Palos Verdes Real Estate

History & Current Events Category

The Battle of New Orleans

OK, I know this has nothing to do with real estate (except possibly to those in New Orleans or the Louisiana Purchase generally) but, as you may know, I am a military historian by training and am fascinated by battles where the underdog won.  The Battle of New Orleans, where a relatively rag-tag army of backwoodsmen, pirates, and whoever else Andrew Jackson could scrape up, in addition to about 1500 US Regular troops, defeated 8500 British Regulars who had just...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!