To live and blog in Hemet: Renovating a "brick house"

I was snooping around Kate in the Valley's blog the other day, checking up on Sherman Oaks listings, and Kate recommended a very cool blog about interior design and home remodeling, so I'll pass it on.

If you are interested in what you can do to stylize a '50's-era tract house, check out The Brick House, which tracks the ongoing renovation of a plain-Jane brick house in Hemet. Moto: "All about fixing up a 1950's mid-century cement brick house. Trying to make it awesome and do it on a tight budget."

The blog, and the home decorating, are the work of artist Morgan Satterfield, who lived in Los Angeles before moving to the Brick House in Hemet. Yes, it's in Hemet and it's cool.

The house is still a work in progress. The blog is fun and very accessible — flea market finds, trying to duplicate a look you've seen in a Martha Stewart magazine, paint swatches on the side of the house, etc.

— Peter Viles

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to Peter Viles.

Photo Credit: The Brick House

Tree of the week: Italian stone pine

Good morning Mark Sanchez, on this, the first Saturday of the 2008 college football season. By my reckoning, this fall will mark Pieter Severynen's sixth season of providing us with his weekly appreciation of the trees that make Los Angeles into one of the world's great urban forests. Thank you, Pieter.

(Italian) stone pine – Pinus pinea

The stone pine is one of our oldest plant companions. Its edible seeds (pine nuts, pinoli) have been harvested for thousands of years and it may well be the first pine tree used and cultivated by early man. It probably originated in and near the Iberian Peninsula, but since prehistoric times it was known and planted all around the Mediterranean Sea.

A moderately fast-growing evergreen, the stone pine can grow to 40 to 80 feet tall by 40 to 60 feet wide. It changes shape as it does so, steadily gaining in character along the way. It starts out as a thick, bushy, round-headed tree; in middle age it develops a many-branched umbrella shape, supported by a thick trunk; and in later age it becomes broader and more flat-topped. Branches may become hugely thick with age and the tree gives the impression of tremendous strength. The bark is thick, reddish-brown in color and deeply fissured. Juvenile leaves are short, single, and blue-green in color; the 5- to 8-inch-long, stiff, adult, bright green needle-like leaves are borne in bundles of two. Broadly oval, glossy-brown cones, 4 to 6 inches long, which take three years to mature, follow the female flowers. The tree is drought-tolerant and loves full sun. Over-watering may cause branch drop. As a street tree or garden specimen it needs room at the top as well as plenty of space for its roots.

The Romans thought that the seeds had aphrodisiacal qualities. Grown commercially for its seeds, the stone pine is also widely planted for its beautiful shape. The Italians were so familiar with the tree that it was almost unavoidable that the stone pine became a favorite subject in Renaissance paintings.

Thanks again, Pieter.

Your thoughts? Comments?

-- Peter Viles

Photo credit: Pinien La Brena 2004, via Wikipedia Commons

European buyers like windows, closet space

Sellers hoping to attract European buyers could take a tip or two from the Engel & Völkers Group. 

According to the luxury real estate firm, which has offices in 24 countries, such buyers are most interested in amenities they can't find at home. Bless their adventurous souls.

That said, the features they are seeking aren't so uncommon here in Southern California. Among them are large windows, high ceilings and open floor plans. Walk-in closets and large eat-in kitchens, atypical in European homes, also appeal, as do mega-refrigerators, built-in speaker systems and iPod docking stations.

Whether sellers are concerned with snagging international buyers or not, area real estate agents are taking this group of potential clients seriously. Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Co.-Greater L.A. surveyed 2,500 of their agents this summer to determine how active international buyers and sellers are locally. 

Less than half of the agents surveyed -- 42% -- had worked with a buyer or seller from outside the country in the last year, and of those who had, 54% indicated they had completed up to three transactions. The luxury market was the biggest beneficiary with 50% of the sales in the $1-million to $5-million range.

Another reason to take notice: The National Assn. of Realtors reports that after Florida, California is the next most popular state with the international crowd.

-- Lauren Beale

Your thoughts? Comments?

Photo: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

FBI on mortgage meltdown: "We are not banking regulators"

In a letter to the Los Angeles Times, the FBI is defending its response to the wave of mortgage fraud, and rejecting the suggestion it could have done more to prevent the current mortgage crisis.  The letter is in response to a Times story this week headlined "FBI saw threat of mortgage crisis," which reported that a top FBI official had warned in 2004 of widening loan fraud.

The FBI letter follows.

Dear Editor:

Your 8/25 story on the mortgage crisis ("FBI saw threat of mortgage crisis", L.A. Times, August 25th 2008) implied that if the FBI had made more arrests for mortgage fraud, the crisis could have been averted. To even suggest that is a cry for a lesson in both civics and basic economics.

The story's premise was built around a 2004 quote from an FBI official who said he was confident the FBI could prevent fraud from becoming a massive problem. In context, Assistant Director Chris Swecker meant he believed the FBI could stay focused on mortgage fraud to prevent fraud from becoming the major driver that would cause a collapse of credit in the housing market. We believe by a good measure, the Bureau did that.

The FBI's Criminal Division has arrested 1000 suspects and targeted 180 criminal enterprises since 2004. We targeted those lenders and buyers involved in multiple frauds or cases where the profits went to drug crews, gangs or organized crime. More investigations are ongoing. But the FBI is a law enforcement and intelligence agency, we are not banking regulators.

In the end, most economists have attributed the crisis to very aggressive lending practices and too little risk management throughout the financial services industry. As far as mortgage fraud was concerned the FBI had the right intelligence and provided the right warnings to the industry but fraud alone does not appear to be the straw that broke the mortgage camel's back.

In the boom and bust of the mortgage business, to suggest that making more arrests would have averted the mortgage crisis is to confuse the root cause with the side-effects. It is not a fair or realistic assessment.

Kenneth Kaiser
Assistant Director
Criminal Investigative Division
Federal Bureau of Investigation

--Peter Viles

Photo Credit: FBI director Robert Mueller, via A.P.

Home sweet rental: in praise of renting

Is renting just a temporary stop on the road to home ownership, or is it a destination in and of itself?  And does it even matter in the search for a place to call home?

An opinion essay worth reading in today's L.A. Times addresses that question. Headline: "You don't have to own it to make it a home." Kerry Madden writes:

My husband and I have never owned a house -- and may not any time soon, despite the steep drop in home prices. ... We've lived in our current home for 10 years now. We pay $1,400 a month in rent for a five-bedroom in Silver Lake. Our only debt is mounting college loans. Our landlord is a good guy. He's raised the rent only once, and he has a home-warranty plan, which means that if something breaks, the company comes out and fixes it. The neighborhood is full of friends for the kids.

But is it a holding pattern? Shouldn't we look to buy now that prices are finally coming down? But how can we with tuitions going up?

As I say, worth reading. The essay, as I read it, is only partly about the old rent-versus-buy argument, which is pretty much an economic discussion. It's also about the psychic issue of where your home really is, and what makes a place your home.

-- Peter Viles

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to Peter Viles.
More about author Kerry Madden here.
Photo: Los Angeles Times

For auction: One Vienna palace

Palace, anyone?

There's nothing like a little looky-looing to set the tone for a long weekend. But if your schedule won't allow for a jaunt to Vienna, then take a quick peek here at the 300-year-old Palais Auersperg.

Located in the middle of town, the Baroque palace is near museums and the opera, has a view of the Parliament building and includes its own park.

A picture being worth a thousand words, on amenities let's just say: yes. No firm price is set, but 33 million euros is suggested as a point of reference. A quick conversion on a calculator clocks that at more than $48 million.

In a buying mood? Don't worry about getting the paperwork from afar and translating forms. According to Stiller & Hohla Immobilien -- Real Estate, "a precisely structured bidding process" will put investors around the world on equal footing to snap it up.

Let the bidding begin.

-- Lauren Beale

Your thoughts? Comments?

Photos: Courtesy of Stiller & Hohla Immobilien --Real Estate

Only in L.A.: Singing the $250K-a-year blues

If you make a quarter of a million dollars a year, does it make economic sense to buy a house in L.A. right now?  Back-to-back commenters on L.A. Land answered that question on the blog earlier today with a resounding "no."

Common Sense wrote:

"My wife and I earn around $250K per year, are in our mid 30's and have a newborn child. In any other planet, we should be able to own a very nice house. However, in Los Angeles, the only thing we can properly afford would be a starter home at $750K, maybe that gets you a 2 bed, 1/2 bath crack house, and our combined salary puts us in the top 3% in annual wages in the US.

This just doesn't make sense and will be a big reason why Los Angeles will experience a BLOODBATH in housing prices falling for the next several years, that is unless the entire city is inhabited by multi-millionaires.

In the meantime, we'll keep renting our excellent 2000 square foot apartment, paying nothing, taking awesome vacations, going to excellent restaurants, etc. and saving, saving and saving (A LOT).

We'll enter the market when home prices fall to planet earth (2-4 years).

A few minutes later JayC wrote:

"... wife and I make ~$250K/year, live in apartment on westside, and child is on the way. The problem isn't that we don't make enough or that our expectations are too high (as realtors might say). I've been living in LA my whole life and I DO know what people who make $250K/yr SHOULD be living in. It may not be Beverly HIlls, but it sure is more than a 1500sq-ft fixer in Sherman Oaks. Sucks not to have any tax breaks, but I'd rather pay $1800/mo to rent a townhouse than pay $5000K/mo to rent money from the bank that owns the house I 'bought.''

I'll put the question to the readers: If you made $250,000 a year, and could afford a down payment, would you buy a home in L.A. right now? If so, where, and for how much, and what do you think you'd get?

-- Peter Viles

Photo Credit: House on Providencia Street in Woodland Hills, via L.A. Times

The seven houses of John and Cindy McCain

Those of you still curious, and still confused, over how many houses John and Cindy McCain really own, this Zillow blog post was written for you. Zillow's Diane Tuman counts up the McCain properties and stops at seven (three in California); she also notes that the New York Times counted up to 11, Politico counted eight, and the Washington Post counted six.

She's got photos, addresses and links to Zillow's "Zestimates" of how much each of the various McCain properties are worth. (The McCain ranch in Sedona, Ariz.?  Zillow says it's cheaper than a typical Westside L.A. starter home, at $613,000)

For the record, the L.A. Times counted at least eight McCain houses: "McCain and his wealthy wife, Cindy, have four homes -- in Arizona, California and Virginia -- worth about $9 million on local tax rolls. The McCains also own at least four other residential properties as investments or for use by other family members, public records show. All of the properties are held in the name of Cindy McCain and her dependent children through partnerships, limited corporations and trusts."

In the same story, The Times laid out the unusual circumstances under which Barack Obama purchased his $1.6-million Chicago home:

Obama and his wife, Michelle, bought their only home, a three-story Georgian revival house in Chicago's leafy Kenwood neighborhood, for $1.6 million in 2005. They probably could not have done that without help from Antoin Rezko, an early political patron. Rezko paid $625,000 to buy the adjoining lot from the home's owner, who wanted to sell it in a package deal. Obama later bought a narrow strip of the Rezko lot. In June, a federal jury convicted Rezko of mail fraud, money laundering and other crimes. None of the charges related to Obama or his home."

-- Peter Viles

Your thoughts? Comments?

Photo: Mailboxes line the edge of the dirt road that leads to McCain's house in Sedona, Ariz. Credit: Associated Press

First-time buyers are tough to please

Buyers are fickle. Just ask their agents.

In a mini-survey released last week, 150 Coldwell Banker brokers from across the nation revealed that first-time home buyers say their focus is affordability, but their expectations are unrealistic. 

Move-in-ready conditions weigh heavily when searching for first homes, and as for fixer-upper homes? Most will pass, thank you.

These attitudes may stem from great expectations. For example, 71% of the brokers surveyed noted that first-time home buyers are looking for larger homes than their counterparts were 10 years ago.

"In the past, first-time home buyers were willing to purchase older, more basic houses in an effort to save money and break into homeownership," explained Jim Gillespie, president and chief executive officer of Coldwell Banker Real Estate. "Today, this group has greater home expectations because they have grown up more accustomed to their parents’ lifestyles."

Perhaps, or maybe it's because today's buyers can call the shots.   

-- Lauren Beale

Your thoughts? Comments?

Photo: Steve Yeater / For The Times

Photo of the day: A Neutra in motion, on Sunset

This is from Brian Thomas Jones' excellent photo essay on LATimes.com about the process of moving a Richard Neutra house from Brentwood to Angelino Heights. Here's the crib, heading east on Sunset in Hollywood.

Hat tip: LAObserved. I didn't notice this great photo until I saw it there.

-- Peter Viles