Guest Columnist

You walk into your local mortgage office (keep it local!) with that smirk on your face that only you and your wife recognize. Right off the bat you announce you have the down payment money and right off the bat you get asked, “you also have the closing cost, I presume…?” Closing cost? What!? You mean everyone in this process doesn’t work for free? Let me tell you, not only do they not work for free, some work for more than others! There are two sections of cost when referring to the closing cost of a home loan. One is recurring closing cost; the second is non-recurring closing cost. The first includes items like your pre-paid property taxes, hazard insurance and that first payment that you don’t send, you know, the one that everyone thinks is free, it’s not.

One of the largest issues in the greater Aptos Village area is traffic flow and improving flow in that area has been a focus of your county’s traffic engineers. County traffic engineers made signalization (along with new turn lanes and bike, bus and pedestrian improvements) as the model for improving flow in that area. With the new lights (and most of the other main improvements) completed at Trout Gulch and Soquel, we have been working to make refinements based on community feedback.

There are a lot of colorful names to describe suppliers of illegal booze: Rum runners (self-explanatory), moonshiners, bootleggers. What is a bootlegger? In the late 1800s, it was illegal to give Native American Indians whiskey, so traders would conceal flasks of liquor in their boot tops. Previously, we learned how prohibition helped to fund organized crime, and how otherwise law-abiding people developed a thirst for "medicinal" Scotch whiskey. But, Scotch alone does not make a well stocked bar, and not all alcohol was smuggled into the county. Gin was actually the most common liquor consumed during prohibition and much of it was produced locally.

Gary E. Croxall, CFP® Soren E. Croxall, CFP® Croxall Capital Planning Securities and Advisory Services offered through National Planning Corporation (NPC), member FINRA/SIPC, a Registered Investment Advisor. Consulting and Investment Management offe

In 2019, the average sales price for single-family homes was $1,117,353 and the median sales price was $1,000,000. This compares to 2018, where the average was $1,195,194 and the median was $1,008,000, so an ever-so-slight downtick in price in 2019. But, the volume was...

A wonderful new event has surfaced in our Aptos community thanks to Friends of the Library and Denise Ward, a local resident who also loves to read and to bring community together.

The Aptos Chamber was more like a small-town improvement association. The initial name was the Aptos Community Club. The first item of business was to get a fire engine for the town and to obtain all night telephone service. The next item of work was to celebrate the opening of the new bridge into town which replaced an old wooden bridge with a suicide curve in the middle. The chamber planned the ceremony and a big parade.

The coronavirus pandemic has created a lot of uncertainty and has also put financial plans to the test. As we continue to navigate these tumultuous times, it’s important to continue to have a game plan in place for things we can control to help...

What came first, the chicken or the egg? How about “when I want to buy a home, who do I see first, the realtor or the loan officer? These are deep philosophical questions that require an astute examination of perception versus reality. The perception for years has been to walk into a real estate office and start the process of buying a home. The reality is doing it this way is like walking onto a car lot and walking right up to a salesman and asking if he would sell you a car.

Dear Nicole, I want my kids to learn the value of money. My partner and I both work two jobs to make ends meet, and we live on a tight budget.