Though their past gaffes haven't faded away, those fearless pro forecasters, heading into a new decade, have no hestitation in putting a . . . : Finger on Fate : The Look of the Land

Though their past gaffes haven’t faded away, those fearless pro forecasters, heading into a new decade, have no hestitation in putting a . . . : Finger on Fate : The Look of the Land

By LYNN SIMROSS

Dec. 27, 1989 12 AM PT

Real estate consultant Sanford Goodkin’s worst prediction came in baseball, when he forecast that the Brooklyn Dodgers would win the 1941 World Series. The Yankees beat the Dodgers that year, four games to one.

But in real estate projections, he’s almost letter perfect.

“I projected the real estate boom of 1976-79 in California during the national (real estate) depression of 1974-75,” said Goodkin, who is based in Del Mar and has written and consulted on real estate for more than 20 years.

He also correctly forecast the anti-growth movement in California in the early 1970s, a movement that he says has gained momentum in this state and in Colorado since then. For the 1990s, Goodkin expects anti-growth sympathies to flourish across the nation, and he projects better land use in the U.S. “because it is necessary, because foreign (investors) comprehend it, lenders will demand it and the consumer will finally understand that is it better for the total environment.”

Along that line, Goodkin believes that “attached housing--townhouses, stacked units--is the future, because of the coming need to deal with water problems, infrastructure of cities and land waste.”

He thinks home buyers will find the new multiplex kinds of attached housing more to their liking than ever before, because “new materials and much wiser design” will offer more privacy.

“The single family home of the future will be on a tony lot,” Goodkin said. “It will be wonderfully designed, have a small patio of its own and a large common area, with landscaping and many amenities. It won’t have a moat or machine gun towers, but it will have the best electronic surveillance known to man. . . . I call it the Nintendo house. It’s prewired and protected, has recreational space, cable and education capabilities all together. From the home you’ll be able to plug into libraries. That will be common in the 1990s.”