Realty Roundup

The powerful California Association of Realtors is stepping-up its campaign for voters to approve Prop. 5 on the statewide November ballot but reject Prop. 10.

The upcoming election is “critical to addressing California’s housing crisis through the protection of homeownership and private property rights across the state,” the realty trade group said in a written statement.

CAR is backing Prop. 5, the “Property Tax Fairness Initiative,” which it says would create new homeownership opportunities by generating more sales of single-family homes in existing neighborhoods.

The proposal would “benefit young families at a time when California faces a severe shortage of homes for sale.” CAR said.

The trade group, though, said it “strongly opposes” Prop. 10., labeled the “Affordable Housing Act.”

If passed, the longstanding Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act would be repealed and “exacerbate the housing crisis, eventually allowing local governments to impose draconian rent-control measures,” the association said.

Mice can be more Dangerous than Coyotes

Okay, this doesn’t involve Culver City and its invasion of coyotes. But it’s a fun story to pass along.

Not long ago, homeowner Luciano Mares decided to burn a pile of weeds in the backyard of his home in New Mexico. Though details of the resulting events are a bit murky, Mares apparently picked up a mouse he had caught in a glue trap and threw the little critter—still wiggling to get out of the trap—into the growing bonfire.

Heat from the blaze melted the glue, and the free but now burning rodent made a beeline back to the house. He scampered through an open window and, according to both Mares and the local fire chief, the entire home was engulfed in flames about 90 seconds later.

No one was hurt, but the house and all of its contents were destroyed.

Skeptics initially thought that the whole story was a hoax, in part because the homeowner changed his story several times before reverting to his original version of events.

Others thought the blaze was part of an insurance scam, but that theory was debunked after investigators discovered that Mares had no fire-insurance hazard policy.