Football great Joe Montana and his wife Jennifer have listed their 500-acre estate in Sonoma County’s wine country for $49 million.

The Calistoga property includes a 9,700-square-foot Tuscan-inspired main house, an equestrian center, two year-round creeks, a pond, a regulation-sized basketball court, a skeet shooting range, a caretaker’s residence, a guesthouse, a swimming pool with a spa, a gym, a bocce court and a producing olive farm.

The main house has a loggia open to the outdoors, a sitting room in an upstairs tower and a climate-controlled wine cellar and tasting room. There are three bedrooms and 3 1/2 bathrooms.

Designed for indoor-outdoor living, the home has an outdoor courtyard with hand-painted frescoes, antique statues and fountains. An outdoor viewing tower has 360-degree views of Mt. Saint Helena and Knights Valley.
 
-- Lauren Beale

Thoughts? Comments?

Photo: Coldwell Banker Previews International and Pacific Union / Christie’s Great Estates have the listing at www.villamontanaestate.com. Credit: Jim Bartsch

The Malibu septic-tank-versus-sewers issue has finally been settled after years of debate, according to "Septic tanks on their way out in Malibu" at latimes.com. The timeline:

New septic systems will not be permitted in Malibu, and owners of existing systems will have to halt wastewater discharges within a decade.

What it'll cost homeowners:

Residents in affected areas would be required to pay about $500 a month to cover the cost of hooking into a central sewage system, according to the city's projections. And businesses would face payments of up to $20,000 a month.

Wow. $500 a month? Some historical perspective:

In many ways, the septic tanks played a large role in Malibu becoming a city. It incorporated and formed its own government in 1991 to stave off Los Angeles County's efforts to install a sewer system in the area. Residents at the time feared sewers would unleash a wave of development that would turn Malibu into Miami Beach West.

In Malibu, septic tanks, leach pits and the ubiquitous stench known as the "Malibu smell" are familiar topics. After rainstorms, officials often post signs on Surfrider Beach urging swimmers and surfers to steer clear because of health dangers. Surfrider often gets failing grades on Heal the Bay's annual water-quality report cards.

Just in case you thought it was all a day at the beach in Malibu.

-- Lauren Beale

Thoughts? Comments?

Photo: Surfrider Beach in Malibu. Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times

We're not talking double-wide prefab, but rather a sustainably designed modular home by LivingHomes, a developer based in Santa Monica. The house is "poised to become Orange County's first LEED Platinum Certified Home, the nationally accepted third-party benchmark for the highest-performing green buildings," LivingHomes said in its news release.

-- Nancy Rivera Brooks 

Photos: It doesn't look like much yet, but the module being hoisted into place will become part of a prefab green home in Newport Beach. Credit: Christine Cotter / Los Angeles Times

Public open houses being held at Westside properties priced as high as $21.9 million is the subject of my story today at latimes.com. Most of us can never afford a house costing more than a fraction of that price. If you are a diehard lookie-loo, at least now you can step inside one.

The real estate agents I talked to were split on whether this is a good idea or a bad one, but it's something to think about when you have family in town over the holidays and are looking for that only-in-L.A. experience.

--Lauren Beale

Thoughts? Comments?

Photo: Agent Florence Mattar has been holding public open houses at this $21.9-million home in the "bird streets" area of Hollywood Hills. It has six bedrooms and eight bathrooms in 9,691 square feet. This is the living room. Credit: Everett Fenton Gidley

The new version of the company’s website integrates data from the local databases that brokers use to take properties on and off the market, according to a release by the company this morning. The upgrade added 9.6 million photos for 1.4 million recent property sales with an average of more than 100 data fields on the property’s features.

Michael Smedberg, chief of of Redfin’s query and statistics team, says the upgrade will allow consumers to do their own comparative analyses of homes that were previously the purview of real estate agents.

“Comparative Market Analyses are one of the real estate industry’s ‘killer applications,’ ” Smedberg said in today's release, “but they're often shrouded in mystery; agents have direct access to data such as prices and photos for just-sold homes, but buyers rarely do. Without that direct access, consumers have had to rely on the expertise and availability of their agent, and this in turn made it hard to figure out on their own what to offer or ask for a listing.”

The company also announced that it has added trackbacks to its site, which will allow bloggers to automatically link to Web pages featuring properties.

Test run: It appears that Redfin’s site is groaning under the load of its new features. All morning the home page has had this message: “We're working hard to bring you a better Redfin. The site is unavailable for a brief time while we update our service. Please check back in a few minutes.”

Redfin Chief Executive Glenn Kelman just confirmed in an e-mail that the site keeps crashing for “the first time in a year or maybe two” and that we should hold off on our posting. Whoops. Too late.

-- Alejandro Lazo

The new program is meant for troubled borrowers who don't qualify for or haven't been able to get a loan work-out, such as a modification, according to Fannie's news release.

Under the Deed for Lease program, the borrower would transfer title to the property to the lender by completing a deed in lieu of foreclosure and then rent back the house at market rates -- which in many markets have fallen over the last year and probably would be cheaper than a mortgage payment on a loan made during the boom years.

-- Alejandro Lazo

Photo: Rows of homes in Las Vegas. Credit: Bloomberg

It was the second industry survey in two days to show the rate below the threshold, which has become a psychological trigger for homeowners refinancing mortgages. A Mortgage Bankers Assn. report Wednesday said refis had jumped as the 5% barrier was crashed.

Freddie Mac’s survey, conducted Monday through Wednesday, showed borrowers with good credit and a 20% equity stake in their home were getting 30-year loans for $417,000 or less at an average fixed rate of 4.98%.

The borrowers were paying an average of 0.7% of the loan amount in upfront fees and points to the lender, the usual cost reflected in the Freddie Mac survey.

In the Western region of the country, which includes California, borrowers were buying down the average rate to 4.91% by paying 0.9 in upfront points to lenders, Freddie Mac said.

The rate was down a bit from last week, when it averaged 5.03%, and a lot from last year at this time, when the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 6.20%.

Fixed rates on 15-year traditional mortgages averaged 4.40%, Freddie Mac said, down from 4.46% last week and 5.88% a year ago. Borrowers were paying 0.6% in upfront costs for those loans.

-- E. Scott Reckard

Three people collapsed in a sweat lodge during one of his $9,695-a-person "Spiritual Warrior" retreats outside Sedona, Ariz., and later died. The sheriff considers it a homicide investigation; no one has been charged.

Ray originally bought the 7,234-square-foot contemporary Mediterranean for $4 million in March, according to public records. Purchase details were reported in Hot Property. 

-- Lauren Beale

Thoughts? Comments?

Maria Casanova, an assistant professor of economics at UCLA, toyed with the idea earlier this year of buying a foreclosed property near the Westwood campus. She signed up for a prominent listing service called RealtyTrac.

Casanova, 31, canceled her subscription not long after. Yet a few days ago she discovered that some other real estate company she'd never heard of has been billing her almost $45 a month for the last eight months.

Consumer advocates say it's an all-too-common problem: People signing up for one thing online and inadvertently signing up for something else that comes with recurring monthly charges.

It's worth a read in its entirety as a cautionary tale. (And Casanova is chagrined for not having noticed the charges sooner, in case you are wondering.) Has this happened to you? Personally I'm too paranoid to sign up for any paid services online, though I will do a little shopping.

-- Lauren Beale

Thoughts? Comments?

[Update: Here's a video of David Lazarus on the subject.]

And, just like that, demand for mortgages jumped back up, as more homeowners lined up to refinance their loans into a number starting with a "4," the survey by the Mortgage Brokers Assn. found.

The increase was from refinancings, not home buying, the trade group says in its survey. Applications for home loans increased by 8.2% overall from the previous week, but purchase applications fell 1.8% while refi applications surged 14.5%. 

The MBA says the contract rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell to 4.97% from 5.04% during the week that ended Friday.

Upfront points to lenders, including the origination fee, decreased to 1.01% from 1.25% of the loan amount. The survey assumed that borrowers had good credit and that the loans were for 80% or less of the home's appraised value.

The slight week-to-week drop in mortgage rates has a negligible effect on the cost.  Someone with a $417,000 mortgage -- the limit before you get into "jumbo"-loan territory and rates go higher -- would pay $2,230.91 a month for a 30-year fixed loan at 4.97%, versus $2,248.75 a month at 5.04%.

But when rates go back up again sometime in the future, who wants to brag: "Hey, remember back in 2009 when you could get a loan for less than 5%? I locked mine in at 5.04%!"

-- E. Scott Reckard

When the work is completed this spring, the 195-room hotel will be renamed the Luxe City Center Hotel, part of an upscale, Los Angeles-based hotel chain, Luxe Hotel officials said today. The hotel will remain open during the renovation work.

With a new name and face lift, the four-star Luxe City Center Hotel is expected to fit better among the glitzy new restaurants, clubs, museums and movie theaters that now border Staples Center and the Los Angeles Convention Center, said Jane Coloccia, a spokeswoman for Luxe Hotels.

“It is going to be very design-driven and very stylish,” she added.

Luxe Hotels operates the upscale, boutique-style Luxe Sunset Boulevard Hotel in Bel Air and the Luxe Rodeo Drive Hotel in Beverly Hills, among nearly 200 other hotels worldwide.

The renovation project that will begin in a week or so comes at a time when the nation’s hotel industry is suffering the worst economic downturn in nearly two decades. More than 300 hotels throughout California have been foreclosed on or are in default on their loans because of a steep decline in demand.

But at the same time, downtown Los Angeles is undergoing a renovation, with the recent opening of the 14-screen Regal Cinema theater next to L.A. Live and the opening in February of a 1,001-room Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott hotel complex, within walking distance of Staples Center.

“The addition of the Luxe in close proximity adds another layer of vibrancy to the L.A. Live Center,” said Carol Martinez, a spokeswoman for L.A. Inc., the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau. She said the project will also add dozens of much-needed construction jobs.

The Holiday Inn is a three-star hotel, with 195 rooms, an outdoor swimming pool, a fitness center, a conference room and a cramped lobby, facing Figueroa Street. After the renovation, the Luxe City Center Hotel will offer about the same number of rooms but several will be converted to luxury suites, Coloccia said.

The hotel will remain under the ownership of Emerik Hotel, a Los Angeles-based developer of commercial and industrial real estate.

-- Hugo Martin

Photo: The downtown Los Angeles Holiday Inn. Credit: Gary Friedman/Los Angeles Times

The tri-level contemporary, which has an elevator, sits at the end of a cul-de-sac and has 360-degree views encompassing Long Beach, Catalina Island, Malibu and the mountains. There are four bedrooms and 5 1/2 bathrooms in 4,831 square feet. Glass entry doors open to a soaring living room. Designed for entertaining, the home has a theater, a swimming pool and a spa.

The entire penthouse level is devoted to the master bedroom suite with his and her bathrooms, an over-sized closet and a deck.

Bush, 24, has been with the Saints since 2006 when he left USC before his senior year and was the No. 2 pick in the first round of the NFL draft.

The 2005 Heisman Trophy winner purchased the home for $4.7 million in 2007 for use as his off-season home, according to reports at the time.

-- Lauren Beale

Thoughts? Comments?

Photo: Reggie Bush Hollywood Hills home has a swimming pool and a spa.The listing agent is Joshua Altman of Hilton & Hyland, Beverly Hills. Credit: Marc Angeles

Exactly 53% of real estate brokers, investors and owners surveyed by online listing service LoopNet expect prices for commercial properties such as office buildings and warehouses to fall another 11% or more. Landlords, not surprisingly, were the most optimistic about values, with 20% saying that prices already  have bottomed out.

But in contrast to a similar survey of more than 1,000 professionals three months ago, there was a sharp increase in the number of respondents who thought sales wouldn’t pick up again until 2011. Nearly one in five expect to wait until 2012. Still, about 50% expect to see a rebound start in 2010.

The biggest barriers to the recovery of the commercial real estate investment market are the lack of financing from lenders and unrealistically high asking prices on the part of sellers, respondents said.

-- Roger Vincent

Here's the Top 10 in the order they ranked:

1. Canton Twp, MI 48188 is a four-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom, brick Cape Cod with 2,005 square feet listed at $219,900.

2. Los Angeles, CA 90062 is a three-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,464-square-foot 1922 house in Boyle Heights listed at $248,000.

3. Las Vegas, NV 89141 is a four-bedroom, four-bathroom, 2,152-square-foot 2003 two-story listed at $185,000.  

4. Detroit, MI 48214  is a six-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom, 5,500-square-foot Colonial built in 1900 listed at $220,000.

5. Detroit, MI 48206 is a six-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom 1919 Georgian-style home of 4,200 square feet listed at $225,000.

Rounding out the Top 10 were:
6. Detroit, MI 48206, $249,995
7. Miramar, FL 33027, $199,900
8. Holly Springs, NC 27540, $183,000
9. Detroit, MI 48214, $184,900
10. Detroit, MI 48206, $189,900.

It does provide an interesting comparison of what you can buy in different locations for the same amount of money. As for our No. 2 Los Angeles house, it previously sold for $520,000 in February 2007.

-- Lauren Beale

Thoughts? Comments?

Photo: The second-most searched home last week at Realtor.com, among homes priced within 20% of the national median list price of $215,000, was in Boyle Heights. Credit: L. Ernesto Flores

The Washington-based association said that its Pending Home Sales Index rose 6.1% to 110.1 from a reading of 103.8 in August, and is 21.2% higher than in September 2008, when it was 90.9. The annual gain was the largest annual increase since the association began measuring the statistic in 2001.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the association, attributed the uptick to a surge in home-buying by first-time shoppers looking to take advantage of a federal $8,000 tax credit scheduled to expire Nov. 30.

"What we’re witnessing is a rush of first-time buyers trying to beat the expiration of the tax credit at the end of this month,” Yun said in a statement.

Experts say the tax credit helped stabilize home prices over the summer, though some have voiced concern that both volume and price will fall if Congress allows the credit to expire. The NAR is pushing for an extension, and  could very well get its  wish. Democrats on Capitol Hill may pass legislation extending the credit as early as Tuesday, according to news reports last week.

Critics of the tax credit contend that the subsidy has pushed up home prices artificially and that the housing market will suffer declines much like the auto industry did following the expiration of the popular Cash For Clunkers program.

“It is propping up the market,” said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center in Washington.

Investment bank Goldman Sachs estimated in a recent report that all of the government’s policies taken to stabilize the housing market  — reducing foreclosures, slowing the pace of distressed sales and stimulating demand through the tax credit  — may have added 5% to home prices nationally.  Once those policies expire, “The risk of renewed home price declines remains significant,” according to the report.

-- Alejandro Lazo

The sublease, which begins Dec. 1, represents an expansion for Demand Media, said real estate broker Mitchell Stokes of Madison Partners. Demand Media creates content and websites for such clients as the Lance Armstrong Foundation's livestrong.com, GolfLink and Cracked magazine.

The sublandlord in the deal is Dimensional Fund Advisors, an investment firm based in Austin, Texas.
The building at 1299 Ocean Ave. is 99% leased, according to real estate data provider CoStar. Other tenants include Anchor Mortgage, law firm Gilchrist & Rutter, and investment advisor Wilshire Associates Inc.

Overall office vacancy in Santa Monica reached 15.4% in the third quarter, according to brokerage Cushman & Wakefield. About one-third of that is sublease space.

-- Roger Vincent

Streaks of brilliant colors -- red, purple, yellow, blue, green -- are splashed across the trunk of this eucalyptus, which also goes by the name of rainbow eucalyptus. The Mindanao gum is one of the few non-Australian eucalypti. It is native to tropical rainforests in the Philippines, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea and named for the Philippine island of Mindanao. As such it likes regular water and cannot take drought. That and the usual eucalyptus ills of our area make it unlikely for it to be planted much anymore here, but its colorful decorations make it a prized specimen where it does occur.

The tree is grown in tropical areas for pulpwood production for paper and harvested at an early age. Sometimes it is allowed to develop for construction lumber, but the wood is only moderately strong and not durable.

The Mindanao gum is a fast-growing, rather open, erect evergreen tree that may reach a height of 75 to 200 feet and a width of 30 to 75 feet. The smooth bark peels off to display the bright colors underneath. The oval, 6-inch-by-3-inch leaves are bright green. They contain only a little aromatic oil.

The tree may bloom when it is 2 years old. Flowers are clustered together and not very conspicuous. When in bud the white to pale yellow stamens that give blooming flowers a fluffy look are hidden in a covered cap, known as an operculum. The stamens push this cap off at flowering. The genus name, based on the Greek eu kalyptos, or well-covered, refers to this hidden quality. Woody cone-shaped capsules appear after flowering.

The Mindanao gum will take a wide variety of soils, but likes full sun. It is frost hardy down to 24 degrees Fahrenheit. Just like other eucalyptus trees, it is susceptible to aphid-like psyllids and borers.

The genus Eucalyptus was named by the 18th century French botanist Charles Louis l’Heritier. The tree is part of the myrtle family, or Myrtaceae.

--Pieter Severynen

Thoughts? Comments?

Photo: Pieter Severynen

National Bank will move its corporate offices to the 14th-floor penthouse and open a retail branch on the ground floor, according to real estate brokerage Madison Partners. The move is set for April 1.

Wilshire Bundy Plaza was built in 1984 at the northwest corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Bundy Drive. It is 75% leased to such tenants as Werner Publishing Corp., Business Wire and Catapult Marketing, according to real estate data provider CoStar.

The National Bank deal will bring the building to 85% occupancy, Madison Partners said.

-- Roger Vincent

Photo: National Bank of California will have corporate offices at the top and a retail branch at the bottom of Wilshire Bundy Plaza. Credit: Madison Partners

Several experts have predicted that 2010 would be the bottom for the office market in this real estate cycle, but CBRE Econometric Advisors went a step further and called the exact low mark: 18.6% average vacancy. That's just short of the depth of the last downturn 19 years ago, when vacancy peaked at a record-setting  19.3%. 

Don't expect to the market to start zooming up after it hits the bottom, though.

"While there are signs of improvement in the economy, it is unlikely that the job market will bounce back in such a way that commercial real estate fundamentals will quickly turn around," said Arthur Jones, CBRE's senior economist.  "The bottom may be coming into sight but there will be no quick return to glory days for the market."

Office rentals are a lagging indicator of the economy, so vacancy won't start going down again until businesses start hiring new employees. Expansion should finally begin in 2011, Jones said.

Average third-quarter vacancy in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties was 17.5%.

--Roger Vincent

It was the eighth consecutive quarter of rising industrial vacancy, according to real estate brokerage Colliers International. The net loss of rented space was most pronounced in the Los Angeles Basin, Chicago and San Jose/Silicon Valley markets.

Vacancy in the Inland Empire reached 15.4%, up from 11.9% a year earlier. The best news that Colliers could glean from the statistics was that the rate at which vacancies are rising slowed down in the third quarter.

"Although a few bright spots are evident, including a pickup in leasing activity and an easing of absorption losses quarter over quarter, we predict 'more of the same' for the industrial space market well into 2010," Ross Moore, director of research for Colliers, said in a statement. "From our vantage point, warehouse tenants will sit tight and make do with their current space -- avoiding expansion and new lease signings -- until more signs of a sustainable recovery are evident."

-- Roger Vincent