Tomales Point Hike
Posted: September 27, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: hike, Northern California hiking, Pt. Reyes National Seashore, Tomales Bay, Tomales Point, Tule Elk Leave a comment »For more photos of this wonderful hike please go to our website, steps2home.com, under Outdoor Fun.
August 28, 2011
The Tomales Point hike starts at Pierce Ranch trailhead which is a 30-minute scenic drive from the quaint town of Inverness, and is the final stop on the road leading out to the Point. The drive out is a treat in itself because of the open views to grazing land and the water beyond. The hike is approximately 9.5 miles out and back and is generally level with several gradual ascents and descents.
On this Sunday, there were docents available about 1 1/2 miles into the hike to answer questions and give some closeup views with their spotting scope. Looking down into a small valley, a herd of Elk could be seen grazing close to a small inlet of Tomales Bay. We paddle by this spot when we kayak, looking up into the same valley, hoping to catch sight of the Elk. Now we know it is possible to see them from that vantage point.
One of the many outstanding features of this hike is that you have Tomales Bay on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other! The terrain is mostly out in the open except for a beautiful grove of Cypress just before the final push out to the end of the point, a wonderful place to take a break. As you get closer to the end of Tomales Point the trail becomes sandy and the hike a little more strenuous. We decided to eat lunch where the Elk had matted all of the tall grass down for beds at the very tip of the point, overlooking Tomales Bay and farther out to Bodega Bay and beyond.
The views here are truly magnificent in all directions. The weather conditions are changeable, this day the fog came in very quickly but the effect was for the Elk to sort of ”magically” appear out of the mist, very cool.
Sacramento August Real Estate Stats
Posted: September 21, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: August Statistics, Equity Sales, Foreclosure Sales, Multiple Listing Servive, Percentage of Real Estate Sales, Richard Kitowski, Sacramento Real Estate Good News, Sacramento Residential Real Estate, Sacramento Single Family Home Sales, short sales, Traditional Real Estate Sales, West Sacramento real Estate Leave a comment »Sacramento Single Family Home Sale Market News
The residential resale home statistics for the month of August for Sacramento County and City of West Sacramento were recently released by our local Multiple Listing Service. The news appears to be good! For the second month in a row conventional sales ( 38.5% of the total ) are a higher percentage of the closed sales than bank owned sales,( 37.5% ) Short Sales make up the rest of the sales at 24%. And the number of closed sales for August was up 8.4% over the previous month, July 2011. Pending Sales, new escrows , were also up at 15.3% higher than the previous month. Good news for now.
In our region we still have a serious situation with bank sales and short sales (negotiated settlement of debt with the bank) being 61.5% of the total closed sales. Our region is probably close to the top in the United States for distressed property sales. This is not good news. It will take several years of a positive economic climate before we start seeing major improvement in this area. Statistics show that many homeowners in Sacramento County owe more on their home than it is worth. In years past when we were in a normal market distressed sales were typically around 5% of closed sales. We have a long way to go.
Sacramento is a great region and our single family real estate market will improve with time. Now appears to be a very good time to purchase a home with interest rates near an all time low and prices close to what they were in the years 2000 and 2001.
The Great American River Cleanup
Posted: September 21, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: American River bike trail, American River Cleanup, American River Parkway Leave a comment »This past Saturday, September 17th, Kathleen and I participated, along with over 2300 other volunteers, in the Great American River Cleanup. We helped in the area along the bikeway between the start point at REI , Cal Expo store, and moved west along the south side of the bike trail to the Northgate Blvd. crossing. The area along the bike trail and 50 to 100 yards to the south of the bike trail was quite clean until we got closer to the Northgate Blvd. crossing. We were advised by the area coordinators to stay clear of any active homeless camps and if the camp looks abandoned to proceed with caution because of the potential of coming into contact with drug related material. We saw several abandoned camps and cleaned up around them but stayed away from the main gathering area. We also came across what appeared to be active camps. We just kept on walking! The camps, both abandoned and active, were littered with all sorts of debris.
I have a great deal of respect for the park rangers and the law enforcement officials who deal with the campers on a daily basis. It is unfortunate that the people who use the parkway as a camp site don’t show more respect for the parkway environment.
We volunteered about 2 1/2 hours and were busy picking up trash during that time. This was our first experience with the Great American River Cleanup day. We will definitely participate again, it felt very good knowing that our efforts along with many other volunteers made the parkway a much cleaner and better place. What an impact a coordinated effort of volunteers can produce. No government program or policy, just regular people who are concerned enough about one of the greatest assets in our community. It was a very worthwhile experience!!
