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.

Bumpy Road Ahead — Slowing Down in Pasadena

The Pasadena Symphony Orchestra has cancelled a November 15 concert because of stock market volatility and its uncertain effect on donors, as Pasadena: Center of the Universe reports. The blog also mentioned that the Pasadena Playhouse just received its largest single gift ever. I hope its board gets good advice about where to park this money.

A municipal crew installing speed humps is the subject of today’s Pasadena Daily Photo. The sight of yellow-reflective-vest-clad workers completing a real civic safety improvement is a cheerful one for me. This was a real job, with a real benefit. Whether we are driving on a residential side street, or managing a large performing arts organization, we all need to slow down and think.

The market has certainly slowed. LA Land charts an accelerated drop in median listing prices throughout the region, and a recent slowdown in inventory. Listings in Pasadena were on the market for an average of 88 days, according to Redfin’s neighborhood pages. Here are three of the most recent sales, along with three of the newest listings:

SALES
2221 Casa Grande Street, Pasadena 91104
$864,545 (10/6/08)
This was originally listed on July 19, 2008 at $910,000.

310 Malcolm Drive, Pasadena 91105
$885,000 (10/3/08)
Originally listed August 12, 2008 at $949,000.

3746 Mayfair Drive, Pasadena 91107
$630,000 (10/3/08)
On July 24, 2008, the list price on this property was reduced from $699,000 to $655,000.

LISTINGS

2037 Jefferson Drive, Pasadena 91104
$729,000
5 bed/2.25 bath
2,274 sq.ft.
$321 per sq.ft.
On Redfin 1 day

1431 Brixton Road, Pasadena 91105
$1,095,000
4 bed/2 bath
1,946 sq.ft.
$563 per sq.ft.
On Redfin 6 days

3510 Landfair Road, Pasadena 91107
$749,000
3 bed/1.75 bath
square footage not listed
On Redfin 1 day

Fire Resistant California Native Plants: No Time Like the Present to Consider These

Almost anything in the path of a fast-moving wildfire will burn, but some plants are more fire-resistant than others, including some native plants that can be established on cleared hillsides. Last week I wrote about a landscaping project I completed using California native plants and listed three places to find them.

My garden project wasn’t in a fire danger zone, so I didn’t try to find fire-resistant plants. There are plenty of hillsides in Glendale and Pasadena with homes that need all the fire protection they can get, though, so today I found this list and discovered that I actually used two of the plants in my garden: Dwarf Coyote Bush (a fast-growing, LA County Fire Department approved groundcover), and Monkeyflower (a fast-growing shrub with bright green leaves and small orange or red flowers). Most of the plants are both drought-tolerant and fire-resistant. In my opinion, native plants with these qualities should be available at every nursery in Southern California.

My last “fire season”-themed post featured three hillside properties in La Crescenta. Almost two months have passed, and one home is still on the market, one is currently in escrow accepting backup offers, while the last (which looks like a foreclosure) has been taken off the market.

Here are the properties I featured on August 27, with their original listing prices:

2837 Pinelawn Drive
$869,000
4 bed/2.5 bath
2,376 sq.ft.
$366 per sq.ft.
On Redfin 44 days

2723 Pinelawn Drive
$899,000
4 bed/2.75 bath
2,292 sq.ft.
$392 per sq.ft.
Currently accepting backup offers.

3535 Paraiso Way
$679,900
3 bed/2 bath
1,702 sq.ft.
$399 per sq.ft.
The last sale shown on the record currently is June 2008, for $603,000. The property has been taken off the market.

Southern California’s Mid-20th Century Architecture: Sunday Driving Tour in Glendale

The Glendale Historical Society’s 2008 Home Tour will feature five mid-20th century architectural gems located throughout the hills and canyons of Glendale, from Whiting Woods in the north to Adams Hill in the south, the work of “some of the best architects you’ve never heard of.” The self-driving tour takes place this Sunday, October 12, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets and maps are available here, or at the starting point of the tour - the southwest corner of Verdugo Road and Mountain Street in Glendale – beginning at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday.

Most of Glendale’s early tracts were built in the 20s and 30s, but there are pockets of mid-century homes throughout the hills and outer reaches of the city. Many residents’ favorite downtown landmark is the prominent Fidelity Federal Building. Its renovation, argued over and followed closely by local preservation advocates, is nearly complete. Current and historical photos, and a rendering of a proposed animation center using the site, are posted on Tropico Station. 

Here are a few mid-century Glendale homes in the upper Rossmoyne/Royal Canyon areas currently listed on Redfin:

1944 Las Flores
$1,995,000 (originally $2,175,000)
4 bed/2.75 bath
2,593 sq.ft.
$769 per sq.ft.
On Redfin 69 days
The listing names as architect Raymond Jones, and the home sits on a little over 1 acre up in the hills with a panoramic view. It last sold in 2006 for $1,650,000.

1857 Las Flores Drive
$979,000 (originally $1,008,900)
3 bed.1.75 bath
2,242 sq.ft.
$437 per sq.ft.
On Redfin 74 days
This is a split-level home sitting on a 11,150 sq.ft. street to street hillside lot.

1135 Esmeralda Drive
$699,000 (reduced in price three times, originally $850,000)
3 bed/1.75 bath
2,173 sq.ft.
$322 per sq.ft.
On Redfin 221 days
This is one of the lowest priced homes in this hillside area, and looks from the photos as if it has many original 50s touches – some of which might appeal to buyers interested in period design.

Choosing California Native Plants and a Pasadena Favorites Update

My California native plant landscaping lessons – post 2: Las Pilitas Nursery in Escondido, the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont, and the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers and Native Plants in Shadow Hills (right outside of Burbank) each have great websites with lots of information about California native plants. The Theodore Payne Foundation is also holding its annual fall sale this weekend, as I mentioned in my last post.

I decided last year that the next landscape project I worked on and maintained would be one that did not require regular mowing, blowing, or watering. My primary goal was to save money, but I was also motivated by the idea of contributing to a more sustainable urban environment. The first website I came across during early research was Las Pilitas’ in Escondido. I read the detailed descriptions of many shrubs, ground covers, perennials and annuals with interest, wondering when, if ever, I would be able to drive to Escondido and buy all these plants.

Finally, I decided that just like anything else, if I can find it anywhere in the world, I should be able to find it in Los Angeles. I started searching on the web for native plants and Los Angeles and found the Theodore Payne Foundation, located right off Tuxford Street in Shadow Hills, a 20-minute drive from Glendale. This nonprofit foundation is dedicated to preserving native wildflowers and plants, and runs a small nursery along with year-round educational programs and a book and seed store (where I bought packages of gilia tricolor, the wildflower in the photo, courtesy of Kida Yasuo). It also has a large online library of native plants.

Before I bought any plants, I wanted to know how they would look as they grew in the garden. Searching through some links, I discovered that the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden maintains a large arboretum (along with a bookstore and its own annual plant sale) open to the public. I took a 40-minute drive to Claremont one morning, and wandered around the gardens, searching for plants I had seen online. Some appealed to me; others in their full-grown state didn’t look like they would work. This was a worthwhile trip (and by the way, they host field trips and provide educational programs for schools).

I’ll write about my next landscaping steps in an upcoming post.

Here is an update on three Pasadena 91104 listings I featured and saved in Redfin’s Favorites:

1255 E. Lexington Street
Sold for $745,000 (9/11/08)
I featured this property on July 22. It was listed at $755,000 and had been on the market for 44 days.

1985 Santa Rosa Avenue
Sold for $470,000 (9/12/08)
This property appeared in my August 1 post. It was listed at $499,000 and had been on the market for 30 days.

1508 Sinaloa Avenue
Sold? for $562,000 (9/29/08)
This looks like a foreclosure. I featured it just last week, on October 1, when it was listed at $755,000 (down from an original list price of $899,000).

How I Started a California Native Landscape

But first,

In November, I hope voters across the nation will take the opportunity to do some serious weeding out of every tough-rooted, invasive, resource-sucking politician on either side of the political aisle who looked the other way as our financial system was rigged for collapse.

(That is the end of my rant for today, as I’m sure our readers can find similar rhetoric just about anywhere on the web. And now for the non sequitor, yet matching metaphor, transition:)

In the meantime, literally pulling out weeds can be a stress reliever, and October is an ideal month for planting a California native garden. I speak from experience: last year I did some landscaping myself, then I had to call in help when the garden was overwhelmed with weeds.

I began with a dead lawn that hadn’t been maintained in years. I let that die during spring and summer, and read up on ways to clear out weeds. One method I didn’t try, and I’m curious if others have used successfully, is heat sterilizing the soil by laying clear plastic over wet dirt during the hottest weeks of the summer. High temperatures of 100+ degrees underneath the plastic are supposed to kill weed seeds in the soil down as far as 12 inches. I looked around for large rolls of plastic, tried to figure out how this would look and if it would remain in place in a front yard for 2-3 weeks, and eventually decided against it.

Instead, I hired a crew to clear out and rototill the soil, which set me up for problems later. I planted small native shrubs in October, and gave them regular water to help them get established. I stopped watering as winter rains soaked the soil. Unfortunately, the rain helped dormant weed seeds sprout, and by spring my carefully planted shrubs were overwhelmed by a 2-3 ft. high jungle of weeds flourishing in rototilled, well-watered soil. It took weeks of additional weeding, and installation of heavy-duty weed cloth topped with mulch, to clear the mess.

The native plants are now filling in and flourishing. I have an attractive, meadow-like garden that doesn’t require regular mowing and uses very little water. Weeds continue to sprout, though, wherever they find an opening (usually near the base of the shrubs, which can’t be covered with weedcloth, or on the edges of the parkway next to the sidewalk).

I’ll share how I picked plants for the garden and other lessons I’ve learned in future posts. For readers who have been waiting to start a California native garden, the Theodore Payne Foundation native plant nursery in Shadow Hills is holding its annual fall sale this weekend, October 10-11, for members and nonmembers.

The foundation’s website is a great resource. Here are a few others: my back 40 (feet) covers Pacific Horticulture, the Sustainable Gardening blog covers a wider geographic area and more general sustainability issues, Garden Wise Guy discusses the pros and cons of fake lawns in this post from his Santa Barbara blog, and Garden Rant discusses replacing lawns with native plants in the San Francisco area.

Thank you to Kida Yasuo, who took this post’s photo of the California native wildflower Clarkia Unguiculata. These started sprouting in my garden this spring, and many are still standing and blooming.

The Subcompact Hybrid: Good Choice for Parking in Rossmoyne

The narrow driveways of many older neighborhoods in Southern California make we wonder: How did people from the 20s to the 80s maneuver vehicles in and out of their small garages and narrow driveways? Very small hybrid vehicles are available today, but they were not a mass market option when these driveways were laid.

Most homes in the Rossmoyne section of Glendale, just north of downtown, were built in the 20s and 30s and feature Mediterranean, Tudor, or Colonial designs. The neighborhood is well-kept, and home exteriors show very well, but garage access is not a selling point. Driveways here start out narrow, and when their borders reach houses they get even narrower. Some homeowners don’t even try to get their car past the house and into the garage.

Over the long term, maybe this is a good low-mileage strategy. If parking a car at home is difficult, more people will find other transportation options. Perhaps this is good design as well – with less land devoted to the driveway, there is more room for landscaping. Many streetscapes in Rossmoyne and other Glendale neighborhoods have a pleasant parklike atmosphere because of this.

Homes with close to 2,000 square feet were going for over $1,000,000 here at the peak of the market. According to Redfin’s neighborhood pages, homes sold here during the past three months had a median list price of $950,000, and a median sold price of $782,000. The average number of days on the market: 88.

These listings, in order from least to most expensive, are all on the market for below the average price per square foot in the area:

901 N. Everett Street
$630,000 (reduced from $665,000)
3 bed/2 bath
1,578 sq.ft.
$399 per sq.ft.
On Redfin 130 days
Built in 1929. This a lender-approved short sale.

1214 N Everett Street
$769,000 (reduced 3 times from $829,000)
3 bed/2 bath
1,928 sq.ft.
$399 per sq.ft.
On Redfin 74 days
Also built in 1929.

849 Cavanagh Road
$1,595,000
3 bed/2.25 bath
4,200 sq.ft.
$380 per sq.ft.
On Redfin 61 days
This is a trust sale with no court approval, designed by Paul Williams and built in 1928.

Third Quarter Foreclosure Stats by Zip Code: Glendale and Pasadena

Countrywide takes the lead as beneficiary for the most foreclosed homes in Los Angeles County, followed by Washington Mutual, according to Property Shark’s 2008 3rd quarter report. My own investigation on Property Shark last week found Countrywide on 6 and Washington Mutual on 5 of the 25 current Glendale notices of default.

Foreclosures in the county are up an overwhelming 196% compared to the 3rd quarter of 2007.

A related data file charts the number of foreclosure sales by area. Here is where Glendale and Pasadena zip codes stand with respect to others in LA County:

Of 272 county zip codes, Pasadena 91103, at number 99, has the highest number: 55 trustee sales, with an average loan amount of $491,559. Pasadena 91101, with a concentration of Old Town luxury lofts and condominiums near the Gold Line, at number 238, has the least: 9 sales, with an average loan amount of $383,400. Glendale’s highest ranking zip code is 91206, number 148 on the list, with an average loan amount of $424,516; the lowest ranked is 91204, a mixed commercial/industrial/residential neighborhood with fewer homes, and an average loan amount of $428,257.

The zip code breakdown:

Debt, the Engine of Prosperity, is Out of Fuel

If we break out the strategic reserves, $700 billion may keep the engine running…but for how long? Where will the fuel for debt come from after that?

I understand that businesses rely on banks from time to time for short-term funds to keep operations going and people employed. But why are American consumers (with “consumer” a synonym for “citizen”) constantly encouraged to go into debt?

Whether it is a new pickup truck, a home entertainment system, or a major appliance, your retailer has a financing plan for it. The product of this strategy is debt. The engine of our economy is debt.

The strategy is a failure and the engine is sputtering as home equity plummets and and easy credit dries up.

Why, if people are losing overpriced homes to foreclosure, should the government try to game the system? Shouldn’t home prices fall to affordable levels, allowing buyers to assume less debt? Why is our government’s solution a plan to rescue debt holders and provide more debt? I’m guessing there are reasons we would be frightened to know.

As Ken Blackwell’s editorial lamented today:

We have become a culture addicted to debt. It starts with 18-year-olds, where everyone getting a job is offered a credit card and everyone going to college is offered several, with the expectation of profits from interest accruing on balances.

The economic expansion of the past fifteen years has been built on a mountain of debt. Millions spend today with no thought of how they can pay tomorrow. Whereas you used to save and invest and wait for big purchases such as a new car, now you get it today and pay massive sums in interest as you finance it.

Our representatives in Washington haven’t admitted that leadership at all levels of our society has not just allowed, but encouraged banks, manufacturers, retailers, marketers, and salespeople to push debt on customers. Debt that is threatening to bankrupt our country.

Irvine Renter observes, “you can’t take it with you” is a rational argument for abusing home equity lines of credit. Why not just pull out as much cash as possible to finance the lifestyle our 24/7 marketing culture is selling? How’s this for an answer: Its unpatriotic!

There’s my rant. Thanks to Mene Tekel, who titled this post’s photo “Get in Debt, Get Fat, Die.”

For those who have been patriotically saving up for the bubble to burst, these attractive properties in north central Pasadena are already nicely renovated, whether paid for by home equity line of credit or other means:

1508 Sinaloa Avenue
$755,000 (originally $899,000)
3 bed/3 bath
2,196 sq.ft.
$344 per sq.ft.
On Redfin 199 days
This is a lender-approved short sale reduced three times. It last sold in July 2006 for $840,000.

745 E. Rio Grande Street
$749,000
3 bed/2.75 bath
1,550 sq.ft.
$483 per sq.ft.
On Redfin 142 days
A City of Pasadena Landmark Property, this looks charming. It last sold July 2005 for $685,000

965 E. Howard Street
$998,000
3 bed/2 bath
2,120 sq.ft.
$471 per sq.ft.
On Redfin 29 days
This 1909 Craftsman looks completely restored and sits on a large 13,000+ sq.ft. lot. It last sold in June 2004 for $811,000.

WaMu Owns 25% of Current Glendale Defaults

Goodbye, Washington Mutual. I’m not sure how long we’ll hear the name of this bank in the news. As of late this week, it had the distinction of being the largest U.S. bank ever to fail, but these days status like that can be eclipsed quickly.

The bank will continue to appear in fine print for quite some time to come, though. When I checked Property Shark today, I found that five of the 20 Glendale properties currently in receipt of default notices show “Beneficiary: Washington Mutual Bank”, bringing WaMu’s share here to 25% of current delinquencies. (Six properties listed Countrywide.) As LA Land observed about some of the properties WaMu financed, this is why it failed.

I could not find any current foreclosure sales listing WaMu as beneficiary; a backlog, perhaps?

There were six Glendale foreclosures scheduled for sale next week. Here are two at the far corners of the city:

1744 W. Kenneth Road - 2 bed/1 bath, 1,037 sq.ft., sale date: 9/29/08.  Redfin’s record shows it was last sold in May 2002 for $347,500. The outstanding loan amount (listed on Property Shark) is $470,000; the minimum bid is $490,090. (Beneficiary: Wells Fargo Bank)

4320 Dunsmore Avenue – 3 bed/2 bath, 1,620 sq.ft., sale date: 9/30/08. This was last sold in 1996 for $245,000. The outstanding loan amount is $654,400; minimum bid is $740,224. (Beneficiary: Countrywide)