I haven’t done a “housing in the news” for a while, so here are some observations for today:
- According to the Daily News, the median price of a typical San Fernando Valley house hit a record $600,000 in July–a whopping $111,000 increase in the past 12 months as sales maintained a strong pace. It’s the fifth consecutive price record this year, and represents an annual rate of appreciation of 22.7%, which is 8.1 percentage points higher than the comparable June number. This means, at least on paper, that I’m still building equity in the new house. Of course, will be be sustained? I hope so.
The article notes that the price increases aren’t deterring buyers. During July consumers bought 1,203 previously owned houses; 0.6% less than a year ago. Folks believe this will cool off, but slowly.
- In a related article, according to the LA Times, Rates on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages rose to a nationwide average of 5.89% this week, up from 5.82% last week. This concerns me. We currently have one of the Payment Option ARMs. I intend to refinance this to a fixed rate: the question is when. Right now, the ARM rate is below the fixed rate, but I don’t think the difference will last for much longer. Decisions, decisions.
In other news:
- DirecTV has announced that it will stop selling Tivos, in deference to its own DVRs, unless specifically requested. Now, we just bought a DirecTivo, so I wonder what the effect of this will be? Will DirecTV still support the unit? Will they replace it for free?
- For those single folks out there, MIT has developed a Phone Jerk-O-Meter that would analyze speech patterns and voice tones to rate people – on a scale of 0 to 100 percent – on how engaged they are in a conversation. The program uses mathematical algorithms to measure levels of stress and empathy in a person’s voice. It also keeps track of how often someone is speaking. For now, the Jerk-O-Meter is set up to monitor the user’s end of the conversation. If his attention is straying, a message pops up on the phone that warns, “Don’t be a jerk!” or “Be a little nicer now.” A score closer to 100 percent would prompt, “Wow, you’re a smooth talker.” There are more details in the article, but this is very interesting.
- From the Who Do You Remember department. I think this shows the relative importance of things in our society. HP is in the process of renovating the original house of William Hewlett and David Packard, known as the birthplace of Silicon Valley. This involves rebuilding it to current codes, and then making it look like it did in the original timeframe. On the other end of the scale, Beverly Hills has permitted the demolition of the house where George and Ira Gerswin wrote much of their music. Specifically, 1019 N. Roxbury Drive has been reduced to rubble. This is the house where George and Ira Gershwin wrote “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” “Shall We Dance” and “Our Love Is Here to Stay.” Singer Rosemary Clooney lived there for half a century. Beverly Hills has no historic preservation ordinance.
- Hey, shutterbug93: The Los Angeles Times has an entire article on how the musical Babes in Arms was closed this weekend because of an invasion of stinging bees. They even noted how Julie Dixon Jackson was stung when the bees suddenly appeared at a matinee. This will be a significant financial loss for the college, who had to cancel the production. It turned out to be a large invasion: There were thousands in the lights, in the catwalks on the seats and so forth, requiring extensive vacuuming and cleaning. A private exterminator hired by Saddleback College used a flower-based pesticide to get rid of the bees. The honeycomb still needed to be removed Thursday before the 400-seat theater could reopen today as scheduled. Officials did not know what the cleanup cost would be.
And, on that note, I’ll conclude the buzz for the day. (ducks and runs)