prices.html for more.

[Ann]

I don't particularly like the high price of gas, but in a way I'm glad. In fact, I wouldn't care if gas were $5 per gallon, as my daily commute is 16 miles round trip. I think this summer we will see a lot less drivers on the road, and hopefully a lot less SUVs. In general, people have a choice on what they drive. Excluding those who really need a gas guzzler for work, most SUVs carry only one person in them and they are bad for the environment. It's hard to see over and around them, so they cause more accidents too.

Higher gas = less driving.

[jaded]

for all of you granola eaters who look forward to $8 a gallon gas because you think that it will drive people onto public buses and trains--what fuel do you think the MTA uses? Do you really think that Metrolink will keep fares at the same prices today as it will when oil is $200 a barrel?

The MTA is just as greedy as any for-profit company and as wasteful as any government program. And when gas does hit $8 a gallon, you're not going to find any financial relief on a freaking commuter train.

[peter m]

On a lighter note is is actually funny to see folks desperately cramming into Arco to buy gas at $3.69 or 3.75 so that they can save a few cents or maybe save a $1.00 instead of paying $3.89-4.09 at Chevron or Mobil. If they use an ATM machine u get charged a .45 cent fee so U save even less. If u put in 10 gallons and use all cash U might save $1.50 or $ 2.00 at the cheapest arco in town which will be enough to buy that 1.29 coffee jolt or two arco cheap hot doggies.

Westsiders get reamed by paying higher gas prices than in the more cheaper crapped out outer LA exurbs, probably average .10 to .20 cents more per gallon .
The gas staions aren't stupid and will charge what the market will bear . They know that the Westsiders are swimming in equity due to WS bubblicious RE prices and entertainment industry incomes,

[Inland Empire]

I paid $3.77 this am in THE INLAND EMPIRE.....

[Teresa]

----------I cannot imagine what the cost of commuting is now costing people driving in from far-flung "affordable" suburban housing. Rising gas prices, rising mortgage payments, and higher food costs--how will those people hang on? Unfortunately, a lot of them won't.------------

Foreclosures in the Antelope Valley are already sky-high...Imagine what will happen when gas is $5.00, $6.00, $7.00 gallon. And it WILL happen. Gas prices are the result of simple supply and demand.

So you're living in a neighborhood of foreclosed, boarded-up houses, your house is worth tens of thousands of dollars (maybe even $100k or more) less than you paid for it three years ago, and now you're spending $400.00/month on gas to commute to your job in L.A. Even if you're not having trouble paying your mortgage, there is a 100% sound economical argument for walking away.

Ahhh, California living!

[sfvrealestate]

And while we're at it, the price of bread has doubled in the last three years. I just wonder why none of this seems to reflect on GWBush?

[Tombstone Realty]

I bought a bike purely because I'm afraid the cost of gas will get so high that Metro will start cutting service on all their secondary bus lines. I can't get to work if there is no bus to get there.

So getting myself in shape. Least I have a 21 speed. Hah.

[Joseph...The Real Estate Guy]

I can't wait for the Electric Cars!!!

Middle east can eat it's oil.

[Lika]

No reason the worry about high gas prices changing the "American way of life" http://www.bigfoot4x4.com/images/bf5spec.jpg
once the cost of gas settles to whatever value it chooses to, we will all just get used to it, and choose a more sensible family transportation, I personally favor the large rims of course
http://www.omninerd.com/articles/Photographs
_of_OIF_III/images/thumb/figure1.jpg
and since today I'm so nostalgic about the American way, I remembered this old photo, not that it will ever happen again, just nostalgia
http://www.zonezero.com/editorial/diciembre99/
images/mbw.jpg

[jb]

why does anyone find this surprising??? thank Ben for slashing interest rates and devaluing the dollar - this is the expected result, not the unexpected one....

[LA Land Fan]

@ jaded,

most if not all metro LA buses run on compressed natural gas. and the subway/light rail is powered by electricity...

sure even the prices of those types of fuel will go up, but i'm pretty sure public transit aways wins out being cheaper than driving a vehicle solo. granted it might take you longer to get where you are going, but it'll definitely be cheaper.

[Michael Snyder]

Joseph...The Real Estate Guy
I'm tryin' to find a polite way to say it, but I just have to call it like it is; Joe, you're a f*#!!in' idiot. That's like saying, "Let's just fire off a few dirty bombs in the USA and get it over with. It'll be like getting the first dent in a new car.
Oil and it's inevitable impact through the rest of the economy is the straw that popped the subprime bubble. It's the daily increase in the costs of food & fuel that effects the margins first and then spreads to the mainstream. Oil & it's byproducts are ubiquitous and there is nothing we purchase that doesn't have it's price driven in part by the cost of fuel.
I don't know if you're out & about during the day, but if you are have you noticed the traffic? Been to a mall lately? Don't feel bad, nobody else is spending a dime they don't have to either. We're all adjusting to the cost of speculation in the commodities markets.
Oil is just the tip of the iceberg. Grains have doubled across the board this year with corn enjoying an almost 300% increase resulting in food shortages across the third world.
There are food riots in the Philippines and the world wide shortage of rice is effecting the Chinese take out you'll enjoy sometime soon. All as a result of the boondoggle called ethanol.
It's funny how the Bush administration didn't take an interest in ethanol until Chevron, BP & Shell were well positioned to take full advantage of not only the end product, but their commodities positions were well established long before our government gave them over $5 billion to "develop" their markets. Now if these blockheads used the 90% of the plant we don't eat this may be palatable, but that part still goes to waste.
Tax & spend programs are inherently flawed and are notorious for activating the laws of unintended consequences.
We've reaches the tipping point and $600 isn't going to tip us back. The woes of the real estate market are but s symptom of much deeper problems in the financial sector. Commodities prices are being driven by the same over leveraged no load friends of George Jr. who absolutely can't allow Paul to ever catch Peter or the jig's up. Until the purchases of positions within the commodities, financial and insurance markets are "regulated as tightly" as mortgage underwriting nothing will keep us out of a far more serious recession than the one we're already in.

[LeftLA]

Joseph: just how do you plan to generate the electricity for your little putt-putt? Burn coal and pollute more? Nuclear? There's still a significant cost involved.

[yours truly, Johnny Dollar]

Last Saturday, the Shell station at The Wheel Inn (where
the dinosaurs are) in Cabazon had 87 octane posted at
$4.39 point 9; and that was last week-end.