Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 45
“Buy land, they’re not making it anymore.” – Mark Twain In a year distinguished by pandemic and economic issues, the residential market continued to trend high according to PropertyShark, a research source for real estate professionals and homebuyers across the U.S. The organization compiled its information by calculating median home sale prices to ensure an accurate picture of market conditions, as opposed to listing prices that reflect sellers’ wishes. Its expertise in the technolog...
Dear Editor, In response to the affordable housing crisis, California’s lawmakers have changed single-family zoning as we knew it. In 2019, it became easier for owners to build both a full-size Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) (1,200 sq. ft) and Junior ADU (800 sq. ft) on residential lots. In January 2022, Senate Bill 9 (SB9) takes effect. SB9 allows for duplexes to be built on any residential lot. It also allows for lot splitting, in which a current lot can be divided into two. This means that i...
By Corva Corvax, a Logical Opinion 11/4 The West Hollywood City Council voted on Wednesday to pass an ordinance to raise the minimum wage in their municipality to $17.64 per hour. The wage increase would go first to hotel workers, who would start earning the extra money on January 1, 2022. Everyone else would get their increase beginning July 1, 2022. The odd-sounding wage rate matches the minimum wage for hotel workers in the City of Los Angeles for hotels with 150 or more rooms - a rate that Santa Monica also ordains for their hotel workers....
Dear Editor: In Culver City we're facing housing unaffordability on an unprecedented scale. Residents like to think of our city as a place diverse in both ethnicity and income, but our demographics only move further and further from that ideal because people with middle and lower incomes can't afford to live here anymore. Between 2010 and 2017, median home prices increased 64%, coinciding with an 18% decrease in Culver City's total Black population over that same period. Culver City residents...
Dear Editor, I am writing in support of the actions being considered by some of our City Council members to modernize housing policy in Culver City. I have heard the arguments that some in this community have made against the proposed zoning changes, characterized as eliminating single family zoning. I find these arguments to be disingenuous, and I feel that they have intentionally created fear and confusion about an important issue that we all need to be invested in solving. Here’s why… On a s...
Dear Editor, The only realistic way to solve our local housing shortage is to build more housing! Over the past 15 years, for each new housing unit constructed in Culver City, we’ve added 49 new jobs. It’s not surprising that home prices in Culver City have doubled in just the past eight years. Many thousands of people who work here can’t afford to live here, and so they are forced to buy homes in far-away suburbs and commute. If only we were able to provide suitable housing locally, there...
Dear Editor, Representative democracy crashed against the rocks of political ideology when the Culver City Council voted (3-2) to push forward with upzoning almost all R1/single-family lots. Upzoning means that the city will in the future allow developers, speculators, homeowners, and builders to build up to 4 housing units on each single-family lot. (More explanation below). In short, they directed staff to study how to eliminate single-family zoning. The council majority consisted of Mayor...
Dear Editor, I am a member of the General Plan Advisory Committee (“GPAC”), but I am writing as a 27-year resident of Culver City and a native Southern Californian. We bought our single-family home in 1994 after the Northridge earthquake when property prices tumbled. This is our starter as well as our forever home. I have watched Culver City politics regress from dealing with local issues, concentrating on infrastructure, encouraging business growth, providing health and safety, and pro...
As local property owners, we have enough worries about our own properties. We shouldn’t have to worry about how much our homes’ equity has grown in market value. For most of us, the more our property grows in value, the better our retirement. Right? If local property owners do not vote down the city council’s proposed higher transfer tax rates, then, we will have to worry about how much our property’s worth has grown over the years. Because, when we decide to cash in, we will have to pay mor...
California Controller Betty Yee released a report a while back which said in part that the Golden State taxpayers are on the hook for more than $91.5 billion to provide health and dental benefits to state government workers when they retire. Another lady we must acknowledge is Alicia Thompson, office manager of the Stentorians of Los Angeles City, who work every day to get fair and equitable treatment of African Americans by their fire science classes and physical training programs. Perhaps our...
Dear Editor, We are deeply troubled, though unfortunately not surprised, by Culver City council’s 4-1 decision to pass last night’s 3% 12-month rent freeze urgency ordinance. Regardless of one’s opinion on rent control, council’s lack of transparency and dialogue in passing this ordinance should concern all residents. Many multifamily owners tried to argue for a good faith compromise on the rent freeze, invoking other local cities like Glendale and Long Beach. Council’s consultants pointed o...
By Dennis J. Freeman City Editor Culver City has a dilemma on its hands when it comes to the possibility that its City Council will consider putting a cap on rent increase for the time being. With the council considering such a move, the issue has been met with support by some residents and with angst for those opposing the freeze. The City Council is expected to debate the matter Monday, Aug. 12. Whatever direction the council decides to move in, this issue will likely linger for a while....
My good friend Maria AKA “The Wild Gypsy Lady” told me about the good work the Stentorians are doing at Dorsey High School. The Stentorians is a Black firefighter organization with members in L.A. City Fire Department, as well as L.A. County Fire, and teach skills and physical conditioning to those transitioning from being a regular citizen into the fire service twice a week, they stress self-discipline to persevere to be motivated, and how to work as a team. In a recent program there were 24...
An increasing number of my clients have asked whether the real estate market is still rising and if we are still in a Seller’s Market and if so how long before we might see a correction? Many people have heard nation or local chatter about slowing of the market and have notice inventory sitting for longer or have been watching interest rates tick up. Naturally, there is concern in the air especially after we have seen a bull run for the last 6 years unlike anything we have seen before which has exceeded almost everyone’s expectations. How...
Next week the voters will face an array of state and local positions including state propositions and three local issues for Culver City voters to decide. As each party wrestles to take control of the United State House of Representatives and different factions fight over the propositions there are two glaring issues that the public needs to notice. First, the obscene amount of money both parties are spending to capture congressional seats. Second, the absolutely misleading ballot designations and campaign claims designed to scare voters into...
A combination of high home prices and eroding affordability is expected to cut into housing demand and contribute to a weaker housing market in 2019, and 2018 home sales will end this year by registering lower for the first time in four years, according to a housing and economic forecast released last week by the California Association of Realtors. CAR’s “2019 California Housing Market Forecast” sees a modest decline in existing single-family home sales of 3.3 percent next year, to 396,800 units, down from the projected 2018 statewide sales...
Mortgage Rates Jump to 7-Year High Freddie Mac, the quasi-government agency that helps to provide home-byers and refinancers with the cash they need to get new loans, said on Oct. 11 that its weekly poll of lenders shows that mortgage rates have risen to their highest level in seven years. Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist, says, “In this week’s survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage jumped 19 basis points to 4.90 percent. Rates are now at their highest level since the week of April 14, 2011. “Rising rates, paired with high and esc...
The Los Angeles County Office of Education has just released its annual report of its county-wide Certificated Salary Survey for 2017-'18. On page 45 it showed just how much our Culver City School board members have overshot its agreed-to median goal. Culver City is now ranked 14 out of 48 districts at $101,382—almost $2,400 or 2.4 percent beyond the median salary for maximum pay. District-wide, this would come to over $1.15 million. This overage would make our District pay almost $200,000 m...
Home prices in Culver City and across some other parts of the Golden State keep rising, the California Association of Realtors reports, but sales are slowing as mortgage-rates rise and more potential homebuyers are knocked-out by those climbing prices because they can no longer afford to get a mortgage. The statewide median home price in June, the latest reported by the state’s Realtor trade group, hit a record $602,760. That was up 8.5-percent from last year, nearly three times more than the nation’s overall inflation rate. Yet, sales in Cal...
World premiere of Mutt House - Ryan McCartan (recent Fox remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Disney Channel's Liv and Maddie, Off-Broadway's Heathers: The Musical) heads the cast of a fun and furry musical tale for animal lovers of all ages. Featuring 20 original songs and a cast of 10, Mutt House is the story of quirky outsider Eddie Corbin. Bullied all his life, Eddie has finally found a place to call home - a neglected downtown animal shelter. When the city threatens to close the...
The median price of a single-family home in the state reached a record $600,860 in May, the California Association of Realtors said last week, while prices in Culver City and the rest of the Los Angeles Metro Area jumped 2.9 percent from the previous month and a whopping 9.3 percent from a year earlier. Separately, though, figures published by real estate web site Zillow.com this week suggest that many of the houses and condos that are currently for sale in Culver City are already in the...
The Culver City Short Term Rental Owners Association (CCSTROA) has been formed in response to the city council “putting together a Council subcommittee to examine short-term rentals”.“We want to educate the public and the Council subcommittee of the benefits that short-term rentals bring to the community and businesses of Culver City”, states Robert Zirgulis, president of Short Term Rental Owners Association of Culver City (STROACC).Short -term rentals are a valuable asset in a community’s tourism portfolio, providing diversity in accommodation...
The last bastion of segregation in Los Angeles County . . . Some time ago in the late ‘ 60s, a young white couple moved into the lowlands (the non-Fox Hills area) of Culver City, and they were told by the real estate agent, “Don’ t worry, those Negroes won’ t be moving down here from Fox Hills. We are keeping them in their place.” This statement was made before the current laws prohibiting such statements from real estate agents. Who could have ever dreamed that the once predominantly black are...
A little over a week after hosting thousands of customers for the 85th Anniversary of Petrelli’s the Petrelli family invites you to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner in a most traditional way. That’s the way George Petrelli and his Uncle Joe insisted it be done and the tradition carries on. You will think you’re at family dinner with the traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings in the recently remodeled restaurant. Soups, salad, yams, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberries just the way Mom made it except without all the fuss and who could...
The Backstage Bar & Grille, an icon in Culver City, is turning 80 and the owner Ben Myron and his staff are pulling out all the stops to celebrate. Thursday, November 10. The Munchkins from the Wizard of Oz partied at the Backstage after filming across the street which was MGM Studios at the time. Prices will be rolled back 80 years to 1936 with 25 cent sliders and 25 cent beer (PBR) from 4 pm until 6 pm on Thursday November 10. Everyone will get free birthday cake. The Backstage is also home...
