A fire at one of the country’s largest refineries spewed thick black smoke over cities in the San Francisco Bay area, sending scores of residents to hospitals complaining of breathing problems early Tuesday.

Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo, a town near the Chevron refinery in Richmond, said about 200 people had sought help and more patients were arriving. Kaiser’s Richmond Medical Center also said several dozen people came to the emergency room complaining of shortness of breath, but none was seriously ill.

Residents said they heard loud blasts around 6:15 p.m., when the fire broke out, although Chevron officials could not confirm those reports.

Daniela Rodriguez told the Contra Costa Times that she heard a “big boom” about the time the fire started. The 23-year-old resident said about an hour passed before she received an automated call from Contra Costa County to remain indoors.

“I was feeling kind of nauseous and light-headed (from the smell),” she told the newspaper.

The Chevron Richmond Refinery makes high-quality products that include gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel and lubricants, as well as chemicals used to manufacture many other useful products. The blaze started Monday evening when a diesel leak ignited at the refinery’s No. 4 Crude Unit, Nigel Hearne, manager of the refinery, told The San Francisco Chronicle.

Randy Sawyer, the chief environmental and hazardous materials officer for the county’s health services agency, said any kind of smoke can be toxic, but added: “In this smoke, there can also be all kind of byproducts that can be toxic.”

The agency had four teams of inspectors testing air quality, Sawyer said.

The blaze at the plant in Richmond, about 10 miles northeast of San Francisco, was contained by late Monday although it was not immediately known when the flames would be extinguished, said company spokeswoman Heather Kulp.

One employee suffered a minor injury, Chevron officials said.

County health officials used automated calls to warn residents of Richmond, San Pablo and the unincorporated community of North Richmond to “shelter in place,” meaning they should not only stay inside, but should also turn off heaters, air conditioners and fans, and to cover cracks around doors with tape or damp towels.

Bay Area Rapid Transit also shut down three stations near the plant for several hours.

To the south, Oakland police issued a community advisory suggesting that residents of the North Oakland Hills area close all windows and doors and turn off air conditioners.

A fire at the refinery in January 2007 injured two workers and spewed low levels of sulfur dioxide and other toxins into the air. County officials said then that it was not enough to harm the health of nearby residents.

During an evening news conference, Hearne apologized “to the community for the fire and smoke this evening at the Richmond refinery.”

The refinery is the largest producer of base oils on the West Coast, processing up to 240,000 barrels of crude oil a day, according to the company’s website.

The company said Monday it did not know yet whether production would be affected. The 2007 fire shut down the refinery for most of that year’s first earnings quarter.

Article source: http://www2.journalnow.com/news/2012/aug/07/residents-flood-san-francisco-bay-area-hospitals-a-ar-2498981/

Walnut Creek, CA (PRWEB) December 23, 2011

Bay Area property management company, Stokley Properties Inc. works closely with the real estate community to help their clients make the decision of whether to turn a home into a rental income-producing property. Currently, Stokely Properties is noticing a boost in the Bay Area Rental Homes Market due to lackluster home sales.

“It is important for a property owner to be aware of what the real estate market is going through now so that they can make informed and sound decisions,” Joseph Stokley Jr. of Stokley Properties Inc. said

Homeowners who chose not to sell their properties at depressed prices are deciding to wait it out and turn their homes into rental properties.

“We are seeing this happening more every month. The property owners are taking advantage of a very strong rental market as well,” reported The Contra Costa Times in Oct. 20.

Rents are also climbing sharply in the East Bay as people who were once homeowners look for places to rent after losing their homes to foreclosure or not making their mortgage payments.

Contra Costa County has seen a 7 percent increase since last year and Alameda County has seen an 8.7 percent increase in rents.

For more information on the Bay Area property management company, Stokley Properties Inc., call 925-658-1415, view it on the web at www.stokleypropertieseastbay.net or visit 1630 North Main St., Suite 54, Walnut Creek, CA 94596.

About Stokley Properties Inc.

The Walnut Creek company, Stokley Properties, provides complete property management services throughout the greater San Francisco East Bay Area, including Concord, San Ramon, the Bay Area, Brentwood, Martinez and Oakland. They provide professional real estate investment advice to enable clients to make well-informed decisions. Services include advertising and marketing, residential screening, leasing and retention management, property inspections and more.

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Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/12/23/prweb9062284.DTL

Oct. 31 (Source: By George Avalos, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.) - High-tech job growth has sparked the Bay Area’s rebound from the recession, but experts warn that the region’s economy could stall unless other industries start to hire.Over the first nine months of 2011, the technology industry added 26,200 workers, 65 percent of all the jobs created in the Bay Area, this newspaper’s analysis of data compiled by state officials and Beacon Economics shows. High-tech jobs account for 18 percent of the Bay Area’s workforce.

“If the Bay Area jobs recovery doesn’t broaden, it is in danger of fizzling out completely,” said Scott Anderson, senior economist with Wells Fargo Bank.

The key, according to a number of economists, would be a recovery in the long-troubled housing industry.

“We need a normal housing market,” said Jeffrey Michael, director of the Business Forecasting Center at University of the Pacific in Stockton. “We have to have a construction industry that has a pulse.”

Much in the way the financial industry bolsters New York City’s economy, real estate is an economic bulwark for the Bay Area. Real estate and high-tech produce strong ripple effects throughout the economy, creating many jobs in many industries.

“Technology workers are more likely to buy a home, make home improvements or go to the spa,” said Jon Haveman, chief economist with the Bay Area Council’s Economic Institute. “They will dine out more often. They spend more at the mall.”

Much the same is true with the

housing industry. Rising demand spurs construction of new homes and apartments. Newly purchased houses are filled with furniture, often new. Backyards receive upgrades, with the help of frequent trips to the hardware store or garden supply shop. Mortgage providers hire loan agents. Commissions for real estate agents swell. Those virtuous cycles vanished when the housing bubble popped.

The employment gains in the Bay Area housing sector during the peak year of 2005, compared with now, illustrate the problem. In the first nine months of 2011, Bay Area construction companies added 3,200 jobs. Over the first nine months of 2005, construction gained 4,700 jobs. The difference is akin to a Solyndra solar plant. The contrast is even starker in the finance, insurance and real estate sectors, which have numerous jobs linked to housing. In the first nine months of 2011, Bay Area financial businesses shed 1,500 jobs. During the same nine months of 2005, financial companies added 3,100 jobs. That 4,600-job swing equates to a NUMMI factory.

“We don’t need construction to go all the way back to the 2005 levels,” Michael said. “But it has to get off the floor, to improve from these abnormally low levels.”

For now, the thousands of new jobs in construction are a welcome sign.

“Things are looking a little better,” Brent Judd, a project supervisor for Tilton Pacific, said of local construction activity. “It’s not dramatic. But things have stabilized.”

Tilton Pacific is the general contractor for a new shopping center in Pleasanton that will be anchored by a big Safeway store. Joining construction in the upswing are transportation and warehousing, which gained 9,500 jobs, and retail, which added 2,300 jobs. Even the battered manufacturing sector rose by 3,900 jobs.

“We are hiring people all the time,” said Nathan Tyson, an engineer at Chevron’s refinery in Richmond.

He started a few years ago as a tank turnaround engineer for the Richmond refinery. He now works as a design engineer at the plant.

The improvement in retail is significant because it reflects a stronger job market in other sectors. If residents are working, they are more likely to shop. New entrants into the supermarket sector, coupled with Safeway’s store expansions and revamps, also may have spurred some hiring.

Fresh Easy and Sprouts Farmers Markets have been opening new stores. REI opened a new store in Dublin. Auto dealers have been growing. Whole Foods and Sunflower Farmers Markets have announced, or recently opened, new stores in the Bay Area.

Safeway held a jobs fair recently for its new Pleasanton store. The supermarket estimated that 600 people showed up in person and 1,000 applied online.

“We ended up hiring 240 employees,” said Susan Houghton, a spokeswoman for Safeway.

Despite the hopeful signs, weaknesses persist in the Bay Area — meaning it will take years to fully recover. Arts and entertainment, hotels and dining and beverage establishments, along with government, have shed jobs lately.

“It’s going to take a certain amount of time to bleed off the excess debt in the economy because of the credit and housing bubbles,” said Michael Yoshikami, chief investment officer with Walnut Creek-based YCMNet. “We won’t see a meaningful jobs rebound for a few years.”

Contact George Avalos at 925-977-8477. Follow him at twitter.com/george_avalos.

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(c)2011 the Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.)

Visit the Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.) at www.contracostatimes.com

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A service of YellowBrix, Inc. Publication date: 2011-10-31

Source: By George Avalos, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.

Article source: http://www.loansafe.org/bay-area-economy-could-fizzle-if-recovery-fails-to-broaden-beyond-high-tech-industry

Oct. 16 (Source: By Eve Mitchell, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.) - More parents are helping their adult children buy their first home by taking care of the down payment at a time when home prices are low and financing is tough.Christian Fernandez has a place to call his own, thanks to his parents providing most of the 20 percent down payment and closing costs on the $345,000 two-bedroom condominium in Daly City he moved into four months ago. Without the financial help from his parents, Fernandez could not have bought his condo.

“Getting hold of that down payment just doesn’t come easy. … I had set aside some money myself but they supplemented it greatly,” said the 27-year-old, who works in engineering after graduating last year from San Francisco State with a degree in mechanical engineering.

“We are Filipinos and have taken it upon ourselves the responsibility of putting our kids through college (and helping them buy a home),” said Fernandez’s mother, Cynthia Andaya, 57, of Hercules. “Primarily, this is our inheritance to them.”

Fernandez is not alone. Hard numbers are difficult to come by, but from April to June 2011, 21.5 percent of first-time buyers received a down payment as a gift or borrowed it from a relative, up from 14.3 percent in 2006 in the same time frame, according to the California Association of Realtors. Realtors say most of the help is probably in the form of a gift.

Realtor Orhan Tolu has handled about six transactions, including the one for Fernandez, in the past

five months in which parents covered the down payment.

“The kids have the job and can afford the mortgage payment” but need help with the down payment, said Tolu, a broker with Century 21 Realty Alliance, which has offices in San Mateo and San Francisco. “It’s like an investment in the kid’s future because prices in the Bay Area are eventually going to go up again.”

Parents helping out their children with the down payment is not new, but tougher lending standards and low home prices have resulted in it happening more in the past few years, real estate industry experts say.

“Five years ago, prices were higher but financing was easier. A lot of people could qualify for 100 percent financing,” Tolu said.

“I’d say there is more motivation now. Parents who have been through previous real estate cycles see this as an opportunity. The parents are encouraging the kids to get into the market,” said Kevin Kieffer, a Realtor with the Danville office of Keller Williams Realty.

“Prices are at a range now that makes homeownership much more affordable,” Jon Wood, a Realtor with the Walnut Creek office of J. Rockcliff Realtors. “You can buy a single-family house in Concord for under $200,000.”

Some parents are helping out with the down payment because they can’t find an appropriate investment in today’s volatile economy. “They’re willing to help out their kids. They are looking for a safer investment,” he said.

But before providing the down payment, parents need to take into account that they could get hit with gift taxes if it goes over a certain amount.

They also need to be sure that giving the money away won’t hurt their own retirement plans.

“One of the things you should think about is whether this gift will be subject to gift tax calculations,” said Megan Rouse, a financial planner in Dublin. “It’s great to be generous, but it’s also important to look at your overall financial situation and (know) that it’s extra cash you can afford to give away.”

For tax year 2011, a taxpayer can give up to $13,000 per-year per-person (a married couple can give up to $26,000 a year) and not worry about gift taxes. Anything above the annual cap is subtracted from the lifetime $5 million limit for making tax-free gifts.

If taxpayers think they are going to go over the annual cap, they should first consult a financial planner or certified public accountant to discuss the tax implications, said Rouse.

Parents also need to make it clear that the money is indeed a gift and not a loan when they are helping out a child with a down payment. That can be done by writing a letter to the lender stating that the money is a gift, said Kieffer, the Danville Realtor. Otherwise, the lender will look at the down payment as a loan that has to repaid, which could make it harder for the child to get financing.

Even though home prices are at a low point, “the down payment can be pretty daunting in the Bay Area,” especially if the buyer is seeking a conventional loan that typically requires at least a 20 percent down payment, Kieffer said.

But not all down payment gifts from parents come with such a big price tag. Many parents are providing the 3.5 percent down payment required for Federal Housing Administration loans, said Kieffer.

An FHA down payment lessens the likelihood of running into gift-tax issues, he said.

No matter which route a parent provides a down payment to a child, it’s a “way to help kick start them into homeownership,” Kieffer said.

Contact Eve Mitchell at 925-952-2690.

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(c)2011 the Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.)

Visit the Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.) at www.contracostatimes.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services

A service of YellowBrix, Inc. Publication date: 2011-10-16

Source: By Eve Mitchell, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.

Article source: http://www.loansafe.org/with-a-little-help-from-the-parents

Walnut Creek, CA (PRWEB) September 01, 2011

Stokley Properties a Bay Area property management company is announcing an Eviction Protection Program that is being offered to all of their clients throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, Concord, San Ramon, Brentwood, Martinez and Oakland. They are releasing this program now because of the rise in evictions and the company’s desire to offer a service to their loyal clients.

“This is important because the number of evictions is up due to the current poor economic times we are experiencing. The concerns landlords have these days is how much will evictions cost and how long will they take. Our program takes the worry out of that,” said Joseph Stokley Jr. of Stokley Properties.

People know evictions can happen to any landlord no matter how well the tenant is screened. Circumstances change in people’s lives and sometimes they are not able to pay the rent. This is especially true when people lose their jobs, get a divorce or suffer a serious injury. When they aren’t able to pay the rent they can also find it difficult to find the money to move. When this happens the property owner has to go through a costly procedure of evicting the tenant.

Each month there are thousands of evictions filed in the area and with the real unemployment rate at 16.4 percent there are a lot of people on the edge of being evicted. According to the Contra Costa Times, there has been a 46 percent increase in evictions cases handled by the Bay Area Legal Aid of Oakland in 2009 and 2010.

The Bay Area’s Stokley Properties, serving Concord, San Ramon, Brentwood, Martinez and Oakland, is offering the eviction protection program to clients for the small fee of $10 per month for each unit. This program will cover the cost of all non-jury trial evictions.

“We pay for everything from beginning to end. The landlord will be covered,” Joseph Stokley added.

Stokley Properties believes that this will be a well-received service by their clients during these turbulent economic times being a landlord.

For more information about the company, please visit their website www.stokleypropertieseastbay.net/ to learn more about the announcement. Interested parties may also call them at (925) 658-1415 for any inquiries.

About Stokley Properties

Stokley Properties, Inc. is a licensed Property Management Company and California Real Estate Brokerage Firm. We provide property management services in Contra Costa and Alameda Counties in the San Francisco East Bay Area.

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Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/09/01/prweb8766112.DTL

Aug. 12 (Source: By Eve Mitchell, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.) - When the country’s credit rating was downgraded, experts thought interest rates would shoot up, another jolt to the struggling real estate market.The opposite happened, but that good news has been offset by the stock market’s wild swings.

Low interest rates can attract homebuyers, but that is only one part of the decision, said Faramarz Moeen-Ziai, a mortgage banker with San Ramon-based Bank of Commerce. A healthy job market is more important.

“The primary factor driving a purchase decision is people’s income,” he said. “And until we see unemployment go down, we’re not going to see (an increase in homebuying).”

Refinancing is another matter, however, as homeowners who have adequate equity rush to take advantage of low interest rates. “In the last week, we’ve noticed a spike in refinancing,” said Moeen-Ziai, who estimated that volume has about tripled.

The past two weeks have certainly been a test for the Bay Area housing market. Wild stock swings, the credit downgrade and continuing concerns about the economy have certainly weighed on buyers, sellers and their agents.

Rebecca Gallardo with Protello Group Real Estate Services in San Jose said she had a client pull out of a deal “because of the volatility. He thinks he’ll get a better deal come December.”

But not everyone is spooked.

“The financial unrest of last week has not had an impact on my decision to buy a home. I still consider purchasing a home one of

the best investments I can make,” Matthew Le, a 26-year-old San Francisco renter who is looking to buy a home in Pleasant Hill, wrote in an email.

“I have not had a buyer walk,” said Joy Di Ricco, a Realtor with the Antioch office of Better Homes and Gardens Mason-McDuffie Real Estate.

Still, it’s important to communicate with buyers, Di Ricco added. “They’re nervous,” she said. “If you don’t communicate, you will lose your buyers.”

Before it was evident that interest rates would be heading south, Realtors said they fielded calls from some concerned clients.

Cathy Warshawsky of Bay Area Home Loans in San Jose said she had several clients who were “working like mad” with their Realtors over concerns that interest rates would go up. “They were really scrambling.”

But other agents were surprised by their clients’ calm.

“I thought a lot of my buyers would be calling me saying, ‘I’m frightened’ about this and that and the other. But actually my buyers are acting contrary to how I might have expected them to,” said Anne Walker, an agent with Coldwell Banker in Cupertino.

“There’s so much pent-up demand for purchasing real estate that people (who) are so strongly set in moving in the direction of purchasing, that no matter what happens with the stock market and the SP rating, it just doesn’t seem to be deterring them.”

Economic issues are of course a factor, but for many buyers the choice is really about a place to live.

“Buyers are still careful buyers,” said Kristine Marr, a senior loan officer with RPM Mortgage in Walnut Creek. They want to find the right home and that’s what’s driving the buyer mostly as long as they are preapproved and ready to buy,” she said.

Contact Eve Mitchell at 925-952-2690 or emitchell@bayareanewsgroup.com.

Source: By Eve Mitchell, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.

To see more of the Contra Costa Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.contracostatimes.com/.

Copyright (c) 2011, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.

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Article source: http://www.loansafe.org/homebuyers-have-mixed-reactions-to-market-swings