Eureka’s most notorious slumlord took the stand this morning to testify in his own defense while an attorney for the city of Eureka peppered him with questions about mold, cockroaches, faulty plumbing and overdue repairs at several of his properties. Alternately nervous, evasive and defiant, Squires claimed to have completed most of the repairs necessary to […]
housing
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If You Bought a House in August, You Won
“Now is a great time to buy a house,” a Realtor said every single day since the dawn of Realtors. And until The Great American Housing Bubble, they were usually right. Houses were good investments … until Wall Street started using them as tokens in their rigged casino games. The housing market has been out […]
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Houses: Sort of Affordable Again
More affordable than they’ve been in almost a decade, anyway. In August, low interest rates and sagging pricetags combined to make the median-priced Humboldt County home more affordable (as a percentage of the median household income) than it’s been since February of 2002, according to data released today by the Humboldt Association of Realtors. Here […]
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Surreal Estate
Yesterday the Times-Standard continued its tradition of leaving real estate market analysis to those who have a vested interest in said market. (See remarkably similar examples of T-S -published Realtor Pollyannaism here and here .) This time around, Coldwell Banker Cutten Realty agent Jill MacDonald set about answering this recurring query: “Is the real estate […]
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Housing Prices Continue to Tumble
In August, homes in Arcata reached their highest affordability level in more than five years while countywide affordability reached its second-highest mark since May of 2004, according to data released today by the Humboldt Association of Realtors. The median price of homes sold in Humboldt County during August fell to $259,000, down $16,000 from the […]
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Humboldt’s housing rebound
The latest numbers on county-wide housing affordability reveal something of an upward trend — in prices, that is, not affordability. According to the Humboldt Association of Realtors, which compiles these figures, the median price of Humboldt County homes sold in May (these things take a while to compile, apparently) rose for the third straight month. […]
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On the night of Jan. 27…
1,497 adults and 416 children were homeless in Humboldt County. At least 520 of those homeless adults and at least 86 of the children were unsheltered — they slept in cars, or outside. And the rest? They “spent the night in a shelter, transitional housing unit, motel, clean and sober house, or with friends and […]
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More General Plan Alternatives Released
This just in: The General Plan Update (GPU) alternatives for the following sections have been released and will soon be subject to public debate: Agricultural Resources, Forest Resources and Public Lands. All of these sections fall under the larger header of the GPU’s Land Use Element. Sure-to-be-lively public hearings on the Land Use Element (featuring […]
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Time to buy a house?
A cursory glance at the latest stats from the Humboldt Association of Realtors suggests that it may be time for locals, at least those who still have jobs, to take that domestic plunge into homeownership. The average mortgage rate in January hit its lowest mark in many moons, maybe forever — 5.21 percent. Plus, the […]
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Programming Note: Broadband
If you’re interested, we’ll be broadcasting today’s Rural Broadband Forum down in Fortuna starting at about 9 a.m. It’s be live at northcoastjournal.com. As always, thanks to The Venue Project. UPDATE: Yes, the seemingly inevitable technical difficulties. We should be with you shortly. UPDATE 2: The sound in the room is pretty much useless, so […]
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Aiy-yu-kwee Mobile Home Park Update
In January the Journal wrote about the residents of the Aiy-yu-kwee Mobile Home Park in Blue Lake who were being evicted from their homes. One of those residents, Hellen Studdert, has written an update about the situation. Well, it looks like it’s too late to save our homes, but thanks to the community for their […]