We have known Jim & Donna Klinge for over a dozen years, having met them in Carlsbad where our children went to the same school. As long time North County residents, it was a no- brainer for us to have the Klinges be our eyes and ears for San Diego real estate in general and North County in particular. As my military career caused our family to move all over the country and overseas to Asia, Europe and the Pacific, we trusted Jim and Donna to help keep our house in Carlsbad rented with reliable and respectful tenants for over 10 years.
Naturally, when the time came to sell our beloved Carlsbad home to pursue a rural lifestyle in retirement out of California, we could think of no better team to represent us than Jim and Donna. They immediately went to work to update our house built in 2004 to current-day standards and trends — in 2 short months they transformed it into a literal modern-day masterpiece. We trusted their judgement implicitly and followed 100% of their recommended changes. When our house finally came on the market, there was a blizzard of serious interest, we had multiple offers by the third day and it sold in just 5 days after a frenzied bidding war for 20% above our asking price! The investment we made in upgrades recommended by Jim and Donna yielded a 4-fold return, in the process setting a new high water mark for a house sold in our community.
In our view, there are no better real estate professionals in all of San Diego than Jim and Donna Klinge. Buying or selling, you must run and beg Jim and Donna Klinge to represent you! Our family will never forget Jim, Donna, and their whole team at Compass — we are forever grateful to them.
I have fully read the release and analyzed every word in detail with my two pups. Conclusion: It will only make housing far more expensive. Bank on it.
It’s why we need to take a big swing at a 23,116-acre project. It is the only hope to create somewhat-affordable housing.
I say promise a big water pipe out to California City and solicit bids for min 10 ac sites up to 2000 ac. Include teacher’s unions and Cal State University system.
If the government “is here to help” you can guarantee things are going to get worse.
California City? Sounds like a perfect place for me to clean up:
In 1958, Czech-born Columbia University sociology professor and real estate developer Nathan “Nat” K. Mendelsohn purchased 82,000 acres (33,000 ha) of Mojave Desert land with the aim of making California’s next great city. California City Development Company (CCDC) was aggressively marketing the city by running a “real estate school” to license and train a large salesforce, and a quarter-page Los Angeles Times advertorial described it as a “giant venture” and “inevitable growth”.
Mendelsohn hoped it would one day rival Los Angeles in population, and CCDC had the Smith and Williams architects master plan the community in 1961; Garrett Eckbo also contributed. Mendelsohn built a Central Park with a 26-acre (11 ha) artificial lake. Two golf courses and a four-story Holiday Inn were built next to the park. Ultimately the actions of CCDC caused the town to become known for land speculation through CCDC and successors. Mendelsohn was advertising the city for land speculation by 1962; 175 homes had been built by then. The city has a rich history of promotion, including hiring Erik Estrada to advocate for the city; in the 2000s land was sold through infomercials.
The Italian-American civil engineer Olindo R. Angelillo surveyed the city’s aquifer on behalf of CCDC in 1959, stating it was on top of a “virtual underground lake” of 1 million acre-feet of water per year. This was quickly rebutted by the chief of a US Geological Survey office, a hydraulic engineer at the state’s water department and California’s Association of Engineering Geologists.
The first post office opened in 1960.
California City was incorporated on December 10, 1965, partly to shift municipal infrastructure responsibility to the city, rather than CCDC. It was described as having 158 square miles of land, 5,900 landowners, 817 residents, and 232 homes.
Growth fell well short of his expectations and by the time Mendelsohn sold his shares in CCDC in 1969 to Great Western United Corporation, only 1,300 people had moved in; CCDC was described as having a 1,300-person salesforce at that time, with ads for “real estate salesmen” describing it as “A whole new successful way of selling California real estate!!!”
The Federal Trade Commission also began inspecting the company in 1969, and Ralph Nader’s 25-person California task force (part of “Nader’s Raiders”) published “Power and Land in California” in late 1971. The book accused various individuals and agencies of ineptitude and corruption, as well as focusing on California City, calling it a fraud and “a particularly stark study of government failure.” By that time Mendelsohn had sold over $100 million in land.
By the 1970s over 50,000 lots had been sold and the market dried up. The FTC filed a cease and desist against the company for misleading advertising, with a consent order coming in 1972 from FTC’s Richard Lavine. Charges (which White effectively agreed with in 1971) included the real estate school was primarily geared towards selling land, not providing training; enrollees were required to bring in land prospects; the property was encumbered, not fee simple, advertised improvements (e.g. roads) did not exist; it failed to meet the Truth in Lending Act. In 1974 The New York Times described Great Western City Corporation as “the troubled land development subsidiary” of Great Western United. After taking CCDC to court, the Federal Trade Commission’s Ken Donney reached a settlement in 1977, with over 14,000 landowners receiving partial refunds from a $4 million pool, the largest FTC settlement to date. CCDC was also required to invest $16 million in long-promised infrastructure developments at CCDC’s three cities.
Although areas of California City have not developed as expected, California City has grown from 3,200 people in 1985 to over 14,000 in 2018, clustered around the west end. Cerro Coso Community College closed escrow on 22 acres (8.9 ha) in the heart of California City for a community college to serve Edwards AFB, California City, Mojave, Boron, North Edwards and the entire high desert in the Antelope Valley.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_City,_California
How to fix housing: RAISE THE DAMN $250/500k TAX EXCLUSION!!! Should be $500k/$1 million.
I mean geez – how many years has it been. And also adjusted annually for inflation.
The $250/$500k exemption is the same as it was in 1997.
The median home value for San Diego in 1997? $191,818.
Today it is close to $1,000,000.
http://www.laalmanac.com/economy/ec37.php
How about not getting involved in the foreclosure process and backstopping the banks. Let people, institutions and investors fail. Don’t let the banks bundled up REOs and sell them to institutional investors like Blackstone and no more loan mods. We need to purge the stool because it was not fully flushed from 2007-2013 and there are still turds in the bowl.
We need to purge the stool because it was not fully flushed from 2007-2013 and there are still turds in the bowl.
LOL – good one!
What? Responsible government spending that would make US dollars worth something didn’t make the list?