Why Do People Actually Buy a Home?

Why Do People Actually Buy a Home?  from The KCM Blog

It seems that every time we talk about real estate today the conversation immediately goes to the financial aspects of buying a home. Where are prices headed? Where are interest rates headed? Should I wait to try and get a ‘better buy’? Should I wait until I can get a ‘steal’?

The odd thing about all these questions is that survey after survey keeps telling us that price is not the reason families actually buy a home. When money is considered at all, it is in light of not paying rent to a landlord. Let’s look at two recent surveys as examples:

National Housing Survey

The top five reasons given in the survey for buying a home, in order, are:

* It means having a good place to raise children and provide them with a good education

* You have a physical structure where you and your family feel safe

* It allows you to have more space for your family

* It gives you control of what you do with your living space (renovations and updates)

* Paying rent is not a good investment

The Myers Research and Strategic Services Survey

The top five reasons given in the survey for buying a home, in order, are:

* Home ownership provides a stable and safe environment for children and other family members

* Home ownership means the money you spend on housing goes towards building equity, rather than to a landlord

* Home ownership creates the opportunity to pay off a mortgage and own your home by the time you retire

* Home ownership creates the opportunity to live in a neighborhood that you enjoy

* Home ownership allows you the right to decorate, modify and renovate your home as you see fit

Bottom Line

Price dominates conversation when we talk about buying a home. However, when it comes down to it, we actually buy for the same reasons our parents and grandparents did – we want a better lifestyle for ourselves and our families.

High-tech Parking Meters Debut as Part of Pilot Program Downtown

Vice-mayor Suja Lowenthal fields questions from reporters after illustrating how to pay for parking using one of eight new high-tech, solar-powered parking meters downtown that allow motorists to pay by phone via a smartphone application. Photo by Daniel DeBoom.

Several new, high-tech, solar-powered parking meters that allow motorists to pay for parking via a smartphone application have been installed in downtown Long Beach as part of a pilot program to test the new technology, city officials said.

The eight new multi-space meters installed on Third Street and Broadway between Pacific Avenue and Long Beach Boulevard were launched Monday and cover 36 parking spaces using pay-by-space methodology, which requires motorists to enter their parking stall numbers into the meter machine when paying the parking fee, according to information provided by City Hall.

Vehicle sensors in each parking stall will also provide real-time occupancy reports, which is expected to boost boost the efficiency of the city’s parking operations and providing statistical information on parking usage, city officials said.

Click here to continue reading

Technology Breaths Life Into Old Friend

Wendy Hornsby is an author of mysteries and a professor at Long Beach City College.

I spent the better part of last week with an old friend I hadn’t seen much of during the last 15 years. Getting reacquainted in, frankly, a rather intimate way, has been interesting; dismaying at times, but generally a quite happy re-encounter. This old pal? “77th Street Requiem,” a book I wrote in 1995.

The reason I am revisiting this relic is that I am in the process of converting my backlist, all those out-of-print titles, from paper-and-ink books to electronic files so that, one fine day, I can make them available on Kindle, Nook, etc. Traditionally, unless it was a blockbuster, a hardcover book had a shelf life of maybe three months, a paperback, 10 days, unless it was part of an ongoing series, before it disappeared.

For a lot of writers, the prospect of making all our disappeared books available again in whatever format is like breathing life into something beloved, hard fought to create, too soon gone. Many of my writer friends have resurrected their backlists already, so how tough can it be?

Not tough, it turns out, once you’re connected to the right resources. But more complicated than expected, and more time consuming.

First, I had to get my former publisher to relinquish to me all publishing rights to the seven books we did together. After some hemming and hawing, fine print reading, and passage of time, rights reverted to me, minus the covers, a topic for another time.

Next, the paper-and-ink books were cut apart — stripped — and scanned into Word by a guy in Missouruh. Paul, who is fluent in Missouruh — a native speaker — took care of those arrangements.

My current task is proofreading the books. The scanner misreads characters in strange ways, so every letter and punctuation mark must be looked at. It takes more time than I thought it would — duh.

I started with my favorite book, “77th Street Requiem,” and am nearly finished with the first read through. Six books to go. The temptation at first, with an editable Word version at my fingertips, was to “fix” things, maybe update things. But I didn’t. Typos, booboos, streets running the wrong direction, I corrected. The rest I left as originally published in 1995, a time when most people didn’t have cell phones in their pockets, no one had Google, and the men who fought in Vietnam weren’t yet eligible for Medicare. Those books belong to another age, written by a rather younger author than I am now. To mess with them would mean rewriting them entirely, and in the process spoiling an artifact from the past.

“77th Street” is, absolutely, a reflection of its time. I admit that rereading it has stirred a bit of nostalgia. The book is based on the actual unsolved murder of Los Angeles Police Department Officer Michael Lee Edwards on May 10, 1974, woven into a fictional story about a second police death 20 years later.

The Mike Edwards murder was, and is, a puzzling case. The details of the case were a gift handed to me by former investigators who wanted to talk about it, wanted it to be investigated further. With the proper introductions, I was able to speak with some of the original detectives — many of them already retired — patrol officers, friends, family, a deputy coroner, an F.B.I. agent, a D.A. investigator. Every one of them had their own version, based on their picking and choosing from the evidence, of what must have happened the night Edwards died. I told the story in a way that made sense for my book, though the solution I wrote in the book — plausible enough — is not what I believe actually happened.

The story has a local connection. Mike Edwards grew up in Long Beach, graduated from Poly, and served with the Army in Vietnam before he joined the LAPD. A nice guy, a gifted patrolman, a father.

I was amazed by the number of people who might have wanted him dead: the Symbionese Liberation Army, new residents in the immediate neighborhood of the death scene, with their prize captive, Patty Hearst — they died in a flaming shootout, a few blocks from where Edwards died, exactly a week after his death; a fellow officer; gangbangers; a notorious serial cop killer; a cuckolded husband; a former friend. A compelling story then, a compelling story now.

I still hear from people who were touched by the Mike Edwards case. When this book reappears in an electronic form, I wonder who else I’ll hear from. A new opportunity, any way you look at it.  By Wendy Hornsby

Long Beach Transit Implements Improvements

Last year can be described as challenging for many sectors, and the Long Beach Transit (LBT) agency (along with its customers) is no exception.
While some of the same challenges have rolled into 2011, LBT officials are looking forward to the implementation of technological and aesthetic upgrades this year meant to enhance riders’ public transportation experience.
LBT Chief Administrative Officer and Senior Vice President Marcelle Epley said the demand for public transportation is increasing, even though LBT’s ridership decreased from 29,746,377 annual boardings in 2009 to 28,556,522 boardings in 2010. The state of the economy has prompted people to rely even more heavily upon public transit to travel to work, medical appointments, recreation destinations and school.
The $7 million renovation of the First Street Transit Mall downtown remains on schedule to be completed in spring 2011, Epley said. With the assistance of federal stimulus dollars, bus shelters (currently under construction) will have new designs, nighttime lighting will be enhanced, public art will be installed and landscaping will be upgraded.
“It’s a complete overhaul of First Street,” Epley said. “When (the Transit Mall) opens, we expect customers to be very happy. The mosaic tiles (inlaid in the sidewalk) on First Street at Pine Avenue are stunning. (LBT) is getting the final touches in place.”
Another technological advance at the Transit Mall will be the new passenger information kiosk, where passengers can see a listing of bus route numbers and a real-time touch-screen digital information feature. Epley said the real-time technology will be expanded to the LBT’s website, wwwlbtransit.com, and plans are in the works for the information to be accessible via a touch-tone system for cellular phones and a mobile website compatible with multiple cellular platforms.
The federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) grant dollars also paid for LBT’s digital real-time information displays, which provide up-to-the-minute transit information at bus stops. Epley said 60 TranSmart signs currently are installed at various stops throughout the city.
“It’s (LBT’s) goal, whenever possible, to provide solar light to power TranSmart signs,” Epley said. “We’re trying to avoid the use of additional electricity, and that goes along with LBT’s internal sustainable efforts to become a (greener) company.”
The agency’s summer AquaLink service will expand due to its popularity and the new stop at the Belmont Veterans Memorial Pier. Epley said LBT’s Board of Directors authorized agency CEO Larry Jackson to purchase a second AquaLink water taxi. Last year, LBT was awarded a $3.1 million federal grant available solely for ferryboat services.
“The (new) AquaLink currently is being built in Seattle,” Epley said. “The summer service will start in June, and the vessel will be ready before then. The stop at the Belmont Pier will enable us to meet a high demand for service with the addition of the second (vessel).”
LBT’s land-only fleet of 228 vehicles will continue to diversify. In 2011, 18 of the older 1997 diesel buses will be replaced with 18 new Certified Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles. Epley said each CNG bus costs $450,000, as opposed to $600,000 for each gasoline hybrid electric bus.
“In addition to being less expensive and having lower emissions than traditional buses, these CNG vehicles are lighter in weight so they provide better fuel economy,” Epley said. “Because (LBT) was using hybrid electric buses before the (Air Quality Management District) mandate to reduce vehicle emissions, those were purchased before CNGs were on the market.”
One of LBT’s policies won’t be receiving enhancements or an overhaul in 2011 — and that’s the one stating that customers’ comfort and needs are at the forefront.
“In 2011, our biggest challenge will be meeting the service demands of our customers with limited resources,” Epley said. “But we’re constantly looking for anything that can make the (transit) system better for customers. We’ve applied for a grant that would allow us to install vending machines at bus stops (as) a benefit for customers… When the economy gets better, our goal is to be prepared … we’re doing that by defining continuous ways we could reduce our expenses.” By Darcy Leigh Richardson

Housing prices surpassed record high in two decades!

RISMEDIA, February 19, 2011—Nationwide housing affordability during the fourth quarter of 2010 rose to its highest level in the 20 years since it has been measured, according to National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) data. The HOI indicated that 73.9% of all new and existing homes sold in the fourth quarter of 2010 were affordable to families earning the national median income of $64,400. The record-setting index for the fourth quarter surpassed the previous high of 72.5% set during the first quarter of 2009 and marked the eighth consecutive quarter that the index has been above 70%. Until 2009, the HOI rarely topped 65% and never reached 70%.

“Today’s report shows that housing affordability at the end of 2010 was at its highest level since we started computing the HOI,” said Bob Nielsen, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder from Reno, Nev. “However, while this is good news for consumers, both home buyers and builders continue to confront extremely tight credit conditions, and this remains a significant obstacle to many potential home sales.”

Indianapolis-Carmel, Ind., was the most affordable major housing market in the country for the second consecutive quarter, after relinquishing for a quarter the top spot it has held for five years. In Indianapolis, 93.5% of all homes sold were affordable to households earning the area’s median family income of $68,700.

Also ranking near the top of the most affordable major metro housing markets were Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio-Pa.; Syracuse, N.Y; Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, Mich.; and Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, Mich.

Among smaller housing markets, the most affordable was Elkhart-Goshen, Ind., where 97.0% of homes sold during the fourth quarter of 2010 were affordable to families earning a median income of $58,600. Other smaller housing markets near the top of the index included Lansing-East Lansing, Mich.; Kokomo, Ind.; Mansfield, Ohio; and Bay City, Mich.

New York-White Plains-Wayne, N.Y.-N.J., again led the nation as the least affordable major housing market during the fourth quarter of 2010. In New York, more than a fourth—25.5%—of all homes sold during the quarter were affordable to those earning the area’s median income of $65,600. This was the 11th consecutive quarter that the New York metropolitan division has held this position.

The other major metro areas near the bottom of the affordability index included San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, Calif.; Honolulu; Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, Calif.; and Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, Calif., respectively.

Santa Cruz-Watsonville, Calif. was the least affordable of the smaller metro housing markets in the country during the fourth quarter. In Santa Cruz, 45.0% of the homes were affordable to families earning the median income of $84,200. Other small metro areas ranking near the bottom included Ocean City, N.J; San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, Calif.; Laredo, Texas; and Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Goleta, Calif.