|
General
Interest Magazine and Newspaper Articles about our City
Any
articles we recently missed, let us know at
karpinski@adelphia.net
Zero
Energy Solar Energy Homes (40% reduction) planned for DHS
February
25, 2005 01:05 PMÂ US Eastern Timezone
Clarum Builds Nation's Largest Solar Energy Affordable
Apartment Community Using GE Technology
PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 25, 2005--Clarum
Homes has just completed the construction of the Vista Montana
apartment community in Watsonville, California which houses
the nation's largest building integrated solar electric
system ever installed in an apartment community. GE Energy
supplied the 60-kilowatt system for the complex, making
it possible for this community to produce over 90 megawatt
hours of electricity annually.
GE's
roof-integrated system replaces the flat cement roof tiles
and blends seamlessly with the roofline. The integrated
system provides a unique combination of functionality and
attractiveness, adding value to the community and its residents.
In
addition to the substantial solar electric system, the Vista
Montana apartment community was designed with the goal of
including as many other energy efficient and renewable building
features as possible, without sacrificing the comfort of
its residents. As part of the Department of Energy's Building
America program, Vista Montana was also one of Building
America's first near Zero Energy Homes communities.
ConSol,
Clarum's energy consultant and one of Building America's
team leaders, used a systems engineering approach to produce
homes on a community scale that used 40% less energy. The
homes were engineered to minimize each home's energy loads
through ConSol's ComfortWise(R) program so that most of
the electrical needs could be met by the solar system. The
ComfortWise(R) program includes the installation of tightly
sealed duct work, a high-efficiency heating and ventilation
system, smart glass (low-e windows), and third party testing
and certification.
Hydronic
heating units were used to achieve energy efficiency through
the combined function of heating both the water and the
living space. Over 60 percent of the framing on this project
was done with engineered lumber, and recycled-content decking
was used for all patios and balconies.
The
Vista Montana Apartments community brings much-needed affordable
housing to Watsonville with its 132 apartment homes, many
of which were designed for larger families. The community
is located at the intersection of East Lake Blvd. and Wagner
Avenue, adjacent to the City of Watsonville's new 14-acre
John Martin Franich Park and the Ann Soldo Elementary School.
Financed
with California Statewide Communities Development Authority
tax exempt bonds, federal and state tax credits and City
of Watsonville HOME Program funds, the community offers
apartments to residents earning incomes at 50%-60% of Santa
Cruz County area median income levels. The Vista Montana
Apartment community includes a community center, state-of-the-art
fitness center and a computer learning center for resident
use and after-school programs.
"With
skyrocketing energy costs and continued concerns over energy
shortages, Clarum's entire company focus is to combine renewable
building practices and alternative energy solutions with
affordable and entry-level housing," said John Suppes, Vice
President of Clarum Homes. "Not only do renewable building
practices and energy efficient systems make sense for the
environment, but they also provide a more comfortable and
healthier environment to live in."
"The
improved aesthetics and ease of installation offered by
our roof integrated solar tiles gives Clarum the architectural
freedom to incorporate solar energy into each and every
home and apartment building," said Ali Iz, General Manager
GE Energy - Solar Technologies.
"Clarum's
efforts validate that production home builders can successfully
build energy efficient, attractive and affordable housing
without sacrificing quality or aesthetics," Rob Hammon,
Ph.D., ConSol principal.
About
Clarum Homes
Founded
in 1994, and headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Clarum
Homes is a family-owned development company devoted to building
exceptional new home communities and apartments in California.
Over the last several years Clarum has become California's
leader in renewable building through its involvement in
building zero energy homes under the U.S. Department of
Energy's Zero Energy Home initiative, and through its participation
in the Building Industry Institute's California Green Builder
Program. Clarum has incorporated a strong commitment to
the environment into all of its design and building practices.
Currently, Clarum is under construction on the nation's
largest 100% zero-energy-home community, and is recognized
as an industry pioneer for installing innovative energy
efficiency systems and sustainable building products. In
2005, Clarum has plans to start construction on at least
seven new zero energy home communities in locations throughout
California in Watsonville, San Leandro, Menlo Park, Danville,
Borrego Springs, Blythe and Desert
Hot Springs. For more information please visit www.clarum.com
.
About
GE Energy
GE
Energy ( www.gepower.com
) is one of the world's leading suppliers of
power generation and energy delivery technology, with 2004
revenues of $17.3 billion. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, GE
Energy provides equipment, service and management solutions
across the power generation, oil and gas, transmission and
distribution, distributed power and energy rental industries.
GE
Energy's current range of solar energy products includes
solar cells, modules and pre-packaged systems. The modules
range from 35 to 165 watts, while system designs can range
from hundreds of watts to megawatts and can be used in either
on-grid or off-grid applications. GE Energy's solar equipment
is manufactured at its Newark, Delaware facility.
About
ConSol
ConSol
is a leading developer of energy efficiency design in new
home construction. ConSol offers a full suite of services,
including engineering design, energy code compliance, its
turn-key ComfortWise(R), and energy consulting. It works
with various entities including the Department of Energy,
the California Energy Commission, and The Building Industry
Institute to further the cause of energy efficiency and
green building as well as improved buyer comfort. ConSol
provides builders of single-family homes, apartments and
condominiums custom-tailored strategic insights and direction
based on years of experience.
|
 |
| Contacts
|
 |
|
DHS
homes appreciation at a whopping 54.6 percent!
Real
Estate Articles from Inman News
California
real estate prices grow 20%
Statewide
median value reaches $485,700 in January
Friday,
February 25, 2005
Inman News
The median price
of an existing home in California in January increased 20.1
percent and sales increased 7.1 percent compared with the
same period a year ago, the California
Association of Realtors reported today.
Jim Hamilton, association
president, said, "Although the inventory of homes for sale
increased in January, it's still low by historic standards.
Buyers are taking a little more time before making an offer
compared with last year, in part because the specter of
significant increases in mortgage interest rates has diminished."
Closed escrow sales
of existing, single-family detached homes in California
totaled 659,410 in January at a seasonally adjusted annualized
rate, according to information collected by association
from more than 90 local Realtor associations statewide.
Statewide, home resale activity increased 7.1 percent from
the 615,660 sales pace recorded in January 2004.
The statewide sales
figure represents what the total number of homes sold during
2005 would be if sales maintained the January pace throughout
the year. It is adjusted to account for seasonal factors
that typically influence home sales.
The median price
of an existing, single-family detached home in California
during January 2005 was $485,700, a 20.1 percent increase
over the revised $404,460 median for January 2004, the association
reported. The January 2005 median price increased 2.4 percent
compared with a revised $474,280 median price in December.
"While we expect
sales for all of 2005 to be below 2004's record level, demand
for housing in California continues to outstrip supply,
which is reflected by the dramatic median price appreciation
experienced by every region in the state," said association
vice president and chief economist Leslie Appleton-Young.
"Seven regions posted median price gains in excess of 30
percent compared with a year ago."
Highlights of the
association's resale housing figures for January 2005:
- The association's Unsold Inventory Index for existing,
single-family detached homes in January 2005 was 4.2 months,
compared with 2.3 months (revised) for the same period
a year ago. The index indicates the number of months needed
to deplete the supply of homes on the market at the current
sales rate.
- Thirty-year fixed mortgage interest rates averaged 5.71
percent during January 2005, unchanged from January 2004,
according to Freddie Mac. Adjustable mortgage interest
rates averaged 4.12 percent in January 2005 compared with
3.63 percent in January 2004.
- The median number of days it took to sell a single-family
home was 48 days in January 2005, compared with 27 days
(revised) for the same period a year ago.
In a separate
report covering more localized statistics generated by the
association and DataQuick
Information Systems, 95.7 percent or 374 of 391 cities
and communities showed an increase in their respective median
home prices from a year ago.
DataQuick statistics
are based on county records data rather than MLS information.
DataQuick Information Systems, a provider of real estate
data, is a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler
and Associates.
- The 10 California cities and communities with the highest
median home prices in California during January 2005 were:
Palos Verdes Estates, $1.6 million; Newport Beach, $1.09
million; Mill Valley, $937,000; Santa Barbara, $931,000;
Los Gatos, $890,000, Cupertino, $775,000; Encinitas, $729,500;
Danville, $727,500; San Clemente, $722,500; and San Ramon,
$717,000.
- The 10 cities and communities with the lowest median
home prices during January 2005 were: Taft, $70,000; Twentynine
Palms, $86,250; Barstow, $107,000; Wasco, $120,500; Delano,
$125,000; Ridgecrest, $126,000; California City, $147,750;
Running Springs, $161,000; Yucca Valley, $166,000; and
Porterville, $168,000.
- The 10 cities and communities with the greatest median
home price increases in January 2005 compared with the
same period a year ago were: West Sacramento, 78.5 percent;
Lake Forest, 62.5 percent; Hercules, 62.3 percent; Norco,
61.3 percent; Porterville, 61.2 percent; Adelanto, 60.3
percent; Hesperia, 59.4 percent; Galt, 56.1 percent; Desert
Hot Springs, 54.6 percent; and Walnut
Creek, 54.2 percent.
- Meanwhile, the 10 cities with the largest drops in median
home prices from January 2004 to January 2005 were: Taft,
-25.5 percent; Santa Monica, -12.5 percent; Upland, -12.3
percent; Ladera Ranch, -9.4 percent; Sonoma, -8.1 percent;
Novato, -7.5 percent; Los Gatos, -5.6 percent; Ripon,
-4.9 percent; Encino, -4.1 percent; and La Verne, -3.2
percent. The top 10 lists are generated for incorporated
cities with a minimum of 30 recorded sales in the month.
- Regionally, median home prices in the state rose 45.3
percent in the Santa Barbara South Coast region and 41.7
percent in the High Desert region from January 2004 to
January 2005. Some regions had much lower increases. For
example, prices increased 16.2 percent in the San Francisco
Bay Area during the same period, and 19.7 percent in the
Santa Clara area.
Regional sales data
are not adjusted to account for seasonal factors that can
influence home sales. The MLS median price and sales data
for detached homes are generated from a survey of more than
90 associations of Realtors throughout the state. MLS median
price and sales data for condominiums are based on a survey
of more than 60 associations. The median price for both
detached homes and condominiums represents closed escrow
sales.
Large changes in
local median home prices typically indicate both local home
price appreciation, and often, large shifts in the composition
of housing market activity. Some of the variations in median
home prices may be exaggerated due to compositional changes
in housing demand. The DataQuick tables listing median home
prices in California cities and counties are accessible
through association online at http://www.car.org/index.php?id=MzQ2OTI=
.
The California Association
of Realtors, headquartered in Los Angeles, has about 160,000
members.
***
Send
tips or a Letter to the Editor to glenn@inman.com
or call (510) 658-9252, ext. 137. |
WHERE
I LIVE BY PAUL KRASSNER
It's not hip, but it's heaven
Desert Hot Springs provides something Venice never did: splendid
isolation along with its quirky, small-town vibe.
By Paul Krassner
February 10, 2005
During THE FOUR YEARS and 10 weeks that my wife, Nancy, and I
have lived in Desert Hot Springs, we've observed the evolution
of a small town into a burgeoning city.
One of the early signs was the opening of a Thai restaurant. So
many customers showed up on the first night that it ran out of
food. The latest sign is that the rumor of a Starbucks being on
the way has turned out to be true.
In our neighborhood, the city has just put in a sewer system and
paved the roads. On the main street, Palm Drive, traffic lights
have replaced the honor system at a couple of intersections. A
UPS branch recently opened. A medical center is on the cusp of
pure fantasy and planning stage. And, to quote the front-page
headline in the current issue of a gung-ho conservative biweekly
tabloid, the Valley Breeze, "Desert Hot Springs Police Add
New Taser X-26 Weapon to its Arsenol [sic]."
The population was 7,000 when Nancy first visited here in 1978.
Now it's 20,000. There are 40 hotels and spas that pump the odorless,
healing mineral water out of the ground at 120 to 180 degrees.
And last year, the cold water, which is filtered through sand
several hundred feet below the hot water aquifer, won the Gold
Medal for Best Tasting Municipal Water at the Berkeley Springs
International Water Tasting competition. We no longer buy bottled
water.
Our move from Venice Beach to Desert Hot Springs — from
the motion of the ocean to the magnificence of the mountains —
was prompted by the fact that the rent in Venice kept going up
exponentially, a 7% increase every year for 16 years. Then we
discovered that in Desert Hot Springs, anybody could get a mortgage
if they had a pulse. We had never owned a house before. Now we
were ecstatic, owning our own home and a garage — even the
car had its own room — yet we were simultaneously aware
of the preposterousness of "owning" land.
We'd been coming here occasionally on weekends since 1985, so
we knew about the intense heat, but we've learned to appreciate
air-conditioning. We loved the isolation — nobody drives
to Desert Hot Springs by accident — and the sparse traffic.
There was only one movie theater here, and that building is now
a church, but there are art houses as well as cineplexes in the
more ostentatious cities, Palm Springs and Palm Desert, and on
the way we pass streets named after such celebrities as Frank
Sinatra, Dinah Shore, Bob Hope, Gerald Ford and, most recently,
Kirk Douglas. "You don't have to be dead to have a street
named after you," Nancy said, "but it helps."
We made the move shortly after I published the final issue of
the Realist, a satirical countercultural journal I launched in
1958. (Although when People magazine called me "father of
the underground press," I immediately demanded a paternity
test.)
I still write columns and articles, but my main obsession these
days is working on a long-awaited (by me) first novel. Writing
fiction enables one to have imaginary friends without being considered
crazy.
We were fortunate to have real friends who had already moved here.
We met Lane and Carol Sarasohn in 1987, when Lane, Carol and I
were writers, and Nancy shot mini-documentaries for a short-lived
series on Fox, the "Wilton North Report."
A few years later, Lane and I were writers on the syndicated "Ron
Reagan Show." Now, with his two co-editors in Los Angeles,
he produces "Ironic Times," a weekly online satirical
publication, from his home in the desert.
One afternoon, Lane suddenly felt guilty about not having a regular
job. He went for an interview with the owner of the Desert Hot
Springs Spa Hotel and the Miracle Springs Hotel, Mike Bickford,
known by his employees as Mr. B. Within a few months, Lane became
his chief assistant and troubleshooter.
Every month, I go with him to the Mayor's Breakfast. After reciting
the Pledge of Allegiance, everybody stands up and, one by one,
introduces themselves. Here a chiropractor, there a Realtor. My
favorite is an undertaker who says the same thing each time: "I'll
be the last one in town to let you down."
Lane later became general manager of Miracle Springs and served
two terms as president of the Chamber of Commerce, but before
all that he gave my first comedy album, "We Have Ways of
Making You Laugh," to the hotel's event organizer, and she
arranged for me to perform at the Desert Hot Springs Chamber of
Commerce officers and board of directors installation dinner.
According to the alternative paper the Desert Post Weekly, "In
the extraordinary case of Desert Hot Springs, there is a convergence
of five energy vortexes meeting in one place. In general, people
are drawn to energy vortexes and power spots in search of enlightenment
and inner peace; they are attracted by the invisible force and
its therapeutic effects."
The paradox of my own peculiar spiritual path is that I'm an unbeliever
who engages in constant dialogue with the deity I don't believe
in. As a stand-up comic, I always say, "Please, God, help
me do a good show," and then I always hear the voice of God
boom out, "Shut up, you superstitious fool!"
Desert Hot Springs had changed its official slogan from "People,
Pride and Progress" — no, it wasn't a multiple-choice
question — to "Clearly Above the Rest," and so
it came to pass that the theme of this particular dinner would
be Heaven. The waiters and waitresses would be dressed as angels.
The stage would be overlain with a cottony white cloud, enhanced
by a fog machine. There would be a blond angel playing the harp.
At 7 p.m., the salad would be served. At precisely 7:15, a clatter
of pots and pans would be heard, and then I would be thrown out
of the kitchen, directly into that heavenly scene. Oh, yes, and
I would be dressed as the devil, who had been kicked out of heaven.
I had never played a character before, but I rented a devil's
costume — black shirt, red pants, bow tie, jacket, cape,
tail and horns, a silver three-prong pitchfork — which I
donned in a restroom for the staffers behind the banquet hall
at Miracle Springs. I looked in the mirror, pulled my hair into
a point on my forehead and said — to the image of Satan
— "Please, God, help me do a good show." I may
have been the personification of evil, but for an instant it felt
like God and the devil were in perfect harmony, until I heard
the voice of God boom out, "You must be kidding!"
I proceeded to conduct a one-devil roast of various local leaders
in the audience whose eternal souls I had previously purchased,
revealing how I had kept my part of each deal. I admitted my role
in getting the president of the chamber of commerce reelected
and confessed that I had secured a green card for the police chief's
undocumented Mexican nanny.
A court decision had required the city to pay $3 million plus
legal fees to real estate developers who unsuccessfully attempted
a low-income housing project, but I disclosed that, in order to
raise the money, I had set up a meth lab for the mayor.
Actually, in order to keep from going broke by paying the judgment,
the city would later declare bankruptcy. However, the new slogan
would not be changed to "Clearly Above the Credit Limit."
I exited heaven through the kitchen. In the corridor near the
restroom, I overheard a woman say to her companion, "Right
now, I would sell my soul for a massage." I surrendered to
the impulse, walked behind her, tapped her on the shoulder and
said, "Just sign right here." This was a unique moment,
to be preserved in amber for posterity.
Nancy had advised me not to mention in this essay that I missed
living in Venice, but in the very process of writing about Desert
Hot Springs, I realize how much I've become attached to living
here.
Paul Krassner is the author of "Murder at the Conspiracy
Convention and Other American Absurdities," with an introduction
by George Carlin, which can be found at paulkrassner.com.
|
|
