Long Beach Real Estate

Instructor Valerie Gutierrez creates a vase while visitors look on during the grand opening of the Potocki Center for the Arts on Saturday, January 20, 2018 in Mission Viejo, Calif. (Photo by Josh Barber, Contributing Photographer) 0 COMMENTS By  JONATHAN LANSNER  |  jlansner@scng.com  | Orange County Register PUBLISHED:  January 28, 2018 at 9:16 pm  | UPDATED:  January 30, 2018 at 4:39 pm Some statistics on how Mission Viejo housing looks compared to the rest of the nation through the Zillow lens. The online housing tracker’s national databases can help add some perspective to the high price of local living. As of November, for example, Orange County real estate by Zillow’s math — the No. 5 nationally in housing market size — has a median home value of $696,200, 13th highest in the 1,700-plus U.S. counties tracked. That’s after surging 44.7 percent in the last five years, the 212th ranked gain nationally. Other Southern California countywide median values and their

A rendering of the new Brea Improv planned. Construction started this week. (Courtesy of Robert Hartmann) 2 COMMENTS By  JONATHAN LANSNER  |  jlansner@scng.com  | Orange County Register January 17, 2018 at 12:41 am This is how Brea housing looks compared to the rest of the nation by Zillow’s math. The online housing tracker’s national databases can help add some perspective to the high price of local living. As of November, for example, Orange County real estate by Zillow’s math — the No. 5 nationally in housing market size — has a median home value of $696,200, 13th highest in the 1,700-plus U.S. counties tracked. That’s after surging 44.7 percent in the last five years, the 212th ranked gain nationally. Here’s how Zillow sees home values in Brea as of November compared to some 13,000-plus other U.S. cities … Market size:  No. 1098 nationally, or in the top 9 percent. Price:  $690,100 — that’s No. 435 nationally or in the top 4 percent. 5-year gain:  40.8 p

File photo by the Orange County Register/SCNG 12 COMMENTS By  JEFF COLLINS  |  JeffCollins@scng.com  | Orange County Register PUBLISHED:  January 17, 2018 at 7:00 am  | UPDATED:  January 17, 2018 at 9:56 am A federal complaint accuses an Irvine real estate firm and its executives of siphoning off proceeds from a house-flipping venture financed largely from investors’ retirement savings funds. Hoplon Financial Group and its two top executives — Hoplon founder and Chief Executive Daniel Benjamin Vazquez Sr., 56, of Orange County and Hoplon Chief Operating Officer Gilbert Fluetsch, 52, of Escondido — are accused of numerous securities violations in a U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission complaint filed Friday, Jan. 12. Vazquez and Fluetsch couldn’t be reached for comment. Nor could Hoplon Financial Group be reached at the phone number posted on its website. “Our goal is to protect our clients’ assets and safeguard what they have worked hard to build,”  Hoplon’s Lin

One way or another, two words are likely to dominate the complicated politics of California’s housing crisis in 2018: rent control. Photo: ThinkStock 8 COMMENTS By  CALMATTERS  | January 4, 2018 at 12:50 pm One way or another, two words are likely to dominate the complicated politics of California’s housing crisis in 2018: rent control. Next week state lawmakers will hear a proposal from Assemblyman Richard Bloom, Democrat from Santa Monica, that would allow cities to dramatically restrict what landlords can charge tenants year-over-year. The bill couldn’t even get a hearing last year amid intense opposition from landlords. But looming over legislators’ heads this time around is a potential ballot initiative supported by tenants’ rights groups that would do much of the same. If the bill stalls, experts say there’s a good chance you’ll see rent control on your November ballot. What should your average Californian know about a rent control debate poised to gobble up so

JEBB HARRIS THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER 0 COMMENTS By  JONATHAN LANSNER  | January 11, 2018 at 7:00 am Southern California home sellers are starting 2018 like they acted for almost all of last year: In hiding! Any house hunter seeking an existing home in the four-county Southern California region should take notice: There haven’t been this few options as a year began since 2013. Potential buyers must act quickly or face having the home they’re considering snapped up by others. And it won’t be easy to decide on such a large purchase when the modest number of owners who are selling are largely in control of the dealmaking. It means frustration for many house seekers and as a result, the homebuying pace is relatively stagnated. According to ReportsOnHousing statistics, Southern California listings last year ran on average 15 percent below 2016’s inventory. As a result, 23,149 residences were listed for sale as of Dec. 28 — a supply one-fifth smaller than what was availab

The historic Breakers in downtown Long Beach could get a multimillion dollar makeover under new plans promoted by a former executive of Molina Healthcare (File photo) 3 COMMENTS By  ANDREW EDWARDS  |  aedwards@scng.com  | Press-Telegram PUBLISHED:  January 9, 2018 at 3:10 pm  | UPDATED:  January 9, 2018 at 10:09 pm A former Molina Healthcare executive is part of a new commercial real estate company seeking to transform the historic Breakers building in downtown Long Beach back to an upscale hotel. The $38-million deal creates the prospect of new activity for a prominent Ocean Boulevard property that has been quiet for the past couple years. The former operator of the assisted living facility that previously existed at The Breakers agreed in 2015 to surrender its license to state officials amid claims that senior citizens who lived there at the time received substandard services. The Breakers building at 210 E. Ocean Blvd. is nearly vacant for the time being, although T