I. News Briefs
1. Mortgage Rates Come in Mixed This Week: Freddie Mac today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.25 percent up from last week’s 6.23. The 15-year FRM this week was unchanged at 5.98 percent. The Five-year Treasury-indexed hybrid adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) averaged 6.00 percent, down from last week’s 6.04 percent. Mortgage rates were mixed this week on news that December’s leading indicators, a measure of future economic activity, signaled steady growth in the coming months,” said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. “And in the housing market, December’s new construction came in stronger than expected despite a decline in one-unit residence starts.”
2. Housing production in California fell for the second year in a row in 2006, the California Building Industry Association announced today, dropping 22 percent compared to 2005. CBIA Chief Economist Alan Nevin said in a statement that the drop can be attributed to a normalizing market and a focus by builders on moving existing inventory. Nevin has forecast housing starts for single-family homes, condos and apartments will total between 155,000-170,000 this year, keeping pace with 2006. “We are returning to a normal market,” Nevin stated.
3. A community forum to discuss the future of Rohnert Park’s recreation facilities and community parks will be held Thursday, Feb. 1. It will begin at 7 pm inside Burton Avenue Recreation Center next to Mountain Shadows Middle School. “Through our surveys and interviews we’ve contacted more than 1,500 citizens,” said Guy Miller, recreation services manager. “This public forum should add valuable contributions to the work already accomplished.” The ultimate goal is to create a Master Plan for the next 20 years. The plan includes not only existing recreational but suggestions for future municipal parks. “Now we want to hear from you,” said Miller. He can be reached at 588-3488 for details. Refreshments will be served.
II. Healdsburg’s Nu Forest Products Lumberyard to be Replaced by …..
As Healdsburg ponders how it will grow over the next 20 years, a large lumberyard near the center of town is emerging as a likely spot for creating new housing and shopping opportunities. For more than a half-century, there’s been a lumberyard on the site, located one block from the now trendy, touristy Plaza. But the growing pains of the current company - Nu Forest Products - are converging with Healdsburg’s General Plan update and the intent to rezone gateways to the city.
“The lumberyard’s got to go. We finally accepted the fact we don’t have any more room to grow,” said Bruce Brogden, secretary-treasurer for Nu Forest, which since 1982 has occupied 12Âacres off the central Healdsburg freeway exit. The company plans to move to Cloverdale, probably within two to three years. Brogden said there is no shortage of potential buyers and there have been two offers, including one that was rejected as too low from a hotel-resort development and management company. “I have developers throwing out offers - champing at the bit,” Brogden told the City Council this week.
What eventually will be built on the lumberyard site is hard to predict. But City Council members indicated this week they are open to a new “mixed-use commercial” designation that will allow a broad range of retail, service, offices and multi-family housing. “Losing Nu Forest is a blow,” said Healdsburg Mayor Gary Plass. “They’re an old company. They’ve contributed a lot to the community. I hate to see it go.” But Plass said the company’s departure also provides an opportunity for Healdsburg to set a new tone at the town’s entrance. “We will be able to fold it into our new vision for the community,” he said of future development on the site.
“Healdsburg needs to be proactive in planning and lay out a template for what we want to see on that parcel,” City Councilman Mike McGuire said. City planners are considering a number of properties around town for rezoning as the general plan update proceeds, including Quaker Hill, also known as the RJW site, at the north end of Healdsburg. Instead of the current highway-commercial zoning, which limits the property to automobile-oriented uses, it also could get the mixed-use commercial designation, which allows for housing, too.
The proposed revisions of the general plan will be subject to environmental review and public hearings later this year. City Council members say one thing they don’t want are big-box stores on the periphery of town, or shopping centers that will detract from downtown merchants. Plass said he doesn’t want to repeat Santa Rosa’s mistake of having its central district suffer after shopping centers were built on the edge of town in the early 1960s. “Santa Rosa has done a great job of revitalizing their downtown,” he said. “At one time it was a ghost town.” City planners also like the idea of mixed use to create more housing, especially at the Nu Forest location, which is across the tracks from the old railroad station. Residents could board passenger trains if rail service is reinstated, a convenient way to cut down on auto trips and greenhouse gas emissions.
Brogden said that in past years, his company got pressure from the city to relocate. But now, he said, the company simply needs room to grow. Nu Forest, which has 47 full-time employees and 23 contractors, has seen sales in the past five years increase from $24 million annually to $37 million. To keep pace with the demand for its wood products - such as molding and siding - he said the company needs to expand hours of operation.
But the whine from the mill would not be compatible at night with residences a few blocks away. Instead, the company plans to move to a site twice as big in Cloverdale, where Nu Forest already has a storage facility. “We’re a victim of the town’s success,” said Brogden, before quickly correcting himself. “We’re not a victim. The owners will get a ton of money. Out with the old and in with the new.”
-Blue Oak Mortgage Minute 1/26/2007
For more information contact:
Javier Valenzuela
707-364-5074
jvalenzuela@blueoakmortgage.com
