Pending home sales bounced back from the previous month at the statewide level in October, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) said today. Pending sales were also significantly higher on an annual basis, portending higher closed escrows in the next couple of months.

Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today announced that the California Department of Justice will be formally joining the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office in the ongoing prosecution of multiple individual and corporate defendants charged with environmental crimes and other specified offenses related to the November 18, 2014 explosion at the Santa Clara Waste Water Company facility located in Santa Paula, California.

With the goal of helping more homeless individuals and veterans transition off the streets, Mayor Kevin L. Faulconer and City Councilmember Todd Gloria today announced the City's recently opened year-round indoor permanent housing program is on track to help more homeless individuals than ever before. The City program is a partnership with Father Joe's Villages and the San Diego Housing Commission, and replaced the need to erect temporary outdoor tents in the winter.

HGA Architects and Engineers (HGA), an integrated architecture, engineering and planning firm, announced today that renowned design leader, John Frane, has joined the firm as an associate vice president and principal in the Los Angeles office. As a design principal, Frane will continue his pursuit of high design work, combining his arts and culture-based experience with HGA’s extensive national resume of work in this arena.

Hemet Plaza is centrally located on 4.55 acres at 1911-2095 Florida Avenue in Hemet, at the hard-corner signalized intersection of Florida Avenue (Highway 74, the main east-west thoroughfare in Hemet) and Yale Street (34,000 cars per day). In addition to anchors Big Lots (NAP) and True Value, Hemet Plaza includes other national tenants such as Farmers Insurance, Jackson Hewitt Tax Services, Rent-A-Center, Metro PCS, and US Postal Service.

Rep. Jerry McNerney (CA-09) and Rep. Carlos Curbelo (FL-26) led their House colleagues in sending a bipartisan letter to the Chairs and Ranking members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, urging the conference committee on the transportation reauthorization bill to include a provision that strikes the prohibition that bars municipalities from using tax exempt bonds toward Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) projects

Dekel Capital, a Los Angeles-based real estate merchant bank that specializes in sourcing and placing equity and debt for active middle market commercial real estate developers and investors, has placed $50 million in financing for the construction and development of the Pinnacle Sandy Apartments in the southeast corridor of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The deal was structured as a $36.1 million construction loan through Dekel Capital’s advisory practice and $13.9 million JV-Equity funded by the firm’s proprietary equity fund, Dekel Strategic Investors (DSI)

U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-5) today announced a $145,101 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) Project Based Voucher grant for the Housing Authority of the City of Napa. The grant will provide 17 Section 8 VASH vouchers for the Valley View Senior Homes.

U.S. Representative Ed Royce (R-Calif.) questioned U.S. Securities and Exchange (SEC) Chair Mary Jo White on the SEC's actions related to risk-sharing by the GSEs during a House Financial Services Committee hearing entitled “Examining the SEC’s Agenda, Operations, and FY 2017 Budget Request."

Home sales exceeded the 400,000 level in October for the seventh consecutive month and posted higher on a year-to-year basis for the ninth straight month. Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in California totaled a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 403,510 units in October, according to information collected by C.A.R. from more than 90 local REALTOR® associations and MLSs statewide.

Geoff McIntosh is broker and co-owner of Main Street REALTORS® in Long Beach, Calif. He previously served as the Association’s treasurer in 2014 and 2015. He oversees the activities of his 230-plus REALTORS® and also serves the real estate needs of his own clients. Active in organized real estate, McIntosh previously served as president of the Pacific West Association of REALTORS®, the Greater Long Beach Association of REALTORS®, and the Apartment Association, California Southern Cities.

Mayor Garcetti’s sustainability agenda, which also includes aggressive solar power and green building targets, is detailed in the city's first-ever Sustainable City Plan (plan.lamayor.org). This comprehensive policy roadmap is preparing Los Angeles for an environmentally healthy, economically prosperous, and equitable future in a city that expects population growth of 500,000 people over the next 20 years.

St. Anton Communities announces the beginning of construction activity on a major Downtown Campbell housing community, an $88 million project involving 14 separate parcels of land assembled through a multi-year effort.

Meridian’s 69,000-square-foot two-story medical office building in Rohnert Park, Calif. was selected in the category of Best Renovated or Repurposed Healthcare Facility. When Meridian first acquired the building, the ground floor was occupied by Kaiser Permanente, while the second floor, which was previously occupied by an office tenant, had been vacant for over a year. The city of Rohnert Park at that time had only 1.29 doctors per 1,000 residents, well below the national average, according to Pollock. In eight months and at a cost of over $6 million dollars in tenant improvements, Meridian was able to help satisfy this shortage by converting the entire second floor to a fully-operational medical office building, while not interfering with the operations of the downstairs tenant Kaiser Permanente.

Streamlining the permit process for solar energy installation will encourage the effective development of solar technology, and minimize the obstacles and permit costs for installation. Residential solar permitting fees have been reduced, saving more than half in permit costs. Previously, the permit fee for a residential solar system topped $1,000; however, with the new process, fees have been reduced to $304.

As the multi-year plan is being crafted, the Mayor is ensuring that currently homeless families receive immediate increased support. The Mayor and the Human Services Agency have identified funding to begin serving 50 homeless families who are either in shelter or on the waiting list for shelter through the Home for the Holidays initiative, at a cost of $500,000 in the current year. Additionally, the existing housing voucher program will be expanded to serve 70 more families in the shelter system throughout the course of the fiscal year. The full cost of the expansion to 120 families will total $5 million over the next two years

On Veterans Day, Rep. Pete Aguilar announced the creation of his Veterans Advisory Board. The committee of local veterans, veteran assistance non-profit organizations, education facilities, and veteran employment groups met with Rep. Aguilar earlier this week in San Bernardino to discuss local and national initiatives to connect veterans with job opportunities

Released monthly with rolling three-month data, the Sotheby’s International Realty Greater Los Angeles Market Report is a comprehensive analysis of real estate market activity in the area across the top 33 markets to keep audiences up-to-date on trends at the macro and micro level for single-family homes and condominiums

Hanley Investment Group Real Estate Advisors, a nationally-recognized real estate brokerage and advisory firm specializing in retail property sales, announced today that Eric Vu and Jeff Hauber completed the sale of a 2,900-square-foot retail building in Orange County for $1.2 million, representing a cap rate of 4.17%

Under DWP’s Technical Assistance Program, commercial and industrial building owners can receive up to $250,000 for the installation of pre-approved equipment and products — such as cooling tower upgrades and re-circulation systems. Landscape rebates for turf removal are also available for commercial facilities at $1.75 per square foot up to 1,500 square feet. DWP also offers rebates related to the most water efficient urinals, toilets and faucets.