“KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.” It’s a phrase used by many, and last week was an important one to be in the know, as Bonds and home loan rates were affected by many big newsmakers and market shakers. Bonds and home loan rates found some improvement in the early part of the week, leading into the Fed’s big announcement on Wednesday of another .25% cut to the Fed Funds Rate.

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Chicago Title Company has been tracking the Bank/Mortgagee Real Estate Owned properties (properties taken back in foreclosure) in the three marketing areas of north Santa Barbara County. The results quantify that real estate markets are localized. What is happening in the Lompoc Valley and Santa Maria Valley troubled real estate markets is not happening in the Santa Ynez Valley market.

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I was asked by my friend and past client Denise Stevens, to be a guest speaker at the Santa Barbara Newcomer’s Club, Girls Night Out Event.  The evening was hosted at a gorgeous house in Hope Ranch overlooking the ocean and open fields for the horses.

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DeAnn and I had a Village Properties/EcoBroker® Booth at the Santa Barbara Courthouse’s Sunken Garden on Sunday, April 20th. The weather was just perfect and we heard that between 14,000-16,000 people attended the celebration.

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With all the bad news printed today it’s hard to find the positive things that are happening in the world let alone in our community. Here is some good news! I attended an annual celebration for our education system in connection with Computers for Families. As our State budget shifts the focus from educating our youngsters our local community develops new programs that sustain themselves for the future.

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I was invited to be a panelist at a lecture at the downtown Livingreen store in Santa Barbara. Ellen Strickland, the owner and Lindsay Horstman of Smith Barney put together a panel to discuss and answer questions about how to green your life one shade at a time. Ellen has expanded her store from the ‘Funk Zone” location to Coast Village Road in Montecito and a store in Los Angeles. She was very generous to open up her store to the crowd of about 70 people that packed in to be sheltered from the rainy evening.

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“IT REQUIRES A GREAT DEAL OF BOLDNESS AND A GREAT DEAL OF CAUTION TO MAKE A GREAT FORTUNE.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson. And a great deal of caution was definitely important last week, as “earnings season” began on Wall Street. First quarter earnings for Stocks got off to a bit of a rough start, with disappointing news from aluminum company Alcoa - always the first in line to report.

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Many people ask me if they should sell their home now, or wait a few months or a few years for the market to recover. During uncertain times, people tend to adopt a “let’s wait and see” approach – after all, it’s human nature. Unfortunately, this instinct doesn’t serve most homeowners, who should really be asking themselves the more difficult question: What will I NET if I sell my house now versus later? Read the rest of this entry »

The Granada Theater invited the general public to visit its newly restored, nearly 50 million dollar theatre last week on First Thursday. You must go to see it. The building’s restoration is unlike anything we have in Santa Barbara; made possible by so many wonderfully talented artists, architects, engineers, craftsmen, tradespersons, donors and passionate Santa Barbarans.

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While sitting on the tarmac at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport in a snowstorm this past week, it once again dawned on me how fortunate and grateful I am to be living in Santa Barbara; paradise of the West…and if I needed any reinforcement to solidify this notion, all I needed to do was to look out the window to see the blizzard in progress and the de-icing trucks working tirelessly on our plane.

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