Sweet Orange

Yesterday, I wrote about the prefab green home in Newport Beach that developer LivingHomes put up in about four hours. The first home of this type that LivingHomes installed is in Santa Monica and is the home of  Steve Glenn, the CEO of LivingHomes, (To see additional prefab green homes that LivingHomes has built, see the LivingHomes website.)

In addition to being the first home of this type that Living Homes built, the Santa Monica prefab is the first residential building in the U.S. to receive the LEED Platinum rating.* The Newport Beach home mentioned previously as well as homes in Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa are competing for this title in Orange County.

You can view the Santa Monica home in two ways: You can take a tour of the Santa Monica house every Friday from 1-2 pm and the 4th Saturday of each month. Tickets are free and can be reserved through eventbrite.com. Or you can take a virtual tour.

About four hours–that’s all it took to install a prefabricated “green” home onto its foundation in Newport Beach.  After the four modules that make up this sustainably designed home were put into place on the existing foundation, the next step was to bolt everything together. The homeowner, Greg Brown, predicted that he would have the interior completed in four weeks.

Brown and the developer, Living Homes, hope to verify the greenness of the newly installed prefab by applying for the LEED Platinum rating. LEED is the predominate sustainable development rating system, and Platinum is the highest LEED rating.

Some of the characteristics of this home that will help to achieve the Platinum designation are the use of the following:

• recycled material
• low-flow water fixtures
• solar panels
• ventilation system that improves indoor quality
• windows that seal in air
• low- or non-volatile organic compounds
• Energy Star appliances
• construction components that allow the building to be torn down in a way that allows for the easy reuse of  all the parts

The installed cost of this particular prefab green home (model LHKT 1.5), which is available nationwide, is $275 per square foot. This does not include the foundation or land costs.

Related post:

Going for the Green-and Platinum-in Orange County: The 319 Single-family Project in Huntington Beach

Going for the Green–and Platinum–in Orange County: The Environmental Nature Center in Newport Beach

Thomas Friedman at Davos Economic Forum

According to Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Thomas Friedman, our problems in California are just a preview of the problems that the rest of the country will face. Friedman sees U.S. problems as stemming from the following:

• too much money in politics
• gerrymandering of political districts
• Internet use which “at its worst provides a home for every extreme view and spawns digital lynch mobs from across the political spectrum that attack anyone who departs from their specific orthodoxy.” He also states that “at its best, [Internet use] provides a check on elites and establishments and opens the way for new voices.”
• a permanent presidential campaign
• U.S. business community that has become so global that the business community does not feel  a commitment to local areas or even the U.S. as a whole

Friedman has also stated that much of our problems come from the failure of our leaders–and the public–to think and act for the long term. He calls this our “I’ll be gone, you’ll be gone” attitude toward the economy and the environment. According to Friedman, we have been using accounting practices for both our financial system and the environment that under price risk, privatize gain, and socialize losses.

For video interviews with Thomas Friedman, see Friedman’s New York Times webpage.

Sources: Thomas Friedman, “Advice from Grandma“; The New York Times; Charlie Rose

In yesterday’s post, we looked at some foreclosed homes in North Orange County. Today, we’ll take a look at some foreclosure numbers for South Orange County.

All the following information is from Foreclosed Homes, not the MSL.

25012 Pine Flat Circle, Lake Forest, CA 92630:1977 single-family home with an estimated value of $653,606

• Sold on August 10, 2009 for $792,983 (trustee sale), listed on November 30, 2009 (Public Records)–approximately 4 months since unsuccessful foreclosure auction
• Days on Market (listing date to current date)*: 3

33202 Ocean Bright #10, Dana Point, CA 92629: 1982 condo with an estimated value of $364,854

• Sold on July 17, 2009 for $337,050 (trustee sale), listed on October 3, 2009 (Public Records)–approximately 2.5 months since unsuccessful foreclosure auction
• Days on Market (listing date to current date)*: 61

1 Victoria Lane, Coto De Caza, CA 92679: single-family home with an estimated value of $1,161,136

• Sold on September 16, 2009 for $1,119,539 (trustee sale), listed on October 22, 2009 (Public Records)–approximately 1 month since unsuccessful foreclosure auction
• Days on Market (listing date to current date)*: 43

22882 Tamora Drive, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677: single-family home with an estimated value of $571,151

• Sold on February 1, 2007 for $580,000 (I am assuming this is the trustee auction date.), then delisted on the same day, not listed again until November 28, 2009. (Public Records)
• Days on Market (listing date to current date)*: 5

Click on Redfin’s map of foreclosed homes to see other Orange County homes that have been through a foreclosure auction that resulted in the home being returned to the bank.

*As the name implies, Days on Market is the number of days that the home has been on the market. This number is determined by adding up the number of days that exist between the date that the home was listed to the current date, which in this case is December 3, 2009.

Here is a random sample of Orange County homes that have been through a foreclosure sale and are now bank-owned. This list of bank-owned homes provides some insight into how long Orange County homes have been in the bank’s possession before being listed through either Foreclosed Homes or the MSL. To determine this, I am assuming that the last sales date was the date of the foreclosure auction.

Up first is a look at some North Orange County foreclosures numbers. Note that the information for all the following homes is from Foreclosed Home, not the MSL. Also, note that I am defining “unsuccessful foreclosure” to mean that the home went through a trustee sale; however,  there were no bidders. Therefore, the home went back to the lending institution. For a look at when the foreclosure auction occurs in the foreclosure process, see one of IrvineRenter’s posts.

6372 Los Robles Avenue, Buena Park, CA 90621:

• approximately 2 months between unsuccessful foreclosure auction and listing date
• Days on Market (listing date to current date)*: approximately 55

7565 Fillmore Drive,  Buena Park, CA 90620:

• approximately 2 months between unsuccessful foreclosure auction and listing date
• Days on Market (listing date to current date)*: approximately 55

7750 Bolsa Avenue #7 Midway City, CA 92655:

• approximately 2 days between unsuccessful foreclosure auction and listing date
• Days on Market (listing date to current date)*: approximately 70

9786 Debiois Avenue Fountain Valley, CA 92708:

• approximately 1 months between unsuccessful foreclosure auction and listing date
• Days on Market (listing date to current date)*: approximately 33

4342 La Cadena Circle, Yorba Linda, CA 9288:

• approximately 1 day between unsuccessful foreclosure auction and listing date
• Days on Market (listing date to current date)*: approximately 20

If you click on Redfin’s map of foreclosed homes, you will see that North and Central Orange County have approximately the same number of foreclosed homes. South Orange County has the least. Coming up: We’ll take a look at some similar information for Central and South Orange County.

*As the name implies, Days on Market is the number of days that the home has been on the market. This number is determined by adding up the number of days that exist between the date that the home was listed to the current date, which in this case is December 2, 2009.

According to S&P/Case-Shiller, the Los Angeles-Orange County metropolitan area September housing prices were up 0.8% from August. September’s increase in home price marked the fourth month in  a row that Orange County housing prices increased. However, prices are down by 9.0% from last year. In addition, home prices in the Los Angeles-Orange County area are still 70% to 80% above what they were in 2000.

Note: Case-Shiller uses paired-sales comparisons for their analysis.

Source: “Another up month for home prices” by Jeff Collins, OC Register