altadenablog

Eliot Middle School spring concert Thursday

Eliot Middle School invites the Altadena community to join us for our Spring Concert this Thursday, May 24, at 7 pm in the school auditorium.

The performance will feature the Eliot Concert Band, Orchestra and Jazz Band, and our special guests, the PHS Jazz Band.

The "Library Warriors" and our Book Club will host a pre-concert sale of coffee, baked goods, used books, and crafts - all proceeds will support our beautiful school library.

Altadena: the real (estate) deal

Realtor Tracy King has some interesting charts and comments on home prices in Altadena.

Home prices going up -- everywhere but here

Ryan Carter at SGV Tribune says that home prices are going up everywhere but in seven cities in the San Gabriel Valley -- and guess what one of them is (even tho we're technically not a city)?  Altadena has recorded one of the largest month-to-month decreases (23.3%)!  Check it out for details.

Altadena represent, yo!

West Seattle Blog emailed us to this video of comedian Seth Green showing us his Altadena crib and how to make good financial choices. (For what it's worth, we don't think "Scott Evil" actually lives there --the interior looks just a little to calculated and unlived-in -- but it's a funny piece).  We particularly like the part about the "pool filled with hose."

*****

Un-Broke: The Seth Green Cribs Edition - watch more funny videos

Lookin' for a foreclosure? Look around Farnsworth Park

... or so says this article on a business and finance website we discovered. 

If you're the type of buyer who seeks a unique property and not a ranch style or bungalow in a subdivision of look-alikes, houses for sale in Altadena could be for you. Altadena offer an eclectic repertoire of period homes, many restored but still maintaining the original architectural integrity. Here you can find such amenities as mahogany walls, hardwoord floors, crystal chandeliers, and a 19th century porch awaiting your Bentwood rocker.

It then goes on to delineate where are the best neighborhoods, and recommends not going south of Marengo (a neat trick on a north/south street!).

Home reassessment scam making the rounds

Did you get a letter offering to file a form to reduce your property tax for $179? (That was the figure in the letter we got).  Well, it's a scam going around right now, and the county has issued the following press release about it:

Los Angeles County Assessor Rick Auerbach and County Consumer Affairs Director Pastor Herrera, Jr. today warned homeowners to be wary of solicitations from private companies offering to file property assessment reduction forms for a hefty fee to pay for a review that would be done for free by the Assessor’s Department.

"We are again receiving calls from homeowners who have been sent these deceptive mailers, many of which could be mistaken for government notices and mislead property owners into thinking they must pay at least $100 to apply for a review of their assessed value,” Auerbach said. “Because of the real estate market downturn, however, my office will begin reviewing nearly 500,000 residential properties for their 2009 assessed values.

“We don’t charge a fee for this,” he said, “and anyone whose homes are reviewed will receive a letter in June notifying them of the results.”

One firm, he noted, is charging $179 to file a decline-in-value application, as well as a so-called “late fee” of $30. This company is already the subject of investigation in several counties, he added.

High-end housing picking up?

Peter Hong, LA Times' real estate blogger, is wondering what the trend is after attending a caravan at an Altadena manse -- about 90 agents came to gawk at the $1.699 (call it $1.7) million house. Do they think they can move it?  Check out the deets here.

Sign of the times at Flash Mountain

(not Altadena related, but we had to share!)

The economy has gotten so bad that Disneyland has had to reassign employees whose job was to screen out the souvenier photos taken on Splash Mountain and other rides for women who bared their breasts.

Altadenan featured in PWeekly tale of forclosures

PWeekly has a feature about Pasadena Housing Services, a nonprofit that helps seniors in danger of foreclosure.  Claudia Turrentine of Altadena is featured, a victim of unscrupulous lending practices that have left her in danger of losing her home.

Job Resource Fair @ Farnsworth Sat., Oct. 18

The Sheriff's Clergy Council, in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Dept. of Parks and Recreation, will hold a Job Resource Fair at the Davies Building in Farnsworth Park, 568 E. Mt. Curve Ave., from 10 AM-2 PM.

There will be workshops on :

Internet Job Search 10:30 AM & 12:30 PM
Resume Writing 11 AM
Job searching tools & techniques 12 PM
Interviewing 1 PM

Bring resumes and dress appropriately!

Altadena -- foreclosure capital of the nation?

Here's another national news story using a foreclosed Altadena house as an illustration.  You'd think we were the only place where this was going on ....

Altadena real estate values hold steady ...

or so says Ellie Viray of Dilbeck GMAC.  Nineteen homes closed escrow in August, with one selling at list, five above list, and the remainder no lower than 94% of list price. (We put real estate news in with great trepidation, because competitor real estate agents have been known to send us pages of raw data, saying that if we simply crunched the numbers, it would prove that the agent we're quoting is an idiot.  Just bracing for the reaction ...)

Average Altadena home on the market three months

It's always problematic when we have real estate news here, because the various agents tend to snipe at each other's figures in our email.  Be that as it may, courtesy of Irina Netchaev & Associates, here is a look at the local single family home market for last month:

Single Family Residence	May-08
New Listings	55
Total Listings	169
Sales Pending	13
Homes Sold	25
Listings Expired	154
Average Days on the Market	94
Average Selling Price	$680,790

Return of the foreclosure house

Anyone familiar with this site knows by now that there's only one home in the entire U.S. of A that is being foreclosed -- and it's right here in Altadena.  After making an appearance in Canada's National Post,

... the home was discovered by ABC News,

... and today by the New York Times (check the bushes).

... so it doesn't seem like a foreclosure crisis to us, when there's apparently ONLY ONE HOME BEING FORECLOSED IN TWO COUNTRIES!

(Photos by David McNew/Getty Images)

Altadena real estate takes the plunge

Doug Willis at upt2daterealestate (whom we met at the blogger's picnic!) reports that Altadena "is selling fewer homes, at lower prices and its taking them longer to sell."

The median sales price of a single-family home in Altadena in the first quarter of 2008 is $555,000, down from $600,000 at the same time last year.  The number of units sold is down almost 40% from this time last year, days on the market has darn near doubled, and prices are down 2.7%.

There are also almost 200 homes in foreclosure (like this one), most of them west of Lake. Check out Doug's site for all the details.

Return of the foreclosure house

Now ABC News is running a picture of the same house under forclosure that Canada's National Post did.  Apparently this Altadena house is the only place in two countries that's being foreclosed ....

Foreclose your house, eh?

Canada's National Post financial page had to go all the way to Altadena to get a picture of a home in foreclosure.