RC CitizenView

Rancho Cucamonga City Council members filled California Form 460 Campaign statements for the first 6 months of 2008. 

Once again, almost exclusively the area developers and representatives of fire and police unions finance our campaigns.  Total contributions for the first 6 months of this year to council members top $284,000.00.  Leading the list of contributors is a Civil engineering firm from Claremont CA. J.C. Dabney & Associates $35,000.00 to four of the serving members.

The prospect for further development in Rancho Cucamonga looks to be healthy for some time to come, given the significant interest in our governing representatives by the development community.

Click on these links for the complete 460 forms detailing contributions:

• Sam Spagnolo     June 2008
• Diane Williams    June 2008
• Rex Gutierrez      June 2008
• Dennis Michael   June 2008
• Don Kurth           June 2008

You will find Campaign Contributions for the prior year at this post from Form 460 2007:

The market activity report below is streamlined for a quick view of home listings, sales and leases available. I hope this will be more convenient for viewers. Please let me know if you find it helpful and especially if you would like additional information. I have included information from last week as well.  

I am working this holiday weekend. If you are interested in purchasing or selling a home in western San Bernardino County or eastern Los Angeles County, please do not hesitate to contact me by phone or e-mail.

The figures below were compiled from information provided by the Inland Multi-Regional Multiple Listing Service. For additional information, please call Ila Josephs at (909) 261-3541 or send an e-mail message in the form at the bottom of the page.

Ila Josephs, an associate Realtor with Tarbell, Realtors, prepares weekly market activity reports for her website, www.ilajosephs.com, surveying the cities of Chino, Claremont, Fontana, La Verne, Montclair, Ontario, Pomona, Rancho Cucamonga, San Dimas and Upland. For more information, call Ila at (909) 261-3541.

Whether you are buying or selling real estate in cities along the 210 Freeway from San Dimas to Fontana, or in Ontario, Montclair or Chino, Ila will be happy to assist you.

This is a very clever move on the part of the McCAin ticket.  Sarah Palin is the mother of five children, Pro Life has Executive Experience as Governor of Alaska.  She has been pro oil development with a successful campaign to build out the natural gas and oil production from Alaska.

Her fifth son was born with Downs Syndrome which will be great visibility for the substantial community of those living with handicapped children.  The issue of inexperience in foreign policy is easily handled by the fact she is in the number two position.  The inexperience on the Democratic ticket is at the top. 

This is a thunder stealing pick which will mitigate much of the convention bounce Obama would receive from Denver. How many Hillery voters will be compelled to see their chance in 2012 for a woman just go through the roof.  The Clinton strategy for a run in 2012 after a failed attempt by Omama in 2008 just got more complicated. Can you see two women running at the top of the ticked in 4 or 8 years.  Wow this is going to be a “hum-dinger’.

The market activity report below is streamlined for a quick view of home listings, sales and leases available. I hope this will be more convenient for viewers. Please let me know if you find it helpful and especially if you would like additional information. The “Prior Week” column is information for the week ending August 16, 2008.

During the past year, the number of listings in each city have declined, along with prices. The number of homes sold is increasing as home buyers take advantage of lower prices and low interest rates.  There are some signs that housing prices may be leveling off – multiple offers on bank-owned properties and renewed construction in nearly every Inland Valley city. 

The figures below were compiled from information provided by the Inland Multi-Regional Multiple Listing Service. For additional information, please call Ila Josephs at (909) 261-3541. 

Ila Josephs, an associate Realtor with Tarbell, Realtors, prepares weekly market activity reports for her website, www.ilajosephs.com, surveying the cities of Chino, Claremont, Fontana, La Verne, Montclair, Ontario, Pomona, Rancho Cucamonga, San Dimas and Upland. For more information, call Ila at (909) 261-3541.

Whether you are buying or selling real estate in cities along the 210 Freeway from San Dimas to Fontana, or in Ontario, Montclair or Chino, Ila will be happy to assist you.

Rancho Cucamonga City Council causes citizens to pay tens of millions of dollars more for internet and television service with its failure to work with Verizon.

Don’t hold your breath for Verizon FIOS service in Rancho Cucamonga or TV service in Fontana.  Verizon was ready to install the fiber overlay needed to support FIOS service for Rancho in beginning in March of 2007.  As a result of the councils failure to act in a timely manner, the resources Verizon allocated to the project have been deployed in other locations.  This will delay the deployment of FIOS for at least another year.

Council members often state their concern for the tax burden of Rancho citizens, this failure may amount to the largest tax increase in the history of the city.  The availability of FIOS, competing with the existing cable companies would have resulted in lower costs for tens of thousands of residents.  A conservative estimate of 20% in reduced service fees could be realized. This amounts to nearly 20 million dollars in lost savings per year.  Every month the project is delayed, we pay 1.65 million in additional service fees.  The actual savings may well be more than stated here.

Fontana is also affected by the failure to act with TV service dependant on the Etiwanda Verizon facility upgrade.  The council members were more concerned with limiting potential complaints to their offices, than providing state of the art services to their residents at lower costs.

Verizon’s FIOS project was authorized by Public Utility Commission, because it knew a better product at a lower price would be provided.  The council should have made the effort to understand the technology and its real impact on the aesthetics of the city.

So we keep paying for their ineffectiveness.

Click here to read here about the FIOS products we cannot get!

It’s still a Buyer’s Market for Rancho Cucamonga home sales. The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 signed by President Bush in late July offers encouragement to home buyers to jump into the market now, before rising interest rates rise and seller-financed down payment assistance programs end October 1, 2008.

July home sales statistics for the city are due to be released this week and will be reported on my website; you can click on http://marketreport.ilajosephs.com for a direct link.

I’m also adding a new section to my weekly report this week. Look below for a comparison to home sales data for February 17, 2008. As you can see, the number of homes on the market has dropped substantially since February.

The chart below was compiled from information reported in the Inland Multi-Regional Multiple Listing Service, which shows listings and sales of previously-owned homes reported by real estate professionals in the Inland Valley region of Southern California.

Ila Josephs, an associate Realtor with Tarbell, Realtors, prepares weekly market activity reports for her website, www.ilajosephs.com, surveying the cities of Chino, Claremont, Fontana, La Verne, Montclair, Ontario, Pomona, Rancho Cucamonga, San Dimas and Upland. For more information, call Ila at (909) 261-3541.

Whether you are buying or selling real estate in cities along the 210 Freeway from San Dimas to Fontana, or in Ontario, Montclair or Chino, Ila will be happy to assist you.

These photos were found in a small town library in Marblehead, Massachusetts in a donated album. The photos were taken in 1889 by visitors to Southern California from Marblehead. These must have wealthy tourists just to have the camera and the photo finishing to produce them. Pacific Electric rail construction is referenced in the photo captions. Note the donkey rail car in action in Ontario.

The complete album is published on Picasa View all the photos click Here

Modern day visitors to Catalina will notice the missing Casino from Avalon harbor photo.

During the past few weeks, multiple offers on homes that sat on the market for months – caused in part by investors pouncing on underpriced bank-owned homes – may have signaled a change in the housing market, perhaps a “bottoming out” of prices. Buyers, especially first-time home buyers, are discovering that rising interest rates offset lower prices and now are intensifying their home search.

Homes Sold: Eleven previously-owned homes closed escrow in Rancho Cucamonga, CA, during the week ending August 9, 2008, and 31 Rancho Cucamonga homes reportedly were listed as pending during the week, according to the Inland Multi-Regional Multiple Listing Service, which shows listings and sales of previously-owned homes reported by real estate professionals in the Inland Empire.
Homes for Sale: The MLS said 42 new Rancho Cucamonga listings were added during the week, for a total inventory of 817 previously-owned homes listed in Rancho Cucamonga on August 10, including 536 single-family homes with no monthly fees and 281 condominiums, town homes and single-family homes in associations. The MLS listings indicated 292 of homes currently on the market were vacant. Of the homes for sale in Rancho Cucamonga, 250 were listed as “short sales” and 117 were being sold by the lender, according the MLS listing information.

Homes for Lease: As of August 10, the MLS reported, 118 Rancho Cucamonga homes were available for leasing. Of those, the median monthly rental price was $2,200.

Please click on http://marketreport.ilajosephs.com to see local sales statistics for June 2008.

Ila prepares weekly market activity reports for her website, http://www.ilajosephs.com, surveying the cities of Chino, Claremont, Fontana, La Verne, Montclair, Ontario, Pomona, Rancho Cucamonga, San Dimas and Upland.

Whether you are buying or selling real estate in cities along the 210 Freeway from San Dimas to Fontana, or in Ontario, Montclair or Chino, Ila and her team of experienced professionals will be happy to assist you.

Great News for the citizens of Rancho Cucamonga, our serving service men and woman will not longer be asked to pay the bill for our modest effort to honor their service in harms way. The Daily Bulletin bringing attention to the this issue may well have contributed to this attractive solution.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA
Donor to fund banner program

An anonymous donor has offered to contribute to the city’s armed forces banner program, making it no longer necessary for military family members to pay $155 to participate.

The City Council is expected to formally accept the donation Aug. 20.

The banner program began in 2005 as a way to honor current military members who either live in the city or have relatives who do. Currently, the city partially funds the program while family members pay a fee for the banners and their installation. To date, 130 banners have been raised since the program.

wendy.leung@inlandnewspapers.com

A Great Big Thank You for the Donor on behalf of all the citizens of Rancho.

Catherine Shea of Alta Lorna was named to the 2008 spring semester dean’s list at Simmons College in Boston. She is a senior at Simmons, and is a biochemistry major.

To qualify for dean’s list status, undergraduate students must obtain a grade point average of 3.5 or higher, based on 12 or more credit hours of work in classes using the letter grade system.

Student Handbook: Simmons Schools

Dean’s List

The Dean’s List was established to recognize undergraduate students’ academic excellence. To be included on the Dean’s List, which is compiled each semester, a student must have obtained a semester GPA of at least 3.50, have earned at least 12 credits using the letter grade system, and shall not have been found guilty of violating the Honor Code of Responsibility during that semester.

Congratulations Catherine.