Karen Mangini leaves a profound legacy from her 43-year career in education

Over the past several months, many clients have expressed concerns about an impending housing market crash.

While it’s true that home values have experienced a minor decrease compared to 2022, I assure them this does not indicate a crash. Rather, it suggests that the housing market ebbs and flows. I believe it is currently allowing for stabilization in the real estate market due to higher interest rates, home prices rising more quickly than incomes and lower than normal inventory.

Here are three reasons why the housing market is showing resilience:

Low inventory. Today’s typical homeowner has substantial home equity and a fixed-rate mortgage locked in at a rate well below 5%. A recent study by Redfin reveals that a remarkable 82.4 percent of current homeowners have mortgage rates below 5%. Therefore, most sellers stay put unless they are forced to sell. The persistent shortage of available properties is the primary reason why buyers are compelled to drive prices. Moreover, this scarcity strongly suggests that the cur- rent supply-and-demand dynamics make a price crash in the near future highly unlikely. Changing demographic patterns. New demographics are giving rise to a fresh wave of potential homebuyers. Amidst the pandemic, numerous existing homeowners in the United States recognized the need for large living spaces, particularly with the surge in remote work. Many Boomers and Millennials have entered the market as well. Stringent lending standards. Lenders require borrowers to have strong credit, employment and income to qualify for a mortgage. This was not the case during the last housing crash. Due to the strength of borrowers, the market is not currently overly impacted by foreclosures or short sales, which is a good indication the housing market remains strong.

It is important to note that the housing market is always subject to various external factors, including economic conditions, government policies and unforeseen events. Vigilance and ongoing analysis of market trends will be crucial to ensuring the continued stability and resilience of the housing market. Nonetheless, the current financial strength of homeowners offers assurance that any potential price declines will be manageable, maintaining a favorable outlook for the housing market in the foreseeable future.

I can tell you without hesitancy there is no substitute for local market knowledge. If you’d like to discuss the sale or purchase of a home, call me at 925-567-6170.

JAY BEDECARRÉ The Pioneer

Karen Mangini was a fourth generation Contra Costan born March 27, 1943, in Concord Hospital, which was then located on Almond Avenue, the same street as her family home. That was a fitting start for a woman who spent the majority of her life living and working in her hometown.

Mangini died June 17 at the hospital (now John Muir Health, Concord Medical Center) where she was born, just three months after celebrating her 80th birthday at a party with family and friends.

Her brother Richard, pastor of St. Bonaventure Catholic Church in Concord for 21 years until his retirement in 2017, says his sister had a medical episode at home and never regained consciousness before she died a few days later surrounded by family in the hospital.

The 1940s Mangini family home was located on a lot that is now part of Queen of All Saints Church in downtown Concord. Across the street was a Portuguese lodge, the future site of Queen of All Saints School where Karen Mangini was in the first kindergarten class.

After graduating from Holy Names High School in Oakland (taking the greyhound bus daily to Oakland to attend classes), she entered the Novitiate of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet in Los Angeles, attending college at Mount Saint Mary’s in preparation for becoming a nun.

She left there after three years and completed her BA at Cal State Hayward and began a

43-year career in education at Catholic and public schools in Livermore while also earning her master’s in education and her administrative services credential.

Mangini started the second phase of her career in 1986 as dean of students at Presentation High School in Berkeley and then was principal at St. Cyril’s School in Oakland.

After an uncle living in the Mangini Ranch home off Pine Hollow Road died in the mid1980s, Richard and Karen Mangini inherited the property once owned by their grandparents. They restored the ranch house, which had been rather neglected, and Karen Mangini moved in there in 1989 from Oakland.

In 1990 she became principal of St. Agnes School in Concord where she spent two decades as its first lay principal before retiring in 2010. Her brother said she always looked to help families in need. If a class wasn’t at capacity and there was a student who couldn’t afford the school’s tuition, she would offer that family admission at no charge. “The chair is empty, why let it sit vacant?” she would say.

“She was a fierce defender of the downtrodden. She always wanted to help people advance themselves educationally and socially,” her brother explained.

Her successor as St. Agnes principal, Jill Lucia, says, “Karen was a legacy; part of a group of legacy principals (at nearby parochial schools) we will never see again. They were steeped in Catholic, faith-centered education.”

Lucia added that Mangini

“was a natural” as principal and that she lived by six words from Micah in the Bible, “Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly.”

Her brother says his sister “was sharing, jovial and happy with a sense of humor and a belly laugh to fill a room and that she gave her all to everything she was a part of.” At the same time “she was most principled and stuck to those principles. She wouldn’t bend the rules but was very compassionate with a heart for people who didn’t have it as good.” Their home is off Pine Hollow Rd. with a Concord zip code but in Contra Costa County. Karen Mangini for decades could be seen walking three to five miles along Pine Hollow and on the “state streets” until a stroke several years ago made that difficult and she stuck closer to home. She was buried at Queen of Heaven Catholic Cemetery in Lafayette in a plot with her parents, Raymond and Margaret Mangini.

Read more about Karen Mangini in her obituary on Page 9.

Share your photos for new books on Concord history

Joel Harris, author of “Images of America Concord,” is working on two new historical books about the city and is asking residents to help him in the process.

Harris will be writing live 1-5 p.m. July 23 at Berkshire Books, 3480 Clayton Road. Residents can stop by to submit photos, memorabilia or stories for inclusion in “Concord Then & Now” and “Concord After WWII.”

For more information, email Harris at joelharris@aol.com.