Hollywood Riviera & South Bay Real Estate Blog

Environmental Home & Garden
4704 Paseo de las Tortugas

     Hollywood Riviera’s Garden Club is hosting “Beyond the Garden Gate” a Garden Tour of 8 Hollywood Riviera homes’ gardens!  It’s Saturday, October 18th from 10-4 and is a self-guided tour ending w/ a hospitality house where there will be refreshments, education booths and demonstrations such as “lasagna gardening.”   Kelly & Laura are proud sponsors!  Tickets are $25 presale/$30 day of the tour and can be purchased at Villa Hermosa in South Torrance, Bristol Farms in Redondo Beach, through the Riviera Garden Club’s webiste via PayPal, or by calling Kelly & Laura.
     This environmentally friendly garden has been landscaped to reflect a water-wise style.  Landscape designer Gina Bush completely removed the lawn and worked carefully with Shelby and David to develop a drought resistant garden that correlates beautifully with the contemporary ranch architecture of their home.  Trees, shrubs, ground covers and ornamental grasses show how foliage textures and colors can combine for beautiful effects.  In the front garden, Crape Myrtle and Olive Trees serve as visual anchor points for the ground cover areas of Gazania, prostrate Myoporum, Rosemary, Ajuga, Dymondia and Ceonothus.  Agave, Phormium and Cordyline contribute structure and dramatic form.  The backyard invites entertaining with a large patio.  Gina Bush will be available to speak to on the day of the tour at this, house #7!

  Important Facts About the Two Bond Measures on the November 4th, 2008 Ballots1. Measure Y – $265 million to be used for specific classroom and core academic facility renovations. The tax rate for this bond would be $35 per $100,000 of ASSESSED property value (not market value.)2. Measure Z - $90 million to be used for special school facility projects that will protect and enhance student safety and wellness, and provide specialized programs.  The tax rate for this bond would be $13 per $100,000 of ASSESSED property value (not market value.)3. What is incredibly important to note here is that Voters estimated tax rates are based on the
ASSESSED VALUE of taxable property on the County€™s official tax rolls, not on the property€™s market value. Property owners should consult their own property tax bills and tax advisors to determine their property€™s assessed value.

4. For instance – if your home€™s ASSESSED Value (which is based on the amount you bought the home for as well as some other factors) is  $100,000 than your annual cost for voting YES on Measures Y & Z would be $48.

5.   Measures Y & Z require an “Independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee” and mandatory indepent annual audits to ensure funds are spent properly.

6.  It is so important to our children & current property values to keep our schools in good condition.  
Please Vote YES on Measures Y & Z on November 4th!

House 6  -  Deck & Dry Stream

4721 Paseo de las Tortugas
Dry Stream Garden

Mix a charming shingled ranch home with serene yet striking Asian landscape elements and you have the sublime combination that inspired the Smith family.  Step across the bold river rock aggregate driveway, softened by colorful, sinewy borders, and through the half moon gate to a stunning rear yard featuring an elegant brick herringbone patio with a sophisticated entertaining pavilion complete with matching cushions and drapes that can be drawn for privacy and/or warmth.  The subtle harmony of this landscape incorporates an inviting viewing area with a simple bubbling fountain and benches for relaxing.  Certainly the most distinctive feature is a rhythmic dry stream bed, snaking along the entire yard and beautifully laid with granite boulders and Chinese mica.  This unique and highly aesthetic element also serves a practical function by carrying rainwater from sky and roof out to the street.  Muted colors, texture and form are important considerations for the choice of plantings, which includes Juniper procumbens €œNana€, Japanese maples, & poodle cut Eugenias

Remember the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008?  That was not put in place forever – only for 2008 (as the title would suggest.)  Congress authorized temporary increases to the conforming loan limit ($417,000)  in high cost regions – like ours - mortgages as large as $729,750 are considered “conforming.”  This has been welcomed news to buyers in our area.  While I hate to look a “gift horse in the mouth,” it’s still not a lot of money.  If you look at it this way…many homes in our South Bay neighborhoods are $1 million.  If an average buyer (honestly not average buyer when they are buying a million dollar house – I’d personally call this above-average) has 20% to put down ($200,000) they still need an $800,00 loan – this still exceeds the $729,750 loan limit for what would be considered “conforming.”   It’s still not enough.  The buyers today need to come in with more down, up to 30% to make a lot of deals work.   The sad news is that like I said above, this is the loan limit for 2008 – that means that it ends Dec 31st, 2008.   Starting January 1st, 2009 the conforming loan limits for our high cost areas will be capped at $625,500.  That is not good news if you ask me.  If you are a buyer right now with the where-with-all to qualify and obtain a loan…..then you better hurry!  Now is the time!

House 5  - Waterfall & Gazebo

356 Via Colusa

New Orleans/French Quarter Home & Waterfall Garden

Elegant wrought iron details immediately evoke

Saturday, September 20th from 9am to noon is Coastal Clean Up Day hosted by American Honda.  Volunteers to meet at Miramar Park, 201 Paseo de la Playa (intersection of Calle Miramar.)  What a great way to join in and make our great Torrance Beach cleaner and prettier as well as help our environment!  Grab your kids, neighbors, friends and let’s all go down to the beach and clean up!

House 4 €“ Romantic Hideaway Garden

 5437 Riviera Way

A garden of visual delights awaits you as you wander through this lovely yard imaginatively transformed into an eclectic mix of greenery, topiaries and colorful plantings creatively woven in and around wrought iron elements, fountains, urns, and period ornaments.  A narrow yet enchanting side yard has been screened with standard hopseed trees dripping with vivid fuschias in hanging baskets.  The large entertainment deck, framed with a planter arbor, twinkling lights and a candelabra, creates an inviting outdoor living and dining room with city and mountain views beyond.

“There is nothing wrong with change, as long as it’s in the right direction.”  Winston Churchill

And the housing and mortgage industries experienced a great change in the right direction last week, as the Federal government moved to support Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, causing Bonds and home loan rates to improve significantly and end the week around .25 percent better than where they began.

So why did the Federal government take action? Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both have issued many Bonds which over time mature, and Fannie and Freddie need to pay back the principal on the maturing Bonds. The way they raise capital to pay these maturing Bonds is to issue new Bonds, which happens every month. And as long as Fannie and Freddie can sell new Bonds this system works well.

But the problems in the mortgage industry have reduced investor appetite to purchase these Bonds. Without the ability to sell new Bonds, Fannie and Freddie are less able to meet the capital requirements to pay off the maturing Bonds. And if Fannie and Freddie were to default and become insolvent, the mortgage and housing industries…and homeowners across our nation… would face even more struggles than we are seeing now.

So the government’s decision to back Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is great news for homeowners, because it ensures the continued liquidity of conforming loans nationwide and it ensures that buyers of this type of Bond have a safe investment going forward.

In other Bond-friendly news, we saw good news on the inflation front last week. Overall Import Prices declined for the first time since December, thanks in part to the recent plunge in oil and gas prices. And Wholesale Prices, which help measure inflation, fell in August for the first time this year.

Overall, the good inflation news and the Fed’s decision about Fannie and Freddie should lead to improving Bond prices and home loan rates in the long-term. With home loan rates at such low levels, it’s a great time to review your mortgage situation and make sure you have the rate and program that best suits your current financial needs.

House #3 - Mediterranean House 

Kelly & Reinhart Behrens

245 Paseo De Gracia

Mediterranean Home & Garden

Peak beyond the low walls to a bubbling urn which instantly draws you into this lush €œold world€ courtyard entry brimming with over 40 varieties of Mediterranean style perennials, shrubs and trees.  Follow the driveway to a secluded backyard with delightful plantings of abutilon, angel€™s trumpet, lavender, espaliered apple, and highlighted by a spa, stunning Spanish tiled fountain and a unique sand-filled firepit.  This lovely Spanish style home with its turreted entrance looks historic, but was remodeled only twelve years ago and the stunning landscape was designed by local Landscape Architect Miriam Rainville.

As promised….here’s House #2 on the Hollywood Riviera Garden Tour scheduled on Saturday, October 18th from 10-4.  The self-guided tour of 8 unique gardens is going to be a day not to miss.  House #2 is the Historic Home.

House 2 €“ Historic House

Kelly & Mario Vargas

144 Camino De las Colinas

Historic Home & Garden

A graceful garden border nestles along the front of this stately, historic Spanish Colonial and one of the first homes built in the

Local Riviera Historian Marshall Stewart will be ready to inform and answer questions at this home.  Now this is something not to miss!  The Riviera Garden Club has been part of the Hollywood Riviera’s history for 57 years now. 

Founded in 1957, The Riviera Garden Club is an association of amateur gardeners who further their knowledge of gardening and the environment. We have speakers on garden topics at our meetings and take tours to gardens. There are also monthly reports from our Advanced California Certified Nursery Professional. The objectives of the Riviera Garden Club are to mentor youth, to educate, increase interest in gardening, plant and bird life, conservation of all natural resources, and the beautification of our city.   Currently the club has 40 active members, 11 associate members, and 10 honorary members.

You can obtain advance tickets, at Bristol Farms (corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Palos Verde Drive) or at Villa Hermosa (corner of Anza and Calle Mayor).  Or just call me, Kelly, at (310) 613-2465 or email me at Kelly@KellyandLaura.com . Hope to see you there.