Daily Archives: December 2, 2006

Nice and Monaco Architecture and Car Treat.

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I am still jet lagged.  The good thing is I wake up at 4:30 and have a plunging view of the Promenade des Anglais and catch the first fez airplanes take off in the far distance.

My first real day was spent in Monaco very early in the morning.  It was a treat both architecturally and for car spotting.   L’Hermitage just added two other stories to its beautiful building and I marveled at the Casino and Cafe de Paris all light up with no one in the streets.

Parking in the municipal underground parking lot is a treat in its own way in Monaco.  I saw the  Audi Aztec prototype, just parked there.  I caught a glimpse of what looked like a 250 Ferrari, couldn’t make out what it was and couldn’t find it again.  The streets were equally fun with an arrays of Ferrari’s, Aston Martin, etc.  The highlight there was what I thought to be a 308 Ferrari from afar but sounded too nice.  Then I noticed the side flares and recognized a GTO!

I stopped by our mechanics overlooking the Ville Franche bay (talk about heaven!) where I spotted out a Lancia Zagato Fulvia factory race car;  Only 25 were made and I can think I am going to make a good Lancia friend of mine very, very jealous.  With a full aluminum and in its original condition, it was a dream come true.  There was also an original Renault 5 Gordini, an race Alfa GTV 2000, a very rare convertible FIAT Allemano!  A beautiful Alfa Sprint convertible, his personal FIAT sedan as well as a beautiful coupe.  Ah, old cars!  I’ll post pictures soon.

C.A.R. Finds Sales Down 28.7 percent in October, Long Beach, CA

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According to CAR, sales were down 28.7 %
in October while the median price was up 2
percent from year ago.  This flies in the face of those sensational headlines talking about market price crashes.  Can you see I am ticked off at the current state of poor journalism?

Listening to the media, the real estate world is upside down and prices have plunged.  Of course, those who read my blogs and others know it is not so.  Indeed, asking prices have dropped, homes have stayed on the market longer and buyers have seriously flexed their muscles. 

The good news is that the numbers show home sales stabilizing in the past
three months but it could mean many things, notably the approach of the holiday season.

The median price of a single-family detached home in
California in October 2006 was $548,680, or a 2 % increase since October 2005.  October was a slow month and brought down the median price by 1.5 % compared to
September.

The unsold inventory of existing single-family
detached homes in October 2006 was 7.2 months, compared to 3.4 months from a year ago.

The thirty-year fixed-mortgage interest rates went up to 6.36 percent for October 2006, compared to 6.07 percent in October 2005. Adjustable-mortgage interest rates averaged
5.55 percent in October 2006 compared with 4.86 percent in October 2005.

A very imoprtant number to track is the median number of days it takes to sell a single-family home was
57 days in October 2006, compared with 34 days for a year ago.  It seems small but it is an average.

Click here to read the original CAR article.