This week, about 15,000 Realtors® from across the United States went to Washington, D.C. to rally on behalf of homeowners, future homeowners, and real estate investors.

Along with invited members of

Congress,

real estate agents and brokers – representing 1 million members of the National Association of Realtors (NAR) – convened yesterday in front of the

Washington Monument

for the event, dubbed the Rally to Protect the American Dream.

The assembly was held to reflect our commitment to preserving access to

homeownership

and to encourage robust real estate investment. Realtors are working to ensure that people who want to own a home or invest in real estate – and can responsibly afford to do so – will continue to have more than adequate opportunities.

The rally cry du jour also included advocating better access to affordable financing, reforming the secondary mortgage market, improving liquidity in residential and commercial lending, and preserving tax benefits associated with homeownership.

“Realtors know that homeownership is an investment in our collective futures, and we’re here today to protect the American Dream of homeownership,” said NAR President Moe Veissi, broker-owner of Veissi & Associates Inc., in Miami. “Homeownership and investment in real estate impacts families, communities, small businesses and the nation’s economy in a very meaningful way. Today, we’re proud to be showing the country that homeownership matters.”

Meanwhile Thursday, the Los Angeles Harbor Commission was busy voting (unanimously) to offer a

new home

to the

USS Iowa,

the historic battleship that saw combat during the Second World War and was responsible for transporting then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt across “the Pond” to convene with Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin.

After completion of a $7 million renovation, the 70-year-old veteran of the seas will permanently dock in San Pedro. There, the former warship will serve next as a floating museum and, in that capacity, surely fulfill another type of American dream – that of history buffs anxious to tour the only U.S. battleship museum stationed on the West Coast.

The Iowa is scheduled to leave Richmond, Cal., Sunday and make port here in Southern California next Thursday (May 24). You all may venture aboard when the museum opens – shortly after Independence Day.

If,  like the Iowa, you are relocating to the Los Angeles area and you would like more information on the

Hollywood Hills real estate market,

please go to:

http://www.hollywoodhillsrealestatemarket.com/search-for-properties.

For more information about buying or selling a home in the Hollywood Hills, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Hancock Park, Los Feliz, or Downtown Los Angeles areas, please contact Reuben Pacheco or Valerie Finlayson via the following link:

http://www.hollywoodhillsrealestatemarket.com/contact.

To learn more about us, visit:

http://www.hollywoodhillsrealestatemarket.com/meet-the-team.

Or, sign up for our monthly newsletter at the “Extra! Extra!” box on the right-hand side of your screen.

We at the Hollywood Hills Real Estate Market/LA Real Estate Blog always welcome your comments and feedback. Please feel free to reply (below) to this post.

What?

That’s right, with housing inventories at a seven-year low, in some major U.S. cities there are not a lot of choices for hungry buyers.

(To read more of the piece, go to: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-15/homes-for-sale-grow-scarce-as-sellers-await-higher-prices.html.)

And there are people looking to buy homes right now.

Yes, Virginia, even here in

Los Angeles,

bidding wars are occurring in the residential real estate market. And real estate professionals are seeing the laws of supply and demand in our own backyards.

There currently is a lack of inventory coupled with a larger buying pool throughout the city – and especially in areas such as the Sunset Strip, Hancock Park, parts of the Valley, and West Hollywood. (As always, some neighborhoods are more desirable than others.) And right now, people are shopping more for the “lifestyle needs” that these neighborhoods suit. Hancock Park has Larchmont Village. The Sunset Strip has Sunset Boulevard. And parts of the Valley have their own neighborhood villages that offer similar opportunities for shopping, dining, and esprit de corps. Or, in this case, esprit de community.

Also of note, buyers want to be close to work, and close to where they worship or the clubs they like to go to. They just don’t want to drive as much.

Of course, there are many of those scouring local real estate opportunities to whom “Always buy up in a down market” remains a good motto. And there are some

bargain hunters

among the house-hungry.

Even still, there are also discouraged sellers out there.

These folks need to determine whether or not they are truly in the market to sell. They need to get invested with a broker that’s actively working the marketplace and understands marketing positions – and one that can easily explain the market in layman’s terms.

If you are a discouraged seller and need assistance in selecting a broker, you may find it very helpful to review the “Ten Questions You Need to Ask Your Next Real Estate Professional” and you may find those questions by visiting the following link:

http://www.hollywoodhillsrealestatemarket.com/10-questions-you-need-to-ask-to-your-next-real-estate-professional.

But turning that home-selling frown upside down – and, bottom line, getting your house sold – really comes back to marketing position, which is pricing and attracting a much larger buying pool to stimulate and energize the offer activity on your property. In many cases, when you position your property properly, you can generate a higher price for it. Oftentimes, we see people who don’t favorably position themselves end up chasing market conditions.

And while you’re chasing market conditions, you may want to ask yourself who is chasing you? Or, more specifically, who is chasing your house?

Because when you are the seller, there’s about a two- to three-week window for generating traffic on a newly listed property. Then, your home is subject to reduced pricing and lower offers. After two to three weeks, the property gets stale and the public thinks, “What’s wrong with it?”

And that’s a question you really don’t want raised.

By the way, if you’re a qualified buyer, you’ll probably think that there is nothing wrong with current mortgage rates, which have fallen to record lows for the third week in a row. The 30-year mortgage loan rate is now, according to Freddie Mac, at 3.79 percent and the 15-year mortgage has dropped to 3.04 percent. Furthermore,

builder confidence

has been buoyed by those rates and bumped home construction this month to its highest level in a handful of years.

If you are interested in more information on

Hancock Park real estate,

please go to:

http://www.hollywoodhillsrealestatemarket.com/hancock-park-real-estate-sale.

For more on properties in the West Hollywood area, go to:

http://www.hollywoodhillsrealestatemarket.com/west-hollywood-real-estate-sale.

For more information about buying or selling a home in the Hollywood Hills, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Hancock Park, Los Feliz, or Downtown Los Angeles areas, please contact Reuben Pacheco or Valerie Finlayson via the following link:

http://www.hollywoodhillsrealestatemarket.com/contact.

To learn more about us, visit:

http://www.hollywoodhillsrealestatemarket.com/meet-the-team.

Or, sign up for our monthly newsletter at the “Extra! Extra!” box on the right-hand side of your screen.

We at the Hollywood Hills Real Estate Market/LA Real Estate Blog always welcome your comments and feedback. Please feel free to reply (below) to this post.

We eventually went into escrow on this property but since it appraised much lower than the asking price we backed out, even though Reuben worked hard to get the seller and the seller’s realtor to accept a more reasonable price. When we didn’t get this property I was pretty disappointed (this is the first house I have personally attempted to purchase a home in California and felt that there wouldn’t be another as desirable). Reuben assured me that there are many more fish in the sea and the search continued.
Going forward he had Wendi assist us with the search. We kept her busy!! I called her nearly every day (or she called me) to look or inquire about a property in many different locations. She was ALWAYS professional, kind and reassuring. Both she and Reuben had such positive attitudes we were buoyed instead of weighed down by the process. Two more times we put in offers, one ended in another escrow. This one didn’t work out because of the issues with plumbing, etc.

My husband is a contractor and he is pretty picky about the quality of the properties. Never did we feel like a burden to either Reuben or Wendi. They hung in there with us. Now we had been searching for seven months! Finally, we found 1406 N. Benton Way the day after we were out of the second escrow. Both Reuben and Wendi worked hard to get our offer at the top of the list. They worked hard to sell us to the seller and the seller’s realtor. And they were successful!
We closed on this property May 4 and moving day is tomorrow. I am so happy to finally get a home that I love in a great area within our budget. We owe all the thanks to Reuben and Wendi.
You have two incredible employees. They are smart, kind and know their business. We couldn’t be happier with my experience. You are extremely fortunate to have them on your team. We will recommend both Reuben and Wendi to ANYONE who needs to buy or sell a property. We’re only sorry that we won’t be seeing them on a regular basis – we are going to miss them!!

We send this with our most sincere gratitude and regards,

Lynda and Ken Stack

Construction, which could continue through into March, is scheduled to occur between the hours of 9:00 A.M. and 3:30 P.M., Mondays through Fridays, and on occasional Saturdays.

Flaggers will be on-site to coordinate vehicular flow along

Coldwater,

allowing one direction of traffic to pass at a time. Each day, after work is completed, the DWP crews will restore the north-south thoroughfare to two lanes.

“We’re replacing a pipe that’s nearly 100 years old,” said Jim McDaniel, Senior Assistant General Manager – Water System, “And unfortunately, the long-term benefits of this infrastructure improvement come with short-term local traffic impacts.”

Drivers should expect significant delays because of the reduced traffic flow and are strongly encouraged to take alternate routes. In an attempt to minimize the work’s impact, however,

LADWP

has scheduled the lane reduction outside of peak traffic hours. Also, informational signage has been posted along the avenue.

The construction, part of a project to replace a water line built in 1914, is required for compliance with federally mandated water quality regulations and will supplant a section of the pipe that ruptured in September 2009.

The utility’s water system includes approximately 7,500 miles of underground trunk and mainline pipes. Between its water and electric services, LADWP serves almost 4 million residents and businesses in Los Angeles.

The nation’s largest utility company has also been doing construction on its Web site and results of that effort have just been unveiled to the public. Familiarizing yourself with the site could be very handy if you live in Los Angeles, or are considering buying a home in the

Hollywood Hills real estate market.

(To check out those enhancements, go to www.LADWP.com.)

DWP officials promise that the bilingual site (English and Spanish) is “more user-friendly and features a modern, updated design with streamlined navigation and improved self-service capabilities.” Customers can now access improved bill view and payment options; apply online for rebates and low-income discounts; view electric and water consumption charts and graphs, past bills, and real-time neighborhood power-outage maps; and track service requests.

“The new www.LADWP.com features improvements in terms of appearance, ease and convenience,” said LADWP General Manager Ron Nichols. “But more importantly, users now have 24/7 access to information that can directly impact their quality of life, including neighborhood power outage maps and water and power consumption charts to help estimate future bills. Our new online presence furthers our ability to provide the high quality online customer service experiences our customers expect.”

The site also features new customer service video tutorials and information on topics such as how to read meters, water and energy conservation, and the “Charge Up LA” electric vehicle program.

If you’re looking to charge up your dining routine this summer, you may want to check out the “Make Your Own Marimekko” event at the Grove’s

Crate and Barrel

store tomorrow. From 2 P.M. to 4 P.M., experts will be on hand to show you how to “set a fun summer table” by creating unique Marimekko tablecloths, runners, and placemats, etc.

Marimekko is a Finnish textile and design company founded in 1951 and known for its use of bold, primary colors and strong visuals. Call (323) 297-0370 for more information or to RSVP.

Just don’t plan on taking Coldwater Canyon to get there.

For information on Hollywood Hills real estate,

please visit:

http://www.hollywoodhillsrealestatemarket.com/hollywood-hills-real-estate-sale.

For more information about buying or selling a home in the Hollywood Hills, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Hancock Park, Los Feliz, or Downtown Los Angeles areas, please contact Reuben Pacheco or Valerie Finlayson via the following link:

http://www.hollywoodhillsrealestatemarket.com/contact.

To learn more about us, visit:

http://www.hollywoodhillsrealestatemarket.com/meet-the-team.

Or, sign up for our monthly newsletter at the “Extra! Extra!” box on the right-hand side of your screen.

We at the Hollywood Hills Real Estate Market/LA Real Estate Blog always welcome your comments and feedback. Please feel free to reply (below) to this post.

National Chocolate Chip Day

with a proper serving of chocolate chip ice cream or cookies. (If you don’t fancy chocolate, well, we’re happy to remind you that broccoli is in season.) We, however, tend to think there’s nothing like the aroma of chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven to make the old home-sweet-home even homier. And though we really like the idea of baking from scratch, even the treats from the dough tubes can be a tasty treat. (The secret to our favorite

chocolate chip recipe:

Follow the instructions on the back of the Nestle Toll House chocolate chips bag, but consider the recommended measurement for the chips as a launching point.)

Speaking of sweet, didn’t the men of the Los Angeles Galaxy look pretty spiffy in their dark suits at the

White House

this morning?

They were there to be acknowledged for their MLS championship (that’s

Major League Soccer

 – not Multiple Listing Service – in this case), but we think David Beckham’s sartorial style has really rubbed off on the team.

(To see footage of the most dapper dudes in Los Angeles who do bend it like Beckham, go to: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/sports/pro/soccer&id=8662913.)

Today also marks the release date for the indie pop album The Only Place, the latest from local favoritesBestCoast. Thanks to Jonesy’s Jukebox and Rodney and the Roq, one song from the album has already been getting some airplay on KROQ on Sundays. The tune is called “Let’s Go Home.” We like the sentiment. If you can, catch Best Coast at the venerable Wiltern – surely the premier venue in the Hancock Park vicinity – May 18.

It was kind of sad to see ABC’s

“Desparate Housewives”

come to an end. On Mother’s Day, to boot. Eight years seems a pretty sweet run on TV, but, after Peyton Place, Dallas, and Wisteria Lane, where do we go next for neighborhood drama and hi-jinx?

Maybe the local filling station, where gasoline prices are again leaving a sour taste in our mouths and taking a bite out of our wallets. It seemed like fuel costs just started leveling off, but the Best Coast (California, Oregon, and Washington – not the aforementioned band) is now getting hit with rising summer prices and the usual round of corporate excuses, er, explanations. We think it’s not so sweet that gas at one neighborhood station jumped six cents a gallon overnight last week. Forecasters are projecting this dousing will continue through the Fourth of July, but don’t you want to bet that, by the end of June, hiked-price projections will be extended until Labor Day?

On that note, enjoy your milk and cookies.

For information on MLS properties or

Hancock Park real estate,

please visit:

http://www.hollywoodhillsrealestatemarket.com/hancock-park-real-estate-sale.

For more information about buying or selling a home in the Hollywood Hills, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Hancock Park, Los Feliz, or Downtown Los Angeles areas, please contact Reuben Pacheco or Valerie Finlayson via the following link:

http://www.hollywoodhillsrealestatemarket.com/contact.

To learn more about us, visit:

http://www.hollywoodhillsrealestatemarket.com/meet-the-team.

Or, sign up for our monthly newsletter at the “Extra! Extra!” box on the right-hand side of your screen.

We at the Hollywood Hills Real Estate Market/LA Real Estate Blog always welcome your comments and feedback. Please feel free to reply (below) to this post.

Mother’s Day

love and gratitude?

After all, doesn’t the holder of the most important job in the world – sorry, make that universe – deserve more than one day of special attention? So, let’s make it Mother’s Weekend.

To all the great mothers out there, we’d like to acknowledge you and shower you with love and all the presents you ought to have. (Not just a card, flowers, and Sunday brunch, but even the ones we can’t afford.) And wish you infinite blessings, too.

Who deserves fabulous gifts and stellar treatment more than you? Today, however, we start with a few words….

Dear Mom: We love you always and are indebted to you for everything.

You made us, made our beds, and made our

homes

happy. You gave us the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and Santa Claus. You nursed us when we were sick, and you supported us through sibling squabbles, broken hearts, our first job, and so many years of schooling. You cut coupons to feed us and cut material to make costumes for school plays. You got us to swimming lessons, soccer games, band practice, science camp – whatever it took to give us something you never had as a child.

No matter your income, we were a full-time job. By the time we turned 18, you had been responsible for, oh, about 20,000 meals. Countless loads of laundry. A home that was cleaned, dusted, decorated, filled with all the love of your heart, and then some.

You read us to sleep when we were young and shared your favorite books, movies, and tunes with us as we grew. You passed on stories of your youth and that of your parents, and, for those of us lucky enough, a generation – or more – beyond that. Indeed, you are the trunk of our Tree of Life.

Our birthdays wouldn’t have been the same without the cakes you baked and the parties you threw. Through teething and rashes and scraped knees to prom and graduation and the next generation, you have been there for us. From our first home to our latest, we wouldn’t be the same without your domestic expertise, organizational skills, backing, and emotional support, and sometimes even your financial aid. (Because the Bank of Mom is never closed.)

And now that we’re older, we still lean on you for your wisdom, your loving and generous spirit, your quintessential “Momness” that doesn’t seem to stop with mothering your own children. So you adopt the abandoned, you foster other mothers’ kids, you nurture pets, our best friend from high school and college, our partner, and our spouse.

This week, dearest Mom, in honor of mothers everywhere,

Time magazine

has picked the

Queen Mother

creature from the

“Alien”

film series as best “pop culture” mom ever. (So, technically, being a Great Mother is the most important job in all the galaxies. Now, does that cover things?) Writer Caryn Brooks, it should be noted, voted for the acidic-saliva-spewing baby protector. Over surrogate-Mom Ripley. Over – among other pop culture moms, according to Time’s list – the “Joy Luck Club” quartet and the Greek goddess Gaia.

(For the rest of the Time list, please go to http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1738178,00.html.)

Anyway, we have a bone to pick with that selection, of course. Time says it’s a movie monster. We say our Mom’s No. 1. You say it’s your Mom. Fortunately, that’s the kind of debate we all win. (Except, maybe, Caryn Brooks.)

Dear Mom: You are phenomenal and loved more than you’ll ever know.

So, to you, and to all Moms everywhere, happy Mother’s Weekend!

If you have no other plans this weekend and would like to spend some time checking out Open Houses in the

Hollywood Hills real estate market,

please visit:

http://www.hollywoodhillsrealestatemarket.com/open-houses.

For more information about buying or selling a home in the Hollywood Hills, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Hancock Park, Los Feliz, or Downtown Los Angeles areas, please contact Reuben Pacheco or Valerie Finlayson via the following link:

http://www.hollywoodhillsrealestatemarket.com/contact.

To learn more about us, visit:

http://www.hollywoodhillsrealestatemarket.com/meet-the-team.

Or, sign up for our monthly newsletter at the “Extra! Extra!” box on the right-hand side of your screen.

We at the Hollywood Hills Real Estate Market/LA Real Estate Blog always welcome your comments and feedback. Please feel free to reply (below) to this post.

Fannie Mae

just had a pretty good first quarter. She posted a profit of $2.7 billion – the first since being seized by the U.S.government in 2008 and the largest since the housing debacle started ramped up five years ago. What this means for us regular Joes and Janes today is that we won’t have to infuse Fannie Mae with a loan.

During the last quarter of 2011, government support to Fannie Mae totaled more than $4.5 billion.

Company executives credit the improvement to lower credit-related expenses (resulting from stabilizing

home prices),

a decrease in the company’s inventory of single-family real estate-owned (REO) properties – in tandem with improved REO sales prices, and lower single-family serious delinquency (SDQ) rates.

“Our financial performance has improved significantly,” said Michael J. Williams, Fannie Mae’s president and chief executive officer.

Fannie Mae execs are also optimistic about her prospects for the rest of this year.

“We expect our financial results for 2012 to be significantly better than 2011,” said Susan McFarland, executive vice president and chief financial officer. “Our credit performance is headed in the right direction with significant improvement since 2009, and we expect that the reserves we have built to cover future credit losses on the pre-2009 legacy book of business have reached their peak.”

To date, Fannie Mae has received more than $116 billion in taxpayer aid and has paid back over $20 billion in dividends, lowering the overall cost of the government bailout to $93.6 billion.

(For more, please go to http://www.fanniemae.com/portal/about-us/media/financial-news/2012/5719.html.)

Taxpayers have pumped an additional $71.3 billion into Fannie Mae’s smaller sibling,

Freddie Mac,

which has paid $18.3 billion in dividends back to the government.

Last week, Freddie Mac reported a $577 million profit for the first quarter, but needed nearly $20 million in government aid to help make its $1.8 billion dividend payment and boost the company’s bottom line.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has projected that the total cost of the bailouts of the two companies could easily exceed $200 billion.

Meanwhile today, Freddie Mac reported new record lows for both the 30-year mortgage rate, which dipped to 3.83 percent (from 3.84 last week), and the 15-year mortgage, down to 3.05 percent from last week’s rate of 3.07 percent.

If you’re interested in buying a home and you’re looking in the

Hollywood Hills real estate market,

you may want to consider that Fannie and Freddie own or back more than half of the nation’s mortgages.

If you would like to search for properties in the area, please visit:

http://www.hollywoodhillsrealestatemarket.com/search-for-properties.

For more information about buying or selling a home in the Hollywood Hills, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Hancock Park, Los Feliz, or Downtown Los Angeles areas, please contact Reuben Pacheco or Valerie Finlayson via the following link:

http://www.hollywoodhillsrealestatemarket.com/contact.

To learn more about us, visit:

http://www.hollywoodhillsrealestatemarket.com/meet-the-team.

Or, sign up for our monthly newsletter at the “Extra! Extra!” box on the right-hand side of your screen.

We at the Hollywood Hills Real Estate Market/LA Real Estate Blog always welcome your comments and feedback. Please feel free to reply (below) to this post.