Tag: South Bay Real Estate
Like no where else, the South Bay area of Los Angeles contains some of the most unique and defined residential neighborhoods. From Hawthorne, to Torrance, to Manhattan Beach you can find some of the most outstanding places to live, no matter what your favorite home or area style may be. Even the prices will vary from neighborhood to neighborhood. Start in the city of Hawthorne for example and look at the types of nice neighborhoods that exist today and offer outstanding values in real estate. The older, more traditional area which had it's beginnings in the 1940s was the central area located from Imperial Hwy on the north, to Rosecrans on the south, Inglewood Avenue on the west side to Prairie on the east. The vast majority of the houses in this central part of town were built during the WWII era, and mainly for the population working at the new aircraft plants like Northrop, North American Aviation and Lockheed. The city gradually expanded west with new homes and schools reaching over to Aviation Blvd. During the 80s, the city changed somewhat with many new apartment complexes being developed in the southeastern part of the main city, near Crenshaw and Rosecrans. One of the oldest cities in the South Bay is Inglewood, where older more traditional type homes were built during the World War I and II years. These original homes were priced just a little higher than those located south of the city in Hawthore, Lennox or Lawndale. The city offered even more "high end" homes in the hills surrounding Centinella Park, north of the large Inglewood Park Cemetary, and eventually developed the hills on it's east side, called Morning Side Park, with many upgraded single family homes, strip malls and churches. Gated, private communities were made available east of the cemetary and Hollywood Park and were also unique to the city at the time. Torrance is probably one of the biggest cities in all of the Los Angeles area, offering many different style neighborhoods. The oldest of these is the "old downtown area" where spanish style homes are mixed in with traditional style homes built in the 1940s and 50s. One of the unique signatures of old town Torrance neighborhoods are the huge trees that line all of the streets of the neighborhoods, shading the entire street from curb to curb. This is one of the big draws of this part of Torrance. Torrance neighborhoods expanded heavily during the late 1950 and 1960s with new developments to the north, west and south of the original city. To the east was Del Amo Woods with many new and updated single family homes. Many Wilson developments that proved to be some of the most successful and popular housing developments ever built in the South Bay, came into being during the Aerospace boom of the 1960s and 70s. The homes in those many different neighborhoods are still proving to be highly sought after and popular today. Manhattan Beach is still one of the highly sought after living areas of Southern California with its many neighborhoods offering every type of residential option available anywhere. The hill section, gas light light section, tree section, Strand section, and the Village homes are still popular with homes still popular that sell almost as fast as they become available on the market. The beach homes in Manhattan Beach are still some of the highest priced homes of anywhere in the country and are always in high demand, no matter the price. Read More
We all know about the deduction you get on mortgage interest rates and on the property taxes on our South Bay homes, but did you know there are other benefits and tax breaks you can use with the ownership of real estate property. You could qualify for a $6,500 credit toward the purchase of a second home, as long as you move into it. Uncle Sam will fork over up to $1,500 to defray the cost of a pellet stove or water heater, and there are more. Tax code changes that occur every year allow property owners certain allowances and most of us cannot keep up with the people who are in charge of determining the tax laws. What is the difference between a tax deduction and a tax credit? A deduction reduces your taxable income. A credit reduces your taxes, dollar for dollar. A $100 deduction may decrease your taxes by $15, while a credit will reduce them by $100. What's the deal with credits for first-time home buyers? If you buy a second home but keep the first one, you may qualify, provided you move into the new one. Income limits apply, but generally if you have owned and lived in a home for at least five consecutive years over the past eight and bought a new one between November 7, 2009, and April 30, 2010—or have one under contract and will close before July 1, 2010—you can get back 10 percent of its purchase price, up to $6,500. If you're a first-time buyer or haven't owned a home in the past three years, you can get back 10 percent of the purchase price of a new home, up to $8,000. You can take advantage of this credit on your 2009 or 2010 return. Keep in mind: You have to include a copy of your closing statement, so you won't be able to file electronically. And if you move within three years, you may have to give the money back. If I sell my house for more than I paid do I have to pay taxes on the capital gain? You can exclude a gain of up to $250,000, assuming the home was your primary residence during two of the five years preceding the sale. And that amount grows to $500,000 if you are filing jointly as a married couple. The law was tweaked recently to require the seller to pay some tax on the capital gain if the house was used to generate rental income after 2008. Check with your accountant for the latest in any tax code changes. What are tax credits for home improvements? Most apply to energy savings, and they will exist on top of those cash for clunkers, appliance rebates, and state incentives for energy savings. Many people are now working from their homes, is that deductable? The area being used for the work must be a distinct portion used exclusively just for the work being done for business purposes. Example: You cannot deduct the size of the kitchen as an office when you are only using the kitchen table. Or if your office doubles as a guest room at night. Can you get a tax break for updating an old house? You might be able to get a credit for 20% of the renovation costs if the house is certified as being historic. What are the tax breaks for investing in energy savings for my primary residence: Appliance will not qualify, however there are many breaks if you invest in energy savings at your principal address between Jan. 1, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2010. You can use these breaks even if you benefited from similar ones in earlier years. High-efficiency central heating and cooling systems, water heaters, biomass stoves, windows and doors, insulation, and heat-deflecting roofs are among the upgrades that qualify. The credit can be 30 percent of the purchase price of one or more products, maxing out at a total of $1,500 combined for both years. In the case of central heating and cooling, you can apply the credit to labor costs, too. Keep in mind that products must have high Energy Star ratings and are expected to be in use longer than five years. Remember that you must keep a certification statement from the manufacturer or installer and fill out form 5695. If audited you will have to show receipts and proof of installation, so you cannot buy a energy efficient water heater, for example, and store it in the garage. If you switch to alternative energy, there are tax credits available; up to 30% of the cost, with no cap, for the big ticket items like solar electric, solar hot water, wind power, and geothermal heating and cooling. If you did not take full advantage of the credit on the 2009 return, you can carry over some of it to the 2010 return. Credits for alternative energy are authorized through 2016, so if you haven't made the switch yet, there's still time, and as a reminder, you cannot use the solar hot water subsidy for your pool or hot tub, only daily hot water needs. Consult with your tax accountant or financial adviser for current and up to date tax code changes. Start putting together all receipts and records now, don’t wait until April. Read More
Most buyers have a home inspected by a home and structural pest control ("termite") inspector. Additional inspections recommended, such as for roof or drainage, should also be done.Ideally, you want to know not only the severity of a defect, but how much it will cost to repair. An item that is often overlooked during buyers' inspections is the permit history on the house. Many times a new homeowner will apply for a permit to do some work on their home and when they apply at the city building department, they find out that previous owners took out permits that were still outstanding with no record of final approvals given. The permit request will be denied by the city. This happens all the time. The homeowners then have to do all of the work that all of the previous permits covered, get the city to inspect the work performed, then get final approval. This can cost the new homeowner thousands of dollars for repairs not even counting the time and disruption it can cause.While you're checking out the permit situation, be sure to research if any back fees are owed against the property for past permits or anything else. Read More
What's the real estate market doing in SOUTH TORRANCE, 90505? Read More
It’s official … Manhattan Beach had the most $1,000,000 + homes sold in 2013 per Gregory Wilcox, Daily Breeze writer. Manhattan Beach recorded 439 million-plus sales — the most in the state in 2013 — edging out Hillsborough in Northern California’s San Mateo County by three sales. ... Read More
The Manhattan Beach Planning Commission, scrapped a proposal to limit offices and banks to open on store front properties. MamaDsoutsideview Under the now defunct proposal, new offices and banks would not be allowed on street fronts on Manhattan Beach Boulevard, Highland Avenue and Manhattan Avenue downtown or on Highland and Rosecrans avenues in the north end, but existing offices and banks would be permitted to remain. Understanding the concerns, the commissioners directed the staff to undertake developing a master plan by acquiring more public comment, possible at a public forum or workshop. Read More
This is a new listing in Rolling Hills estates. It is a new remodel. It is worth your time view the gorgeous home. Thank you to the listing broker for sharing this video with us. Read More
The City of Carson completed the sale of a lot that formerly housed the Dominguez Trailer Park. The land will be used to build 13 new single family homes and the development has been approved by the City Council. The one acre parcel located at 2666 Dominquez St. was sold to City Ventures for $467,000. The city will use the profits to help develop an affordable housing complex at 409 E. Carson St. according to staff reports. Read More
According to the Beach Reporter, Southern California home prices have soared almost 29% over the prices reported in June of 2012.In the last 12 months, the median price of a home in the six county region of Southern California increased $85,000 to $385,000 from $300,000 in June of 2012. The price gains went up 20 percent in all counties according to DataQuick. DataQuick president John Walsh was clear in saying that he did not expect the pace to persist long. Low inventories are affecting sales in many Metro areas. The California Association of Realtors is saying that the statewide inventories increased to a 2.9 month supply in June, from a 2.6 months in May. Los Angeles county had the biggest increase followed by San Bernardino County. Read More
Can you imagine having 8 large bags of trash every day after school lunch? That is 240 commercial size trash bags per month. Thanks to some environmentally conscience school children at Lunada Bay Elementary School in Palos Verdes Estates now has one bag of trash per week-four per month. What a difference. Just think of the trash reduction if each school in the State would get involved. Young student sorting trash after lunch.(Robert Casillas / Daily Breeze Staff Photographer). And because of this reduction in trash Lunada Bay Elementary won the Contest sponsored by Manhattan Beach Environmental nonprofit "Grades of Green" with Chevron donating the prize money. Washington and Riviera were named runners-up. The program called the Trash-Free Lunch Challenge. The program is most successful in our South Bay region In fact it claimed thirteen of the seventeen participants. And we can be proud that five of these are from Torrance Unified. Read More