Paris, Jolie

While Los Angeles deals with eternal gridlock, eternal the City of Lights is doing some bold imagining for its future.

Hand it to the French. Who else would pick an economic collapse as a time to unveil one of the most audacious urban plans in recent memory?

Yet the 10 proposals for a new master plan for metropolitan Paris, which were unveiled last week, may just be the kind of brazen idealism the world needs right now.

Among the most audacious is Mr. de Portzamparc's plan, which proposes demolishing both the Gare du Nord and the Gare de l'Est and replacing them with a single massive European train station just outside the city center.

Other plans are more poetic. Jean Nouvel proposes creating a green belt that would circle the entire city. All future construction would be concentrated inside this belt, adding density to what are now sprawling, isolated communities. [Source]

When will the subway to the sea be built? 2032?

Fed to Promote Lower Interest Rates

The Federal Reserve announced Wednesday it will spend up to $300 billion over the next six months to buy long-term government bonds, a new step aimed at lifting the country out of recession by lowering rates on mortgages and other consumer debt.

"This is not only going to keep mortgage rates low for a long period of time," said Greg McBride, a senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com. "The mere announcement may produce a honeymoon effect and bring mortgage rates down to even lower levels in the coming days." [Source]

Recovery may not be far away if interest rates fall from their current levels around 5.25% for a jumbo-conforming loan, a 37-year low. In Los Angeles, loans between $417,000 and $729,750 are characterized as jumbo-conforming for a single family home or condo.

The current flurry of sales activity on the low end, where sales are rising dramatically, will then move up the real estate ladder and prevent prices from cascading downward.

With the Fed's increased purchases of mortgages sold on the secondary market, interest rates for jumbo loans (over $729,750 in Los Angeles) should also come down. In this (hopeful) scenario, the Los Angeles real estate market, from Westside to Eastside, would get some legs.