I read somewhere that Lennar pulled out of its dubious and highly controversial PCH/2nd Street mix condo/commercial plan.

I am happy about that. The parking issues were never met, nor were the more important issues of congestions. Not that the pink motel is great or anything, but I think it has far more character than yet-another-complex-that-looks-like-it-could-be-anywhere-in-the-US. You know what I mean?

I am always sad when I see modern building raised in Long Beach that just don’t capture the look and feel of Southern California. Either give me a bit of that old 20′s and 30′s tasteful architecture or the beachy feel of bungalows but please, spare me your interpretations of what my future should look like. Most of the time it is bulky and stout. A great architect goes out and gets a feel for the environment. It feels most buildings downtown were thought of behind closed doors, or maybe bad coffee?

If money was no problem, I would redo the pink motel and make better use of the wasted space. There are so many things we could do there. It virtually is the other gate to Long Beach. People see it as they come in from Orange County. We could have local businesses being represented there through expositions, a swimming pool, anything that talks about us, Long Beach.

I do like the look and feel of the 50′s and the pink motel captures that. Yes, it needs to be seriously updated and it could be used as a great cash flow for our city. Now that the silliness of replacing it with another eye sore is out the door, let’s focus on making the best of it. Any ideas?

What do you get when home prices are high, loans are hard to get by and everyone wants to wait it out? A stalemate!

Calculated Risk picked up on DataQuick’s analysis of the market in California.

I thought by now sellers would have been more receptive to the fact that loans are very, very hard to come by. No too many people can afford to clunk down 6 months deposit, another 6 month back up and 20% down. Even with that, I have grade A people turned down. The problem is that at this stage, no matter what price you set, loans are difficult to come by and lenders don’t want to take a risk in a down market.

“The Bay Area’s housing market remained in a bit of deep freeze in November, when sluggish demand kept sales at a two-decade low for the third straight month. Prices continued to hold up best in the region’s core markets, while some outlying areas posted more double-digit annual declines, a real estate information service reported.”

“Sales have decreased on a year-over-year basis for 34 consecutive months. Last month was the slowest November in DataQuick’s statistics, which go back to 1988. Until last month, the slowest November was in 1990, when 6,015 homes sold.”

Hindsight is always 20/20 but this was predictable. If asking prices are high, plus the lending industry is in upheavals (no one wants to lend money in a market going down and be stuck with deflated home values), plus both sellers and buyers are waiting it out equals a stalemate.

Until prices stabilize, become a little more affordable, nothing will happen and Realtors will play the see-who-can-last-the-longest game.

A little late but the next Star Trek movie, featuring Spock’s youth was being filmed here in Long Beach.

Click here to find out more.

The had to move out the people on the lawn at the downtown City Hall. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future as I am sure the city, wanting to improve its image of a modern and active city has wanted to beautify City Hall for some time.

Dataquick shows us Southern California’s real estate activities are the slowest in 20 years over on Calculated Risk.

“… Sales were the slowest for a November in at least 20 years and the median sale price posted a record 10.3 percent year-over-year decline …”

“That was up 2 percent from 12,913 sales in October, and down 42.7 percent from 23,005 in November last year, according to DataQuick Information Systems.”

Indeed, old news new month.