When one looks at the relationship between the active lifestyle and San Diego’s north county, the city of Encinitas definitely supports the reputation. World Champions in beach volleyball, Ironman triathlon, cycling and more have at one point or another have called Encinitas home both personally and professionally.

For the triathlete, Encinitas ranks at the top for training opportunities. The Magdalena Ecke YMCA sports a new world class swim venue and the masters program. while beginner friendly, can be STACKED with world class triathletes. Also Moonlight beach, starting in the spring, keeps a buoy anchored offshore so you can practice your open water swimming and sighting skills.

The city is also very central to many great bike rides and plays an integral part in the San Diego Century ride associated with the Encinitas Sports Festival held in the late spring each year. You can head north for a great coastal ride to the Oceanside Harbor or, make a day of it and ride  through Camp Pendleton for lunch in Dana Point. Looking for more of a challenge, heading south takes you to the Torrey Pines hill climb and heading east out Encinitas Blvd leads through the neighboring city of Rancho Santa Fe to the famous Del Dios Loop or Lake Wholford ride. If you are ready and able to hammer, you may want to show up at NYTRO Saturday mornings to join the Swami’s cycling club drop fest. This ride is tough and has hosted some of the biggest names in cycling over the years.

For the runner, and third leg of triathlon, the Monday night Encinitas Movin’ Shoes run is not to be missed. This run attracts upwards of 60 runners of all abilities and is a great way for a new homeowner to build their social network the old fashion way. Additionally, the “Y” running group has a pocketful of running routes with titles, like “the butterfly run” or “the tunnel”. This running group is usually about 10:1 female to male, but guys, check you ego at the door as these women are FAST and patient.

Lastly, let’s talk beach volleyball.

There are three courts available at Moonlight beach and there is a dedicated group that train there in the mornings. Check with the lifeguards at the main tower and they will be able to dial you in on times or rent what you need to play a “friendly” from the concession stand when open.  Also, this year is the 47th annual “Moonlight Mixed” co-ed tournament that was won last year by Casey Jennings and his wife Olympic Gold medalist Kerri Walsh-Jennings.

So there you have, a quick look at what makes Encinitas a great choice for the buyer looking to land in an active and affordable beach community.

Oh, yes Johnny, there are about a thousand places, from world class reef breaks to booming beach breaks, to get your surf on.

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What is funny with this type of study is that it does not address one crucial element to our survival, and that is water. If the county really is really going to grow remotely close to these  numbers you can count on more desalinization plants to be starting with the Carlsbad desal plant. We are losing water share from the Colorado river and the water from the delta and rivers is being closely watched and regulated with regard to its impact on wildlife. The Delta Smelt my do to farming in the California what the Northern Spotted Owl did to logging in Oregon.

“We can imagine densifying housing, but what about the impact it has on roads and libraries and hospitals?” said urban studies professor Keith Pezzoli of the University of California San Diego. “And cities are in a state of crisis. Where’s the food, energy and water coming from? If you think it’s going to come from far away, you’re wrong. It’s a different paradigm now. We’re not in Kansas anymore.”-sduniontribune 2/26/2010

I have always been of the opinion that “toilet to tap” is on our future and that desal is coming like it or not.

So while the quality of life may be going down the tubes in the future, I am looking for lemonade here and I think it can be found in water ETFs. Yes, it may be time to put money into the companies that are going to grow in importance. One of my favorite financial blogs has stated that water will be a more valuable than oil in the future.

Here are some quotes from Investing in Water: Blue Gold by Chris Mayer.

• A gallon of crude oil costs $1.45. A gallon of Evian costs $11.91. This simple observation led one successful investor to assert that oil is undervalued.
• One official recently said China’s problem is “more serious and urgent than [in] any other country in the world.” China’s rapid industrialization has outpaced its water infrastructure, which is on the verge of collapse. As Minister of Water  Resources Wang Shucheng noted, “The price of China’s economic boom is being paid in water.” Two-thirds of China’s 600 largest cities don’t have enough water; half of these cities have polluted groundwater. Less than 15%  of China’s population has safe drinking water from tap. The recent spill in the Songhua River, widely covered in the media, only worsens the problem.
• The Christian Science Monitor in December 2004 contained a provocative article suggesting that we could see a cartel of water-exporting countries emerge over the next decade, in a style not unlike the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. “Water is blue gold; it’s terribly precious,” Maude Barlow, chairwoman of the Council of Canadians, told the Monitor, “Not too far in the future, we’re going to see a move to surround and commodity the world’s fresh water. Just as they’ve divvied up the world’s oil, in the coming century, there’s going to be a grab.”

Whether or not you choose to believe Barlow, it is clear that the demand for clean water is real. In an attempt to avert crisis, China plans to build hundreds of new water treatment plants. But for now, bottled water is the preferred choice – even among the Chinese, at least among those who can afford it. When I was in China, bottled water was nearly everywhere. As the Monitor points out, consumption of bottled water nearly quadrupled between 1997-2002.

So here you go San Diego WATER ETFs!!! If we can’t change the future, maybe we can a few bucks on our way to unpleasantness.

Time to go for a swim.

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One, on Vancouver Street, was a single story with a three car garage located on hilltop cul de sac location in a great established community. The other, on Valley Place near the high school, was the classic 1960-70’s beach cottage with the awesome knotty pine tongue and groove ceiling that too was located on a large pie shaped lot on a cul de sac also.

There was some interest in these homes and in follow up with the other agent, I learned that they were both going in to escrow within 5 days of being listed and these were not homes being sold under market value.

I saw this as a great sign since both of these homes were listed in the mid 500K range. Taking it one step further, I was curious to see how the San Diego market faired over the weekend.

Looking at all homes listed between 2/11 to 2/16, 805 total, almost 10% were in escrow or contingent status for short sales!! 78 listings went off the market within the first week. Now looking back to the same period in 2009 the rate was approximately 7.5% with 68 out of 892 homes going off market in the first week.

I would suggest if you see a home of interest you may want to do your “research” sooner than later. The good ones go quick!!

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In the spring of 2009 the property was offered for sale and the city of Carlsbad was offered the Village H property for $385,000. The city passed on the opportunity and the property was sold to the Thompson Corporation of Nevada for $315,000.

Not too long after the purchase of the property, the owners put up wrought iron fencing(seen in the bottom picture) and a locked gate as well as no trespassing signs. As this work was started, it stirred up the neighboring homeowners around the trails and there was great concern for about the loss of the walking trail. This led to the formation of a citizens group, Save Village H. The citizens demanded an explanation and now the drive was on to have the city acquire this property.

Definition of extortion; charging of unfairly high prices: the charging of an excessive amount of money for something

The current owner, several months after purchasing the property and installing the fence, have listed the property for sale with an asking price of $3.95 MILLION dollars!! Now I don’t know if this was a plan or not, but this is brilliant. Buy the property for $315,000 because come on, with 95% of it designated open space, it is semi-worthless. HOWEVER, cut it off to the public who have been using it for decades to walk their dogs, let their kids run and swing from the trees, create this great public uprising and dangle it back in front of the city for an over 1200% premium!! Brilliant!!

“Heck, what’s a little extortion amongst friends?”-Bill Watterson

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SAN DIEGO NORTH COUNTY- Foreclosureradar.com reported that notice of default filings were down 44% in San Diego’s north county when comparing January’s 2009-2010 numbers. Additionally homes sold at auction for the region in the same time period were down 76%.

In an article in today’s North County Times they suggested that the “efficiency” of short sales was a contributing factor to this reduction.

"The stress of default is still there," said Mark Goldman, a real estate instructor at San Diego State University. "But we’re starting to hear a lot more buzz about the efficiency of short sales."-nctimes.com

While I do not necessarily see an increase in the number of short sales, I certainly am not experiencing or hearing of an increase in efficiency. Short sales are still very dependent on the short amount, the ability of the seller to show the need for the short sale and to provide the paperwork required by the bank and probably the most weighted aspect, is the number of lenders in the decision making process.

“Approximately one-third of the short-sale listings on the market don’t close, either because the lender won’t approve a realistic price, or because there are multiple liens secured against the property”-Dyan Hymer,2/9/1010,”The truth about short sales”, Inman News

If you think you may be losing your home, I strongly encourage you to try to short sale. Give me a call with any questions. 760.415.3329

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The 56 corridor was added as one of several "alternative routes" by the authority  after staunch public opposition last fall to the proposed Rose Canyon Open Space alignment near University City.-nctimes.com

While this train may or may not ever happen, if I lived anywhere in the area of the 56 corridor, I would pay close attention to the planning process by signing up for the mailing list. It could have a significant impact on real estate values.

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Me, I say turn on the lights of common sense and, while I have not been invited in to any boardrooms, I submit the following.

Take a look at the graph pictured. While from July 2008 to March 2009, foreclosures trended down in San Diego approximately 63%, number of homes sold, through data obtained from the Sandicor MLS, actually increased approximately 20% from a monthly average of 2500 to 2977.

Additionally, as reported in the San Diego Union Tribune, “listings since July have dropped 35.6 percent to 4,706 single-family resale homes, according to the San Diego Association of Realtors. Resale condo listings were down 45.4 percent to 2,571.” This is conspicuously close to the 34% drop in foreclosures in the same time period.

Lastly, in the Case-Schiller index, San Diego was ranked number four in home pricing increase out of their top 20 metropolitan markets and according to Dataquick, San Diego led the southern California region with a 10% gain in home prices over December 2008.

So, here is where my common sense kicks in, for better or worse.

Let’s say I’m a decision maker at a bank and I have an inventory of homes. We know 1) the federal tax rebate program is coming to an end and most likely will not be renewed a second time 2) listings are down over 30% 3) interest rates are expected to rise throughout 2010 4) pricing is up double digit in the market and 5) the San Diego market is showing stability and price growth in two indexes. My decision………. let’s sit on the inventory and see if the market conditions get better!!!

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While this may seem like a boom to flippers, there is a clause limiting the seller’s profit to not more than 20% unless an appraiser can justify the added value from repairs and renovations.

The move will open a new pool of homes to first-time homebuyers who have been losing bids to cash buyers, but shouldn’t have much effect on home prices, analysts said.-nctimes.com

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One thing hasn’t changed: the energy savings. Compact fluorescents emit the same light as classic incandescents but use 75% or 80% less electricity.

What that means is that if every one of 110 million American households bought just one ice-cream-cone bulb, took it home, and screwed it in the place of an ordinary 60-watt bulb, the energy saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people. One bulb swapped out, enough electricity saved to power all the homes in Delaware and Rhode Island. In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads.       -Fast Company Magazine

The problem with them is they are considered hazardous household waste. The reason for this is they they contain mercury atoms in the gas that fills the bulb and mercury is a hazardous material. 

But there are many electronic products we use daily that too are considered to contain hazardous material. I personally use one rule to decide if I am going to save the product for disposal at a e-waste event and that is, does it have a circuit board. If the answer is yes, I save it in a box and dispose of at these free events.

Starting today and tomorrow there is a e-waste disposal event in Carlsbad at the Westfield mall. January 16th and 17th there will be two events in La Jolla and La Mesa and finally a fourth on January 30th in Encinitas. Additionally, Recycle San Diego, has ongoing events at their location.

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SAN DIEGO- It’s like deja vu all over again.Today Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed and  has sent to the state legislature a new round of state first time buyer tax credit. The tax credit as proposed would be for new or existing construction and would be paid out as a $3333.00 tax credit over a three year period. The state tax credit could be combined with the federal tax credit, but would be limited to 20,000 qualified purchase as it will be only funded with $200,000,000.

Schwarzenegger administration officials said conditions of their proposal would be similar to last year’s credit. That had no income limits, made all buyers eligible and required that buyers live in their homes. No dates have been set yet for eligibility. Buyers qualified last year by closing escrow after the credits became available on March 1.- www.sacbee.com/business

We’re still broke and as much as I wish this would be a good thing, it is just plain dumb.

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