La Jolla real estate and many of the surrounding buildings are historical. Below is an article that highlights just one of the many treasured historical buildings that La Jolla locals cherish. La Jolla real estate is more than just a house. Many La Jolla homes and historical buildings have a story that make living in La Jolla a one-of-a-kind community. Read further for the latest news regarding the sale La Jolla post office.
For decades, the people of La Jolla have met at the post office on Wall Street to rally support for one cause or another. The next cause may be the post office itself.
The U.S. Postal Service announced this week that it will move its services elsewhere and sell the property on which La Jollans have gathered since 1935 to put their stamps on everything from letters to the community itself.
An appraisal won’t be made public, but the land — 14,451 square feet at the corner of Wall Street and Ivanhoe Avenue in the heart of La Jolla’s village — may fetch the federal government several million dollars.
Pascal Aubry-Dumand, a commercial real estate broker for Cushman & Wakefield of San Diego who specializes in La Jolla, said the property could be worth $3 million depending on the building’s size.
“This is a class A location,” he said. “It’s hard to tell what the buyer would do. … It’s hard to put a price on this because it hasn’t been on the market for 77 years.”
In September, the postal service hired CB Richard Ellis to handle land transactions nationwide that might help turn around the agency, which had about $70 billion in expenses and a nearly $5 billion budget shortfall last year.
The postal service set an all-time high for mail volume in 2006 by delivering 213 billion pieces. It ended its most recent fiscal year in September having distributed 167 billion pieces, a 22 percent decline.
The decision to sell the La Jolla location is based on dollars and sense, said postal service spokeswoman Eva Jackson. The nine workers there need less than half the space they currently have for business, she said.
Jackson added that no amount of protest would alter a basic premise.
“Even if they rise up and get upset, that doesn’t change the facts that we are running out of money, we’re in a very bad financial situation, this piece of property is very valuable and we’re not utilizing the space,” she said.
P.O. box numbers, business hours and the separate 92037 postmark that La Jollans have long maintained won’t change. Jackson said a new site is expected to eventually open within a mile of the Wall Street building.
Outside the post office Thursday, reaction spanned from a shrug of the shoulders to acceptance and anger.
“We all have to do what we have to do for financial things,” said Sheila Lebovitz, who used to own Sluggo’s Hot Dogs on Fay Avenue. “I had to move out of La Jolla because I couldn’t afford to live here anymore.”
She and her husband now reside in Rancho Bernardo but maintain a La Jolla P.O. box as their mailing address.
“I hate that every traditional thing is changing,” said Lebovitz, 74. “I know life has to go on, but, whatever, I understand.”
Janet Evans, another longtime La Jollan, is less forgiving.
“The closure idea struck me as outrageous and horrifying and heartbreaking because that post office has been the town’s meeting place for my entire life,” she said.
When the building opened, Evans’ father earned $40 a month as a postal clerk there. He didn’t retire until he had a heart attack at work in 1967.
She is hopeful that a sale and relocation won’t happen. “I don’t think they’ll get enough money in this down market to justify disposing of something so unique and beautiful,” she said.
A plaque by the entrance commemorates the building’s 75th anniversary in September 2010. To its right, a cornerstone dating back to 1934 hides behind neatly trimmed hedges.
Inside the lobby, a mural of a bucolic La Jolla setting wraps around a door frame. The painting, “Scenic View of the Village,” has been restored once since 1935, when La Jollan Belle Baranceanu created it as one of at least three Works Progress Administration murals she did.
Carol Olten, historian at the La Jolla Historical Society, hopes that both the mural and the building survive.
“I’ll miss it as a place, personally, because I’m one of those people who still mails letters and goes and buys stamps,” she said.
“This used to be the center of all the uproar and furor that ever took place in La Jolla,” said retired local journalist Pat Dahlberg. “People would get a card table out here and get signatures signed up. They stopped the high-rise movement right here with their petitions.”
Angeles Leira, a retired city planner who has lived in La Jolla for more than 50 years, began working to get the building a national historic designation in the months leading up to its 75th anniversary.
The effort didn’t go far, but Leira said postal officials backed it.
The building’s distinctive features include a clay tile roof and muted white exterior that are set off by trim painted an avocado shade of green. A set of similarly green window shutters is decorated with twin cutouts of an eagle with its wings outstretched.
Article written by: Matthew T. Hall with UT News San Diego
Housing Crisis to End in 2012 as Banks Loosen Credit Standards
Good news continues as more people look to 2012 to be a strong year for the La Jolla housing market. Buyers that have been looking to purchase La Jolla real estate for the past few years are becoming more confident that the worst is over. Sellers of La Jolla real estate are seeing an increase in interested buyers. According to the article below one of these reasons for increased confidence: loosening credit. Read below for more details on banks loosening credit standards.
Capital Economics expects the housing crisis to end this year, according to a report released Tuesday. One of the reasons: loosening credit.
The analytics firm notes the average credit score required to attain a mortgage loan is 700. While this is higher than scores required prior to the crisis, it is constant with requirements one year ago.
Additionally, a Fed Senior Loan Officer Survey found credit requirements in the fourth quarter were consistent with the past three quarters.
However, other market indicators point not just to a stabilization of mortgage lending standards, but also a loosening of credit availability.
Banks are now lending amounts up to 3.5 times borrower earnings. This is up from a low during the crisis of 3.2 times borrower earnings.
Banks are also loosening loan-to-value ratios (LTV), which Capital Economics denotes “the clearest sign yet of an improvement in mortgage credit conditions.”
In contrast to a low of 74 percent reached in mid-2010, banks are now lending at 82 percent LTV.
While credit conditions may have loosened slightly, some potential homebuyers are still struggling with credit requirements. In fact, Capital Economics points out that in November 8 percent of contract cancellations were the result of a potential buyer not qualifying for a loan.
Additionally, Capital Economics says “any improvement in credit conditions won’t be significant enough to generation actual house price gains,” and potential ramifications from the euro-zone pose a threat to future credit availability.