Palos Verdes Real Estate

History & Current Events Category

The Battle of New Orleans — all you wanted to know, January 10th, 2025.

OK, it's not real estate, but for a little variety I will be giving a talk on January 10th, 2025 on the 210th anniversary (plus one day) of the Battle of New Orleans, which is one of the more interesting and surprising-in-its-result battles in world history.  It will be at Hesse Park in RPV.  This is where Jackson earned the nickname "Old Hickory", the Kentucky Rifle demonstrated its superiority to the smoothbore musket, and where hubris met its match. "In 1814...Continue Reading!

November 2024 Newsletter

Dear Neighbor: Real estate prices have flattened out in the past 6 months.  There is never any shortage of explanations for whatever the market does, so I won’t indulge in that here.  There is, however, a shortage of homes for sale, which is supporting the prices.  Interest rates have eased a bit, into the 5’s if you know where to go (I do), but there are a lot of folks who don’t want to give up their current sub-3% mortgage by...Continue Reading!

July 2024 Newsletter

Dear Neighbor: I was bombarded with phone calls after my May newsletter, on the subject of Proposition 19 and property re-assessment upon death of a parent.  As the bill was originally passed and implemented, it required that, upon death of the parent, ALL heirs move into the inherited house to avoid a reassessment at market value which, as you can imagine, would trigger a massive increase in property taxes.  Well, it appears that Sacramento was also bombarded with complaints about that...Continue Reading!

High Density Housing

As most PV residents are now aware, in its infinite wisdom, the State has dictated that every city must have "affordable" housing.  "Affordable" varies by city, but the fact that the State is using our tax money and something called the "Builder's Remedy" to bludgeon cities into compliance is disturbing.  The spirit of the California State constitution is that zoning is left to the cities and counties, but Sacramento has found a cynical way around it.  The artist renderings below...Continue Reading!