Real Estate Industry California

Saudi Arabian tycoon Ghaith R. Pharaon is a man accustomed to buying what he wants, once acquiring a yacht with $55 million in cash. So when he wanted a splashy welcome to the city of Los Angeles, he bought that as well. Eager to meet movers and shakers, the international financier had his Independence Bank in Encino arrange a coming-out party in his honor in December, 1987, at Westwood's exclusive Regency Club.

Sellers and prospective landlords must soon disclose the presence of mold in California homes and buildings under the first state law to address growing public fears about the substance. Thousands of Los Angeles County residents call the Department of Health Services every year to report mold in their homes or offices. Hundreds more call the state. But many health officials don't share the heightened anxiety about molds, noting that the fungi are--and always have been--everywhere.

Thirteen years ago, Maria Lounibos, a young and not very accomplished secretary--in her own words, a flake--saw an employment ad from a realty company. Why not? she figured. She was 28, single and bored stiff working in the office of a civil engineer in the tiny Sonoma County town of Windsor. How much worse could selling real estate be? This was, of course, the wrong question. What Maria didn't know--could not have known--is that real estate in California is not a business; it's a belief system.

Housing affordability in California rose to 32% in August, up 3 percentage points from a year earlier, according to the California Assn. of Realtors. In Los Angeles County, 34% of residents could afford homes, up from 33% a year ago. At 24%, San Diego was the least-affordable county in the region, up 1 percentage point over last year. Only 27% of Orange County's residents could afford a median-priced home in August, up from 26% a year earlier.

The news last week that the top executive at Catellus Development Corp. in San Francisco will resign is the latest twist in a long struggle by California's largest private landowner to turn nearly 1 million acres--once owned by the nation's railroad barons--into a vast real estate empire. The expected departure of Catellus Chief Executive Vernon B.

Citing the high costs of developing new business in today's economy, TRW Inc. and Elsevier N.V. said Monday that they have combined their real estate information operations in a new joint venture, TRW Redi Property Data, headquartered in Riverside. Edwin P.

Every day, Yoshiaki Nishiba bounces among three disparate cultures. Raised north of Tokyo, he now lives south of San Diego and spends a good part of every business day at his family-owned manufacturing plant in eastern Tijuana. He navigates his German-made car knowingly through Tijuana's pothole-pocked streets, and he talks easily about why he is more comfortable investing his own money in Southern California than back home. "It's out of hand in Japan," he said, his English impeccable.

Maritz, Wolff & Co. said Monday that it bought a 50% stake in Fairmont Hotel Management Co. and in three Fairmont hotels for $120 million from the hotel's founding family, adding to the investment group's portfolio of luxury hotels and resorts. Los Angeles-based Maritz Wolff bought the stake from the Swig family of San Francisco. The purchase gives Maritz Wolff part ownership of Fairmont hotels in Dallas and New Orleans and in Fairmont's flagship property in San Francisco.

Oakwood Newport Apartments, the landmark 1,447-unit complex in Newport Beach, is being sold for nearly $125 million to a Northern California real estate company that plans to substantially renovate the 31-year-old property. The deal is the most expensive apartment sale in Orange County history, surpassing last year's sale of The Lakes in Costa Mesa, which sold for about $114 million, industry experts said.

State regulators are investigating allegations that some California title companies routinely give real estate brokers and agents kickbacks in exchange for lucrative title insurance business. The title firms say that to keep competitive in what for years was a lackluster housing market, they are often forced to give incentives to real estate agents--everything from cash payments and computers to free printing and mailing services, according to state regulators.

Overcoming an intense lobbying effort by the Hearst Corp. and real estate interests, the Assembly on Monday passed a measure that would close a loophole speculators have used to earn millions by threatening to build on scenic property. Called a solution to a practice characterized by critics as "environmental terrorism," the measure obtained the minimum 41 votes needed for approval. It now goes back to the Senate for a final vote.

The number of residents able to afford homes in California in May inched up 2 percentage points to 33% over the same period last year, the California Assn. of Realtors said. In Orange County only 23% of residents were able to afford homes, whereas in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, about 36% of residents could afford a median-priced home in May.

New homes have been one of the hottest segments of the housing market, but a growing number of builders in California are reporting an increase in the number of buyers canceling orders. The rise has been dramatic in Northern California, where fallout from the high-tech decline is spreading. But more home buyers in Southern California also are pulling out of deals to purchase new homes.

The percentage of California households able to afford median-priced homes increased from a year earlier for the first time in 23 months in February because of lower interest rates, according to an industry report. The California Assn. of Realtors' housing affordability index for February stood at 35%, up one point from February 2000. The index has been rising month-to-month since October. The percentage is still less than the national figure of 57%.

Some of California's largest and most well-known owners of commercial real estate have created a consortium to work with the Building Owners and Managers Assn. to respond to the state's energy crisis. The consortium--which is spearheaded by Arden Realty, Equity Office Properties Trust, Irvine Co. and TrizecHahn Corp.--is working with other groups on recommendations to boost energy efficiency in private and public buildings.

Sagging consumer confidence sent existing-home sales lower in February both nationally and in California, while median home prices on both fronts continued to rise, according to trade group reports. But analysts said the nation's housing market as a whole is still strong--bolstered in part by falling mortgage interest rates. Economists hope strong demand in the housing sector will continue to shore up the country's ailing economy.

The Wall Street firm negotiating to purchase about 18,000 acres of California land said Tuesday that it anticipates a strong recovery for the beleaguered real estate market here. "We are investing in California with a view that our timing is good and value is good there. The local economy is coming back," said William M. Lewis, a managing director with Morgan Stanley & Co. and president of the company's real estate funds. "It's a big deal." Chevron Corp.

Although his mother was German and his father Sicilian, Joseph Portaro is clearly partial to East Asia when it comes to foreign travel. He has been to Hong Kong on vacation 19 times. These days, though, Japan is very much on Portaro's mind, and it is strictly business. He is trying to sell his castle-like home in the remote Hidden Valley section of Thousand Oaks, and he feels that someone Japanese might best be able to foot the $7.5-million price tag for the 14-room estate.

* The state's housing affordability remained steady in January for the first time in almost two years, according to a California Assn. of Realtors report. About 34% of the state's households could afford to buy a median-priced home in January, which was unchanged from January 2000.

The percentage of Californians owning homes hit a record level last year even though prices surged to an all-time high and interest rates inched up slightly, according to a federal report released Monday. Boosted by buyers in Orange County, San Diego and San Jose areas, the number of homeowners amounted to 57.1% of all households in the state, the highest rate since the Census Bureau began maintaining annual figures in 1984. Nationwide, the homeownership rate rose to a record 67.