Rain Barrel Harvesting (Photo by Sunset Magazine)

I’ve been researching some ways to “green” up an existing home, in case we end up purchasing a “fixer-upper”. Some of these ideas are less inexpensive, like losing the lawn and planting drought-tolerant plants in a semi-arid region, others are more expensive like installing solar panels and running a portion of your household energy off of it, then reselling the excess to your utility company (a sweet deal!). But an idea I researched a while back, and the recent rain storm made me recall this idea, is rain collection in arid and semi-arid areas. Indulging my continued curiosity, I further investigated this idea through Sunset Magazine, I love the photos in this mag. They had some inspiring, and unusual, ideas for collecting rain. However, before I begin describing some methods, let me explain a few laws about rain water collection that I didn’t know existed:

• Colorado: If you live in Colorado, the rain that falls from the sky is not yours to keep! Did you know that? Because many of their streams feed into rivers that deliver water to other states, all rain water is supposed to end up in the streams. So rain water harvesting (I like this word) in this state is out for now. (source: Wikipedia)
• Utah and Washington: You may harvest rain water only if you own the rights to your ground water. So if you are using well water, you may then collect your rain water. I’ve read on other sites that this law is not enforced, so you could probably get away with collecting it on the down low. (source: Wikipedia)
• New Mexico: In contrast to neighboring Colorado, some areas require rain water collection on new dwellings. What a terrific idea! Most likely, this is due to their desert-like region. (source: Wikipedia)
• Arizona: Due to their desert topography, homeowners can receive a tax credit for capturing and recycling rainwater. (source: Sunset Magazine)

Other states and regions may have laws regulating stagnant water and collection techniques, so if you’re unsure, you may want to check with your city.

Now on to some rain water collection methods (all require containment or lids to avoid open, stagnant water):

• Rain (whiskey) barrel collection: With a little work, and a gutter system, you position your rain or whiskey barrel at a point where your gutters drain, usually at a corner of your house or structure. Affixing a hose or pipe from your gutter to the rain barrel, the rain collects into the barrel. They can hold about 50-60 gallons. A spiget towards the bottom of the barrel makes it easy to use the rain water.
• Rain Chain: This is a beautiful way to collect rain. The rain drips down from small bowl to small bowl, then eventually ends up in a catchment of some kind. It can fall into a creek or rock covered area of your lawn. Beneath the rock area would be a tank that holds the water until you need to use it.
• Cistern: Using a gutter system, cisterns can hold hundreds to thousands of gallons of rain water. It’s a more complex system, but if you have a huge yard or garden, this might be a feasible option.

Here are a few links I came across that describe in detail how to build a rain water harvesting system (and sell the supplies you would need to start this process!):

• A beautiful way to catch rain water.
• A huge assortment of whiskey barrels.
• How to collect rain water. Treehugger also has additional links at the bottom of this article on how to store it as well.

How many of you reuse your rain water? How do you collect it? Have you thought about installing a system recently? What if you live in an apartment, can you find a way to use rain water to water your house plants?

Reminiscing about my first obsession with residential architecture, I remember the copious details I added in the exterior of a house I drew on my chalkboard. Drawing with colored chalk was half the fun, but the house itself best identified with a ranch-style layout: it was horizontally long as opposed to vertical in height, I added a brick trim to the base of the house, and large windows to the front. The reason this was the house I decided to draw was based on my reality, all the houses in my neighborhood were modified ranch-style homes.

Now that I’m hoping to become a home owner in the near future, I’m researching homes for sale. And what style house am I finding? Mostly modified ranch…shocking. Living in suburban Southern California, the ranch-style home became the norm. Its design was based upon Frank Lloyd Wright architecture: low roof lines, horizontal fronts, lots of windows to let the outside in. Many communities in my neighborhood were designed by some well-known ranch-style architects like Joseph Eichler, Cliff May, and Gilbert Leong. These homes were known for their open floor plans, many contain atriums, and some have radiant heat under the flooring; quite modern for their 1950′s and ’60′s build date.

In my neighborhood, the majority of the homes were built between 1940 and the 1960′s. The architecture tells quite a story and I can almost see how the shape of homes morphed from one decade to the next. For instance, my block was built in 1951 and 1952. Using an online digital library, I found an old brochure advertising our community called Meadowlark Park. I’m pretty sure that most of my neighbors have no clue that they live in a community with such a name. There’s not a single placard anywhere stating that this is Meadowlark Park. Yet, the brochure went on to describe the houses as ranch-style homes with “massive chimney’s” (they are really very small in today’s standards), a “garage-and-a-half” (these single-car garages will barely house a mid-sized SUV) and “country living” in the valley. Oh, if only they developers had known that the valley would soon turn into a little city unto itself!

But these homes were larger in comparison to those built 10 years earlier and 3 miles south of where I live, a difference of 300 square feet. The ranch-style home was in the making; 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, it was a home owner’s dream come true. As the 1960′s approached, the true ranch-style homes emerged through Joseph Eichler and Cliff May, taking on architectural attributes similar to Frank Lloyd Wright. These homes were gigantic in comparison to the homes built in the 1940′s and ’50′s, almost twice the size in square feet (around 1,800 to 2,400 sq. ft.) They included an open floor plan, large patios with sliding glass door entries into the back yard, and many even incorporated atriums to really bring the outside in. The idea was to incorporate outside living in temperate Southern California.

The 1970′s homes are similar to the 1960′s, there is still a “modern” ranch feel to the architecture, think the Brady Bunch house. However, the homes of the 1980′s, mainly found on the perimeter of the valley, began to stray from the ranch-style floor plan and design. They became more heavily stuccoed, the features are larger and a little heavier in feel, many of the homes of the 1980′s have wood shingles or tile roofs. Over the past 20 years, residential architecture has moved far away from the ranch homes of the mid-century. Today’s homes are modified Mediterranean style homes with red tile roofs, two story floor plans, and a more vertical use of land, mainly because land is so limited in our urban-suburban neighborhoods. The ranch floor plans are still preferred by many, however they can only be found in older homes that often need more work than a newer model.

Here is a sampling of homes for sale ranging in age:

Ranch Style Homes

As I continue my house hunt, I’m sure I’ll see many variations of the ranch style house. I have to admit, it wasn’t my favorite style until I researched the architects and ideas behind the design. Now, I love ‘em!

This weekend my husband and I decided to drive past a couple of houses that were in our price range: between $190,000 – $250,000. What we saw was very depressing. The first house we drove past was one right up the street from us. I had a feeling it needed a lot of work based on the low price of $190,000.  We like the street its located on, so we stopped and took a closer look. All I can say is, “Wow,” you don’t get very much for $190,000 here in suburban Los Angeles. There was  one new window in the front of the house, though I think that the bank had to replace the window. My guess is the original window fell out. The other windows were the original 1950′s windows, old, with paint peeling off the window frames. We peeked around the side and looked in a window. There was a whole in a wall in what we believed was the kitchen. We walked closer to the back yard, there were still items surrounded by overgrown, dried grass, in the backyard; a lounge chair, a table, etc. Boards were in place of where either a wall once was or a sliding glass door. I only can assume this based on the size of the area boarded up. We realized then that there was thousands of dollars worth of work needed on this particular house.

Louise House, Needs Work!

The second house we drove past seemed promising, based on the information my husband printed out online. It was situated on 8,000 sq. ft. of property. That’s a lot for our neighborhood. Most homes sit on 6,000 sq. ft. But, before we got to the house, I knew the neighborhood wasn’t going to be a favorite of ours. There are many multi-family apartment complexes in that area. We found the street and parked in front. This time, we decided not to get out. The house, built in the 1920′s, was basically falling down. There was still someone living there, we could see their car in the drive way. It was a narrow, deep lot, and a large apartment complex was directly to the right of the house. The street, itself, was filled with run-down, over-grown lawns. It was not a desirable neighborhood. We kept on driving.

Canoga Park House, we decided to drive right past this one.

My husband felt slightly discouraged. So, on the way home we stopped at a couple of garage sales to browse items. While turning around to go back to a garage sale, we drove through a pretty nice neighborhood, or at least nice for our area. A small, yellow house with a for-sale sign caught our eye. We turned down the street and decided to take a look. It was a very cute house, on a large lot (again, anything larger than the standard 6,000 sq. ft. is large to us). It looked well-maintained, as did the entire block of homes. We used our phones (we use FROG as our homepage) to check the house out on Zillow. Unfortunately, according to Zillow, the house had just sold for $250,000! We were happy to know that a cute house, in decent condition was actually selling within our price range. I did more research when we got home, and found out that there is another home for sale in the same neighborhood for a little more, $285,000. This may be a neighborhood we need to explore more when we get closer to actually buying a home.

This is a promising home in a decent neighborhood.

The other day my husband was discussing our progress of saving for a down payment with his mother, my mother-in-law. Now, my mother-in-law holds a PhD in Business Management, specifically International Student Affairs, or something like that. She is quite knowledgable, or I would assume so based on all of her education. She was concerned about our progress on our down payment. However, my husband explained that saving 20% of $250,000 is difficult and takes a while. Her comment went something like this, “Oh, you don’t need to buy a nice home for your first home.” My husband tried, again, to explain to her, as he often has to do with his family in general, that a “starter home” in a Los Angeles suburb starts at $250,000.

We’ve tried many times to explain to family members living in other, more affordable, states that homes in California are expensive compared with the rest of the nation. Somehow, even when we browse realtors windows when family visits, it just doesn’t sink in. They think we are being “picky” and won’t settle for a small, starter home. So, my goal in this post, is to explicitly show with graphs and examples, that we’re not exaggerating, or being too picky when explaining that starter homes really do start at $250,000, and that’s not in a prime neighborhood.

I’ll begin with a city comparison from BestPlaces.net. I love comparing cities to see where the deals are, and the comments left on this site are very insightful as well. First, I chose to compare Mesa, AZ, where my husband’s family resides, and Los Angeles. Of course, I live in a suburb of Los Angeles, and not directly in the city, but a few of my examples will show this initial chart isn’t that far off the mark. I chose to compare only the housing. However on a side note, Mesa is less expensive in all areas.

Mesa, AZ compared to Los Angeles, CA housing costs

Notice that the percentage of people renting homes in Los Angeles, something my husband and I do, is 33%  higher than in Mesa, AZ. This is, of course, due to the fact that so many people cannot afford to buy their own homes. Where as in Mesa, AZ, homes are so affordable that it doesn’t make much sense to rent. I also noticed, looking at this graph, that Mesa’s houses cost $25,000 less than the national average. So, my in-laws live in a very inexpensive housing market. My mother-in-law’s comment begins to make more sense to me now. Graphs are great visual aids!

I then decided to also look at Zillow.com for specific sale listings to get a better idea of how our specific communities’ prices differ as well. I chose a house that looked similar to my mother-in-law’s in the Mesa area. Actually, I have to say that most of the houses in Mesa, AZ look the same to me, so this task wasn’t very difficult.

A Mesa House Very Similar to My Mother-in-Law's House

This cute home is under $200,000, and it’s a large 1,643 sq ft., well large to my standards (see previous post about Small Houses Rock if you’re interested!) It also appears nicely landscaped for the desert terrain. (I really do wish builders would stop featuring the garage as the prominent focus of the house! Drives me nuts.)

Next, I searched Zillow.com for a home in my neighborhood that we could actually afford, and this price is really stretching our budget. We originally budgeted $250,000.

This house is just around the corner from where we live.

This is a home around the corner from where I live. I think it is priced a little high for our neighborhood, especially since it is under 1,000 sq. ft. Again, this is one example of many that I could find on Zillow that shows that you get much less in a Los Angeles suburb than in Mesa. According to what Zillow had listed, it looks as if the prices are rising a bit in my area. However, a close informant (a manager at a bank) mentioned to us that there are a slew of foreclosures that will take place in the beginning of next year. So, we may see prices decline at the first of the year.

Sometimes, my husband’s creative ideas sound enticing when I search Zillow. But, we’re still pursuing our goal and are focusing on becoming home owners within the year.

I remember when my parents purchased their first house in 1978 in Granada Hills. They bought a 3-bedroom, 2-bath fixer-upper for $68,000. I was 7 and very excited to have neighbors with small children to play with. My parents spent the first few months replanting the lawn and garden, tearing out old bushes and planting new flowers. Over the next few years, they lost a little steam, adding brick to the front of the house, but then only painting the front a grayish-blue and leaving the sides and the back the old yellow it had previously been. They lived in that house 12 years, selling it in 1991 for $189,000. As they moved 2 hours north of me, I stayed behind to finish college. I’ve never left, I live 6 miles from where I grew up as a child.

I grew up with the notion that everyone eventually owns a home with a yard for their children to play in and a yard for a garage sale (see how to yard sale). This is something my parents were able to easily do. Yet, a home purchase has eluded my husband and me. Years ago, when my husband and I were in the early stages of our relationship, we happened upon an open house in an older, yet respectable neighborhood. The house was selling for $110,000. It was a 750 square foot, 2-bedroom, 1-bath house with a somewhat prestigious zip code. At the time, we knew nothing about purchasing a house. We were under the impression that we would never qualify, nor did we know what it would take to qualify and actually purchase a house. So, we made the decision to continue renting.

Then something began to happen in the surrounding neighborhoods that we couldn’t make head or tails out of. The housing prices began to sky rocket: $300K, 350K, 450K, 550K, 628K for a 1000 sq ft starter home, or what most would consider a starter home. These prices weren’t just homes in Malibu or on the ocean, these were homes in our somewhat run-down neighborhood. We started to realize owning a home in a suburb of LA was an impossible dream for us.

In December of 2005, during the peak of the housing market, we decided to move out of our 2-bedroom apartment into a 3-bedroom rental house. This was the closest we could get to living in a house with a yard and private garage. As I became acquainted with the neighborhood through evening walks, I would cringe at the For Sale signs with price tags of $525,000 and up. I couldn’t figure out how these people were doing it, purchasing homes for over half a million dollars. One sign I made a mental note of was a sale sign detailing out the monthly mortgage payment, I nearly choked. Not because it was excessive, quite the contrary, this particular home was selling for $529,000. The monthly mortgage price they were claiming a purchaser would pay was only $1,349! This was almost $500 less than our monthly rent. I remember thinking, “How is that possible? The math doesn’t work out unless you pay that amount for almost 100 years!”  Something smelled fishy.

Then things began to fall into place and make sense. Mortage brokers were allowing unsuspecting homeowners to take out negative ARM loans. Their monthly payment was less than the interest due on the house. With lax qualifying measures, anyone could purchase a home, but the catch was they would have to pay for it later. Many people probably thought, “Oh, I’ll sell it for a profit before the time comes that I have to pay principal plus interest.” Unfortunately, that time never came.

Mid-2008, the fish smell materialized and it all became clear. Recent purchasers were loosely qualifying for these quasi-loans that allowed them to pay less than the interest on the home. Once their 5-year ARM reset, they would have to pay 3-4 times more than their current monthly mortgage payment. Most people would not be able to afford this once this happened. Hence, all the foreclosures that are now in my neighborhood. With banks realizing their huge mistakes, they began to realize many of these loans would never be paid in full. Now, many homeowners are underwater, owning way more on their home than their home is worth.

When I ride my bike through the neighborhood I can’t help but see the neglect of homes with overgrown lawns, the sales signs on some houses are foreclosure property, others are on their way to being foreclosures. My husband and I aren’t realtors or bankers, yet we called this bubble breaker back in 2007. We knew that most people didn’t make $250K a year in salary, the standard income ratio of 2.5 times the house price. There wasn’t any reason to believe these people were making more than twice as much as us. We also knew houses couldn’t continue on this escalator forever, if it did, how would people qualify for a 1 million dollar home in the future?

Many realtors were lead to believe this housing boom would last forever, housing prices would never decrease. But looking as 10 year trends in the neighborhood, I could see that this “bubble” didn’t make any sense over time. A steady price increase is normal, the huge jump is not.

A look at home prices over 10 years in my neighborhood

I used the Zillow home value index chart to show home values over the past 10 years in my neighborhood since it’s easier to read over time. When I looked at the prices homes sold for, it was all over the place and made it difficult to see the increase vs. decrease over time. Yet, the end results were similar. The dark orange line is the neighborhood I currently live in. This chart is estimating home prices just below $400K, still too pricey for my husband and me. However, the sales list on Zillow shows some homes selling for below $300K. Below is a sampling of homes listed in my neighborhood that are well below the average $387,800 price tag:

A sampling of affordable homes in my neighborhood from Zillow

If all goes as planned, by mid-next year my husband and I should be in one of these affordable, fixer-uppers. We’ll be happily fixing up our little house in the valley.