Los Angeles Real Estate Distress and Elation

As reported recently in the Los Angeles Times, the Southern California real estate market has gone from boom to bust, almost overnight. The causes are many: the loan crisis, overbuilding, unemployment, foreclosures and the looming recession. Home prices have fallen over 35% in some areas, with projections to fall through 2009 to about 55% off peak prices.

You may have been wondering where I've been for the last week. Usually, when I am away from the Internet I'm up the lake at our cabin, but this week that's not the case. Wayne and I are in Southern California cleaning out the condo we just sold. We sure picked a "good" time to put our property on the market, didn't we. But I guess we were one of the fortunate ones. We found a buyer. A lot of thanks goes to our Realtor, Ty Wallace, with Coldwell Banker. He really worked to find us not only a buyer in these hard times, but a good buyer.

We've been cleaning and packing for three days and have one more to go before we hit the road in our U-Haul truck. By chance, we found the best U-Haul location in the world. If you ever need a truck, trailer or moving supplies go to the U-Haul Center Holt Avenue (1512 W Holt Ave @ Dudley Avenue in Pomona, CA -- 909-629-4103). Matthew gave us excellent customer service and a great deal!

We will be heading north soon with all of the things we want to keep for either Bellingham or Powell River. But firest, we took the opportunity to downsize. All usable items went to the Salvation Army. They still do home pickups. You can reach them at 800-728-7825 to make the arrangements for any location. For the leftovers, we called Fast Freddie's Hauling for a dump run - you call, he hauls. You can reach him at 909-331-7119.

So, our distress about not being able to sell our condo has changed to elation. Now all we have to do is wait for the closing (with our fingers crossed)! - Margy