Bako bits: With fingers crossed, is the real estate market finally turning? Some believe it is ...

* ... IS THE RECOVERY IN SIGHT? So here's some good news: it appears there is finally - belatedly - some firm signs that the local residential real estate market is beginning to turn. Really. First there was the release of Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Index yesterday that showed home prices in most major cities gaining for the first time in three years. (Of course some markets, like Las Vegas and Phoenix in particular remain depressed.) That was good enough news to make the front page today of The Wall Street Journal, which has pointed out repeatedly that there can be no recovery without residential real estate leading the way. So I picked up the phone and called old friend Ray Karpe, president of Karpe Real Estate Center, to take his pulse. It was the first time I had talked to Ray in months that he seemed genuinely upbeat. In his words:

"Houses are going quickly and we're looking at inventory down to a couple months supply," he said. "And it's not just foreclosures but good homes, more expensive homes that are moving too. Look, we're not out of the foreclosure mess; we're going to have more of those. But the good news is you can sell houses now. The interest rates are good and prices have even ticked up a bit." Meanwhile, I heard on CNBC that tomorrow new statistics will be released by RealtyTrac, and that should help confirm if things are getting better. But they warned: there are indications that rising unemployment is leading to a new round of foreclosures that are unrelated to the earlier bad loan foreclosures. So, we'll have to wait and see.

Ray did go on to say that, contrary to single-family residential, everything from "apartments to heavy industrial" property is "in the tank. It's just awful." He said the same is true for folks in the development business or anyone who is holding debt on land. He continued:

"It's the single family stuff that is moving. Look, if you're going to buy a house, do it now. Don't wait. We've hit the bottom and you're going to see prices start rising again."



* ... BC RECYCLING PROGRAM: Got a note from Amber Chiang, marketing csar over at Bakersfield College, about a free e-waste recycling collection set for Aug. 15. You'll be able to take your old computer monitors, laptops, fax machines, toner cartridges, old cell phones and even car batteries and drop them off at the college's southeast stadium parking lot at the corner of Mt. Vernon and University. It will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m..

Bakersfield College: 96 years '"on the hill" and now serving 17,000 students

The slick new annual report from Bakersfield College showed up on my desk this week and it makes for a fascinating read. It's easy for BC to get lost in the shuffle as Cal State Bakersfield continues to grow on the other side of town. But BC has been around since 1913 and you tend to forget just what an impact this school makes on our community. Hats off to BC marketing guru Amber Chiang for pulling together a compelling read. Check out some of these statistics:
* ... ENROLLMENT: Total enrollment topped 17,000 full-time and part-time students in each of the fall and spring semester, and about 10,000 in the summer.
* ... FULL-TIMERS: About 22 percent of the registered students were full-time students, meaning they were taking at least 12 units.
* ... FINANCIAL AID: Nearly 90 percent of the students received some kind of financial assistance.
* ... TOTAL HEADCOUNT: For the whole year, the school served 33,235 students. OF those, 55.7 percent were female and 44 percent were male. Here's something puzzling: the gender of 105 students was listed as "unknown." Hmmmm.
* ... MAJORS: The top declared majors were registered nursing, business administration, criminal justice, liberal studies, psychology and undeclared.
* ... TRANSFERS: The top transfer schools after getting their AA degree were UCLA, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, CSUB, Cal State Northridge and Fresno State.




* ...ETHNIC MAKEUP: Latinos make up 42.9 percent of the student enrollment, followed by Caucasian at 35.7 percent, African-American at 6.8 percent and Asian at 6.4 percent.
* ...STUDENT AGE: About 59 percent of the kids are between 19 and 24 with the rest older, clearly reflecting the commuter and reentry aspects to this community college.
* ... HISTORY: BC was founded in 1913 and had a first year enrollment of just 113 students. The school set up shop on its current 153-acre campus in 1956.
* ... ATHLETICS: BC has a rich history in athletics. It has 17 teams in nine different sports and its football and new baseball stadium (pictured above) are the nicest in town.