TOD Opportunities Along an Old Red Car Line?

With SCAG's long-range blueprint promoting transit-oriented development, developers might want to keep their eyes on slow-moving plans to build a new light rail line from downtown L.A. to Santa Ana, largely along the right of way of the old Pacific Electric "Red Car" line from Paramount to Santa Ana.

Downey Beat reported that SCAG has completed work on an initial executive study of alternative routes, and LA Curbed has additional information. Links to the documents and proposed maps are available on both sites.

SCAG estimates that up to 80,000 people a day would ride the line if built, and that since much of the line would be on a dedicated route and not city streets that it would only take a little over an hour to travel from end to end.

Some cities support the idea, some oppose it, and of course cost is an issue. A basic light rail line would cost about $3 billion to build, and some of the jurisdictions are holding out for a magnetic levitation (MagLev) train that would be quieter and cheaper to operate, but would cost a staggering $7 billion to build.

Paper Reports on How Fees Impact Whether to Build

Today's San Gabriel Valley Tribune offers an article on housing affordability that also talks about how development fees can make a difference between a project getting under way or not.

After quoting BIASC CEO David Shepherd (here's the full press release) reporter Kevin Smith writes the following:

With fees and requirements add­ing so much additional cost to each home, builders often can’t make enough profit to move forward with projects.

“I’ve seen that with William Lyon Homes and Shea Homes,” said Zak Bushey, a Realtor with Southland Properties in Glendora. “They had to put projects on hold after they started building.”

BIASC also was quoted in today's LA Daily News column by Greg Wilcox, who writes about the transfer of the Construction Industry Research Board from BIASC to the California Homebuilding Foundation in Sacramento. The column also reveals the service's new name - the Construction Industry Research Bureau. As CHF Executive Director Terri Brunson explains, CIRB is a name people in the industry know. The article has not yet been posted online.

LA Times the Latest to Point Out That Housing Is Finally Recovering

Reporter Alejandro Lazo writes in today's LA Times that  Southern California’s housing market showed signs of turning the corner in April, noting that foreclosures made up the smallest share of sales in four years and the region’s median home price increased for the first time since late 2010.

But the piece lists other signs of improvement: Foreclosures dropped significantly in California and other Western states last month, national delinquencies and foreclosures hit a four-year low, driven largely by declines in states in the West; and the region’s median home price rose 3.6 percent from a year earlier to $290,000 in April.

Here's a couple of quotes, first from DataQuick President John Walsh:

 The housing market continued its painfully slow crawl back toward normalcy last month. You can see it in the fading role of foreclosures, the uptick in median prices here and there and the higher levels of sales in coastal counties.

And here's an even better quote from Steven Thomas, whose company, ReportsOnHousing.com, produces monthly reports on So Cal real estate with a focus on Orange County:

 Based on all the numbers and where we are going now, a bottom has been reached. We are getting enough activity that it is causing prices to slowly rise.

High-Density, Transit-Oriented Development Should Be Built - Just Not in My Backyard

Also in today's LA Daily News is an article that once again reminds us that while many policy makers say most future housing should be high-density developments close to transit lines, that support sometimes waivers when it's in their backyard.

A developer wants to build a 399-unit apartment complex with ground-floor retail on Sepulveda Boulevard just north of Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks. More exactly, the vacant lot hugs the intersection of the Ventura and San Diego freeways.

But while a neighborhood council somewhat hesitantly endorsed the plan on Monday, the influential local homeowners' association fervently opposes it - and the City Council member who thanks to redistricting now represents the area thinks it's a "little big."

We'll have to wait and see how this oft-repeated dance turns out.

Shortage of Homes Sparks Sales in the Valley

The LA Daily News reports today that a shortage of homes for sale is sparking "bidding wars, quick sales and an investor feeding frenzy."

Reporter Greg Wilcox cites an example: A real estate agenct recently had a listing in Tarzana priced under the market at $599,000 and held a broker's open house, used to introduce other agents to the property, on a Friday morning. More than 200 people showed up and the property attracted multiple offers. It's now in escrow for $715,000.

Why the bidding wars? Simple. There aren't many homes for sale, Wilcox notes:

At the end of March there were just 1,875 houses and condos for sale in the San Fernando Valley, according to the Van Nuys-based Southland Regional Association of Realtors, a scant 2.8 month supply at the current sales pace. That's the lowest since the start of the downturn in 2007.

While there are still obstacles out there, it would appear the market is turning.