Bay Area REBlog

Here is a commentary from Eric Trailer of Absolute Mortgage in Palo Alto, CA regarding the 60 Minute segment that aired on December 14th. Just because an opinion is aired on TV it still must be questioned as to the true motive of the interviewed person. What did you think?
Did you happen to catch that “60 minutes” [...]

[Read more →]

Buried in all the election excitement was a very interesting article on Yahoo last week stating that one in five homeowners now owe more than their home is worth….and we’re quickly heading for one in four. Despite the fact that the government has done all it can to spur lending, mortgage rates went up last [...]

[Read more →]

Can it be?  Are sales really up? It’s true.  Things may not be back to where they were at the turn of the century, but we have bounced back from the January slump and have pretty much returned to the numbers we saw last summer.  So, while prosperity may not be right around the corner [...]

[Read more →]

Below is a chart showing single family home sales in all of Mountain View, CA for the months of May, June and July 2007 & 2008. You will notice straight away that our inventory is much higher this year than last…and while the average sales prices remain almost unchanged, the median sales price is well down on the previous [...]

[Read more →]

I’ve just pulled statistics from the multiple listing service for single family home sales in Los Altos for the months of May, June and July in 2007 and 2008. Our inventory is higher than last year, but what’s interesting is that closed sales in May were very similar for the two years. By the time we get to [...]

[Read more →]

Kevin Boer of 3oceansrealestate.com needs to do a little more homework before suggesting that Condoleezza Rice could buy a Palo Alto home valued at $12.5 million…..Stanford Professors, if indeed she decides to return to her alma mater, earn around $175,000 per year.
A much more affordable option for Ms. Rice would be my new listing at 1945 Knollwood [...]

[Read more →]

More great news for real estate!  On July 30, 2008, the President signed the Housing Economic Recovery Act of 2008 into legislation – this supposedly will go a long way in helping to stabilize the housing market and will make home ownership more attainable for many Americans. So what does the government hope to accomplish through [...]

[Read more →]

On the CBS Early Show there was a spot about granite countertops emitting radon gases.  Radon is a “cancer causing natural radioactive gas that you can’t see, smell or taste”. Radon is a leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers. Now some experts are claiming that radon gases are being released in possibly toxic amounts by granite and that certain [...]

[Read more →]

At least in one respect, it looks like the FHA has come to the rescue of neighborhoods which have been plagued by abandoned houses due to foreclosure. There has been a 90 day antiflipping rule which states the FHA will not insure a mortgage loan if the property had been transferred within 90 days from [...]

[Read more →]

Here’s a great map (courtesy of Paul Kedrosky) showing the first wave of Starbucks 600 proposed closures. They correlate rather well with areas impacted by foreclosures due to subprime mortgage resets. 

Foreclosures from the New York Times

You can read more about the Starbucks reorganization in the Atlanta Business Chronicle. We’ll have to wait and see if the next [...]

[Read more →]