All posts by jd

Real estate broker, civil engineer and general contractor.

Is The Foreclosure Crisis Disappearing?

April 24, 2013 jd

Foreclosures are falling quickly as more borrowers keep up with their mortgage payments and banks complete more loan modifications or approve short sales to avoid foreclosures on their books.

For the first time since 2008, the number of borrowers who are behind on their payments or in foreclosure dropped below 5 million, according to a new report reflecting March data by Lender Processing Services.

The number of mortgages in foreclosure dropped to below 1.69 million in March, which marks the lowest level in nearly four years and a drop of nearly 20 percent compared to one year ago.

About 3.4 percent of all U.S. mortgages were in foreclosure by the end of March, which is a decrease from 4.2 percent a year ago, Lender Processing Services reports.

In March, about 6.6 percent of all borrowers were in some stage of delinquency, excluding those in foreclosure. That percentage is down by 3 percent from a year ago, but is still high by historical standards. Prior to the housing crisis, about 5 percent of all borrowers were delinquent on their mortgages and 1 percent of loans were in foreclosure, LPS reports.

Source: “Bad Mortgages Hit Lowest Level Since 2008,” The Wall Street Journal (April 23, 2013)

For all your real estate needs
Email or call today:

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

DRE#00669941

Community Events

Nevada County Scotch Broom Challenge Is On

April 19, 2013 jd

httpv://youtu.be/W450rDsaVEk

(Hopefully you will not have to work this fast)

The Scotch Broom Challenge was created in 2007 to address the spread of this highly flammable and invasive plant in our community. The Scotch Broom Challenge started with just a few sites in Nevada County. In the spring of 2012 over 250 volunteers took the Scotch Broom Challenge and pulled broom at 21 sites throughout Nevada County and Placer County.

Local groups and agencies are once again teaming up and taking the Scotch Broom Challenge. We hope to educate and get people motivated in the region to combat this highly flammable invasive weed. Scotch Broom Challenge pulls are generally from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. No experience is needed. Equipment and supplies are provided. All ages and abilities welcome. Sign up online at Scotch Broom Challenge Sign Up or call the Fire Safe Council at 530-272-1122

Bring your family and friends, pick a site and participate in one of Nevada County’s most fun and satisfying challenges.

Upcoming Scotch Broom Challenge sites

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Banner Lava Cap/Gracie Rd, Nevada City

Banner Mountain HOA

The areas to be cleared are the roadsides along Banner Lava Cap Road from Pittsburgh Mine Road to Gracie Road; and Gracie Road from Banner Lava Cap Road to lower portion of Gracie. The Banner Mountain Homeowners Association has been working to remove the broom along these roads for four years. Both roads are fire evacuation routes for Banner Mountain. Broom growing along these roadsides can obstruct drivers’ view of side roads, increase the potential of a fire being started from a cigarette being tossed from a passing car, and more importantly, prevent the use of these roads as an evacuation routes in the event of a major fire. This project site is sponsored by the Banner Mountain Homeowners Association. The site coordinator is Chuck Staetz. To volunteer on this site or any other site please, register with the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County by either registering online or by calling 530-272-1122.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Woolman School, Nevada City

Woolman School

Woolman is a semester high school program situated on 230 acres just off Jones Bar. This site is sponsored by The Woolman School. Site coordinator is Jacob Holzberg-Pill. To volunteer on this site or any other site please, register with the Fire Safe Council of Nevada County by either registering online or by calling 530-272-1122.

Continue reading Nevada County Scotch Broom Challenge Is On →

Real Estate

Gold Drops, Real Estate Shines Again

April 18, 2013 jd

Chart credit: Blanchard http://www.blanchardonline.com/market_charts/

Now that gold prices have dropped like a brick, real estate is starting to shine again. Back in August 2011, when gold was at its peak, investors were asked where they’d want to keep their money long-term. According to a Gallup poll, 34% said gold was the best investment.

Now, only 24% of investors say gold is a good investment.. Real estate essentially ties gold for the best investment currently, at 25% to 24%, respectively. In August 2011, 19% of those surveyed listed real estate as their top choice.

Stocks also are more popular, with about 22% saying the market is the best long-term place for their investment dollars. In August 2011, 17% had that view.

“Stocks have been booming and real estate has been recovering in recent months, likely contributing to the decline in gold’s perceived investment status,” Gallup researchers noted in a prepared statement released late Tuesday.

Gold still has its standard bearers, of course. Though investors no longer are rushing to gold, solid support comes from men over 50 years old, while Americans who consider themselves politically independent favor gold over stocks almost two-to-one: 26% to 15%.

Source: Market Watch

For all your real estate needs
Email or call today:

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

DRE#00669941

Angel's Dog House Listings, animals

My Angel Passed Away

April 17, 2013 jd 1 Comment

I lost my Angel, my pit bull that I had with me for almost 13 years. She passed away on March 8, 2013 and I really miss her.

I got Angel when she was only a pup of about 2 months. At first when I took her for a drive, she would sit on my lap and help me steer. As she got older, she grew too large to sit on my lap, so I had to have her sit on another seat. I guess she was insulted that she couldn’t help me drive, because after that, she would never sit in the front seat.

The first two years, she was a little kid growing up. She destroyed two mattress, a coach, living room chair, my cell phone, the back seat of my truck and many other wondrous tasty things. Then a miracle happened, she turned two years of age and quit chewing everything in sight.

Angel was always great with kids, they could sit on her, pull her ears and she would just lick the children’s faces. She loved most people, but every once in a while, she would growl at someone for no apparent reason.

She was pretty tough, thinking about the time, back in August 2009 when she fought off a coyote. You can read about this experience in her life on another of my posts at Dog Dreams and Angel

I think she had a great life, getting massages almost every day and three dog treats a day on top of that. Maybe that was why she was so mellow.

She passed away while I was in Argentina. I cut my vacation short in order to be with her when she passed but I was several days short of being with her. She passed away due to an intestine that was ruptured and a large cancerous cell that affected her vital organs.

All I can say at this point is that I miss her dearly and I’m sure there is a reason that Dog spelled backward spells God.

Bits & Pieces

How Does the Internet Work?

April 16, 2013 jd

Ever wonder how the internet works. Amazing to say the least. Here’s a video from the World Science Festival that gives you an example of the web’s workings.

The World Science Festival created this short video explainer as a setup to Internet Everywhere: The Future of History’s Most Disruptive Technology, a sold-out program featuring Internet pioneer Vint Cerf of Google, MIT’s Neil Gershenfeld, lawyer and Internet advocate Elizabeth Stark and Alex Wright, director of user experience at The New York Times.

The video lets you ride shotgun with a packet of data—one of trillions involved in the trillions of Internet interactions that happen every second. Look deep beneath the surface of the most basic Internet transaction, and follow the packet as it flows from your fingertips, through circuits, wires, and cables, to a host server, and then back again, all in less than a second.

See all content from Internet Everywhere

For all your real estate needs
Email or call today:

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

DRE#00669941

Real Estate

The Top 10 Real Estate Tax Deductions for Homeowners

April 4, 2013 jd

popular tax time apps verizon wireless midwest area image by vzwmidwestarea.com

As the time to file income taxes approaches, we need to take a new look at the changing tax landscape for homeowners. The dynamic atmosphere in Washington, D.C. has a different effect each year on which tax breaks are proposed, rescinded, changed, and extended for taxpayers who own a home.

Thanks to the efforts of many real estate industry groups including the National Association of Realtors, many of the tax benefits that homeowners enjoy–which were on the chopping block over the past few months–have been protected and extended through the 2013 tax season.

Disclaimer – This is only an informational summary of current tax issues in the news. If you need tax advice, please contact a tax attorney or CPA

For all your real estate needs
Email or call today:

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

DRE#00669941

Travel

Iguazu Falls Upper Trail and Devil’s Throat, Argentina

March 5, 2013 jd

httpv://youtu.be/wxYABo65Dv8

This video shows the view from the upper trail and from the walkways along the Devil’s Throat.

The Argentine access across the forest, is by a Rainforest Ecological Train, The train brings visitors to the entrance of Devil’s Throat, as well as the upper and lower trails. The Paseo Garganta del Diablo is a 1-kilometre-long (0.6 mi) trail that brings the visitor directly over the falls of the Devil’s Throat, the highest and deepest of the falls. Other walkways allow access to the elongated stretch of falls across the forest on the Argentine side and to the boats that connect to San Martin Island. Also on the Argentinian side, there are inflatable boat services that take visitors right under the falls.

Mist rises between 100 and 490 feet from Iguazu’s Devil’s Throat, Iguazu affords fantastic views and walkways and its shape allows for spectacular vistas. At one point a person can stand and be surrounded by 260 degrees of waterfalls. The Devil’s Throat in Argentina has water pouring into it from three sides. Likewise, because Iguazu is split into many relatively small falls, one can view these a portion at a time.

On November 11 of 2011, Iguazu Falls was announced as one of the seven winners of the New Seven Wonders of Nature by the New Seven Wonders of the World Foundation.

For all your real estate neeeds
Call or email:

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

DRE# 00669941

Real Estate

IGUAZU FALLS (Cataratas del Iguazú), Argentina

March 5, 2013 jd

httpv://youtu.be/mui7BLvrHxg

By Judy J. Pinegar

The name “Iguazu” comes from the Guarani (native Indian) words “y“, meaning “water”, and “ûasú “[wa?su], meaning “big”. Legend has it that a god planned to marry a beautiful woman named Naipí, who fled with her mortal lover Tarobá in a canoe. In rage, the god sliced the river, creating the waterfalls and condemning the lovers to an eternal fall. The first European to see the falls was a Spanish Conquistador in 1541.

Puerto Iguazu, we had been here before, maybe 12 years ago, and it is now much more of a tourist trap. The hotel we had for about 150 pesos a night is now almost 600 pesos and the restaurant across the street cost us 300 pesos (poor us; this is 60 dollars or less as the rate is now over 6 pesos to the dollar, but still we resent the increased cost!)

We walked to Los Tres Fronteras (the three frontiers), where you can stand on Argentine soil and see both Brazil and Paraguay across two different Rivers, the Iguazu and the Parana, both greatly built up from the last time we were here. The next day we took a local bus (also now much inflated in price) to the Argentine falls. After a train ride, we spent about 5 hours walking both the lower and upper trails to see the falls. John’s video does great justice to the amazing sights on those trails.

Iguazu River tumbles over the edge of the Paraná Plateau, formed by volcanic activity. Numerous islands along 1.7 mile edge divide the falls into numerous separate waterfalls and cataracts, varying between 197 to 269 ft high. The number of these smaller waterfalls fluctuates from 150 to 300, depending on the water level. Names have been given also to many other smaller falls, such as San Martin Falls, Bossetti Falls and many others. About half of the river’s flow falls into a long and narrow chasm called the Devil’s Throat (Garganta del Diablo in Spanish or Garganta do Diaboin Portuguese). (We will talk about and show this in our next blog.)

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For all your real estate neeeds
Call or email:

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

DRE# 00669941

Travel

San Ignacio and the Misiones Jesuitico Guaranies, Argentina

March 2, 2013 jd

httpv://youtu.be/IJ6uT7RTEig

By Judy J. Pinegar

Misiones Jesuitico Guaranies, (Jesuit Missions of the Guarani Indians)

Now this is another small town, population 6,000, better paved, some asphalt and paving stones on other roads before getting to dirt. The Mission San Ignacio Mini is the main attraction down street lined with “tiendas turisticos” (little shacks selling stuff for tourists to buy). I don’t know why they call it “mini” because the Mission was self sustaining and quite large with over 4,000 inhabitants in the years from 1696 to 1767, when the Jesuits were ordered to leave by the King of Spain (so other people could take advantage of the Guarani Indians and what they produced). Then the site was ravaged by the Portugese and the Paraguans in 1817, and rediscovered, covered by the jungle in the 1940’s.

The rock work is fantastic, and most of the walls, anyway are intact. It must have been something to see in full operation. The mission was well ordered around a large square, with the church, school and cemetery on one end, housing for widows and others on the far end with family housing, wood and metalworkers around the sides in the shape of a cross.

Behind the main mission was the area for a huge garden, which was divided into plots for each family, and one for the church (where all worked) and which was used to feed the church officials, widows and others who couldn’t work. Although the church taught about the Jesuit beliefs, they also allowed the native music, art and other practices to continue, and the sites provided protection to the Indians as well. At the peak of the mission period over 100,000 Indians lived in the 30 mission area, and mortality had dropped greatly. The Jesuits made no attempt to force the Indians to speak Spanish and the people were governed by their own chieftains under the spiritual authority of the priests. The Jesuits only sought to change the polygamy and occasional cannibalism that were practiced previously.

Next we will be off to Iguazu Falls or “La Cataracts”.

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Scenes of Posadas, Capital City of Misiones, Argentina

For all your real estate neeeds
Call or email:

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

DRE# 00669941

Travel

Scenes of Posadas, Capital City of Misiones, Argentina

February 28, 2013 jd

httpv://youtu.be/pFav9fPO0lI

By Judy J. Pinegar

We decided to leave Carlos Pelegrini a day early, as it is so had to get around here, not a lot to do that we haven’t done, and very hot. We have three times eaten at the same restaurant, on two occasions it was the only open place in town, and it took a lot of walking to find that out. So we are giving the family a plug, when in Carlos Pelegrini eat at the Yacaru Pora Restaurante. See John’s picture of me with the mother and son, of obvious German or Dutch extraction which seems common in this part of Argentina, a few blond heads.

We are leaving in a remise (car for hire) run by Hugo Boccalandro, who seems to be the wheeler and dealer in town for transportation due to the terrible bus situation, and we are going direct to Posadas, which is on the way to Iguazu Falls, our next long stop. The trip was a LONG one a very bad dirt road for about 2 of the three hours.

We saw some farms and many, many huge dirt mounds right out in the middle of a field or near a fence, and a lot near the town of Posada were there were electrical wires. I found out they are Argentine fire ants which I have discovered have mounds up to 12 inches tall and wider at the base. However when you look at them, you see absolutely no activity. Apparently they access the outside through tunnels going out in the dirt all around the mound, opening up about 30 yards away from the nest. We didn’t go check that out because in Carlos Pelegrini, John was bit by some of these very tiny ants on the hand, and three days later they still hurt! Wikipedia says they are also attracted to electricity.

We traveled along the edge of the Esteros del Iberia marshes for a long way, then across dry land to the town of Posadas which is on the river Parana. On the other side of the river is the country of Paraguay. We arrived there about 6 PM, and stayed in a hotel across from the main square, with the obligatory church and a nice park where we saw children running through a sort of unique ground level water fountain of various timing and heights. it was hot and I wished I could go in too.

Posadas is a larger town with about 300 thousand inhabitants, but not much in the way of sights as we discovered after walking all over town the next day trying to find open museums. Posadas is sort of a stopping point to see area where there are ruins of an old Jesuit mission system (30 missions in Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina in the 1600’s and 1700’s. We decided to go to the small town of San Ignacio for a closer look… in our next blog

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For all your real estate neeeds
Call or email:

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

DRE# 00669941

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