“Record low interest rates and favorable home prices continue to offer opportunities for potential home buyers,” said CAR President LeFrancis Arnold. “If the overall economy continues its recent upward trend, we should see an improvement in the housing market throughout the year.”

Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in California totaled a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 517,740 in January, according to information collected by CAR from more than 90 local Realtor associations and Multiple Listing Service’s statewide. January’s sales were down 0.6 percent from December’s 520,940 pace and down 5.7 percent from the revised 548,760 sales pace recorded in January 2011. The statewide sales figure represents what would be the total number of homes sold during 2012 if sales maintained the January pace throughout the year. It is adjusted to account for seasonal factors that typically influence home sales.

The statewide median price of an existing, single-family detached home fell to $268,280 in January, down 6.7 percent from $285,920 in December. The median price also dropped 3.9 percent from the revised $279,220 median price recorded in January 2011.

“The decline in the January median home is largely a reflection of an increase in the share of distressed home sales,” said CAR Vice President and Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young. “Seasonal factors in the non-distressed market also played a role in the softening of the median home price, as prices typically decline in the non-peak home buying season.”

Other key facts of CAR’s January 2012 resale housing report include:

California’s housing inventory rose in January, with the Unsold Inventory Index for existing, single-family detached homes increasing to 5.5 months in January, up from 4.1 months in December but down from the 6.8-month supply in January 2011. The index indicates the number of months needed to deplete the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate.

Interest rates continued their downward trend in January. Thirty-year fixed-mortgage interest rates averaged 3.92 percent during January 2012, down from 4.76 percent in January 2011, according to Freddie Mac. Adjustable-mortgage interest rates averaged 2.76 percent in January 2012, compared with 3.25 percent in January 2011.

The median number of days it took to sell a single-family home edged up to 61.9 days in January 2012 and was essentially unchanged from the 61.8 days for the same period a year ago.

Information recently released from the United States Department of Commerce’s Economic & Statistics Administration shows that in January 2012 building permits were 676,000, up 0.7 percent from December and up 19.0 percent from January 2011. Housing starts in January 2012 were 699,000, up 1.5 percent from December and up 9.9 percent from January 2011.

The percentage of home buyers who could afford to purchase a median-priced, existing single-family home in California rose to 55 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011, up from 52 percent in third-quarter 2011 and from 50 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to C.A.R.’s Traditional Housing Affordability Index.  The index was the highest since C.A.R. began tracking this statistic in 1988, and equaled a high set in first-quarter 2009.

Home buyers needed to earn a minimum annual income of $57,750 to qualify for the purchase of a $282,350 statewide median-priced, existing single-family home in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Gisela and Johnny Kinder in King Salmon in 1950

In January 1948, Gisela Kinder and her late husband Johnny Kinder took advantage of that opportunity.

The Kinders met in Germany while Johnny was stationed in the Army there during World War II. In 1947, they left Germany and came to the United States, where they lived with Johnny’s brother at his trailer park and marina on the Colorado River in Arizona.

“This doctor came (to a trailer park and marina in Arizona owned by Johnny’s brother) from (Humboldt County) and said there are so many fish and no boats to take out,” Gisela said. “You can’t go fishing. Some of the local people have little skiffs. A 16-foot boat at that time was a big boat. He said somebody needs to go up there and do something. Well, we just came from Germany and we didn’t have any roots yet, so we came and looked and stayed.”

Gisela and Johnny began their life in King Salmon by pitching a tent on three acres of beach property they had purchased from Eureka Shipbuilder’s Inc. They soon opened Johnny’s Marina & RV Park in what was then known as King Salmon Resort. The Kinders built the bath house as their first permanent structure in 1948. To this day, it is the oldest building in King Salmon. Two years later they built their home.

King Salmon in 1950

Eureka Shipbuilder’s Inc. owned the land and had begun dredging boat channels in King Salmon Resort in February 1948, so that people could moor their boats at the foot of their lots, a Humboldt Times article from May 22, 1949 stated.

King Salmon Resort started in 1948 as a bare sand spit. Two years later, more than $225,000 has been spent on land and improvements, including 15 permanent homes. The canals and boat landing access to the bay and bar had King Salmon Resort being touted as a fishing haven for salmon fishermen from all over the United States, information from  under a Humboldt Times August 1950 photograph of King Salmon Resort stated.

The area is also known for its history. In April 1850, “the Laura Virginia party, headed by Major E.H. Howard and Captain H.H. Buhne, laid out the first settlement which was known as Humboldt City, located directly opposite Humboldt Bar, near what is now known as Buhne Point. … Humboldt City was not to live, however, completely disappearing within a few years as Uniontown, Eureka, Bucksport and other communities became more suitable to the purpose of the pioneers,” according to Information from an article titled, Humboldt: County Development Traced Through 90 Years of Progress by Dwight O’Dell.

The 1949 Humboldt Times article also states that “there is no more familiar landmark on Humboldt Bay than Buhne’s point – that place where Captain Buhne landed in 1850, and started Humboldt City, the bay’s first community. Humboldt City has been a memory these many years, but the site of Captain Buhne’s first settlement was well chosen. And it is on that site that King Salmon Resort is located .”

The 1949 article continues, “Pioneer sports fishing boat operator at King Salmon Resort is John Kinder who bought channel frontage in January, 1948, and now has a landing dock, boats, and home. Kinder plans to lay out a trailer park this season, and will have a complete sportsmen’s resort with tackle to rent, as well as a launching ways.”

Johnny Kinder was also quoted in the article stating, “I drove stakes here in the mud when everything was still in the blueprint stage,” he recounts. “This year we plan to go places.”

King Salmon’s history and finny neighbors are reflected in its street names. Enter King Salmon on King Salmon Avenue and as you proceed you will come to Buhne Drive and cross Herring Street, Sole Street, Cod Street, Crab Street, Perch Street and Halibut Avenue.

At 87-years-old, Gisela has lived in King Salmon for the past 64 years.

The Kinder’s raised their three children in King Salmon and their daughter Judy Nelson and son-in-law Gary Nelson live in King Salmon and also work at the business, which is open seven days a week.

There are about 50 boat slips and 53 trailer spaces at Johnny’s Marina & RV Park, Gisela said. They have gas available on their dock and boat mooring and RV spaces are available.

According to some, the future of this charming coastal community can be found on Herring Street, where Dr. Ilan Kinori, a radiologist at St. Joseph Hospital, is building his vision of King Salmon by taking inspiration from Sausalito and other waterfront areas along the California coast. The first of Kinori’s two new homes, an architecturally-designed 1,900 square foot craftsman-style, single family home, is nearing completion at 64 Herring Street. After construction of this house is complete, another home in a similar architectural style and size will be constructed next door.

Kinori currently lives at 106 Sole Street, a tastefully remodeled waterfront cottage just listed for sale with Humboldt Bay Realty, www.humboldtbayrealty.com, MLS 234819. The house highlights the charm and beauty of waterfront living in King Salmon.

The last time median home sales were lower in the month of December in Eureka was in 2003 when median home sales were at $186,000, according to Humboldt Association of Realtors housing affordability indexes information. Median home sales in Eureka decreased $13,000 from November 2011.

The housing affordability index information in Eureka in December 2011 states that with an average mortgage rate of 4.27 percent, a median household income of $46,339, a monthly payment of $948.76 for principal, interest, taxes and insurance and a qualifying income of $37,950, payment as a percentage of median income is 25 percent and the affordability index is 40 percent.

Median home sales in Humboldt County rose to $229,000 in December from November’s median home sales of $217,000.

Arcata’s median home sales increased $62,833 from November to December’s $328,333.

Fortuna finished the year with median home sales of $234,000. That’s $74,100 more than November median home sales.

McKinleyville’s median home sales finished December at $245,000. That’s up $24,000 from November.

Not since January 2004, when the median home sale price was $197,000, has the median price of all the homes sold in Humboldt County been lower than the numbers released this week by the Humboldt Association of Realtors.

The median home sale price in Humboldt County was $235,000 in October 2011, the HAR housing affordability index information stated.

Average mortgage rates for November 2011 were 4.33 percent and median household income was $44,480. The qualifying income for the month was $43,817 and payment as a percentage of median income was 30 percent. The affordability index was 30 percent.

Eureka’s median home sale price for November 2011 was $202,000. Arcata’s median home sale price was $265,500. Fortuna’s median home sale price dropped from $230,000 in October 2011 to $159,900 in November 2011. McKinleyville’s median home sale price was $221,000 in November 2011.

Future posts on this blog will contain information about Humboldt County houses, property and the people connected with them.

From research gathered from various sources including interviews, articles and information that people send me, I’d like this space to be a place for folks to find out more about the places that we call or want to call home.

Please visit www.humboldtbayrealty.com and/or e-mail me at diane@humboldtbayrealty.com about a particular property that you are interested in selling or learning more about.

Thanks so much,

Diane Batley Dalsaso
Broker/Owner of Humboldt Bay Realty