Ernie's Bar & Grill is promoted as a Gastro-Pub and located at the PGA WEST public course Clubhouse. Ernie’s overlooks the TPC Pete Dye Stadium and Nicklaus Tournament courses.

The hallmark of Gastro-Pub fare is its twist on familiar food, all made from scratch with palette-arousing ingredients. Ernie's offers both a casual and refined atmosphere that welcomes the beer drinker, the wine enthusiast or the hipster looking for a cocktail.

Roomy booths as well as low and high-top tables are positioned for watching sports on TVs and for enjoying golf course views. The large patio boasts both outdoor living room furniture and table dining. Two gas fire pits provide an inviting area to relax, unwind, and socialize around.

Our Recent Dining Experience
Bill and I gave Ernie’s a try for dinner recently. We enjoyed the atmosphere on a fairly quiet evening but the food and service was just a bit off. We sampled two entrees and an appetizer and found everything over salted. Regarding service, we found it necessary to raise our hand when we needed something, including our table setups.

Our thinking is that Ernie’s would be a great spot for lunch, especially on the patio overlooking the action on the two #18 greens of both courses. While we’re not sure about trying it for dinner again, maybe we hit Ernie’s on an off night. Let me know what you think.

Ernie’s Bar & Grill: 56450 PGA West Blvd., La Quinta, is located at the very end of PGA West Boulevard in La Quinta. Note: On the Google map the location is at the end of the street. 

As housing experts continue to debate when or whether the housing market will finally turn around for good in 2010, the one thing most agree upon is that foreclosures and short sales will continue into 2010 or even outpace last year. In a nutshell, this means continued opportunities for bargain hunters this season.

Nationally, a full third of home sales in December were of "distressed properties," representing foreclosures and short sales. Here in the desert, two-thirds of our ’09 sales were distressed properties with a 50/50 split between bank-owned and short sales.

Bank-Owned Properties Moving Quickly
In La Quinta during the last six months the average bank-owned property took 42 days to sell. But with a typical 30-day escrow period, 42 days really translates into just 12 days that a bank owned property was really ‘on the market’ before an offer was accepted. Valley-wide the average bank owned home sells in 46 days. Again, with a 30-day escrow, this equates to a mere 16 days before the bank accepted an offer.

Personally, I continue to experience a high demand for foreclosures and short sale properties. Demand also seems to be moving further upscale in the luxury property market than at this time one year ago.

Inventory Continues To Decline
California’s unsold inventory of homes declined to 3.8 months in December ‘09, the lowest level in five years, according to the California Association of Realtors® (C.A.R.).  By comparison, the unsold inventory index for existing, single-family homes stood at 5.6 months of inventory supply in December ‘08.

Part of the inventory decline may be due to the fact that banks are controlling their foreclosure inventory better than last year. Once one bank-owned property sells, the bank places another on the market.

Summary
Real estate here in the desert seems to be continuing to stabilize from the bottom up. It’s getting a little tougher each month to find last year’s bargains in many of our most popular communities.  This is especially true with single-family homes and luxury condos priced up to $500,000. There are still some great opportunities, but the time on market is shortening for the best opportunities. If a property is not selling, it is usually not priced correctly.

The luxury market above $1 million is also showing signs of improvement. More people - particularly from cold snowy climates - tend to look into desert home ownership during our warm winters and demand for a warm place in the sun remains fairly strong. 

Our marketing team is in the process of shooting and editing over 6,000 new photos this season for our website. We will be gradually updating photos for most of our golf community pages as well a number of our non-golf community pages.

New Community Photo Tours Added This Week:

Indian Ridge Country Club, Palm Desert

Rancho La Quinta Country Club

Trilogy, La Quinta (55 plus)

Additional photo tours can be found on many of our other community pages and for our Featured Properties. New photo tours will be added to the website throughout the year. 

The City of Indio was awarded $8.3 million, which is likely the largest grant in the city's history, to continue the cities efforts to rehabilitate neighborhoods hit hard by foreclosures.

The announcement Thursday is part of $2 billion awarded nationwide from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development to help communities combat the effects of vacant and abandoned homes while creating jobs. About $318 million was awarded throughout California.

Indio’s plan is to purchase, rehabilitate and resell 100 abandoned or foreclosed homes and also to demolish and redevelop five vacant home sites. In addition, financing in the form of down payment assistance will be offered to the new home buyers of these 105 homes.

Indio is the only city or agency in Riverside County to receive the funding. This is the second round of Neighborhood Stabilization Funds that Indio has received to address foreclosures and combat declining neighborhoods. The city received $2.8 million last year to purchase, rehab and resell 15 to 20 homes. 

This Palm Golf Club custom estate home in La Quinta includes a stunning '07 Maserati Quattraporte Luxury Sports Sedan with with only 15k miles as a bonus. This estate homes air-cooled 3-car garage, or the motor court out front just happen to be the perfect places to park your new ride.

With over 6,400 square feet of pure luxury custom home on the Palms Golf Club private course, this home just might be the perfect place for fabulous indoor / outdoor living and entertaining.

Offered at $2.25 Million, this home is reduced $345,000 from the original listing price.