Ripples affect Rosamond housing market

                    This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press on Saturday, July 26, 2003.

                    By ANN WISHART
                    Valley Press Business Editor

                    ROSAMOND - Rosamond's housing market is feeling a double ripple effect from Los Angeles and Bakersfield home seekers, putting
                    pressure on resale home inventory and on residential developers.

                    Finding a home to buy in the far northern Antelope Valley is getting tougher by the day.

                    Home shoppers, looking for affordable abodes, flow up from the Los Angeles area and trickle down from the Bakersfield region.

                    Both groups smell a good deal, but they may be disappointed.

                    Due to the increased popularity of the region, the cost of existing homes in this southeastern Kern County town has risen about 23% in
                    the last year, said Daniel Landsgaard, vice president of Century 21 Avico Hometown Realty in Rosamond.

                    The market and the value of homes depends on the health of the regional economy.

                    People have found that Rosamond, just a 15-minute drive north of Lancaster, is not a bad choice when it comes to commuting to Santa
                    Clarita or the Bakersfield area, he said.

                    The unincorporated community has some financial advantages. Sales tax is 1% less than in Los Angeles County, and property taxes are
                    only half as much, Landsgaard pointed out.

                    "The question to ask is, 'If my ZIP code was 93560, what would my (tax) rates be?' "

                    Also, the price of homes in Rosamond are considerably lower than just across the county line.

                    According to the real estate industry's Multiple Listing Service, 155 homes were sold with a median value of $109,000 in the first six
                    months of 2002. Another 155 homes changed hands in the second half of the year with had a median value of $123,000.

                    In the first half of 2003, 99 homes sold with a median value of $134,000.

                    The hitch is that the inventory of resale homes is down to a few dozen on the Multiple Listing Service, and a few are being sold
                    privately.

                    "Lots of buyers are really willing and qualified to buy," Landsgaard added, but there are too few homes. "You'll have three or four
                    people bidding on one home."

                    However, it hasn't gotten to the point where they are bidding above the asking price, he said.

                    As resources such as water dry up in neighboring counties, Landsgaard said, southeastern Kern County will become much more
                    popular among developers because the region has a good water supply and doesn't have to depend on the California Aqueduct,
                    although it draws about half its water from the aqueduct to conserve underground resources.

                    The Rosamond Community Service District is getting ready to drill municipal wells 9 and 10, Landsgaard said.

                    Aevelopers are edging into the community again, after the new housing construction halt of the early 1990s.

                    Carl Moreland of Moreland Consulting in Bakersfield said his company is surveying half a dozen subdivisions and communities in
                    southeastern Kern County.

                    The McRae Co. is preparing to build 250 homes on Rosamond Boulevard near 40th Street West, Moreland said.

                    Landsgaard said he expects someone will come forward to complete the West Park development that was halted by Kaufman and
                    Broad, now KB Homes, at about 500 of a planned 1,000 homes when the economy went bad in the '90s.

                    The Copa de Oro housing project of 900-plus homes, formerly the Kernross Golf Course Community at 110th Street West and
                    Gaskell Road, was still going through the approval stage at the end of June.

                    A shortage of homes is epidemic everywhere in Southern California, which still had its strongest June since 1989.

                    Prices continue to reach new peaks.

                    A total of 31,369 new and resale houses and condos were sold in the region in June, down 0.1% from 31,387 for the month before,
                    and up 4.4% from 30,038 for June 2002, according to DataQuick Information Systems.

                    The median price paid for a home in Southern California hit a record $321,000 last month, up 2.9% from $312,000 for May, and up
                    17.6% from $273,000 for June last year, according to Data Quick.

                    The Antelope Valley is being targeted as the answer to the residential development question over the next 20 years or more. As one of
                    the few affordable areas within an hour of the Los Angeles basin, the cities are under pressure to ease density restrictions to allow
                    housing for the region's booming population.

                    Construction of new homes in Palmdale and Lancaster continues to pick up speed, with the permits issued for single family homes up
                    44.2% in the region for the first six months of 2003 compared to the first six months of 2002, according to the Construction Industry
                    Research Board figures released in July.

                    Permits issued in Palmdale increased 16.2%, from 401 to 466; in Lancaster, they increased by 58.6%, from 222 to 352; and in
                    unincorporated areas, they increased 152.7%, from 74 to 187. Total Los Angeles County single-family home permits issued rose 42%,
                    from 4,015 to 5,021.

                    Building permit valuations for single-family homes rose 55.1% in the Valley, from $120.7 million to $187.3 million. Total county gains
                    were 32.9%, from $1.89 billion to $2.52 billion.
 

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