How much can I save under the Mills Act?

With all of the activity in the market and the pressure on interest rates, foreclosures and affordability are the Hot Topics, a much quieter topic that can save you money has stayed on the radar. The Mills Act is a state law that allows cities to enter into agreements with historic structures to allow a tax break. This tax break can be substantial!

On a property that would sell at $385,000, the traditional tax rate, calculated a 1.25% of purchase price, would be $401.04 a month. Under the Mills Act, your tax basis would be $104.81 a month! Wow, what a savings!

We will post some additional BLOGs that show you in more detail how to calculate this savings. In the city of Long Beach you can get into the wonderful Villa Riviera and take advantage of these great savings!

Long Beach CA Downtown Sales in July

So in our last entry we noted what the sales were for the entire city of Long Beach CA. We hope everyone found this useful However since no one lives in the entire city it is useful to know what is going on in your area or part of the city. So today we thought we could go over Downtown Long Beach.

The sales stats below are from the MLS and for all residential properties in the Downtown area. If someone has accidentally put a property in the wrong area we of course won't pick that up. So here we go with our downtown long beach sales information! This is a picture of a fantastic building in downtown that has been affected by the increase in choices that are now available to consumers.

July Sales Statistics

• New Listings - 123


• Active Properties - 437


• In Escrow Properties - 36 (Pending - 28, 8 closed)


• Expired 41

So what does this all mean for our properties that everyone owns in Downtown Long Beach? It means we have just over 12 months of inventory. Over 12 months is definitely not preferred. In fact there is more than 12 months because new builder inventory is not included in the figures above because they tend to not put their properties on the MLS. This does mean that sellers are going to have to be even more creative. Be prepared to lower your price and accomodate buyers to help them achieve their goal of buying so it will achieve your goal of selling.

June Home Sales in Long Beach CA

Well it is important that we be able to track the history of what is happening. After all if we don't learn history we are destined to repeat it right? So let's take a look at the sales data for June. Shortly the July numbers will be available so we will have a really good idea of what is happening.

All data is taken from SoCalMLS which is the area that services the Long Beach area. Properties not listed for sale in the MLS or sold private party without going into the MLS system will not be reflected in these figures.

Sales figures are for residential sales. No commercial properties (properties above 5 units, vacant land, or other commercial property are not included in these figures).

June 2007 Sales Data

• New Listings - 466 new
• Active Listings at the End of June - 1,520
• Properties that went into Escrow (Pending and Backup) - 110 (35 Backup & 75 Pending)
• Closed Sales - 273
• Expired - 143

So if you look at the data it would look like there were very few new properties that went into escrow and many that were closed out from a fairly decent May. It appears that the sellers who want to sell are still putting there homes up. I have a feeling that July numbers will tell a different story so stay tuned for that.

Historic Makeover for Historic Building

The building in Long Beach, commonly referred to as "the one with the Green Roof" to new visitors to the area is undergoing a major renovation. As the paint has been peeling the building has lost some of it's original luster. The project now of bringing back it's glory as a true icon in Long Beach is a 4 million dollar endeavour. This historic Long Beach Condos throughout the city all undergo improvements at times and this major project will help keep the Villa Riviera in great shape for years to come.

Among replacing 15 layers of paint, they will also be replacing the entry doors with bronze doors that are estimated to cost $450,000. Press-Telegram put up a great article that details the project. View more information at http://www.presstelegram.com/ci_5933818?IADID=Search-www.presstelegram.com-www.presstelegram.com.