Cabrillo Robotics Team Places First in International Competition

Ruth Bates

831.359.2212

ruthbates1@gmail.com

CalBRE#01799929

30-YEAR FIXED INTEREST RATES UP TO 6.5%!

Interest rates are climbing! A year ago, one could get a 3.0% 30-year fi xed mortgage. As of 7/05/22, one can now pay 6.5% (bankrate.com). Say you want to purchase a $1,600,000 home and you have 20% down. Your loan would then be 80% = $1,280,000. At 3.0% rate, your monthly payment = $5397/month. At 6.5% rate, payment jumps to $8091. To keep the monthly payment at $5397, you would have to reduce your 80% loan to $853,800 which would mean you could only aff ord a home sales price of $1,067,250 vs. $1,600,000, thus you have lost 33% of your buying power with a 6.5% vs. 3.0% rate. This is signifi cant; I believe home prices will see downward pricing pressure. (Note: rates down to 5.7% as of 7/12)

THE MARKET IS SLOWING DOWN

As of 7/05/22, 32 homes have sold in Aptos in the past 30 days. All of the high sales took > 14 days to sell.

RDM/SEASCAPE — high sale is 2140 Dolphin, listed for $1,899,000, 3 bed, 2 bath, 1852 SF, 30 days on market, sold for $1,700,000, 89.5% of list

SEACLIFF — high sale is 123 Sea Terrace, listed for $2,875,000, 4 bed, 2 bath, 2260 SF, 29 days on market, sold for $2,490,000, 86.6% of list

APTOS-East of H1 — high sale is 20 Pleasant Heights, listed for $2,995,000, 5 bed, 3.5 bath, 3773 SF on 1.34 acres, 55 days on market, sold for $2,745,000, 91.6% of list. The overall high sale was 785 Las Olas which sold for $10,000,000! The lowest sale was 213 Martin in Rio Del Mar, which listed for $1,185,000 and sold for $1,060,000, 89.5% of list.

INVENTORY STILL LOW

As of 7/03, there are 42 homes for sales in Aptos (vs. 34 last month), 6 condos, and 6 Townhouses. The Average Days on Market (DOM) has increased; houses (41 DOM), condos (21 DOM), townhomes (33DOM). The Average List Price remains quite high; houses - $2,373,736 Avg List, $1,900,000 Median List. Condos Avg List $781,750, Townhomes Avg List $1,159,000.

NEW LISTING

I have a New Listing in Upper Westside Santa Cruz. 400 Schiller Place, custom built in 2015, 4 beds, 3.5 baths, 3131 Sq. Ft. on .9 acres. Asking $2,499,000. Call me for more information.

Call, email, text, and. Get Results With Ruth!

COMMUNITY NEWS

Cabrillo Robotics Team Places First in International Competition

The Cabrillo College Robotics Club, represented by Ciaran Farley, Isaac Wax, and Spencer Koontz, earned First Place Overall in the worldwide MATE ROV Competition in June 23 – 25 in Long Beach.

The Cabrillo team competed in the Pioneer Division, the next to the highest level, where their underwater robot won champion awards in Engineering Presentation and Technical Documentation.

“All three of us had done MATE in high school, in the Scout and Navigator classes that only go to regional competitions,” said Farley. “Now in college, we had the opportunity to participate in the Pioneer class at the world competition, and we brought home an overall win, plus Engineering and Documentation wins! It made all of the lost sleep and time we took off of work well worth it!”

Cabrillo alum Carter Frost assisted with the code.

The locals brought home $700 for their efforts after facing competitors from Pasadena, Savannah, Georgia, and Cedar Bluff, Virginia.

“Robotics” page 17

“Aromas Lithuanians” from page 11

Her older sister Diamante said it was too hot and she did not like that but she liked that there were many horses here because she loves horses.

The San Francisco Bay Area Lithuanian Community has been in existence since 1952 and has about 600 or so members, according to its current president, Mindaugas Satis.

A desire to socialize with fellow Lithuanians, speak the language, and experience their homeland’s culture, was the impetus for World War II emigrants from Europe to create the organization in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as other cities in the U.S. and throughout the world where Lithuanians had emigrated.

Nowadays the members are young, highly-educated Lithuanians who have come to this area because of jobs in the technology industry and education. They all speak fluent English, Lithuanian and usually one or more languages.

Did you know that Lithuania was the last European nation to accept Christianity? First Christianized in 1250-51, this christening did not stick as they stubbornly persisted in worshipping their pagan gods of nature. It was not until 1387 that the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Jogaila, married Queen Jadwiga of Poland that Christianity was fully accepted. As a condition of the marriage treaty, Jogaila and all of Lithuania had to become Roman Catholic.

Along with the new religion, the Lithuanians accepted the Roman Catholic saints’ days, one of which was St. John (Jonas, in Lithuanian) and as usually happens in circumstances like this, pagan customs were incorporated into religious ceremonies. Sometimes known as Midsummer Eve’s Festival, Jonines occurs on June 24, the longest day and the shortest night of the year.

Lithuanian-Americans, while happy to be working and living in the United States and enjoying its benefits, want their children to learn their Lithuanian language, history, and culture. Most Lithuanian communities in the United States have churches, schools, cultural and benevolent organizations which they themselves support without any government assistance.

The S.F. Lithuanian Community opened their own Saturday school called “Genys” (woodpecker) in 2006.

The school has weekly Saturday classes in Castro Valley and has about 50 students. They learn to speak, read, write and sing in the Lithuanian language as well as Lithuanian history, geography, folk dances, folk songs and customs and culture. There are classes for adults as well. n •••

For more information about the San Francisco Lithuanian Community and their school, Genys, please go to sflithuanians.org For Lithuanian worldwide news in English, please go to www.draugas.org. (Draugas means “friend.”)