Homebuilders constructed almost 30% fewer single-family homes in the Central Valley in the first half of 2024. As of July 25 builders constructed 2178 homes in Madera, Fresno, Tulare and Kings counties compared to 2986 in the same period and 2023. Statistics are from Construction Monitor.For the same time frame in 2022 builders permitted 2917 new homes.
Builders and homebuyers alike have been constrained by high interest rates that have only started to fall in the past four months.
30 year mortgage rates
Now they are dropping more this week.
As of April of this year the average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 7.05 in April compared to 6.31% today(July 31) according to Zillow. With the Fed expected to reduce interest rates for the first time this fall, mortgage rates should continue to drop, experts say.
Below 6% Percent
Thirty-year fixed mortgage rates parallel the 10-year Treasury yield which has dropped from 4.70 in late April to 3.79 this week .
On Saturday Aug 3 Zillow said ” The current average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell 7 basis points from 6.03% to 5.96% on Saturday.”
Korean-made automobiles continue to move higher in sales in California. The Visalia Kia dealership is owned by Dwight Nelson who also owns the Selma Auto Mall. Dwight’s daughter Amber Nelson Billingsley, who is Director of Marketing for Visalia Kia says sales are trending higher for all Korean brands including Kia and Hyundai, parent company of Kia. The Nelson family markets both lines in Selma. Now plans have been filed to remodel the Visalia Kia dealership at 825 South Ben Maddox with a new showroom adding 9600sft to the dealership and taking the total size to 16,300sft. Amber says they hope to start construction on the remodeled dealership by the end of this year. Amber adds that Kia is popular with “a wide range of demographics” and adds the car” features advanced technology, as well as offering sleek style and comfortable” seating.
Updated look and more space for Visalia Kia on Ben Maddox.
Both Hyundai and Kia are offering more electric car lines that are also selling well. Year to date Hyundai electric car sales are up 66% and Kia electric car sales are up 72% from the first half of 2023. The California New Car Dealers Assn says second quarter sales of the Kia brand are up 5.1% versus the same time in 2023 Hyundai sales are also up 9.7%. Bakersfield car dealer Patrick Beck who owns Visalia Hyundai has said he plans to build a new dealership off Plaza Drive in Visalia relocating from their current Ben Maddox site.
Marquez Bros buying 50 acres once coveted by HS Rail
Marquez Bros International makes a variety of dairy products including Hispanic cheese at their crowded square- block plant on 11th St in Hanford that clearly has no room to grow. Popular brands made here include El Mexicano variety of cheeses. Given the popularity of Mexican cuisine, Hispanic-style cheese appears to have a bright future particularly in California and the Central Valley.
California Milk Advisory Board Foodservice representative Katie Cameron says “All major Hispanic-style cheese/dairy products are projected to grow through 2025.”
It may not be surprising that Hispanic varieties of cheese enjoy a big market in California after seeing waves of immigrants come here in the past 30 years. Today California’s Hispanic population is about 40%, 55% in Fresno County, 56% in Kings and 67% in Tulare County. Families are not just eating these foods at home, Mexican food is the most popular cuisine when Californians eat out. IBIS World says there are a staggering 17,606 Mexican restaurants calling California home. In some counties in California one third of the restaurants serve Mexican food.
Another trend is also driving consumption of cheese. If Americans are drinking less fluid milk, they are more than making up for it at the cheese aisle. People are drinking half the amount of fluid milk than we did in 1975 but at the same time per capita consumption of cheese has grown threefold and yogurt is being gobbled up by a factor of seven from just 2 pounds per person in 1975 to 17 pounds per person in 2022.
Both cheese and yogurt drink products are the big sellers at Marquez international. The San Jose-based company makes 12 varieties of cheeses, flavorful creams, 10 yogurt varieties, meats like chorizo, canned and packaged goods, beverages and of course – desserts. Tasty crumbled cheese for your tacos and enchiladas are a big seller.
Marquez Bros was founded in 1981. They opened in Kings County not just because the consumer market is here but also the milk supply is here. Milk is delivered to the Hanford plant regularly by California Dairies Inc., the cooperative based in Visalia.
Now Marquez Bros are planning what will be one of the largest manufacturing plants in Kings County behind Leprino in Lemoore. The company has filed environmental documents with the City of Hanford to build a 50-acre dairy product manufacturing campus along Lacey Boulevard next to the high-speed rail elevated track just beyond the traffic circle and the Pemex gas station east of town. Before construction can start, the city will need to annex the land.
The plan calls for a nine-phase expansion at the former cherry orchard that would result in 730,000 square feet of buildings built over a decade. Once all phases are done, the plant could employ 200 and be visited by 120 trucks a day. The value of all the improvements at this site is likely many hundreds of millions of dollars although no one from the company would talk to us to confirm or ask any questions. By way of comparison a new 500,000 square foot cheese plant in Ohio – Great Lakes Cheese- has a construction value of $621 million.
Public meeting July 8
A first look at the plans will happen July 8 at 5 PM at City Hall where a scoping session will be held on the project. The meeting is open to the public. This is the first in a multiple step environmental study that will have more public meetings and an invitation to comment. Odor problems at the 11th St. plant in the past will focus efforts to ensure that does not happen with this new facility.
From the documents filed, this is a massive undertaking. It will start with clearing the land, putting in utilities, founding a wastewater treatment plant and building a cold storage. All this before they start making cheese here. The dairy facility will also have a milk receiving station, a whey plant and a plastic bottle manufacturing unit.
The building for cheese manufacturing will be 185,000sf. Once buildings are operational and production begins, the facility anticipates running on a 24-hour/5-7 day.
The land where Marquez Brothers plans to build has been owned by farmer Ernie Costamagna since 2012 who apparently has a contract to sell the property once contingencies are removed. Costamagna did not return phone calls. The land’s location offers the dairy manufacturer the use of rail as well as highways to ship and receive because of its location along the Cross Valley rail line.Unlike their 11th St. cheese plant, there’s plenty of room to expand that will likely allow the company to exponentially expand production.For the city the project means plenty of new property tax monies coming to help bolster the city budget.
For the adjacent property owner, California High-Speed Rail, the plan amounts to a hiccup for the future location of the California High-Speed rail station serving Kings and Tulare County.
In April 2023, High Speed Rail consultants offered location maps and design concepts for several Valley high-speed rail stations that will be built in coming years. The map for the Kings County station shows almost 3000 visitor parking spaces and the entrance to the station at the base of the elevated tracks right where the cheese plant will now be built (see map).
Station design
The Kings-Tulare station will feature elevated platforms and a protective canopy, with services and amenities located directly below.
Here is how consultants describe the station: “A short distance away from the city of Hanford, the Kings Tulare station is designed to create a streamlined experience for those arriving by bus, car, or bicycle. The elevated platforms and protective canopy will be added to the Hanford viaduct currently under construction. All of the station’s services and amenities will be located directly below, creating an easy and intuitive passenger journey. The adjacent public plaza will serve as a local community asset.” Each station will have an 80 to 90-foot-tall metal canopy covering the superstructures. Three stations will have raised platforms where riders board the trains, with Fresno as the outlier. Kings/Tulare and Bakersfield will have their entire station and concourse beneath the platform.The station’s platform will be raised 56 feet, allowing trains to pass over the adjacent Route 198 highway. The site plan includes parking for 2,870 cars and 290 bicycles. Transit bus bays and pick-up spaces will be incorporated immediately next to a landscaped public park. The parking will be spread across several surface lots surrounding. Now apparently high-speed rail will move this parking and staging area for the station to the north of the Cross Valley Rail and away from Highway 198 and Lacey Boulevard that was to be the main road access.
The latest plan would use the parcel where the rail contractor stores large concrete and steel components used to build the elevated tracks. Those tracks- the one mile long Hanford Viaduct – now crosses Highway 198 heading to Corcoran. Road access to this dirt site would have to be constructed off Highway 43.
Nevertheless, HSR is not publicly acknowledging the issue saying only that “On April 30, the California High-Speed Rail Authority presented updates regarding the design and the future plans of the Kings/Tulare Regional High-Speed Rail Station to be built in Kings County. Community members were in attendance along with representatives from the Marquez Brothers. The future station is to be built on property adjacent to an active high-speed rail construction site known as the Hanford Viaduct. The Authority is in the beginning stages to acquire the property.
The Authority has worked with representatives of Kings County and the City of Hanford for several years to keep them informed of the environmental footprint that is cleared for the build out of the station facilities.” For high-speed rail the change of plans is simply the way the cheese crumbles.
Visalia new home permits, commercial construction also slowed
Sales of existing homes in Tulare County took a tumble in June says the Tulare County Association of Realtors. June typically is a busy time for home transactions but this year with the backdrop of high interest rates, Tulare County completed home sales fell from 263 in May to 198.Vislalia sales also fell to just 86 compared to 178 in June 2022 and 116 in May 2024. The median sales price in Visalia fell to $400,000 in June – down from $411,000 in May 2024.
This week the mortgage rates in California are 7.014% for a 30-year fixed loan, 6.284% for a 15-year fixed, and 7.745% for a 5-year adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM).
Tulare County Association of Realtors chart
Meanwhile the slowing trend can be seen in new home permit activity in recent months in Visalia. In the earlier part of the year new home permits were ahead of last year’s pace, but in May and now in June the number of new home permits has fallen behind last year’s pace for the same months.
Slowdown seen
According to Construction Monitor, Visalia has permitted 134 new single-family homes so far in 2024 at of July 1. For the same period in 2023, the city permitted 180 new homes.
More slowdown in commercial building as well during the first six months of the year the value was $72.8 million – half the number in the same time period in 2023 whe commercial construction in Visalia was $ 141.7 million. Commercial valuations are harder to spot trends considering one large warehouse project in the industrial park can be valued at $100 million all by itself.
More slowdown in commercial building as well during the first six months of the year the value was $72.8 million – half the number in the same time period in 2023 whe commercial construction in Visalia was $ 141.7 million. Commercial valuations are harder to spot trends considering one large warehouse project in the industrial park can be valued at $100 million all by itself.
A new City of Visalia monthly report says the city permitted 94 new multi-family permits in June taking the total to 323 units so far this year – well ahead of last year’s 12 units pace. Single family home permits are down 16% from last year.
The Bee will print 3 days a week: California newspapers keep shrinking. The Fresno Bee will be transitioning to a 24/7 digital product with three days of print (Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday) beginning July 8.
McClatchy-owned Bee joins the same company owned San Luis Obispo Tribune that announced in April it would cut back to two days a week in April for its print edition.
Earlier this year the Los Angeles Times reported that their last printing press facility in Downtown Los Angeles closed down after printing its final paper. At one time LA Times four facilities printed 1.5 million Sunday papers. The one remaining Olympic plant printed about 100,000 papers at shutdown. They used to print for other papers but that business is gone too. The newspaper and its small circulation will go to a contract plant in Riverside.
Wildfire watch
Wet start to summer for the Pacific Northwest. The Pacific Northwest has seen good rainfall earlier this year and now forecasts suggest the next month will be relatively wet as well. That could mean fewer wildfires this summer at least until late.In California, similar to last year, a slow beginning to the peak fire season is forecast for California, with below normal potential forecast for much of California in June and for the Sierra and coast in July.
However, significant fire potential is forecast to rise to above normal across the central and southern California coast and southern Sierra Foothills in September due to heavy fine fuel loading. Although it’s been a fiery start to the California fire season in Southern California this month experts still predict below average acreage
Many people didn’t head to the movie theaters during the Covid years and now they are slow to return
The second largest theater chain Regal declared bankruptcy last year and closed many theaters including one in Visalia. Regal is privately held and does not publish their attendance figures. But the largest chain AMC is traded on the stock market and does report their financial numbers including theater attendance.
While this chart shows modest increases in US attendance last year theatre attendance in 2023 was 60% of average for earlier years. In the first quarter of 2024 AMC reported a decline to 30,490 movie goers in the US compared to 32,362 in the first quarter of 2023, about a 7% drop. The company’s stock is hurting as can be seen from this chart.
In terms to trends, 20 years of move theatre attendance tells the story. In 2004 ,twenty years ago ,1.5 million tickets were sold in the US. In 2024 that number is down to 640,000 using annualized figures so far this year, a drop of 58%
Frozen Mexican food maker Ruiz Foods will close its Tulare city manufacturing facility on K St as an active production site this summer, the company said May 29.
Some 215 employees work in Tulare who will lose their job.
The plant opened in 2004 to complement their Dinuba plant and was originally intended to be a short-term additional capacity option according to a company statement.
The family firm was first launched in Tulare with a company history remembering “Ruiz Foods began in a small warehouse in Tulare, California, with two employees, a few appliances, and Grandma Rosie’s recipes for enchiladas, burritos, and tamales.”
They moved headquarters to Dinuba and now is based in Texas as of 2023. Ruiz Foods relocated its corporate office from Dinuba to Frisco, Texas talking about 125 jobs expected by 2026. The company has estimated annual sales of over $1 billion, Ruiz said during his 2021 UC Merced commencement speech.
“After 20 years of service, we have determined that the facility is too small and requires substantial capital investment to meet our manufacturing needs or remain a viable part of the Ruiz Foods network. Ruiz Foods has decided to retire the Tulare plant at the end of our fiscal year and will close between August 30 and Sept. 13, 2024.”
“While this is the right decision for our business, we recognize the impact on our valued Tulare team members and will be working to provide support and options during this transition including, for some, an option to transfer to our Dinuba plant.”
Ruiz Foods Products, Inc. is a privately-owned corporation co-founded by Fred Ruiz and his father, Louis, in 1964. Ruiz Foods sells prepared frozen foods to all channels of distribution: retail, convenience store, clubs, vending, industrial, and food service. Ruiz Foods’ El Monterey® brand is the #1 selling frozen Mexican food in the United States and Tornados®, the company’s snack brand, is a leader on the convenience store roller grill. Headquartered in Frisco, Texas, Ruiz Foods employs more than 4,000 Team Members and has five manufacturing facilities located in California, Texas and South Carolina.
Texas wants to launch their own stock market to clamp down on what they see as “woke” policies. While Texas can brag they stole Tesla from California and is now its most valuable firm,Texas can also point to big oil companies Exxon-Mobil, Phillips 66, and Valero Energy as three of their five top companies; they also have AT&T and McKesson in their top five by value as Tesla is not in the latest ranking.Texas number one company as of ealy 2024 is Exxon Mobile at $484 billion in revenue.
But it is hard to argue with California and specifically the Bay Area as the world leader in the number of high value companies headquartered here and several with market caps in the trillions of dollars – not billions, mostly in technology. Forty one of the top 50 most valuable companies in California are headquartered in the Bay Area as of May 2024 and amazingly, 80 of the top 100 companies in the state have their corporate offices in the greater SF area showing the breadth of the area’s dominance. Led by Nvidia,Apple and Alphabet (Google) these companies are also number 2,3 and 4 in the United States with Microsoft, based in Minnesota, listed as number one. Meta (Facebook) is in the top 10, based in Palo Alto.Other top 10 companies are also from the West Coast based in Seattle including Microsoft,Amazon and Costco. Besides computer companies – California sports top financial firms Visa and Wells Fargo – both based in San Francisco. Nationwide 4 of the top 10 companies in the US are based in the Bay Area. Another ranking adds Broadcom also hailing from the Bay Area. As of June 2024 S- based Chevron has a market cap of $285.43 Billion ,the world’s 33th most valuable company by market cap. Fortune report Just this month, Fortune magazine announced that California was home to 57 of the nation’s 500 largest companies. A higher number than every other state in the country.
The news is getting the attention of Governor Gavin Newsom, who took to X to brag about the state’s lead over rivals Texas and Florida.
Of the 57 companies statewide, 44 of them are based here in the Bay Area – with the vast majority of them being tech-related. The Chronicle wrote a story.
Experts say the Bay Area’s economic ecosystem is unique with everything from high levels of investment, innovation and a highly qualified workforce.”
“There was another release that San Franciscans have the highest level of educated employees in the country. And that’s another piece where academia is so important,” said Rodney Fong, of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.
One of the biggest contributors to California’s performance this year was the growth of artificial intelligence companies.
Nearly all of the big players in AI are based here in the Bay Area, and with the technology still in its infancy, many believe the explosion of growth is just beginning.
“There is a lot of fuel to burn here so we can go to the maturity level of AI. And if AI technology one day became mainstream, then there’s another technology that would show up here in Silicon Valley and start the cycle again,” said Ahmed Banafa. professor at San Jose State University.
There is still some bad news for San Francisco’s economic recovery. A huge office complex in the city is reportedly losing another major tenant.
He says despite the tough times both the Bay Area and California went through following the pandemic, he’s optimistic about the state long term.
“California goes through cycles. It might go down a little bit for a few years but it goes back to the top immediately,” said Banafa.
After California, New York and Texas tied for second place, with 52 companies each.
As you can read from this chart on the top 25 companies in California by market cap, 22 of them are based in the Bay Area.
Kaweah Health’s Lifestyle Fitness Center has continued to see a strong post-pandemic recovery, says a board memo.Net Revenue has increased by 7% over the past four years. The FY 2024 contribution margin of $562,461 is higher than FY 2021 and FY 2022, although a 9% decrease from FY2023.
Membership enrollment continues to remain strong at just under 11,000 active members. This is a 3% growth over the prior year and 6% over the past four years. Visalians have enjoyed the Lifestyle Center since its founding in 1987.
As of March 31, 2024 there are 10,738 members currently enrolled at the Center, 42% are regularly community memberships, 22% are Silver Sneakers (Medicare Advantage) memberships, 17% are Kaweah Health employee memberships, 11% are senior memberships, 2% corporate memberships and 2% student memberships.
Japanese retailer Daiso coming to Packwood Creek
Japanese discount retailer Daiso will open this fall in the Packwood Creek shopping center next to Lane Bryant.The building is where Kirklands was. Kirkland’s closed their Visalia store last week. Daiso is a retail chain, known for its large array of “unique and affordable” products across various categories such as Japanese inspired household goods.This would be the first store in the SJ Valley with all outlets in LA or the Bay Area.
JoAnn stores coming out of bankruptcy
Fabric store retailer Joanne stores has announced they will exit bankruptcy shortly. That would be good news for Visalia who has the main West Coast distribution center for the company in the industrial park along with a retail outlet on Mooney.
Main Street Theatre marquee to be lit
Mulligan’s Indoor Golf Club inside the Main St Theatre complex in Downtown Visalia will open its doors May 10 7 to 9 Pm for a special lighting ceremony of the former theater’s marquee. Mulligans offers seven ultra high end golf simulators where you can play 90+ world renown courses. Mulligans also features a full bar, kitchen, and club memberships.The business is expected to open for regular use in June
Updated on: May 8, 2024 / 9:49 AM MDT / CBS Colorado
The American Southwest and its drinking water may not be in as bad of shape as originally thought. A new study coming from researchers at CU Boulder, reveals that precipitation, not temperature, will keep the Colorado River fuller than previous research told us.
The Journal of Climate published the study Tuesday as a guide for policymakers, water managers, states and tribes to figure out how to monitor the river until 2050. New guidelines are going to replace regulations from 2007, which are set to expire at the end of 2026.
Comprehensive climate model analysis from CIRES, an institute of the University of Colorado Boulder, forecasting precipitation for the next 25 years, shows a 70% chance of increased precipitation compared with the last two decades, which brought the Colorado River to a devastating drought.
“The temperature is warming, but that’s not the full story — you add precipitation and you get a fuller picture,” says Balaji Rajagopalan, co-author of the study.
Researchers studied Lee’s Ferry flows, which are the dividing point of the Colorado’s upper and lower basins, and where many tourists typically launch boats into the Grand Canyon.
“We find it is more likely than not that Lee Ferry flows will be greater during 2026-2050 than since 2000 as a consequence of a more favorable precipitation cycle,” says Martin Hoerling, the paper’s lead author. “This will compensate the negative effects of more warming in the near term. There’s roughly a 4% chance that Lee Ferry flows could decline another 20% in the next quarter century compared to the last 20 years.”
Colorado River headwaters originate as snow in Colorado and Wyoming mountains above 10,000 feet and supplies water to 40 million people in seven states and parts of Mexico.
Scientists have regarded 15 million acre feet of water as a key figure in measuring Colorado River flows. They’ve garnered that the river has had extreme wet and dry periods throughout the last century starting in 1895. Since the 2000 megadrought, the river has produced around 12.5 million acre feet each year. Arizona, California and Nevada have agreed to save three million acre feet ahead of the 2026 deadline.
