San Clemente Real Estate Broker Debbie Ferrari and Michael Kaupp

Please Help Michael Kaupp to Find

Closer Source for Monterey Cypress Trees

To Plant in San Clemente - (Go Green!)

Our friend, Michael Kaupp, who chairs San Clemente’s planning commission, is president of the Downtown Business Association, (DBA), and owns a giant downtown antique mall called Stanford Court, believes in planting trees. In fact, he has planted more than 500 trees since he began the plantings some years ago.

This last Earth Day, Michael and volunteers planted about 20 Monterey Cypress trees, with 10 of them being at the local San Clemente Boys and Girls club. Often, Michael Kaupp’s plantings replace eucalyptus trees that have died and been cut down in town.

Over the past few years eucalyptus trees were killed all over California by either a parasite, horned borers, or tortoise beetles .

Michael is looking for a Southern California supplier of 100-gallon Monterey Cypress trees ready to plant here. Currently he has to go all the way to Santa Barbara to get these small trees that are ready for planting.

So if you know of a closer source, please let Michael know at MWKaupp@cox.net or by calling (949) 492-4130 or visiting him at Stanford Court at 106 Avenida Del Mar San Clemente Ca. 92672.

And if you’d like to volunteer and help Michael with his tree planting efforts and help fill the planet with more oxygen while beautifying San Clemente, please call him.

Hey, you architectural landscapers, forestry people, home developers, and real estate developers in south Orange County, let’s help Michael out here.

For many links on South Orange County, California, especially those covering real estate, be sure to visit Debbie Ferrari’s gigantic Orange County real estate web site and her South Orange County california blog.

Actually, you are looking at a page in her blog right now.Want your friends to know about planting trees in San Clemente and South Orange County, California? Just FORWARD this page in to anyone you want by using your email program. This page is packed with useful links on the benefits of tree planting. Let’s support Michael Kaupp and fix him up with a closer source for the trees that he he and his volunteers are planting.

Bill Koelzer and Debbie Ferrari

Click picture to enlarge.

Looking North along the Coast from the San Clemente Pier …………..

————————————————-

Look Down the List and Learn the Meanings

of Many Spanish Words Used in

San Clemente, “The Spanish Village by the Sea.”
Because Ole Hanson, the founder of San Clemente, wanted this town to be “The Spanish Village by the Sea,” he insisted that all streets have Spanish names. Now this DOES make the city more “Spanish,” I suppose, but it drives visitors and newcomers from the Eastern States crazy.

Because I, in my role as Realtor Debbie Ferrari, sell San Clemente real estate I see more out-of-towners than most people who live here do.

So, to help everyone out a bit, here are some San Clemente Spanish words that we see all the time around town and that we’ve translated for you.

San Clemente ———— Saint Clement.

El Camino Real ————The King’s Highway.

Amanecer —————–Daybreak

Frontera ——————Frontier

Bandera ——————-A flag. (Antonio Banderas?)

Las Flores ——————The Flowers.

Grande Vista —————Grand View

Avenida Pico —————Pico was California’s last Mexican governor and once owned the land that became our city.

Calle Cortez —————–Cortez conquered Mexico in 1521 for the Spaniards.

Ave Del Mar —————-Of the sea.

Alta ————————–High.

Hidalgo ———————–Nobleman.

Baja ————————–Lower.

Esperanza ——————–Hope.

Los Mares ——————–The seas.

Cerrito ————————Small hill.

Las Palmas ——————–The Palms.

Estrella ————————Star.

Gaviota ————————Sea gull.

Los Alimos ———————The poplar trees.

Buena Vista ———————Good view.

Pescador ———————–Fisherman.

Ave Serra ———————-Serra founded San Diego and San Juan Capistrano Missions.

Calle Portola ——————–Portola, a Spanish explorer led the first Europeans to what is now known as the city of San Clemente.

Coronado Lane Coronado——— Spanish explorer circa 1540.

Ave Montalvo ——————-This Spaniard wrote about Amazons and Calafia.

San ——————————Signifies a male saint.

Santa —————————-Female saint.

Mariposa ————————-Butterfly.

Encino —————————–Oak.

La Costa ————————–The shore. The coast.

Presidio —————————Military fort.

Palizada —————————Palisade.

Corona —————————-Crown (and you always thought it was a beer, huh?)

La Cuesta ————————–The Ridge.

Verde ——————————Green.

Vaquero —————————-Cowboy.

Dana Point has a Magnificent Yacht Harbor

and Homes on Hills with XLNT Ocean Views

Click on harbor to enlarge

When I have out of town buyers here and am showing them around South Orange County in my comfy Mercedes, I always drive up onto the Dana Point Headlands by the Chart House and let them look down from the 150 foot cliffs to the picturesque Dana Point Harbor sprawling into the distance below us.

Dana Point has some of the most beautiful real estate locations in Orange County and homes to die for. The homes on Beach Road, right on the beach, in front of PCH in Capistrano Beach feature some properties of more than ten million dollars. One empty lot in Dana Point, at Harbor Drive and PCH, across from Denny’s, sells for $20 million.

Dana Point is sort of like the jewel of South Orange County and one of the greatest depositories of prime Orange County real estate.  Dana Point real estate is expensive, yes, but far cheaper than Laguna Niguel or Laguna Beach real estate.

As of today, April 16, 2007 there were 358 Dana Point homes for sale on the MLS at a median price of $1,025,000. There were only 32 foreclosures, though, and the median price of these was $593,293. I guess this means that buying a more expensive home may be a better way to go, just so long as you REALLY can afford one!

MEDIAN PRICE OF REAL ESTATE IN SAN CLEMENTE

IS MORE THAN $900,000 FOR A SINGLE HOME.

As of now, Mid April, 2007, there are 663 homes for sale in San Clemente, California at a medial price of $989,000. Isn’t that Amazing?

When my husband, Bill Koelzer, first started coming to San Clemente to be with me, the home that I sold that first week cost about $230,000 and that was in 1994. Now it sells for more than $800,000.

There are also 31 NEW homes for sale in San Clemente and the median price of those is $1,078,500.

There are 57 foreclosure homes in San Clemente and the median price of those is only $560,000 which I suppose goes to show that if you have to ask how much a yacht costs, you can’t afford one. In other words (for the parable-challenged) people who buy expensive homes usually have the money to KEEP making payments on them; those who don’t, don’t.

That would also explain why expensive homes have not been nearly so affected by this slight housing downturn as have the lower priced ones that families just managed to “squeak” into. So much for “delayed gratification” huh?

Click on Picture Above to Enlarge Dancer Adele Lux.

We’re Having our Own local

San Clemente “Dancing With the Stars”

Six well known local San Clemente personages will be competing in a dance contest on May 19 to help find money for new cardiology machines at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center. The event takes place at the Marbella Golf and Country Club in San Juan Capistrano. The dancers are gathering pledges from members of the community and as of this date, have already exceeded $10,000 in contributions.

Contestants include the medical doctor/Internist/MD that my husband, Bill Koelzer and I go to, Dr. Steve Cullen of San Clemente Internal Medical Group: Adele Lux, owner of Adele’s Restaurant in the San Clemente Inn; Tony Carbonara, owner of Carbonara’s Italian Restaurant; Ernie Redmond, Dentist; Sandra Grifman, Psychologist, and Bob Burns, a certified financial planner with AG Edwards.

Each contestant dances with a professional dance partner, just like on the TV show, “Dancing with the Stars” does.

While the contestants mostly compete for the resulting wide public awareness of their businesses, the glory and the number of drinks that people might buy them if they win. There is even talk that practice sessions or a rebroadcast of the dance contest may air at some time on public access TV channel 30 for all of South Orange County to see.
Contestants can also win prizes. These include a trip to the Hilton Hawaiian Village, or a timeshare stay in Lake Tahoe, Mammoth, or Big Bear.

Contestants are fitting in as many practice sessions as they can with their dance instructor partners.

Tickets are already all sold out, but while I, Debbie, will be in Arizona on May 19, Bill wants to go to the event and so if you can sell us ONE ticket that you might not need, please call Bill at 949-496-4159.

 ———–Click Photo to Enlarge Lori———

San Clemente real estate is somewhat impacted by quality of life factors including clogged roads and traffic backups that steal time from commuters.

Lori Donchak, our newest city councilperson, s doing a volunteer study of how other cities handle traffic issues, form committees, solve congestion problems and so on. Lori was a strategic planner and top level marketing researcher for more than 20 years in a past life, giving guidance to major firms including Quaker Oats and the American Heart Association.

Her goal is to determine if San Clemente should reestablish a former traffic commission panel that once existed, but got absorbed into a Planning Commission function as an economy measure some time ago.

Once input starts coming in from the Lori Donchak study, she says a task force consisting of two council members and two planning commissioners may begin to assess and solve city traffic problems.

She added that focus groups may be used to probe community attitudes about traffic and measure the local pulse on how traffic relates to quality of life in San Clemente.

She intends making a presentation to the city council in August, covering the best solutions other cities, of the several dozen cities she will study, have found.

Areas she’d focus on first would include snarls by the high school, the new outlet mall, Confordia school and more.

Such a project would normally cost in the double digited many thousands of dollars. But Lori is doing it pro bono, so we should all thank her now and especially a few years from now when her work saves us tons of time getting around our fair town of San Clemente.

Mayor Stephanie Dorey (L) and Realtor Debbie Ferrari during a San Clemente Street fair.

WE WILL GREATLY MISS STEPHANIE DOREY

She, age 64, passed away Friday from malignant melanoma.

This is only Monday and I guarantee you, the accolades for Stephanie Dorey are just beginning. If there was a mayor who was actually BELOVED by a community, it was Stephanie.

Twas she who led the fight to “Derail the Trail, a city-proposed paved coastal trail that she and her grass-roots group saw as being incongruous considering the home town ambiance of our valuable beaches. She and her group won, and on an environmental platform, this ex-teacher got herself elected to city council on an environmental platform.

She also led the fight to squelch the state-sponsored plan to allow a double set of train tracks just above the beach. She won again, and helped create a San Clemente Watershed Task Force.

She even got our voters to pay a “clean ocean fee”to help reduce urban runoff. She got us to stop smoking on the beach and to restrict the use of styrofoam.

Her husband John, is a most stalwart man who was always at her side, providing support right to the end. I can only imagine his sorrow at the loss of such a splendid woman.

John asks that in lieu of flowers, we make donations to the San Clemente Watershed Task Force, one of Stephanie’s favorite projects.

Debbie