Days are getting longer, which hints sweetly at summer time. Of course, every year I manage to convince myself San Francisco will defy Mark Twain and sparkle with sunshine for three solid months. Who knows? With global warming, maybe Fog City will for once give us 90+ days of pool side weather (at the very… Read More
Last week, the all-green Orchard Heights development in San Jose placed the first 9 of its $1M plus homes for sale. Surprisingly, 7 are already sold. This development by Pinn Brothers features thicker insulation, low flow shower heads, and solar panels actually designed to be an integral part of the roof. According to the San… Read More
In my last post I listed some bargain basement properties in Oakland. While those ranged from $129,000 to $360,000 today I’m highlighting some of the lowest-priced Oakland residences I could find on the MLS. All of these homes are in East Oakland, with the exception of 921 Pine St. which is in West Oakland. Since both East and West… Read More
I thought I would write about a few properties I have seen recently that strike me as either extremely overpriced or possibly even underpriced (if there is such a thing in this market). 301 Rhode Island St #B-17 in Potrero Hill $989k (reduced from $1.039M). I thought this loft was really overpriced at its original… Read More
Yep, that’s what DataQuick said when it released the February stats of home sale activity for Marin. The MarinIJ profiled the latest monthly data, offering a glimpse of the state of health of the Marin market. “Just 136 single-family homes and condominiums sold, down from 228 in February 2007 – but up slightly from 122… Read More
Years ago, before children came along, my then husband and I had what we thought was the perfect home in San Carlos. A view across the Bay, a steep terraced backyard, and a huge master bedroom spelled perfection to us! Then our first child came along, and things we previously hadn’t noticed became painfully obvious. … Read More
…As well you know if you know your Petula Clark. The question is whether a visit to downtown Berkeley allows you to “forget all your troubles” and “…listen to the music of the traffic in the city, Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty”. Perhaps not now, but give it a few… Read More
You know when you live in a high cost area when a $2,000 price reduction doesn’t seem to make a dent. This is true when the house was originally asking $715,000 and just skimmed a bit of foam off the top to $713,000. I guess it would be more impactful if home values were around… Read More
I decided to put together a spreadsheet that contains all houses for sale in the EB Tri-Cities area so I could monitor how sales are progressing. Little did I realize what I had gotten myself into. Sheesh! What a fiasco trying to gather information. Some real estate sites will say a place is a new… Read More
Perhaps the title of this blog is sexier than the content, but any true market watcher keeps a close eye on the moves of the single-family home. And frankly, to this potential buyer anyway, the idea of owning an actual house as opposed to a coffin size “30% share” TIC in some building with a… Read More