Westlake Village Real Estate Blog

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My son, David, studying Arabic in Jordan, too these photos on his outing to his host family’s country home.  Next: a visit to Wadi Rum this weekend. Stay tuned for more photos.

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The National Association of Realtors has a nifty interactive map showing quarterly median home price changes in major metropolitan areas of the country. For example:

Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana: up 9.3%
San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos: up 13.1%
San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont: up 25.9%

Try it out!

My friend Jeannette Hartman has started a blog on ‘dogship.” Occasionally, owning a pet and owning a home have a common theme. Take a look at her latest post: Joey’s Red Dog Blog.

Sprouts, now in Thousand Oaks

The second specialty market brand developed by the Henry Boney family, who sold their Henry’s Farmers Markets in 1999, Sprouts has sprouted onto the scene as an alternative food store of healthy, organic, local, fair-trade options (did I miss any buzz words?). Located at the site of the old Circuit City, in Thousand Oaks near The Oaks Mall, Sprouts is definitely a destination store – and it’s worth the trip. There are gluten free products, local produce at, believe it or not, local prices, fresh (really fresh) meats and fish. Oh, yes, there’s a selection of low-carb food too, as well as “bin” coffee and grains.

Prices are surprisingly modest. Some would say (although lately the charge is not entirely fair) that Sprouts is Whole Foods without the whole paycheck.

Take a check, check it out, and enjoy a fresh Sprouts meal tonight.

On April 5th the federal government launched revisions to the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative (HAFA) program.

Nowadays, we hear a lot about branding – not of cattle but of companies, service providers and the like. Now Thousand Oaks is buying a new brand for its publications and website.

The new look is not without controversy, primarily because it has cost money from public funds. After the City Council rejected an $89,000 bid from a Nashville firm, which included extensive community research about updating the city’s visual brand, the public information office decided to allot funds from its own budget. At a trimmed down cost of $25,000, a local company, Mustang Marketing, designed a new logo for the city’s publications, signs and website.

The city plans to start using its new look in April.

6821 Pala Mesa Dr., Oak Park

This charming Country Meadows home is surrounded by open space; the view from the back is especially nice. There are three bedrooms and a loft in three stories. amenities include a fireplace, vaulted ceilings, and a kitchen with granite countertops and splash and new stainless-steel appliances. Outside there is a large patio area and a private rear yard. The HOA also includes sewer, front yard maintence and insurance on common areas, including pools. The school district is Oak Park. Listed by Alex Gandel of Troop Real Estate. $600,000

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Cold Springs Tavern

I enter California 154 off the 101, and am confronted with a panorama of hills greener than the Scottish Highlands. The roadside is dotted with bursts of color: yellow, gold, purple cream. Rain dances lightly on my windshield. Beyond the wildflowers, black cattle much on the green carpet beneath them. Vineyards form a checkerboard across the foothills.

I am driving from Westlake Village to Santa Maria for a day-long workshop on managing short-sale transactions. It is an eye-opening day, to say the least. The presenter is Sherman Smith, of Sherman Smith and Associates in Tustin. Since 1992 Sherman has handled hundreds, perhaps thousands, of short-sale transactions. His approach is systematic, practical and persistent. “You are looking for the person (at the lending institution) who will say Yes, he counsels. He gives us more than 40 pages of forms to use in the process: He is comprehensive too.

On the drive home, I stop at the Cold Springs Tavern, at one time a stagecoach stop for cappuccino. This place is akin to a frontier cabin. The lighting is dim the fireplace ablaze and the walls sport heads of deer and bear. There is no cappuccino.

I continue on, an unhappy wayfarer. Fog descends into the San Marcos Pass – thick, cottony and blinding. I imagine homeowners, many of them weary from long months of trying to do a loan modification, now turning to the short-sale process so they can move on with their lives. They are exhausted, floating like octopi in the pea soup of fog. Then I glimpse a few real estate agents, trying to swim through the grayness. Their strokes become more hurried and then random – flailing. It is a zoo – or an aquarium out there — in the world of short-sale transactions.

Finally, just a few miles before Santa Barbara, I escape the fog. I am listening to a Wyndam Hill recording, because I find it impossible to drive the California coastline and hills without hearing George Winston’s fingers skip along the keys. It has been a satisfying day. I am more confident now that I have the dialog, tools and systems, to negotiate short sales.

The ocean, also gray, with glimpses of brilliant white, passes by on my right. The rain continues. The traffic gets heavier.

I am home.