The new conversations between neighbors within the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District are “When can I water my lawn?”

If you live in Agoura Hills, Westlake Village, Calabasas, Hidden Hills or any of the immediate surrounding areas you must be aware of the new rules on watering your lawns. Not following these guidelines can subject you to warnings and hefty fines for repeat offenders.

In response to one of the most serious droughts to hit Southern California in recent years the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District (LVMWD) has instituted an Odd/Even Irrigation Schedule beginning on September 1st, 2014.

Under the new plan, customers with addresses ending in even numbers can irrigate their landscaping only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Addresses ending in odd numbers may only irrigate on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. No irrigation is permitted on Sunday.

Irrigation Schedule for Las Virgenes Water District

LVMWD is urging customers to reprogram their automatic controllers to work with this schedule. After September 1st the district will begin enforcing these rules and violators will be issued warning letter and fines for repeat offenders.

What’s the Cost for Violating the Conservation Rules?
Customers shall be notified in writing for the 1st violation. Subsequent violations within a twelve-month period are subject to a $100 fine for the 2nd time, $200 fine for the 3rd time, and $500 for the 4th time. For the 5th time, flow restrictors may be installed or service may be terminated

Additional Measures Now In Effect

You are NOT allowed to hose off sidewalks, walkways, driveways or parking areas unless necessary to protect public health and safety
Car washing is permitted only if you have an automatic shut-off on your hose nozzle
Fountains and other decorative water features shall recirculate water
No irrigation is permitted between 10:00AM and 5:00PM

Can I Report My Neighbor?

You can use your GPS-activated smart phones to take a photo of any water leaks, broken sprinkler heads or irrigation violators, along with a written explanation of the incident and send them to stopthewaste@LVMWD.com. LVMWD will then contact the property owner to correct the problem. All reports are kept confidential so you don’t have to worry about retaliation.

One of my neighbors in Agoura Hills has already received a warning letter for running his sprinklers on the wrong day. And before you think they won’t catch you – know that the new water meters that were installed on area homes in the past few years can record when you actually used your sprinklers.

LVMWD serves over 70,000 residential customers in the Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, Westlake Village and adjacent unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. For more information visit www.lvmwd.com

Editor’s Note: Since this article was published the restrictions on water usage have been lifted.

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Insulation materials of tomorrow must be both efficient and environmentally friendly. Fraunhofer scientists in Germany are developing insulation foam made from wood that could re-place petrochemical plastics in the long term.

Climate protection is now a mandatory consideration for every building contractor. Only last October the German federal government tightened up its Energy Saving Ordinance (EnEV) even further by decreeing that in future properties will have to consume even less energy than before. The key to meeting these stringent requirements lies in the way we insulate our walls and roofs, as effective insulation prevents large amounts of our valuable thermal energy escaping unused. Buildings are insulated by lining their facades with materials that reduce the transfer of heat to the outside environment. Traditionally the construction industry uses hardboards or expandable foams based on petrochemical plastics because they are good insulators that are affordable and easy to produce. But these materials are not particularly kind to the environment, so the long-term goal is to replace petroleum-based products with materials derived from renewable resources.

Wood Foam Board Insulation

, Wilhelm-Klauditz-Institut, WKI in Braunschweig have adopted a very promising approach to the problem by developing a method for creating foam from wood particles. “Our wood foam can be used in exactly the same way as conventional plastic spray foams, but is an entirely natural product made from sustainable raw materials,” explains Professor Volker Thole of the WKI. The scientists produce the foam by grinding wood very finely until the tiny wood particles become a slimy mass. They then add gas to this suspension to expand it into a frothy foam that is then hardened. The hardening process is aided by natural substances contained in the wood itself. In an alternative method, specific chemical processes are used to produce the final product. “It’s a bit like baking, when the dough rises and becomes firm in the oven,” Professor Thole explains. Wood foam is a lightweight base material that can then be made into rigid foam boards and flexible foam mats.

Hybrid Materials Used in Wood Foam Board

Insulates as well as conventional plastic foams

Wood-based insulation materials are nothing new, but the products that are currently available have drawbacks. For instance, mats made from wood fibers and wood wool tend to shed fibers as they fibrillate and are less stable in shape than insulation materials made of plastic. “Over time, the currently used insulation mats made of wood fibers tend to sink in the middle due to temperature fluctuations and damp. This to some extend adversely affects its insulating properties,” says Professor Thole. The wood foam developed at the WKI, however, is every bit as good as conventional plastic foams in this regard. “We analyzed our foam products in accordance with the applicable standards for insulation materials. Results were very promising; our products scored highly in terms of their thermo-insulating and mechanical properties as well as their hygric, or moisture-related, characteristics,” Professor Thole reveals.

The Braunschweig-based scientists are currently experimenting with different types of wood to discover which tree species make the best basis for their product. Furthermore, they are working out suitable processes for mass-producing wood foams on an industrial scale. This innovative material could also be used in areas other than insulation, such as packaging. Packing materials made from wood foam would provide a long-term alternative to yet another oil-based product: expanded polystyrene.

Lets hope we see these promising materials here in our building supply chains in the not too distant future. http://www.fraunhofer.de

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Did you know that throwing your computers, monitors, televisions and other electronic equipment into the regular garbage is illegal in California?

To help with the disposal of these items our office is having an e-Waste roundup on Saturday, October 12th from 9:00AM – 1:00PM at our Westlake Village location. The address is 883 S. Westlake Blvd. in Westlake Village.

If you need help in delivering your items to our office call Jeff Haring at (805) 495-1048

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No Housing Bubble in Ventura County

Here’s why;

When real estate markets recover they go through a fast rebound in the first phase of that recovery. The analogy I like to give is to consider the real estate market to be like a rubber ball. If you throw this rubber ball on the ground it’s going to hit the floor and rebound very quickly. As it rises it loses its momentum but never-the-less continues it’s accent upward at a slower pace. My experience is that we’ve been through that quick reversal and now we are still ascending albeit at this slower pace.

So what’s causing the slowing of Ventura County price appreciation and why aren’t we going to have the double-digit gains in the immediate years ahead? It’s the economy, stupid. Not meaning to offend anyone, it’s just that in an over-regulated financial market with looming inflationary pressures we will see interest rates continue to rise and this slows down the buying incentives to purchase. Interest rates jumped up a full 100 basis points (1%) over a recent 60 day period.  Some will argue that they have gone down a bit in the past few weeks but I feel that they are still on an upward trend.  Not that I’m expecting a big jump in rates – just a small steady increase of 1% – 2% over the next year.  Before you complain too much remember that these are still excellent rates for 30 year mortgages.  I started my career with rates at 18% and THAT was a tough market! So no crying or screaming about high rates, please.

Another reason that there is no housing bubble in Ventura County, what drove the incredible gains since 2010 was the huge investor pools that were buying homes in lots of 10’s and 100’s at a time. One financial group I know of owns upwards of 1000 homes now in Ventura County and over 1,700 homes in Riverside County!  These groups unfortunately thinned our inventory at a time when we most needed homes to sell.  Many first time buyers lost out to these large investors.  You might be one of them.  That has gone away for the most part leaving just the “real” buyers (owner-occupied) to continue to bolster the real estate market.

Don’t misunderstand me, we will still see some appreciation going forward but probably not the double-digit appreciation we’ve gotten used too.

Also there’s the threat from the government to lower conforming loan limits which would clearly hurt the Ventura County housing market because the average price range in most of Ventura County is a lot lower than our neighboring counties just north and south of us.

Driving the market will be the pent-up demand of current homeowners that have already weathered the storm of the past 10 years and now want to use their newfound appreciation & equity to make a move up to a bigger house. Selling their current properties releases more inventory and this increase in activity is what moves markets.

Back to the question… Are we in a housing bubble in Ventura County? Not even close.

Going forward I predict that the price gains will be in the 5% -10% range per year for the next few years. No promises, just my opinion.  To see all the latest trends in housing prices, sales figures and market timing – go to Market Trends!

To find your next home contact Jeff Haring, Real Estate Broker with over 30 years experience.

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Foreclosure Filings: California > Ventura County

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But we’re not quite out of the woods yet as banks are moving forward with Trustee’s Sales – a slight increase month to month of almost 14%. This is a clear sign that the banks are foreclosing on some of the stagnant inventory that they’ve been holding onto for months or even years. They see an opportunity to move these homes since our pricing rebound began just over 2 years ago.

Another indication of flushing pre-REO inventory is that the number of cancelled foreclosure sales has dropped 63% – meaning that the banks are not waiting any longer to move these homes off of their books.

And although the number of pre-foreclosures is down almost 50% in Ventura County, the chart below shows an uptick in the filing of initial Notices of Default at a rate that has increased by just over 13% from July to August – the second upswing this year.

Foreclosure Inventories: California > Ventura County

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What’s really interesting is how long it is taking for the banks to complete a foreclosure in Ventura County. As of August 2013 is took an average of 440 days to complete the foreclosure process – that’s almost 15 months!
On top of that it another 333 days for the bank to resell the property AFTER the auction. In contrast, investors work much quicker using up only about 151 days to flip a house after they purchased it at auction.
Just shows you how slow the banks move these days.

Nationally, foreclosure starts are less than half the level they were a year earlier, according to second quarter data recently released from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Across the nation in the second quarter of 2013 there were 150,592 foreclosures started—down 50.8 percent from the second quarter of 2012. It’s the fewest number of foreclosure starts in any quarter since early 2008, according to the OCC, whose report reflects performance on first-lien residential mortgages.

The OCC attributes the drop to a strengthening economy, aggressive foreclosure prevention efforts, loan modifications, and regulatory actions.

For Ventura County foreclosures – the numbers look better because the home values in Ventura County have increased substantially in the past 2 years. This has helped the many homeowners that were under water on their mortgages to be able to sell their homes themselves and get out from under the debt.

If you have questions about your housing value or in need of assistance to work with your lender contact Jeff Haring, real estate broker with 30 years experience.

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Belmont Village in Thousand Oaks

In a recent article for the online investor site Costar.com Mark Heschmeyer discussed the surge in sales of senior housing, citing the ongoing recovery in housing as the driver for demand of these types of investment vehicles.  The billions of dollars being invested in senior living facilities has grown at a fast pace this year.

In local terms, as our Ventura County real estate market continues to improve, more seniors are choosing to sell their large homes and move into a more manageable living space with all the features that senior living facilities or assisted care facilities can provide.

The newest senior living facility is in Thousand Oaks, CA having just opened last month at 3680 N. Moorpark Road to a warm reception.  The beautiful Belmont Village has many options for seniors including a total of 139 studio, one and two bedroom residences and all come with kitchenettes, laundry facilities, on-site nurse and the many other expected services you would expect from a first class facility.  www.belmontvillage.com

I’ve personally handled the sales of several homes for seniors moving to this type of arrangement and the dominant reasons for going in this direction are so that they can live out their lives in a safe place with activities and services not easily available as a single homeowner.  The relatively high cost of living in an assisted living facility is overweighted by the piece of mind family members enjoy knowing that their loved ones will have somebody around them on a daily basis.

There has been a lot of pent-up demand for senior living facilities in the Conejo Valley and I expect that the trend will continue far into the future as the aging baby boomer population searches for more alternative housing options.

If you need help in finding senior living facilities in Ventura County contact Jeff Haring, the local area real estate broker, through this website at www.coastandcanyons.com

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Select Image to Enlarge

Better late than never certainly applies to the long-awaited completion of the new bike lanes being constructed along a 2.5 miles stretch of Lynn Rd. in Thousand Oaks.  The project was started in May but the discovery of a high pressure gas line at the excavation point put a hold on all work until a resolution was found.

The new bike route will be along both directions running from Avenida de los Arboles down to Hillcrest Drive across from The Oaks mall.  This will add to the current bike route throughout the city resulting in a total of approximately 16 miles of continuous bike lanes already in place adding additional safety for the large cycling community in the region.

I have ridden on this section of Lynn Road many times and I’m not alone in feeling that these new bike lanes are long overdue for the safety of cyclists. This bike route is just too narrow for both cars and bikes to share at the same time – especially as you approach the Oaks Mall at Hillcrest Rd.
Starting in 2014 road biking through the Conejo Valley will be that much better! I’m looking forward to it!

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