So Cal Real Estate News

(12/6/08)  Today I’m writing as a native Southern Californian who’s lived here all of my 58 years, not as a Realtor.

Every now and then it hits me what a very special place I’m privileged to live in.  Today’s one of those days.  There are many things to love about Southern California, here are a few that hit me today:

1. The weather: December 6th, 2008.  Forecast high in my home town of Los Alamitos in the mid 70s.  Low in the fifties.  Crystal clear, warm, sunny day.  I took my shirt off when I went outside to jog a couple miles.  We went to a local Christmas parade last night in shirt sleeves.
2. The sunshine: Every year I tally in my journal the number of days I don’t see the sun.  It averages about five.  Somehow, it seems like we get most of the little rain we get at night.  And almost never on the Rose Parade.  I tell my friends that was the deal the Rose Association made with God about a hundred years ago.  No Rose Parade on Sundays, so people can get to chuirch, and no rain on their parade!  Maybe the NFL should try that one!
3. The geography: I live about 12 minutes from the beach.  1 minute from a nice local park.  An hour from the San Gabriel Mountains, which include a peak over 10,000 feet high and two major ski resorts.  To the east, the San Bernardino Mountains include a peak over 12,000 feet high, several alpine lakes, and three more major ski areas.  I could see both mountain ranges clearly this morning, as well as Mt. San Jacinto, just South of Palm Springs.  (Did I mention the deserts?)  It’s not all that hard to snowboard (or ski) and surf (or boogie board) on the same day, but I would recommend a wet suit for the Pacific in winter.
4. The rivalry: Right now, I’m taking a break from the USC – UCLA game, where my Westwood alma mater is doing better than expected. . . so far.  USC-UCLA is the only true cross-town rivalry among NCAA Division 1 schools in the country! Both schools are within the Los Angeles city limits, only about 12 miles apart.  Many USC students live in Westwood, by UCLA.  When I went to UCLA, it wasn’t uncommon for athletes from the rival schools to room together.  My best friend in high school went to USC while I went to UCLA.

Rival banners are flying throughout my neighborhood.  Three  of the sixteen families on my cul-de-sac have UCLA alum, but we have SC season seat holders & alum anchoring the start of the street.  My mother and I both graduated from UCLA, my son’s girlfriend hopes to go there.  My boss is a USC alumn.  Both are great schools with great traditions.  And a great, but generally friendly rivalry.  As a tribute to the Trojans, let me share the words to USC’s famous Fight Song, at least the way I learned them at UCLA (with apologies to my friends from “Figueroa Tech”):

Fight on!  for USC.

You pay a fee; you get a degree!

You’ll be smarter than me, because I went to USC!

I went to USC!  I went to USC!

Just kidding.  I think they’re both great schools, one public, one private, two of several dozen outstanding colleges and Universities ranging from Cal Tech to the University of San Diego.

I could go on and on.  Diversity.  Opportunity.  Culture.  Great churches.  Great museums.  Great beaches.  Great mountain biking.  Over 100 languages spoken in local schools.  Forward thinking.

Sure, we’ve got a lot of people, but locals figure out ways to deal with and even enjoy it.

For me. So Cal is a wonderful place to live year round.  If you live someplace else and want to move here, I just happen to know a good So Cal Realtor.  Actually, quite a few, since Blair and I mainly cover  West Orange County and Greater Long Beach.

Happy Holidays from Southern California!

We’ve been getting some new visitors to our site recently, so please allow us to briefly reintroduce ourselves, to offer some insights into how we’re organized, and to ask for some help from our readers.

Who We Are

I’m Dave Emerson, the lead writer here, & I’ve lived in Southern California since I was born in L.A. in 1950. My wife and I started bought our first home in Lakewood in 1976, I became a Realtor in 1980 and a licensed broker in 1982. About that time we also bought our first rental, I started writing a real estate newsletter and I began teaching real estate classes for buyers, sellers, and investors.

My colleague, Blair Newman, is also an experienced Realtor and educator. He represents the younger generation. We have both won numerous awards over the year, and we share five “Agent of the Year” awards between us. Our goal on this blog is to give you a front-row view of what we see going on in the Southern California real estate “trenches” right now. We also try to link to and/or pass on information we find helpful or interesting, to respond to your comments or suggestions, and to give our perspective on what’s going on & what’s coming next.

Help Wanted

Our “challenge” (we never have “problems” in the real estate business) is that we know a whole lot more about real estate than I do about blogging. I’ve been deeply involved in real estate for over 30 years, and marginally involved in blogging for all of 4 months.

Hopefully that’s a good thing, because you came here to get helpful info on real estate, not on blogging. But if you know more about blogging than I do (and you probably do), then you’ll probably notice a lot of things I could be doing better. Please don’t hesitate to post questions, comments about how to do this better, suggested topics or links. . . or to tell others about our site. We appreciate your help, and respond here to every comment posted.

Getting Around Our Blog

This blog’s been up and running since last October, and we’ve gotten up a fair number of posts in that time. To help you find what might most interest you, we’ve got several “widgets” on the sidebar to your right.

At the top, we have a list of seven categories to help you find what you may be looking for quickly. Click on a category that interests you, and this left hand main column will change to display all the posts under that category, in chronological order.

Below Categories we’ve listed our five most recent posts in chronological order–just click to go directly to that post. Our “Front Page” (click upper left corner to get there, if you aren’t already) displays all our posts in chronologial order in the main, left column, so if you’re there you can also scroll down if you prefer.

Below the most recent you’ll find a list of top posts, the ones currently getting the most views.

Below that our archives widget lets you go back to any specific month, and below that we’ll be posting links to some of our favorite real estate blogs on our blogroll.

We love Southern California, we love real estate, and we also love to write. So we’ve been writing about the Southern California real estate market since 1980. Through this blog we can now deliver our thoughts, perspective, and insights at the speed of light. Even better, now you can add your thoughts, insights and questions too.

Who are we? Well, we’re both native Southern Californians, SoCal homeowners, and Realtors ™ who have also served as professional educators.

Dave Emerson, the lead writer, grew up in Lakewood, CA, graduated from UCLA back when their football teams didn’t routinely lose to unranked teams, and currently live in Los Alamitos. He’s an investor who owns dozens of local rental units, primarily in Long Beach, and he’s been #1 in sales out of 500 agents in his company seven different years and has been elected “Agent of the Year” by his peers 4 times.

Blair Newman has the perspective of a younger generation. He has helped dozens of his friends and clients buy and sell property, and is a member of Prudential California’s “Cutting Edge Society,” putting him in the top 15% of all agents. He graduated from Biola University in La Mirada, then lived in Anaheim until buying his present home in Lakewood.

Over the years, we’ve sold homes everywhere from the San Fernando Valley to Orange County. We specialize in Southeast Los Angeles County (Long Beach, Lakewood, Norwalk, etc.) and West Orange County (Los Alamitos, Rossmoor, Cypress, Garden Grove, etc.).

Over the years we’ve developed contacts in most So Cal areas we don’t service ourselves. We’re excited about finding this fast, interactive way to share our perspective on what we see going on every day in the So Cal Real Estate Market.

We’ll also use the expertise of others we know in real estate and related fields, from finance to property management. And we’ll gain the expertise of our readers as well, as you choose to contribute.

Our non-blog website, which features a direct link into the SoCal Multiple Listing Service and more info about us, including brief resumes. We can be contacted directly by phone, 562.822.7653, and we also respond promptly to all comments and questions left on this blog.

Thanks for visiting.