Maureen Megowan's Blog

The Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has indicated that the Federal Housing Administration will allow homebuyers utilizing FHA insured loans to obtain short term bridge loans in the amount of their expected Federal Tax Credit of up to $8,000 for first time home buyers. These loans are an attempt to "monetize" the federal tax credits so that first time home buyers have the funds immediately to utilize to purchase a home.  The funds, however, can not be used to meet the minimum 3.5% down payment requirement of the FHA, but may be used to fund closing costs or to make a larger down payment.

The borrower must use FHA approved lendeers or State and Local governemntal agencies and non-profit organizations for the loans. Loans made by private FHA approved lenders may only be secured by the tax credit itself, while loans made by State and local agencies and non-profit organizations may be secured by second mortgages.

The main advantage of these bridge loans would be to provide funds to pay for buyer funded closing costs such as loan points, property tax pro rations, etc. Although the new bridge loans may be used to make a larger down payment, it would not make sense to use a bridge loan to do so, as the FHA approved mortgage interest on the larger loan amount would be tax deductible, while the interest on the bridge loan would not be if it is not secured by the property. You could always use the tax credit refund to pay down the FHA mortgage at a later date when the credit was received.

It is not yet clear what, if any, private lenders may agree to participate in this program. It will take several weeks for this program to become generally available.  The $8,000 first time home buyers tax credit expires November 31, 2009 unless extended by Congress.

For more information about the $8,000 first time home buyers Federal Tax Credit and other Income Tax Issues   as well as Financing your home purchase of Palos Verdes Peninsula Real Estate, visit my website at http://www.maureenmegowan.com

At the Tuesday meeting of the Rancho Palos Verdes Planning Commission, Marymount College made a surprise decision to remove its contentious plans for 2 new dorms from their proposed expansion plans.  The rremaining plans include a new athletic center, a new library, as well as other facilities that would more than double the existing footprint of the college.  After reviewing the revised plans, the Planning Commission chose to continue their deliberations to their meeting on June 9th.

Even with these plans for the dorms removed from Planning Department consideration, the College can still appeal that component of the plan directly to the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council.

 Marymount College Expansion area

Expansion of the college has been met by vigorous opposition by a group of area residents, calling themselves "Concerned Citizens Coalition/Marymount Expansion".

For more information about Rancho Palos Verdes, visit my website at http://www.maureenmegowan.com

Tuesday night, the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council, on a 4 to 0 vote approved a plan to loan back up to $8 million in hotel tax fees due to the City over the next 27 months, to be repaid to the City with interest by the end of 2013, with the possibliity of an extension.  The developer of the resort stated that the loan was needed in order for the Resort to obtain additional financing necessary to provide funds during the Resort's initial ramp-up period. The City Council is set to vote on a final ordinance at its meeting on June 2nd.

Newly landscaped hotel grounds at the Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes. (Robert Casillas/Daily Breeze Staff Photographer)

About 100 residents attended the packed meeting, with most of the two dozen or so speakers indicating their support for the plan.  I agree that it is important that this financing be made available to the Resort to ensure the success of the Resort for the benefit of all of the citizens of Rancho Palos Verdes.

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For more information about the Terranea Resort and other Rancho Palos Verdes Real Estate  , visit my website at http://www.maureenmegowan.com

The History of the South Bay of Los Angeles is fascinating, and includes one of the longest running family feuds in Los Angeles County history.; the Sepulveda Family versus the Dominquez Family.

The land which includes the entire Palos Verdes Peninsula, San Pedro, and parts of Wilmington was part of the first Spanish land grant in California. Juan Jose Dominquez, a member of the 1769 Spanish Portola Expedition to Alta, California, stayed in Alta as a peace officer and guide. He helped protect Junipero Serra and other Franciscan padres who established a chain of missions from San Diego to Sonoma.  In September 1782, Pedro Fages, the military commandante of California, became the Provincial Governor of Alta California. He was Dominguez's former lieutenant and accompanied him during the Portola Expedition of 1769. While Fages visited San Diego in 1783, Dominguez sought an opportunity to make a request for property from his former commander, who had become a powerful and influential official. Dominguez petitioned for some vacant land south of the pueblo of Los Angeles.

Early map of 1784 land grant for Rancho San Pedro. Map
Courtesy of California University Dominquez Hills archives

Due to Dominguez's many years of dedicated service to the King of Spain, Governor Fages bestowed a provisional grant to the retired old soldier in March 1784, allowing him to graze his cattle on Rancho San Pedro. These original land grants were not considered at the time to be a permanent ownership interest, but were instead merely considered a permit to use the land and to occupy it. This was the first private land grant in Southern California. Rancho San Pedro stretched from Compton to Redondo Beach and Long Beach, and included the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

After the death of Juan Jose in 1809, Manuel Gutierrez, who had been the ranch manager of the Dominquez ranch, became the executor of Juan Jose's estate. In his will, drawn up three days before his death, as Juan Jose Dominguez had no wife or children, he left half of Rancho San Pedro to Cristobal Dominguez and the other half was divided between Mateo Rubio, who had been in charge of ranch operations, and Gutierrez. Shortly after Gutierrez assumed control over Rancho San Pedroin 1809, Gutierrez allowed a friend, Jose Dolores Sepulveda, to graze a thousand head of cattle in the southwest portion of the property known as Canada de Los Palos Verdes (Canyon of the Green Trees).

In August 1817, Cristobal Dominguez finally filed a petition with Governor Pablo Vicente de Sola to have Sepulveda removed from the property and request that Rancho San Pedro be fully granted to him by eliminating the ownership rights of Gutierrez and Mateo Rubio. Gutierrez and Sepulveda refused to give up the land they worked so hard to improve. The governor issued a short poignant decree ordering Sepulveda from the rancho and granting provisional ownership to Cristobal Dominguez. Sepulveda refused to relinquish his home and appealed the governor's decree.  On December 31, 1822, shortly after Mexico had gained its independence from Spain, Governor Sola formalized the land grant by confirming Cristobal Dominguez as owner of Rancho San Pedro.

After Jose Dolores Sepulveda died in 1824, his young sons, Juan Capistrano Sepulveda and Jose Loreto Sepulveda, continued his quest for Rancho Palos Verdes. They continued to appeal the 1822 ruling, but in 1826 the governor of California ruled in favor of Dominquez, but in 1827 reversed his decision in favor of the Sepulveda.  In 1834, governor Figueroa again ruled in favor of the Sepulvedas.  This decree awardesd the Sepulvedas the 31,629 acre Rancho Palos Verdes  and left the Dominguez family with 43,119 acres reducing Rancho San Pedro nearly by half the area of the original grant. 

The Sepulvedas were given yet another order to leave the Palos Verdes section of Rancho San Pedro in June 1839. Again, the Sepulvedas defended their title and on April 22, 1841, they received a Decree of Possession and an additional strip of land north of Palos Verdes Hills from Governor Alverado. In June 1841, an agreement was signed by the Dominquez family transferring all right to the Rancho de los Palos Verdes to the Sepulvedas. Then on June 3, 1846, Governor Pio Pico officially confirmed the title of Rancho de los Palos Verdes to the two oldest Sepulveda brothers.  Pico also confirmed the title of the balance of the Rancho San Pedro to Manuel Dominguez and the other members of his family. 

Unfortunately, during the ten year period from 1855 to 1865, the Sepulvedas incurred significant financial difficulties, including a severe drought in 1862-1864 which wiped out most of their cattle herd. During this time, the Sepulvedas began to incur significant debt. During the period from 1865 to 1880, the Sepulvedas were engaged in 78 lawsuits, six land partitions suits, and 12 suits over eviction of squatters.

At the conclusion of these complicated law suits on September 25, 1882, Rancho de los Palos Verdes was partitioned into seventeen portions, with very little left to the Sepulveda family.

For more about the HISTORY OF THE SOUTH BAY OF LOS ANGELES , visit my website at http://www.maureenmegowan.com

Something that I really worry about is what will happen to interest rates once the Federal Reserve stops buying mortgage backed securities and Treasury Bills. These Federal Reserve purchases are the main thing keeeping interest rates on conventional mortgages so low, but the Federal Reserve can not keep this up forever.  Without a private market coming back to life to purchase mortgage backed securites,  the Federal Government is the only thing that is providing capital for new mortgages. 

That is why I am telling my buyers that now is the best time in the foreseeable future to buy a home while cheap financing is still available.

For more information about Financing a home purchase,  visit my website at http://www.maureenmegowan.com

This Memorial Day, we need to all take a moment and call our fathers, many of which served in World War II, the Korean War, and even possilby the Vietnam War (for the younger realtors out there ), and thank them for their sacrifice and service to our country.

My father is a retired Captain in the Marine Corps, and loves the Marine Corps almost as much as his family. He enrolled in the Marines as a student at UCLA, and as part of an officers training program was able to finish up his studies before shipping out to fight o Okinawa. He was in charge of a Marine contingent responsible for protecting the air base set up on Okinawa early after the invasion forces landed there. The air base was attacked many times, and even by an aerial suicide squad that landed at the base and set off explosives in many of the buildings!!!

 American forces in Battle of Okinawa

My fathers best friend and best man at his wedding is "Buck" Compton, one of the leading characters in the book and HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers". Buck was the one who had white hair and led the initial attack early in the film on the entrenched gun emplacements on the night of the Normady Invasion. He was shot in the rear end later in the movie and was carried away on a door by his fellow soldiers. Buck served in Easy Company, a paratroop brigade.

Buck was invited to attend the premier of Band of Brothers when it was shown in Normandie France and was able to invite my Dad. My Dad also was a guest with Buck at the opening of the World War II memorial in Washington D.C.

It is important to remember the true meaning of Memorial Day and honor our Veterans who have given so much.

My husband Bruce and I are making some great headway towards building support for the construction of a dog park somewhere on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.  We are currently promoting the idea of the construction of a dog park on the former Palos Verdes Landfill site. Ownership of this site converts to the County of Los Angeles in 2010, and they are currently soliciting ideas for use of this site for public purposes.

We have distributed petitions in support of this idea at several locations on the Palos Verdes Peninsula including the PETCO store at the Peninsula Center, as well as the Dog Food Market at Lunada Bay Plaza. In addition to signing our petition at one of these locations, you can also email us your name and address indicating your support of a Palos Verdes Peninsula dog park to me at mmegowan@cox.net . We now have well over 200 names of supporters of the dog park in our data base, and it is growing daily.

Once we have a sufficient number of names, we will present the petitions to the city councils of each of the 4 cities on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, as well as the County of Los Angeles in order to gain political traction for the construction of a dog park. We have already received several favorable coments from City Council members from Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, and Rolling Hills Estates.

For more about PV Sports, Recreation And  Parks  , visit my website at http://www.maureenmegowan.com

My husband Bruce is providing this look back at Abalone Diving off of the Palos Verdes coast. The most obvious landmark that harkens back to the 60''s and '70's when scuba diving really took off is Abalone Cove located along Palos Verdes Drive South in Rancho Palos Verdes. 

 Abalone Cove

My husband used to dive off of Abalone Cove and Lunada Bay in the late 1960's and during the 1970's when abalone were plentiful along our coastline.  Unfortunately, abalone were overfished for many years, mostly by commercial fisherman, and it is now rare to see Abalone steak on a seafood restaurants menu.

  Young Abalone at Abalone Farm

We miss the uniques flavor of abalone. After vigorously tenderizing the abalone by hammering it with a tenderizing hammer or mallot, it became very tender and had an absolutely unique taste.  I understand that some companies have begun to farm abalone along the shores of northern California. There is now a complete ban on taking abalone along the Southern California coast and the Channel Islands, and it is hoped that in many years the abalone fishery might make a come back.

  Multiple Abalone in Rocks

For more information a;bout PV Sports, Recreation And  Parks , visit my website at http://www.maureenemgowan.com

One of the fondest memories I have growing up in the West Los Angeles area was of the Helms Bakery Truck stopping at our house. My mom would buy fresh bread, but what I remember most was the great donuts and other pastry treats that they sold.  It was almost as good as the ice cream man when he drove up with a "toot-toot" of his horn.

Helms Bakeries operated in Culver City from 1931 to 1969, when it closed. Who can forget the long wooden drawers filled with goodies such as cookies, pastry and donuts. 

Un;fortunately, those days of door to door service are gone, along with the milk man. For some vintage Helms Bakeries recipes, click here

For information about buying and selling real estate on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, visit my website at http://www.maureenmegowan.com

The State Lands Agency of California, which administers Port Lands within the State of California, has recently ruled that the proposed plans for a park on the top of Knoll Hill in San Pedro are not consistent with the State Tidelands Trust which regulates the permissable land uses on State Tidelands and Port Property.

A citizens committee had proposed that the land be improved with backstops that would be used part of the year by the Eastview Little League, and as general park use for the rest of the year, and would also have a children's playground. The Agency ruled that land uses must be of a Regional nature and not just serve a local use, and determined that the proposed uses were only local in nature. They have also indicated that a dog park, which is currently at the base of the hill, also would not meet this land use criteria.

Unfortunately, long term plans for the site calls for the property to be used to accommodate reworking the onramps and offramps for the Vincent Thomas Bridge and the harbor Freeway. Port authorities have indicated that any use of the site would be temporary and probably limited to 3 years. Therefor, a permanent location for the Little League fields and the off-leash dog park still need to be resolved.

So basically, the only permitted use of the 6 acres of land as a park would include only trails. The Eastview Little League currently uses the land under a lease that will expire January 31, 2011

For more information about San Pedro, visit my website at http://www.maureenmegowan.com