San Luis Obispo Realtors

The San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles area continues to be one of the least affordable regions in the country to buy a home, according to the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo bank.

The San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles region ranked 211th out of 219 regions nationwide in terms of affordability for the first quarter of 2007. Less than 7 percent of local households could afford a median-priced home, which was listed at $504,000 in the study.

The median household income for this area was listed at $64,200.

Nationally, 44 percent of residents can afford a median-priced home in their area. The median is the midpoint on a scale.

Despite being listed ninth from the bottom of the list, affordability increased slightly locally from the second quarter of last year, when it dipped to 5.9 percent.

Indianapolis was named the most affordable area, with 89 percent of residents able to afford the median-priced home. California continues to be one of the least affordable places to buy a house — 17 out of the 20 least affordable regions are from the state. Napa, the Bay Area, Santa Barbara, Salinas and Los Angeles were all considered less affordable than San Luis Obispo County.

Source

Tom Copeland, developer of San Luis Obispo’s Downtown Centre, the Court Street shopping center and the planned Chinatown project, has purchased another downtown San Luis Obispo property —this one at Higuera and Morro streets — through a limited partnership called CP-Hi Morro, LLC.

The 10,000-square-foot parcel, with a two-story building and private parking lot, is across the street from the Downtown Centre and diagonally across from the Court Street center.

The lot was sold to the Copeland limited partnership

by E.S. Wilson Buildings, LLC, a family trust that also owns the First Bank building and parking lot at 995 Higuera St. next to Copeland’s new purchase. The purchase price was not disclosed by the seller. Copeland said he bought the property at 1110 Morro St. for investment purposes.

The property has tenants with active leases—such as Bali’s Self Serve Frozen Yogurt and R.E. Wacker Associates— and has no pending seismic retrofitting requirements. But Copeland said he may eventually redevelop the corner, perhaps adding a structure on the 5,000-square-foot private parking lot.

The property does have “good adjacencies” to his already developed downtown shopping centers, Copeland added, but noted that discussing any future retail or architectural design for the Bali’s corner property that might link his current downtown retail holdings would be “premature even to speculate.”

Santa Barbara-based Vince E. Wood, managing general partner and trustee for the E.S. Wilson family trust, did not want to discuss the transaction price, except to say, “Tom Copeland made us a very generous offer…and the purchase was a very smooth operation.” The property’s 2006 assessment value was $2,080,800, according to documents prepared by the First American Title Co.

Wood said Copeland had also previously expressed interest in buying the family’s First Bank property at 995 Higuera St., but the trust had no intention of selling that parcel at this time.

At one point, Copeland had also been in discussions to buy the property at 1120 Morro St., immediately adjacent to the Bali’s building, and also across from Copeland’s Downtown Centre. That property is occupied by Rose & Henry’s Tailors, the new Little Laura Lou Clothing Co. and other boutique businesses, as well as affordable housing residences in the portion of the building once known as the Grenada Hotel.

The building, owned by the Sirvart R. Harutunian Trust, has been up for sale because the city’s new seismic reinforcement requirements are too expensive for the current owners to finance, said Catherine Harutunian, the building landlord. Both Copeland and Harutunian declined to give details of their discussions.

However, local real estate developer and broker Patrick Aurignac recently confirmed he is in escrow to buy the Harutunian property for an undisclosed amount. That deal is projected to close sometime early next year, “if then,” Aurignac said.

Source