Grounds to re-open on Tuesday, June 19

In preparation for the annual Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival, June 14 – 17, the Nevada County Fairgrounds will be closed to walkers and bicyclists during the entire week of June 11. The Fairgrounds will re-open its gates to walkers and bicyclists as usual on Tuesday, June 19. This closure does not affect the Main Office, which is open during its normal business hours of Monday through Friday from 8 am to 5 pm.

At various times throughout the year the grounds are rented by organizations for large, community events like the Bluegrass Festival, the KVMR Celtic Festival, and The California WorldFest. During these times, it becomes necessary to close the grounds to pedestrians in preparation for these various events.

For more information about the Nevada County Fairgrounds, visit their website at www.NevadaCountyFair.com or call (530) 273-6217.

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Real Estate

Short Sales May Get Shorter

June 2, 2012 jd

The Colonial Revival headquarters of Fannie Mae, designed by architect Leon Chatelain, Jr. in 1956, located at 3900 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W., in the Cathedral Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Beginning June 15, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, will require both agencies to give short-sale buyers a final decision within 60 days.

Under this same guideline, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac also must respond to initial requests for a short sale within 30 days of receiving the buyer’s submission.

According to one analyst, expedited sales as a result of the new directive will benefit the entire housing market. They could also remove some risks for buyers – many of whom previously had to wait months for a decision and then ended up not getting the house they wanted.

Lenders favor short sales because they are less costly and more efficient than foreclosures. Yet the homeowners, trying to exit as gracefully as possible, never know how long the process will take or how badly their credit will be hurt.

Although short sales have a reputation for being easier on credit scores than foreclosures, Experian says that is a “fairly common misperception.” If there is a difference in impact, according to Experian, it is slight.

Both short sales and foreclosures remain on the credit report for seven years, but foreclosures don’t appear until the legal paperwork is filed, and that could take months.

The effect was measured by an analysis by VantageScore, a provider of credit scores used by lenders. The higher the credit rating a consumer has, the more points he or she would lose in a short sale.

If consumers started with an 830 score, they would most likely lose 100 to 110 points from a short sale, 120 to 130 points from a foreclosure. But a homeowner with a 625 score, who is behind on his mortgage and some credit card payments, would lose 15 to 25 points from a short sale and 10 to 20 points from a foreclosure.

Read the full story

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Real Estate

Pending Home Sales Up Strongly From a Year Ago

May 30, 2012 jd

English: staff photo of Lawrence Yun — Staff photo of Lawrence Yun (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Pending home sales retrenched in April following three consecutive monthly gains, but are notably higher than a year ago, according to the National Association of REALTORS^®.

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, declined 5.5 percent to 95.5 from a downwardly revised 101.1 in March but is 14.4 percent above April 2011 when it was 83.5. The data reflect contracts but not closings.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said a one-month setback in light of many months of gains does not change the fundamentally improving housing market conditions. “Home contract activity has been above year-ago levels now for 12 consecutive months. The housing recovery momentum continues,” he said.

Yun notes home sales are staying well above the levels seen from 2008 through 2011. “Housing market activity has clearly broken out at notably higher levels and is on track to see the best performance since 2007,” he said. “All of the major housing market indicators are expected to trend gradually up, but a new federal budget must be passed before the end of the year for the economy to continue to move forward.”

The PHSI in the Northeast rose 0.9 percent to 78.9 in April and is 19.9 percent higher than April 2011. In the Midwest the index slipped 0.3 percent to 93.0 but is 23.0 percent above a year ago. Pending home sales in the South fell 6.8 percent to an index of 105.7 in April but are 13.3 percent higher than April 2011. In the West the index dropped 12.0 percent in April to 94.9 but is 5.1 percent above a year ago.

The housing forecast has been upgraded, with existing-home sales expected to reach 4.66 million this year, compared with 4.26 million in 2011. The outlook for 2013 is now 4.92 million, but could vary significantly depending on two scenarios.

If lending returns to normal, the 2013 outlook for existing-home sales would measurably improve to 5.3 million. However, a fiscal cliff scenario of higher taxes and sharp spending cuts beginning in early 2013, which is an unlikely event but still worth noting, would lower the sales projection to 4.5 million.

Because of measurably lower inventory supplies, the forecast for home prices has been upwardly revised with the median existing-home price projected to rise 2 to 3 percent this year and 4 to 5 percent in 2013, with wide local market variations. Miami and Phoenix will easily achieve double-digit price growth by year end.

Yun said the price gains will measurably reduce the number of underwater homeowners. “For example, a 5 percent national price gain means the number of underwater home owners would fall to about 9 million from current estimates of around 11 million. A 10 percent gain, say over the next two years, would reduce the underwater status to about 7 million households out of 75 million owner-occupied homes,” he said.

About 25 million homes are owned free and clear without a mortgage.

Though the proportion of distressed properties is still high, the numbers have been falling over the past two years. “The diminishing share of distressed properties is another reason for higher home prices in upcoming months,” Yun added.

Source: National Association of REALTORS^®

March Pending Home Sales Increase, Market Recovering (johnodellrealty.com)
Sales contracts for US homes dropped in April (sfgate.com)
Home prices climb for 2nd month in row in March (economywatch.msnbc.msn.com)
Pending home sales drop in April, still up 14.4% for the year (agbeat.com)

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Community Events, Construction, Government

NID System Improvements Coming to Cascade Shores, Nevada County

May 28, 2012 jd

NID System Improvements Coming to Cascade Shores taken May 2012 taken with my cell phone Samsung Galaxy Note

Residents of Cascade Shores east of Nevada City will be getting a larger, more reliable public water system, under actions taken Wednesday (May 23) by the Nevada Irrigation District Board of Directors.

The board voted to purchase 4400 feet of new eight-inch pipeline to replace deteriorating and undersized 4-inch and 6-inch main lines installed in the 1960s and 1970s by the developer of Cascade Shores. The new pipe will be purchased from low bidder Groeniger & Co. for $129,800.

The system improvement is planned along Cascade Loop, Cascade Drive and Artic Close and also includes nine new fire hydrants. NID maintenance crews are slated to begin installing the new pipeline in June.

The overall project is budgeted at $350,000 and is part of a systematic program to upgrade aging water infrastructure in four Nevada County residential communities developed in the 1960s and 1970s. An initial project was completed in Alta Sierra last year, an upgrade is now being completed in Lake of the Pines and an improvement at Lake Wildwood is planned for 2013.

Directors also awarded a $732,600 contract to T&S Construction, Inc. of Sacramento for construction of a new transmission main line along Highway 49 in North Auburn.

The water project will provide for more water and fire flow along the Highway 49 corridor from Locksley Lane to Quartz Drive. Work is expected to begin in June and be completed before winter.

Source: NID press release

NID Watershed Gets Good Bill of Health (yubanet.com)
Nevada County History, California (nevadacounty.com)

John J. O’Dell Realtor® GRI
Civil Engineer
General Contractor
(530) 263-1091
Email jodell@nevadacounty.com

animals

Kitten Marshmallow at Four Weeks Old

May 27, 2012 jd

httpv://youtu.be/Jeg3QM1Ysq8

Marshmallow was born on March 1st with low birth weight (~60% of the normal expected weight at about 66g or 2.3 oz). A month later, Marshy is breaking one pound, about 7 times the birthweight. At this point, we’re just thankful that she’s made it through the first month. What a blessing she is.

Below are some notable changes in Marshy’s behavior:

She refuses to stay in her nest box, rebelliously clawing and crying murder when she is placed there. Marshy is also able to regulate her body temperature better now to the point where she no longer needs a heating pad or “rice socks” to keep warm when mama Mochi is not around. We used to place a heating pad beneath the nest box to cover about ½ of the surface area, so Marshy could keep warm, but also move off the heated area if she felt hot.

With her head held high and steady, Marshmallow has become more photogenic as well, often times staring curiously straight into one’s eyes, a move that would melt any stone heart.

Source of text Youtube
John J. O’Dell Realtor® GRI
Civil Engineer
General Contractor
(530) 263-1091
Email jodell@nevadacounty.com

Real Estate

Home Sales Increasing And Prices Are Bouncing Back

May 25, 2012 jd

Seal of the United States Federal Housing Fina... — Seal of the United States Federal Housing Finance Agency. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve noticed an increase in sales in Nevada County. A recent article which I’m republishing here indicates that home prices are increasing nationwide.

“The Federal Housing Finance Agency reported that nationwide home prices posted their first gain in the first quarter since 2007. While the gain was modest at 0.6 percent, housing experts note it’s still another sign that the housing market is gaining momentum.

FHFA’s housing price index is calculated using home sales price information based off Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae-backed mortgages.

FHFA’s seasonally adjusted monthly index rose 1.8 percent in March over February, which is the largest monthly increase in at least 20 years. Year-over-year, home prices increased 2.7 percent, FHFA reports.

“Increased affordability and a somewhat smaller inventory of homes for sale are positively impacting house prices,” says Andrew Leventis, FHFA’s principal economist.

Price increases were the highest in Hawaii with a 10.3 percent increase, and in Washington, D.C., which saw a 9.8 percent gain, according to FHFA.

Still, Number of Underwater Home Owners Remain High

Despite recent improvements in home prices, the percentage of underwater borrowers has shown little improvement in the last year. More than 30 percent of home owners in the first quarter remained underwater on their mortgage, owing more on their home than it’s currently worth, according to a new Zillow housing report.

A year ago, 32.4 percent of all borrowers had negative equity on their loan compared to 31.4 percent during the most recent quarter, Zillow reports.

Yet, Zillow notes that nine out of 10 underwater borrowers are current on their mortgage payments.

“[It’s] important to note that negative equity remains only a paper loss for the vast majority of underwater home owners,” says Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist. “As home values slowly increase and these home owners continue to pay down their principal, they will surface again.”

The highest share of underwater home owners continues to be in Las Vegas, where 71 percent of home owners are underwater, followed by Phoenix (at 55.5 percent) and Atlanta (at 55.2 percent), according to the Zillow housing report.

Source: “U.S. Housing Prices Rise,” UPI (May 23, 2012); “Home Prices Rose Most in Two Decades in March, FHFA Says,” Bloomberg News (May 23, 2012) and “More than 30% of Mortgage Borrowers Still Underwater,” CNNMoney (May 24, 2012)

U.S. home prices rise modestly in the first quarter (agbeat.com)
FHFA Index Shows Modest Home Price Increases (mortgagenewsdaily.com)
Home Prices Rose Most In Two Decades In March (chesbuilt.com)
More Renters Are Finding It’s Cheaper to Buy (johnodellrealty.com)

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Uncategorized

Kickstarter Campaign: The Art Docent Program Goes Digital

May 16, 2012 jd

The Art Docent Program has a great history with Nevada County Schools… Since the program was founded twenty-five years ago, eighteen of our schools have adopted the program. Thousands of Nevada County kids have enjoyed it, and refrigerators of proud parents throughout the county have been decorated with their brilliant art.

Today, The Art Docent Program™ of Gold River, CA is launching a campaign on Kickstarter.com, the revolutionary website for funding art, music, film and tech projects. The project is called “The Art Docent Program Goes Digital!”

View the Project on Kickstarter.com

The Art Docent Program provides a sequential, interactive education in art history and artistic skills for K-6 grade children, which can be taught by volunteers called “docents”, and are led by coordinator; the “head docent”. The program is available for schools, after-school and summer programs, or any occasion where creative kids can make art.

Once the children see great works by famous artists on subjects such as “Mothers & Children”, “Pets”, or “Musicians” in various styles and periods, they can try their own hand, with age-appropriate materials and guidance.

View the Art Docent Program website at ArtDocentProgram.com

Initially developed in 1984 by art educator and author Barbara Herberholz, the Art Docent Program has been periodically updated. It has a proven track record of over 25 years in hundreds of schools using binders of training materials, and posters of famous works of art.

But the art posters were large, came in over 50 portfolio cases, cost a small fortune, and over years they took a beating in the classroom. When Barbara’s daughters, Amy Scherschligt and Heidi Grasty took over managing the program, they began modernizing it. For the last year, a beta-version of the digital program has been enthusiastically adopted by thirteen schools in California, Utah and Washington.

Microsoft Windows 8, Microsoft You Must Be Kidding

May 15, 2012 jd

Windows 8 Start. Note that when you first get into the Start you have such useless apps such as camera, XBox games, Xbox live and other apps of no use to a business PC.

I made the mistake of downloading the trial version of Windows 8 thinking it was an upgrade to Windows 7. No, it’s tablet software and downloading it on a PC is, like Microsoft are you kidding? Why don’t you tell people its tablet software and not suitable for PC’s?

The first thing that comes up after you figure out that you have to tap any button on your keyboard to log in is an interface that Microsoft calls Metro or the start screen. I’m sure that’s a wonderful tablet feature. So the first thing I did once I roamed around for a while was to get rid of such useful things as Xbox live, Maps, Messaging, Camera (my PC does not have a camera) and a whole bunch of worthless apps that might be useful on a tablet but not on a PC and most of them will not work on your PC anyway.

As I stumbled around, I finally got to the normal interface and away from Metro. Now where is the start button? Oh, Microsoft did away with the start button. So I Goggled to find out what happened to the familiar start button that’s been with every version of Windows. Well, it’s gone. So more searching and there is a workaround by downloading ViStart. ViStart puts the start button back where it was on all the other Window versions.

Now how do I find my programs without ViStart? Well, programs are now apps. You get back to Metro, left click your mouse, look at the far left corner and there is a rectangle. Click on that and your programs, err, apps appear and are spread out with little icons over four acres of real estate. It would be OK if it was a tablet, but on my PC, you had to use your mouse and slide the apps across the screen. I use 1920 x 1080 resolution. I don’t know what it would look like if I used a lower resolution, maybe like it was on 10 acres of real estate and you would scroll for an hour.

There's that icon "Setting". click on that, click on the power icon and than you can restart or put your computer to sleep. Of course to get there you have to go to the lower right corner with your mouse to pop up those icons.

So the next question, how do I turn my computer off or put it to sleep? First time I had to Google to figure out how to turn off a computer. Well, you go to the far right corner and some icons come up. Click on the lower right hand corner and several icons come up, including settings. Click on settings and there it is “power”. Click again on power and you can put your computer to sleep, restart or shut down. Are you getting it now? Click, click, click.

So after playing with Windows 8 for awhile, I went to recovery on my HP computer, made three recovery disks and reinstalled Windows 7. Once that was done, I had to download the driver for my video card and restart the computer in save mode. Then I could install the driver for the video card. Of course, restoring the HP computer to factory new meant that I had all the original bloat ware that comes with an HP computer. So the next hour was removing the bloat ware and re-installing my programs.

In short, Windows 8 is like Windows Vista which was a disaster. I think Microsoft has a team of engineers who work to see how bad they can make every other upgrade of Windows. That way, whoever buys the bad version, will be ready to upgrade right away to the next version. In short, I would not recommend Windows 8 to any serious PC user in a business environment. It is a disaster. .

How to restart, log off, sleep and shut down Windows 8

Windows 8 to be the next Vista?

Six Ways Microsoft is killing the traditional desktop in Windows 8

Hands on, Windows 8 review

Windows 8 Tablets Expected for 2012 Holiday Season(pcworld.com)
Microsoft offering $15 upgrade to Windows 8 Pro(slashgear.com)

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nevada county fair

Nevada County Fair Seeking Volunteers

May 10, 2012 jd

Seeking Volunteers for the 2012 Nevada County Fair

Volunteer Fair to be held on Tuesday, May 15, at the Fairgrounds

The Nevada County Fairgrounds is currently looking for individuals interested in volunteering at the 2012 Nevada County Fair, and will host a Volunteer Fair on Tuesday, May 15, from 2 – 6 pm at Ponderosa Hall at the Fairgrounds.

The Fairgrounds is seeking volunteers to help in the exhibit departments, to serve as greeters, to assist in parking, and to work with the Red Shirts overseeing customer service and public safety at the Fair. Volunteers will be asked to work four-hour shifts, and will receive free parking and free admission to the Fair on the day of volunteering, as well as a Fair t-shirt.

If you are interested in volunteering at this year’s Fair, fill out a volunteer application and bring it to the Volunteer Fair on May 15. Applications are available on the Fair’s website at www.NevadaCountyFair.com, at the Fair Office, and on the day of the Volunteer Fair.

Nevada County Fair’s volunteers play an important role in helping to make the annual Fair a success. It’s also an opportunity to donate time to the community, learn something new, and have some fun!

This year’s Nevada County Fair is August 8 – 12. For information, call (530) 273-6217, visit www.NevadaCountyFair.com, or e-mail the Fair at info@nevadacountyfair.com.

# # #

Nevada County Fairgrounds Foundation To Host Crab Cioppino Feed(nevadacounty.com)
Nevada County Fairgrounds Seeking Nominations for Fair Family Of The Year(nevadacounty.com)
Nevada County Fair Accepting Applications for Local Enterainers(nevadacounty.com)
The Town of Washington (originally called Indiana Camp) Nevada County, CA(nevadacounty.com)

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Camping, Fishing, History, History of Nevada County, Local Writers & Contributors, Nevada County Information

The Town of Washington (originally called Indiana Camp) Nevada County, CA

May 9, 2012 jd

Photo courtesy of Washington Hotel www.washingtonhotel.net

By Judy J. Pinegar

This little town in Nevada County is located on the banks of the South Fork of the Yuba River. It is located off Highway 20 between Nevada City and Interstate 80. Washington boasts a population on about 200, but that fluctuates seasonally and the town has a lot of tourist traffic in the summer.

Washington was founded in 1849, as were most of the cities in Nevada County; it was all about the Gold Rush!! These particular miners were from Indiana, so the settlement was first named Indiana Camp, but renamed to Washington in 1850. The area produced a large amount of placer gold, after that hard rock and hydraulic mines were established and were also very productive. Many people of Chinese descent worked in the area at these times.

The hotel in the town of Washington started with Hessel B. Buisman who was born in Holland in 1827, he landed in San Francisco in 1850. He originally kept a hotel in the town of Jefferson located near Washington from 1852 to 1857. He then came to Washington building a two story hotel which could accommodate up to 30 guests.

After the Buisman owners passed away, their daughter and her husband Eldridge Worthley kept the hotel for years. The hotel was called “The Worthley” or “Washington Hotel” and sat on the same site as the current hotel today. The hotel stable was across the street.

At 11 PM, August 16th, 1867 The Big Fire broke out in a nearby cabin. It jumped from house to house and destroyed almost every business downtown Washington including the Hotel. The hotel was rebuilt.

On April 21st, 1896 another fire started in the kitchen of the Washington Hotel. This fire destroyed the hotel and several buildings nearby. This time, Worthley had taken out fire insurance previous to the fire. The hotel was rebuilt as fast as the weather would allow. The picture shows the new and improved Washington Hotel after being rebuilt in 1896.

The Washington Mining District was always served by operators of small stage lines. This photo shows the company stage of Prescott and Grissel. A daily trip used to leave The National Hotel in Nevada City at 7 AM and arrive in Washington around noon. This was used to rest between trips or take shelter from the weather. Now the drive only takes 25 minutes in your car.

Picture from the Red Ledge Mine in Washington. The gold/quartz veins occur in the sedimentary rocks close to the contact with serpentine. Mariposite is often in association with the serpentine, and in close proximity to the gold. Photo courtesy of http://www.mindat.org/loc-3515.html

The town of Washington currently consists of the Washington Hotel/bar, a restaurant, a grocery store, a one room schoolhouse that has educated students continuously for over 100 years, and two trailer park campgrounds

There are two trailer parks, Gene’s Pine Aire Campground and the River Rest Resort have been in business since the 1960’s with various owners. Campsites are often to capacity, so reservations are advised.

Picture courtesy of River Rest Resort (see above)

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Nevada County History, California(nevadacounty.com)
Wineries of Nevada County – Sierra Vintners(nevadacounty.com)

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Judy J. Pinegar is a writer Her articles have appeared in many magazines and publications

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Judy J. Pinegar is a writer
Her articles have appeared in many magazines and publications