Water, Weeds, Fire, and a Glendale 91208 Update

Eliminating regular gardening bills was one reason I planted a California native garden, and overall I’ve succeeded. I tend the garden about once a month with no outside help. Today, though, I threw in the towel and asked a gardener to help me clear aggressive weeds threatening my plants at their bases where the drip system provides water, and along the edges of the ground near the driveway and sidewalk.

The gardener told me that more and more of his clients are converting lawns to low-water-use native plant designs. We are facing a worsening drought and our governor says that fire season is now “year-round.”

Sustainable choices like drought-tolerant landscapes, and mass transit, have become a lot more popular in these times, with real money at stake and few good investment options. In other times when real money was at stake, sustainable gardens and other green plots were bulldozed by real estate developers, as Sustainable Gardening blogger remembers here. Perhaps there are a few good things about the recent economic downturn.

By the way, I dug weeds out of this garden as thoroughly as possible several times, but they kept growing back wherever they found an opening. The gardener recommended pulling out the overgrowth and treating the lower stems with weed killer. Since my real time is at stake here, toxic chemicals win against sustainability.

Real money at stake, and sustainable prices, are both themes in my review of Glendale 91208 listings below. The average listing price for the zip code is $437 per square foot, and Redfin’s neighborhood pages show a median sale price of $377 per square foot.

2900 Canada Blvd has been on the market for 72 days, and was reduced last week by $30,000 to $649,000. That takes this 3 bed/2 bath home, with 1,950 square feet, to $333 per square foot.

1331 San Luis Rey Drive, now listed at $799,000 sold for $1,300,000 in August 2006, then was foreclosed for $1,101,657 in July 2007. The 3 bed/3 bath, 2,276 sq.ft. home now bank-owned and listed at $351 per square foot. It has been on Redfin 40 days.

3391 Oakmont View Drive, is priced at $1,699,900, and while the listing language states that the price has been reduced by $200,000, the current Redfin record shows no evidence of this. I checked my Redfin email updates and found the property originally listed in June 2008 at $2,079,000. This home sold for $1,500,000 in June 2005, and $1,600,000 in October 2007. I haven’t personally seen any homes support a price increase from 2007 to 2008. It is a spacious 5 bed/4.25 bath view home, at a modest $354 per sq.ft., with 4,802 square feet.