Thanksgiving is right around the corner! Are your holiday pies handled yet?
Please join us and help make an impact on those in need this holiday season.
Mama’s Kitchen is an organization that delivers meals to homebound individuals vulnerable to malnutrition due to conditions such as HIV, cancer, heart disease, and more. Their primary fundraiser is Mama’s Pies and with the purchase of each pie, they’re able to produce and deliver 12 meals to those in need!
Sales end Nov. 19th or as long as supplies last, so get your orders in ASAP.
To buy pies and/or donate, here’s the information:
1. Visit our selling page: https://mamaspies.org/seller/donna-klinge/
2. Click “Buy or Donate Pies.”
3. Add your desired pies to your cart.
4. Under the “Select a Seller” section, click “Yes” and select “Seller: Jim & Donna Klinge.”
5. Choose your desired pick up location OR under Private, choose “PRKLINGE” to have our team deliver it to your home in San Diego! If choosing delivery, we’ll reach out for your address.
6. Add in any donation amount if you’d like.
7. Put in your payment method and click submit!
Did you know that a garden gnome is a sign that the homeowners are swingers?
They do say no one knows what goes on behind closed doors – but is your neighbor giving out secret clues that they’re a swinger?
Yesterday we told how sales of garden pampas grass have plummeted because it’s believed to be a secret signal that swingers live in the home it belongs to. But it turns out that the exotic plant isn’t the only giveaway that the house’s residents are into liberal sexual practices.
They also cite white landscaping rocks and pink or purple decorations in the front garden as a signal of swinger activity. Bizarrely, the website identifies pineapples as another swinger signal – in the form of a door knocker. They may look sweet and innocent, but it turns out garden gnomes are a likely indicator that the resident is into swinging too.
This 6.9-acre oceanfront site has been called one of the most exclusive and unique properties in the United States, and has been listed for sale since 2007 – the current price is $49,000,000. An incredible turn of events is underway – the planned high-end resort was defeated by the voters, so now they want to put apartments there and are using the state’s mandate for lower-income housing as their leverage. From the UT:
A developer is proposing a 259-unit apartment complex on an ocean bluff in Del Mar that was previously the site of a contentious battle over a resort.
Owner Carol Lazier has submitted paperwork and applications to Del Mar for what is being called Seaside Ridge, which would be the biggest apartment complex in the city. Plans call for 85 subsidized apartments, some for individuals making as little as $30,000 a year, on the nearly 7-acre site near Dog Beach.
Lazier and her partners are betting on new state laws that encourage residential building — especially for rent-restricted apartments — to get the plan approved.
“Our plan would help the City of Del Mar comply with the law by building 259 apartment units,” said project spokesman Darren Pudgil. “Seaside Ridge will provide 78 percent of the city’s need for 54 lower-income units (required by the state) and well over 100 percent of the city’s moderate-income need. This will provide equitable coastal access for a range of income groups.”
Seaside Ridge would have nine buildings, some up to four stories, and a two-story parking podium/garage. Taller buildings are clustered in the center and in the east portions of the site. The development would have 305 parking spots and 25 electric car charging stations. The mix of apartments would include 71 studios, 131 one-bedrooms, 38 two-bedrooms and 19 three-bedrooms. It would also include a trail accessible to the public that leads to views of the ocean.
Lazier, the property owner for around 20 years, previously worked with Zephyr Partners and The Robert Green Company to develop a hotel on the site called Marisol. The effort to get the project approved, called Measure G, was defeated by voters in 2020. A developer has not been selected yet for the apartment project, but Lazier has hired architects, land use experts and lawyers.
Lazier is known for her philanthropy, donating $1 million to save the San Diego Opera in 2014 and other donations.
A legal firm representing the development, Southern California-based Sheppard Mullin, argues Del Mar must approve the plan because it falls under recent laws — namely Senate Bills 330 and 8 — that encourage additional housing and streamline approvals.
The legal claim for Seaside Ridge centers on Del Mar being out of compliance with the state’s Housing Element Law, which requires municipalities to rezone parcels to meet requirements for housing. Seaside Ridge’s law firm also uses a law signed by the governor last year, AB 1398, that requires local governments to approve most housing projects if they are out of compliance. Del Mar has identified the fairgrounds as a possible site for subsidized housing but has yet to approve a firm plan, setting up an opportunity for Seaside Ridge.
While it remains to be seen how lawyers and staff for Del Mar will interpret Seaside Ridge’s legal claims, housing analyst Nathan Moeder said the legal argument for approval makes sense. Moeder, who was not involved in the project but reviewed legal arguments, said it appeared to be an example of a community unable to escape housing requirements imposed by the state.
Moeder said it would be ironic if the project is approved because residents of the area would probably have enjoyed the resort defeated by Measure G, with restaurants and more public features.
“This is the unintended consequence of NIMBYism,” he said, referring to the anti-housing term Not in my Backyard. “They tried to stop a hotel that was more public-orientated, it had a restaurant and a bar that the public could use, and now they are just going to stuff housing there.”
Moeder said the NIMBY movement will need to get smarter about opposing projects because most land-use fights will now need to be taken up in Sacramento.
“It’s the state that’s making this happen. It’s not the local governments,” he said. “You can pass any initiative or referendum you want at the local level. The state will override you.”
Instead of using the median sales price as a gauge, let’s look at the history of the median $/sf to help bring the size of the homes into the equation.
Thoughts:
I remember 2018 and 2019 being fairly flat and a bit of a struggle. Rates had been in the 3% to 4% range during the 2015-2017 period, and once they got back into the mid-to-high 4s in the summer of 2018, pricing hit the skids. Luckily, rates dropped under 4% in late-2019 which caused us to be optimistic about the selling season of 2020 – and you can see that pricing got off to a good start.
The Pandemic Stall caused a blip in April, 2020, but we recovered and charged into 2021. You could say that local pricing took off like a rocket, rising 25% in five months:
Jan 2021: $559/sf
Jun 2021: $697/sf
Today we are under where 2022 started, and it could get worse. However, the median for the 38 sales closed this month is an impressive $823/sf, which is 4% higher than last month.
But we have a long way to go!
Speaking of a long way to go, Rob Dawg wanted to stir it up, like most Dodger fans. We have been subject to endless taunting since making the playoffs, including Charlie Steiner suggesting that the Padres rivalry with the Dodgers would be like a nail having a rivalry with a hammer.
Just you wait!
Bob Melvin has engineered the greatest rope-a-dope since Muhammad Ali. Sacrificing the first game last night with Clevinger vs. Urias was ingenious, because Kershaw is washed up and due for a dud – and Darvish has been lights out.
The Padres win tonight, and then come home to the raucous crowd who hasn’t seen a playoff game in 16 years, and Petco Park will be rocking for Snellzilla. Then we got No-No-Joe for Saturday’s game and the Dodgers will have to bring back Urias early on three days rest and he won’t have enough.
This is the last chance to get on the Padres bandwagon!
It’s probably true that seniors are leading healthier, longer lives and will prefer to age-in-place – which will keep a limit on the number of homes for sale and temper any downdraft in pricing. What is worse is that the resulting back-up will cause others to stay in their current home forever too!
It was asked on Twitter, ‘how could homes prices get cut in half?’ I said, “Boomers die 10x faster”, which got my Twitter account suspended temporarily. Let’s see if they do it again!
Reader ‘just some guy’ sent in this UT article – an excerpt:
On Thursday, county officials announced that San Diego County has become the first county in the nation to have all 18 of its eligible hospitals receive the Geriatric Emergency Department (GED) Accreditation.
San Diego County is home to a large population of people age 60 and older, and that demographic is projected to continue growing over the next decade. Today, there are approximately 670,000 county residents in this age group, and by 2030, they are expected to surpass 900,000, said Nick Macchione, director of the county’s Health & Human Services Agency.
Seniors are more likely than almost any other age group to visit the emergency room. The county reports that each year, about 275,000 county seniors make ER visits, which leads to about one-third of all hospital admissions. “That is why it’s critically important to have all our hospitals that are eligible be geriatric certified,” Macchione said.
Here is a wider look at the fire map for Encinitas/Carlsbad.
The blue dot is the location of my listing in La Costa Oaks; a neighborhood of 820 homes built in 2005-2013 (long after the Harmony Fire of 1996). The newer homes were built on the outskirts of town, so if you prefer a recently-built home, it’s very likely that it’s going to be in the fire zone.
For those who can’t find a traditional insurance carrier to provide fire insurance, there is the California Fair Plan. Here’s a quote from a Liberty Mutual agent:
Regular homeowners policy (liability, theft, etc.): $1,700 per year.
CA Fair Plan (fire): $3,500-$5,000 per year, depending on the deductible amount.
My sellers’ policy (with fire coverage) with Mercury Insurance is $3,500 per year, so the additional amount with the CA Fair Plan is approximately $3,200 per year if you like a lower deductible.
Homeownership is expensive. If you want a newer house, it’s likely to be located in the fire zone and be more expensive to insure. If you buy an older home, you’ll probably spend the same or similar amount having to update/improve it every year to bring it up to today’s standard. It’s your choice!
SB 1105 has already passed in the state senate, and is being debated in the assembly. According to C.A.R., it will ‘grant vast, unchecked, taxing and bonding authority to an unelected Housing Agency Board in San Diego which would consist of 6 appointed representatives’. Huh? Anything that resembles a property tax is supposed to be approved by the voters!
This bill, the San Diego Regional Equitable and Environmentally Friendly Housing Act, would establish the San Diego Regional Equitable and Environmentally Friendly Affordable Housing Agency and would state that the agency’s purpose is to increase the supply of equitable and environmentally friendly housing in the County of San Diego by providing for significantly enhanced funding and technical assistance across the regional level for equitable and environmentally friendly housing projects and programs, equitable housing preservation, and rental protection programs, as specified. The bill would require a board composed of 6 voting members who are primary or alternate members of the San Diego Association of Governments, as specified, to govern the agency.
This bill would authorize the agency to, among other things, incur and issue indebtedness, place various measures on the ballot in the County of San Diego and its incorporated cities to raise and allocate funds, in accordance with applicable constitutional requirements, and to issue general obligation bonds secured by the levy of ad valorem property taxes, for purposes of producing and preserving equitable and environmentally friendly housing and supporting rental protection activities, as specified. Among the funding measures, the bill would authorize the agency to impose a parcel tax, a gross receipts business license tax, a special business tax, specified special taxes on real property, and a commercial linkage fee, as defined. The bill would also authorize local jurisdictions within San Diego County to impose a special documentary transfer tax, as specified, and authorize those local jurisdictions to remit proceeds of the tax to the agency to support the purposes of the agency. The bill would require that revenue generated by the agency pursuant to these provisions be used for specified housing purposes and require the agency to distribute those funds in accordance with specified requirements and subject to a specified priority. The bill would require the board to provide for regular financial audits of the agency’s accounts and records and to provide for financial reports.
The bill would require a development proponent for a development funded by the agency pursuant to these provisions to require, in contracts with construction contractors, that certain wage and labor standards will be met, including a requirement that all construction workers be paid at least the general prevailing rate of wages, as specified. The bill would require a development proponent to certify to the agency that those standards will be met in project construction. By expanding the crime of perjury, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would also prohibit the agency from placing a measure on the ballot to raise revenue for the agency unless the agency has entered into a countywide project labor agreement with the San Diego County Building and Construction Trades Council, as specified.
The bill would include findings that changes proposed by this bill address a matter of statewide concern rather than a municipal affair and, therefore, apply to all cities in the County of San Diego, including charter cities.
The smoke stack and the rest of the Encina Power Station have been demolished.
What does this mean for Carlsbad?
Before agreeing to support the approval of the new plant, the city negotiated an agreement with NRG and SDG&E to help ensure the project would provide the greatest local community benefit possible.
Some of the provisions of this agreement include:
A guarantee that NRG will completely decommission, demolish and remediate the old Encina Power Station site within three years of Encina’s retirement, at no cost to taxpayers.
NRG will turn over to the city several pieces of property surrounding the lagoon and the blufftop across from the plant. NRG will work with the city and the community to create a plan for the site’s future use.
What can go on the site?
The General Plan envisions redevelopment of the Encina Power Station, as well as the adjacent SDG&E North Coast Service Center, with visitor-serving commercial and open space uses to provide residents and visitors enhanced opportunities for coastal access and services, reflecting the California Coastal Act’s goal of “maximizing public access to the coast.”
