Although principles in the deals were not able to talk to GlobeSt.com at this time, in-market expert Stephen Duffy, a managing director at Moss Adams Capital LLC, tells GlobeSt.com that “The Apple lease announcement is a clear sign that this asset is starting to perform to the original vision of the development.”

He adds that “The hiccup in the journey was the leverage which is why today’s ownership is different. Good real estate can endure but high leverage requires timing.”

Although GlobeSt.com could not get any further lease terms by deadline, Luebbers says in a prepared statement that “Our entire community will benefit as we see yet another large gain in the Town Center redevelopment project.”

Just a year ago, Nokia merged several of their Bay Area offices into a new regional office. They selected a new office building on Mathilda and Washington avenues, next door to what will now become Apple’s building.

Nokia brought in some 500 employees to staff their Town Center site, and Apple is expected to add 400 or so of their own, he explains.

“The gain in the daytime business presence of several hundred more people will provide
a boost to the City’s economy,” Luebbers adds. “They will inject more business into
downtown and Murphy Avenue restaurants and shops.”

Read the full article at GlobeSt.com

“We are pleased that President Obama understands that a recovery in the housing market is essential to a recovery in the nation’s economy,” said C.A.R. President LeFrancis Arnold.

“Allowing homeowners whose homes are not backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to refinance could benefit additional homeowners who are struggling to keep up with their mortgage payments and help thousands of California families who are paying far above the current rate.”

President Obama’s proposal would help eligible, underwater homeowners who are current on their mortgage payments to refinance or modify their loan into safer, more affordable mortgages and take advantage of historically low interest rates.

Under the plan, California households could save more than $3,000 a year, which could potentially have a positive impact on consumer spending.

The president’s plan also included a Federal Housing Finance Administration pilot program to transition Real Estate Owned (REO) properties into rental housing. While C.A.R. recognizes that this plan may be beneficial in markets where REO inventory is high, the Association opposes its implementation in California, given low inventory and high demand, even in the state’s hardest hit areas.

Leading the way…® in California real estate for more than 100 years, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (www.car.org) is one of the largest state trade organizations in the United States, with more than 160,000 members dedicated to the advancement of professionalism in real estate. C.A.R. is headquartered in Los Angeles.
# # #

Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington—

More than 40 states signed onto a proposed $25-billion settlement with major mortgage servicers over faulty foreclosure procedures, but California, New York and other key states were still not among them.

“This enables us to move forward into the very final stages of remaining work,” said Iowa Atty. Gen. Tom Miller, who heads the multi-state settlement negotiations. “Federal and state officials, as well as representatives from the banks, continue to address matters that they must complete before finalizing any settlement.”

Miller would not comment further .

Continued at LA Times >>

The analysis by MapLight, a nonpartisan research organization focused on the influence of money in politics, determined the top five campaign contributors to each state’s congressional delegation.

The Realtors group contributed a total of $497,000 to California House members from July 2009 through last June and to the state’s two senators from July 2005 through last June.

Continued at LA Times >>

Last year brought a dose of real estate reality to San Marino, which alone among Los Angeles County’s wealthy areas had managed to avoid the housing bust.

The San Gabriel Valley town endured a 7.2% decline in its median home price, erasing gains of the previous two years. Overall, 2011 turned into a battle of the beach cities.

Hermosa Beach was the big winner where home price gains were concerned and Malibu the biggest loser among ZIP Codes with medians above $1 million where at least 50 existing single-family homes were sold, according to statistics from San Diego-based DataQuick. But appearances can be deceiving.

Local luxury communities that showed the most price gains last year were largely just regaining previously lost ground. And because the median is the point at which half the homes sold for more and half for less, changes in the mix of what sold affect the median price.

Continued at LA Times >>

Community groups, in fact, understand Los Angeles’s legally adopted city plans and the planning process better than LA’s elected officials and departmental managers.

Local residents know that claims from City Hall that the Hollywood Community Plan Update faithfully implements the General Plan are bogus.

They also know that any revival of Hollywood will turn on high quality public infrastructure and services, careful project reviews, reliable code enforcement, and annual monitoring.

Why?  Because the Hollywood Community Plan Update is totally at odds with LA’s General Plan Framework Element (1996), the backbone of the city’s General Plan.

The Update is nothing more than the city planning version of the fantasy film, Field of Dreams, in which an Iowa farmer builds a baseball diamond that magically materialized high caliber baseball teams and games.

Continue Reading >>

Lenders have routinely delayed or blocked such transactions, known as short sales, in which they accept less from a buyer than the seller’s outstanding loan. Now banks have decided the deals are faster and less costly than foreclosures, which have slowed in response to regulatory probes of abusive practices.

Banks are nudging potential sellers by pre-approving deals, streamlining the closing process, forgoing their right to pursue unpaid debt and in some cases providing large cash incentives, said Bill Fricke, senior credit officer for Moody’s Investors Service in New York.

Losses for lenders are about 15 percent lower on the sales than on foreclosures, which can take years to complete while taxes and legal, maintenance and other costs accumulate, according to Moody’s. The deals accounted for 33 percent of financially distressed transactions in November, up from 24 percent a year earlier, said CoreLogic Inc., a Santa Ana, California-based real estate information company.

Karen Farley hadn’t made a mortgage payment in a year when she got what looked like a form letter from her lender.

“You could sell your home, owe nothing more on your mortgage and get $30,000,” JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) said in the Aug. 17 letter obtained by Bloomberg News.

Continue Reading >>

Submitted by Celebrity Mound on Feb 2, 2012

Jennifer Aniston is shelling out $21 million for a magnificent California Modern dwelling in the hills of Bel Air. With an original listing price of $24.9 million, it seems that the real estate juggling actress got quite the bargain on the mid-century mod designed by architect A. Quincy Jones, sources say.

Built in 1965, the completely remodeled 8,500-square-foot property features the quintessential modernist features; post-and-beam architecture with flowing lines and symmetry, vast interior spaces and floor-to-ceiling walls of glass open the home to ocean and city views. Besides the home, Aniston’s new private estate includes a tranquil koi pond and garden, pool and a detached guest house, while the rear of the property is lined with rows of grapevines.

Check out more pics here

The 111-page federal complaint involves a range of entities common to conspiracy theorists, including the Vatican Illuminati, the Masons, the “Trilateral Trillenium Tripartite Gold Commission,” and the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Plaintiff Neil Keenan claims he was entrusted in 2009 with the financial instruments – which included U.S. Federal Reserve notes worth $124.5 billion, two Japanese government bonds with a combined face value of $19 billion, and one U.S. “Kennedy” bond with a face value of $1 billion – by an entity called the Dragon Family, which is a group of several wealthy and secretive Asian families.

“The Dragon family abstains from public view and knowledge, but, upon information and belief, acts for the good and better benefit of the world in constant coordination with higher levels of global financial organizations, in particular, the Federal Reserve System,” Keenan claims.

“During the course of its existence over the last century, the Dragon family has accumulated great wealth by having provided the Federal Reserve Bank and the United States Government with asset assignments of gold and silver via certain accounts held in Switzerland, for which it has received consideration in the form of a variety of Notes, Bonds and Certificates such as those described … that are an obligation of the Federal Reserve System.”

Keenan says that with accrued interest the instruments are now worth more than $1 trillion. He says the family designated him as its principal in an effort to select certain registered and authorized Private Placement Investment Programs (PPPs) for the benefit of unspecified global humanitarian efforts.

In his remarkable complaint, Keenan claims that the U.S. government enormous amounts of money – delivered in gold and other precious metals – from the Dragon Family many years ago, and that the money was placed into the Federal Reserve System for the benefit and underwriting support of the dollar, “which was to become and currently remains the global reserve currency”.

Keenan claims the conspiracy began with the illegal detention of two Japanese citizens, Akihiko Yamaguchi and Mitsuyoshi Watanabe, and the seizure of $134.5 billion in bonds they were holding in Italy, in June 2009.

Yamaguchi can best be described as Keenan’s predecessor in trying to place Dragon Family instruments in legitimate PPPs to advance the group’s humanitarian aims, according to the complaint.

Keenan says he came to know both Yamaguchi and the Dragon Family through the Japanese man’s efforts on the group’s behalf, and that he introduced them to a bank in Cyprus with which they could do business.

Keenan says that in gratitude, Yamaguchi sought and was granted approval to execute a special power of attorney, whereby Keenan would also act on behalf of the Dragon Family to place their assets in PPPs.

It was then, he says, that he took possession of the instruments that are the heart of the lawsuit. For his assistance, Keenan says, he was to receive a profit share amounting to 30 percent of any particular PPP he arranged.

A month after the Japanese men were detained, an man named Leo Zagami, “a self-described 33rd degree Free Mason, who, as of April 2008, had reportedly claimed to be the leader of a breakaway faction of the Knights of Templar and high-level Freemasons centered around the elite of the Masons P2 (propaganda Due) Lodge in Monte Carlo,” arrived on the scene, according to the complaint. (Parentheses in complaint.)

Zagami claimed to be a representative of the Vatican Illuminati and other European sect societies and “had been looking to make contact with certain Asian Secret Societies,” the complaint states.

During a meeting in Japan, he says, he told a contact that Yamaguchi and Watanabe had been “set up” and that he had inside information about the seized instruments. Subsequently, he introduced his contact in Japan to defendant Daniele Dal Bosco, a Vatican banker and associate of the P2 Masonic Lodge, who “would be able to ‘cash the bonds seized by the Italian Treasury Police,’” according to the complaint.

The complaint alleges a complicated history with many moving parts and scores of internationally known and unknown characters, the sum of which is that Keenan claims he was entrusted with billions of dollars in bonds by the Dragon Family.

He claims that soon, he and Dal Bosco were in daily contact via Skype and they arranged to meet in Italy. During these conversations, Dal Bosco represented that he was not only financial advisor to Zagami, but also to the Vatican, Vatican City, Rome, and the treasurer for the P2 Masonic Lodge.

As a result, Keenan said, although he tried keep personal possession of the financial instruments with which he was entrusted, he nevertheless came to trust Dal Bosco, and turned the bonds over to him for “temporary safekeeping and custodianship”.

Dal Bosco absconded with the bonds and sought assistance in selling the instruments “in the global marketplace through stealth, conversion and bribery,” Keenan claims.

He claims that as the conspiracy continued to unfold, various high level officials repeatedly offered him a bribe of $100 million to “release” the instruments without disclosing their theft to the Dragon family, and to allow the instruments to be converted to a so-called UN “Sovereign Program” wholly under the auspices, protection and umbrella of the sovereign immunity enjoyed by the defendants.

Other defendants include UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon, Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Giancarlo Bruno, who is identified as head of the banking industry for the World Economic Forum, Italy’s ambassador to the UN Cesare Maria Ragaflini, Ray C. Dam, president of the Office of International Treasury Control, and David A. Sale, the deputy chief of the council for the cabinet of the OITC.

Keenan seeks the return of the stolen instruments, punitive damages and court costs on multiple claims of fraud, breach of contract and violation of international law.
He is represented by William H. Mulligan Jr., with Bleakley, Platt & Schmidt of White Plains, N.Y.

Source: Courthouse News

More on this story here >>

http://divinecosmos.com/media/Keenan_complaint_11-23-2011_SDNY.pdf 

Meanwhile, California new car sales reached nearly 1.3 million vehicles last year, a 9.9 percent improvement over 2010, and the state’s unemployment rate dipped in December to 11.1 percent, down 1.4 percentage points from the previous December, with at least a quarter-million more working.

Are they signals that California’s economy, clobbered by the worst recession since the Great Depression, is on the mend? “Indeed,” says Beacon Economics’ Chris Thornberg, “virtually all major economic indicators have been trending positively for the state, and the nation overall. The recovery is real.”

But there’s a lot of uncertainty about recovery’s rapidity and sustainability.

Continue Reading >>