Growing tensions in Iraq have already begun to impact oil prices. Crude oil prices have already hit 10-month highs and gas prices, which typically rise during summer months anyway, may go even higher. Oil is now up to $107 a barrel.
The retail sales report for May from the Commerce Department showed that retail sales rose 0.3%. This was below economists’ forecasts of 0.5%.April’s sales gains were revised up to 0.5% from a previously reported 0.1%. Excluding motor vehicles and parts, retail sales rose only 0.1% in May compared with a 0.4% increase in April from March. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s preliminary June reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment dropped slightly to 81.2, down from 81.9 the month before but overall consumers remain cautiously optimistic about the economy. Stocks rose a bit on Friday repairing some of the damage from earlier in the week. This was the worst week in two months for the U.S. stock market. The Dow closed at 16775.74 down -0.88% from last week’s close of 16,924.28. The Nasdaq was also down, closing at 4310.65 down -0.25% from last week’s close of 4,321.40. The S&P 500 closed at 1,936.16, down -0.68% from last week’s 1,949.44. The 10 year Treasury bond yield ended the week at 2.61%. It was 2.60% last Friday and 2.19% a year ago. The Freddie Mac Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey showed that the 30-year-fixed rate was is back on the rise, up to 4.20% from 4.13% last week. The 15-year-fixed was also up to 3.31% from last week’s 3.23%. A year ago the 30-year fixed was at 3.98% and the 15-year was at 3.10%. Jumbo rates are only slightly higher. There is almost no difference in rate between conforming and jumbo mortgages right now. RealtyTrac® reported that foreclosure filings continued to drop in May. They were down -5% from the previous month and down -26% year over year to the lowest level since December 2006. Bank repossessions are at the lowest level since July 2007 but they are up in some states including California which had a year-over-year increase of 26%. Nationwide foreclosure auctions are also at their lowest level since December 2006. Foreclosure starts around the country have hit their lowest level since December 2005. DataQuick’s latest numbers show that in May, 19,556 new and previously owned houses and condos sold in the six county Southland region, down -2% from April and down -15% from a year earlier. This number was -23% below the May average of 25,393 sales. Sales in L.A. County fell -16% from a year ago to 6,460 properties. This was the eighth month in a row that sales have fallen year over year according to DataQuick. Last month, the region’s median price rose 11% to $410,000 from $368,000 in May 2013. In Los Angeles County alone, the median price rose 10% to $450,000 from $410,000 a year earlier.
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Southern California is experiencing a major drought and turf grass is one of the most water-intensive plants around. In order to encourage Los Angeles residents to say goodbye to their lawns, the LADWP offers a cash incentive to replace healthy, green grass with California Friendly® landscaping. The cash runs from $1.50 to $2 per square foot for residential customers and commercial customers may receive $1 per square foot. In place of water-thirsty and high maintenance grass, L.A. residents are encouraged to install California Friendly® plants and other water-wise features to help save money while conserving water. You can request a rebate one time on any qualifying property and it does not have to be the entire lawn on the property in order to qualify.
What does California Friendly® mean? This is an approved list of trees, perennials, vines, succulents and shrubs that are more water-friendly. The program also supports other ways to enhance a landscape with non-vegetative groundcover or paving materials like decomposed granite, pea gravel, rocks, pebbles, mulch and wood chips. A list of landscaping options and plants available at www.bewaterwise.com. In order to qualify for the rebate customers must pre-apply for a rebate and receive LADWP approval before starting the turf replacement ant the LADWP will also inspect the lawn before and after the project. Projects can’t include live turf of turf-looking plants and must include plants however synthetic turf is eligible for rebates in some areas. In order to begin you set up an account and submit a proposal. It’s important to measure your project correctly because your final rebate cannot be larger than your reserved amount, even if you remove additional square footage. Along with your application you must submit at least five color photos of the areas you plan to remove as well as a copy of your most recent water bill. Once you have submitted your proposal you must wait to hear back from the LADWP which can take several weeks. After you receive approval you have 120 days to complete your project. Once your project is completed you log in and make a rebate application by submitting photos of the complete project and a copy of your recent water bill. If your project includes synthetic turf, submit a photo or scanned copy of your synthetic turf receipt. Your rebate application will be reviewed and you will receive an email with the results in 4-5 weeks. The application website at SoCalWaterSmart includes instructions for submitting photos and how to measure your lawn. People move for a variety of reasons, for some it’s a chance to get a better place to live, for some it is to be closer to family or to a job or several different factors. The Census Bureau recently issued a report, Reasons for Moving: 2012 to 2013, which offers a look at 19 core reasons why people changed residence during the previous year. The survey compares reasons for moving in 1999 with now and found some interesting changes. In 1999, 3% moved to be closer to work or for an easier commute, that number rose to 5.4% in 2013.In 1999, 6% wanted cheaper housing, while in 2013 8.3% expressed the same reason. However in 1999, 21% of people moved because they wanted a better home but in 2013, only 14.8% made the same decision.
The survey also found that men were more likely than women to move for job-related reasons and better-educated people were more likely to move for this reason than those with lower levels of education. Married people were least likely to move for family-related reasons. Moves within the same county were often housing related while moves outside the county or elsewhere were more often job related. To help you make your own moving decision, the Census Bureau has created dwellr, an app that can pull up a list of U.S. locations that match the user’s preference for variables including city size and demographic info. This is a great app to give to clients who are planning big moves to allow them to explore a variety of areas. - See more at: http://www.rodeore.com/exploring-the-reasons-people-move/#sthash.OVta4TfZ.dpuf Every athlete deserves a great cheering section! This weekend marks the Summer Games Invitational event for the Special Olympics June 6-8 at the USC Campus. The event is free and open to the public and more than 3,000 volunteers and 10,000 local dignitaries, sponsors and spectators are expected to attend. There are plenty of great competitions to attend. Over 1,200 athletes will compete in aquatics, track and field, golf, basketball, gymnastics, and more.
The fun begins with Opening Ceremony: Friday – 10am at Loker Stadium. You can support the cause at the Breakfast with the Champions Fundraiser Saturday morning. Competitions take place all weekend. It all winds up with the Closing Ceremony on Sunday. The Special Olympics Festival features games, live entertainment, community and law enforcement exhibits, and more. Special Olympics Southern California offers year-round sports training and competition for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. More than 17,000 athletes in 11 Southern California counties train and compete in 12 Olympic-type summer and fall sports. This year’s event is a prelude to next year’s 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games which will also take place in L.A. and will feature 7,000 athletes and 3,000 coaches representing 177 countries, along with 30,000 volunteers and an anticipated 500,000 spectators. The e 2015 Special Olympics World Games – being staged in Los Angeles July 25 – August 2, 2015 – will be the largest sports-and-humanitarian event anywhere in the world in 2015, and the single biggest event in Los Angeles since the 1984 Olympic Games. Union Station celebrated its 75th anniversary this year and the beautiful old railroad station is getting an expansive new makeover. Metro has revealed renderings of the Union Station master plan. The plan calls for a $350 million track redesign and the removal of the surface parking lot in front of the station. The parking lot will be replaced with a civic plaza that could include outdoor dining. The ticket room and old Fred Harvey restaurant could be home to new restaurants and a new restaurant is already planned to fill the former Union Bagel spot. Later plans include moving the Patsouras Transit Plaza from the rear of Union Station to the East Side. Nearly 70,000 people use Union Station daily and that number is expected to grow to 140,000 by 2040 so the new passenger concourse will expand the existing passage way. The master plan process is also considering the possibility of having a high speed rail terminal nearby. For full details check out the Metro website. Friday June 6, the Labor Department announced that the economy added 217,000 jobs in May and the unemployment level remained at 6.3%. The labor market has officially recovered all of the 8.7 million jobs lost during the recession, a major milestone in the economic recovery. It was also the fourth straight month job gains have been over 200,000.
The Federal Reserve released its latest Beige book which shows that the U.S. economy strengthened over the last few months in areas that include manufacturing, construction, retail sales, and bank lending. Home sales continues to be a weaker area, partly because of the continued low inventory of available homes. Inflation remains contained. The Commerce Department says that the trade gap is the widest it has been in two years as Americans bought more imported goods and exports slowed. The trade deficit was $47.2 billion in April, up from $44.2 billion in March. Exports were down in April to $193.4 billion while imports rose by almost $3 billion to $240.6 billion. The Freddie Mac Weekly Primary Mortgage Market Survey showed that the 30-year-fixed rate was up just slightly, rising to 4.13% from 4.12% last week. The 15-year-fixed also had a minor lift, up to 3.23% from last week’s 3.21%. A year ago the 30-year fixed was at 3.91% and the 15-year was at 3.03%. Jumbo loans are running around 4.5% for 30 year terms and about 3.625% on 15 year fixed loans. The 10 year Treasury bond yield ended the week at 2.60%. It was 2.48% last Friday and 2.08% a year ago. The stock market continues to climb with all three indices notching up gains this week and closing records set by both the Dow and the S&P 500. The Dow closed at 16,924.28 up 1.24% from last week’s close of 16,717.17 The Nasdaq also had another strong week, closing at 4,321.40up 1.86% from last week’s close of 4,242.62. The S&P 500 closed at 1,949.44, up 1.35% from last week’s 1,923.57. The Commerce Department reported that U.S. construction hit its highest level in five years in April, up 0.2% to an annual rate of $953.5 billion. This was the highest level since March 2009 but was under economists’ expectations of a 0.6% gain. March’s construction spending was revised upward to show a 0.6% rise rather than the 0.2% rise previously reported. While public construction rose 0.8%, private construction was flat—a 0.1% rise on residential outlays was canceled out by a -0.1% drop in nonresidential projects. The latest data from CoreLogic showed that prices rose 10.5% in April year over year, and 2.1%from the previous month. This was the smallest annual gain in 14 months. The year-over-year gain was 11.1% in March, and 12.2% in February. These numbers are not seasonally adjusted. California saw the biggest price gain with 15.6% year over year. Home prices were up in 95 of the 100 largest metro areas but overall we are still 14.3% below the peak prices reached in April 2006. For the Los Angeles-Long-Beach-Glendale Metropolitan Area, prices were up 15.4% year over year. CoreLogic also released data showing that just 8% of mortgage holders in the Los Angeles metro area are underwater in their mortgages, lower than the national rate of 12.7%. This represents the lowest level since CoreLogic started tracking underwater borrowers in 2009. It’s early to tell, but it seems like we are seeing prices begin to flatten in some areas, while clearly continuing to rise in others. This is the first time in 3 years that I have seen signs of prices flattening out in any area in our marketplace. I would not be surprised to see more listings come on the market, as sellers may think prices have begun to top out, which is something we have not seen in recent years. Southern California has a special interest in this year’s Belmont Stakes in New York on Saturday, June 7. That’s because our local favorite California Chrome will attempt to become only the twelfth Triple Crown winner in American racing history. This is big news especially since there has not been a Triple Crown winner since Affirmed in 1978. Plenty of other horses have won the Preakness and the Kentucky Derby and then failed to win the Belmont Stakes but he does happen to have the whole state cheering for him and he happens to be on a six-race winning streak. If you can’t be at the track in New York, the place to be to watch his great attempt is Santa Anita Race Track in Arcadia which is planning several special events to celebrate the day.
You can join pop-punk pioneers New Found Glory for a microbrew festival and celebration of Belmont Stakes Day. Take in the concert while enjoying the many microbrews in the beer garden. Then place your bets as the third and final leg of the U.S. Triple Crown comes to you live from New York. Admission starts at $15. A more sophisticated event is happening in the Chandelier Room at the race track, where the California Grub, Grapes and Grain is taking place. This special tasting event features chef Christian Page with chefs formerly of Osteria Mozza for $150 per person. Belmont Stakes Day is also the day for ‘Santa Anita Uncorked’ a wine tasting event hosted in Santa Anita’s trackside Club Court enclosure, on the east end of the Grandstand beginning at 12 noon. The event will begin at 12 noon and will feature a wide array of boutique and hand-picked wine selections, cuisine sampling from 25 popular local restaurants, an art exhibit and a tremendous day of racing that will include the Belmont and several other graded stakes from New York along with an outstanding 11-race card at Santa Anita. Tickets are $60 each and include a souvenir wine glass, racing program, wine tasting, and cuisine sampling. Heading to the beach isn’t the only way to beat the heat in Southern California. Especially if you have children a water park is a fantastic place to spend the day, keep cool, and return home happy and exhausted. Below are some of our favorite water parks. Many parks have rides that keep both older thrill seekers and younger water explorers perfectly entertained. Enjoy!
Raging Waters San Dimas is considered one of the best water parks in the country. People come from all over the country and around the world to spend the day playing in this massive park given over to waterslides ranging from mellow cruises to all out stomach-dropping high tubes. There are over 50 landscaped acres and 36 slides and attractions. The park also has a sand beach, the Flowrider surfing simulator and the Ragin’ Racer. Some rides reach speeds as high as 40 miles per hour making for a very exhilarating experience. The park also has fantastic options for the young ones including Kid’s Kingdom and Splash Island. Day passes are $38.99 and season passes are also available. Six Flags Hurricane Harbor in Valencia has opened with new attractions. The Bonzai Pipelines are two thrill slides that sit side-by-side and have a unique launching capsule system on Taboo Tower. After reaching the top of the five-story tower, guests step into the enclosed vertical capsule where the floor drops out beneath them, sending riders free-falling 40 miles-per-hour down the slide. Stay cool and enjoy a movie with Friday Flicks Dive-In Movies, featuring family-friendly movies in the Forgotten Sea wave pool from Memorial Day through Labor Day.The 25-acre water park has water slides, rain curtains and squirting effects and rides including Tornado where riders begin their experience 75 feet in the air by blasting down a 132-foot long tunnel and end up in an open-ended funnel swirling into the cool pool below. Black Snake Summit is a 75-foot-tall tower featuring five speed water slides and Bamboo Racer is a unique six-lane racing attraction that places riders head first, side-by-side, on specially designed water toboggans to face down the 45-foot tall water slides. For more older kids and adults the 3.2 acre Lizard Lagoon has a tropical beach resort atmosphere with a three-and-a-half foot deep recreational pool with basketball hoops, water volleyball and comfortable lounge chairs beneath bamboo shade structures and swaying palm trees. General admission is $39.99 at the park but discounts are available online. Knotts Berry Farm’s Soak City in Buena Park offers great options for both kids and adults. The Banzai Falls are multi-lane speed slides where riders are dispatched head first on a mat from a platform over 41 feet high. Rides include inter-tube slides, dark flumes, and the 63-ft.-high Old Man Falls. The Sunset River is over a third of a mile making it one of the biggest water park lazy rivers in the world. For little folk, Gremmie Lagoon offers a playground of interactive octopus, submarines and other oversized landmarks that squirt, sprinkle, soak and splash kids and parents. Adult passes are $30 if you order online. The Legoland Water Park in Calabasas is a great addition to the much-beloved Legoland park. There is also new attraction, the Lego Chima Water Park which is included as part of the water park ticket. Cragger’s Swamp is a hands-on water play area perfect for little ones because the water is only a foot deep. Because it’s Legoland there are building experiences. The Eglor’s Build-A-Boat follows in the unique interactive play experience introduced with Build-A-Raft River and lets kids built a boat and race each other. This park offers less thrills and chills than some of the others but will delight younger kids. Splash Kingdom Waterpark is a beach themed water park in Redlands, California. It features over 20 water slides and water attractions. The Tower of Kings is 165 feet and features eight thrilling water rides. The park’s tallest waterslide is the Anilelator at 90 feet tall. The waterpark includes the “Endless River” where guests float in tubes around a lazy river. The Buccaneer Bay Waterpark in La Mirada is great for families. There are three two-story waterslides, a zero depth play structure, a lazy river, warm water spa, and more all with a pirate-them that includes a marooned ship. Season passes are reasonably priced and there is free parking. La Mirada Regional Aquatics Center also offers year-round swim lessons for all ages and ability levels. For more great water parks that are more than a day trip away, check out the Travel Channel’s feature on amazing water parks. Looking for something to do this weekend? Join the Big Parade. The Big Parade is an initiative of a local writer who lives in Mt. Washington. The two-day event is essentially a series of walking loops through Los Angeles that take you through the city. Day One starts on May 31 at Grand Park at 8:30AM and end at 7:30PM at the Music Box Stairs in Silver Lake. Day Two begins at the Music Box Stairs at 8:30AM and finishes at the Griffith Park Observatory. Each day will have four specific loops of lengths between two and seven miles. The full walk is approximately 35 miles. Loops vary by intensity with some including many of the city’s stairways.
Participants are asked to bring their own food and drinks. Lunch breaks include live music. Historians, artists, poets, and musicians also entertain along the way. To follow along visit the Big Parade site to check out the timetables. The walks are led by a core group but people can join at any time. Participants will also be tweeting throughout the whole journey. |
AuthorGenna Walsh Archives
February 2020
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