The La Jolla Town Council (LJTC) heard about youth gangs and heard a report from a local Realtor about the Jewel’s static real-estate market at its January meeting.
Joyce Abrams, commissioner of the San Diego Gang Prevention and Intervention Commission, gave the council and audience members a short survey quizzing them on their knowledge of youth gang issues preceding a brief presentation.
A District 1 City Council appointee, Abrams works collaboratively with city staffers who “deal directly with gangs and indirectly with neighbors to get rid of them.”
“We invite you to share your opinions on this neighborhood survey,” said Abrams, adding it will be used to “develop strategies in a collaborative effort between various agencies working with gang-related issues to help us recommend an initiative to the City Council to combat the impact of gang violence in our city.”
At the end of the meeting, Charles Schevker of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices spoke about a recent slowdown in La Jolla home sales.
“In August of 2013, 83 homes were sold and that has progressively gone down month to month to 41 in December, a reduction of 16.6 percent,” Schevker said. “Since demand has gone down, it is a good thing that the supply has gone down as well.”
Schevker produced graphs showing a 15.8 percent price increase in La Jolla homes between January and August 2013.
“Since then, prices have flattened out, only going up 1 or 2 percent, which indicates the market has slowed down,” Schevker said, adding he foresees some price reductions in the next couple of months.
“This isn’t gloom and doom,” Schevker said. “The real-estate market is dynamic and we hope it will achieve a center of gravity as it levels off and then we’ll see opportunities in the second and third quarters for the market to strengthen itself and begin moving forward again.”
In other action:
• A Bird Rock resident complained there have been two recent shootings in or near the La Jolla Biltmore Motel. “It’s a problem and it makes me afraid,” she said. LJTC chairwoman Cindy Greatrex suggested she contact the Bird Rock Community Council (BRCC) and appear at that group’s next meeting in February to discuss the situation.