Mondays… We all Love Them
Mondays…we all love them. For us Realtors, it is the day after holding an Open House. For myself, Mondays are the day my lockbox key is to be updated. On this particular Monday, I was in Berkeley showing single family homes to my client. I’m usually consistent in making sure my key is updated every Monday morning before doing anything else. That afternoon was the rare exception. As soon as I parked my car to walk over to the clients in front of the property, it dawned that we were not immediately going to be able to enter the home. I sincerely explained to them what happened and managed to make another appointment to meet with them in another hour and half. Driving back to the San Bruno office and then back to Berkeley was not exactly an appealing idea.
Quickly, I thought there must be another way where I could at least stay in Berkeley to update my key and prevent wasting precious gas. Several Prudential California Realty office locations came up on my Blackberry. After a few calls, I finally spoke to a helpful sounding agent who invited me to stop by and use their key updating station at her office. Although it was located on the other side of where I was in Berkeley, I certainly didn’t mind driving there considering how much time and money I was saving. Read more
Over 55? California Property Tax Relief
By Marc Weissmann
Since its passage, Proposition 13 prohibits property tax increases until property ownership is changed.
If either spouse is over age 55 (when the old home is sold), PROP 60 allows replacement of a primary residence with a new home of equal or lesser value (but see below) within the same county and transfer of the Prop 13 assessed valuation from the old home to the new property. This is allowed once in your lifetime, and a spouse who has done it before ‘taints’ both spouses. Read more
California School Budget Cuts Affect Homeowners!
- Save Our Schools Daily Journal Pic
I attended an insightful meeting the other night of PTA/PTO Presidents in San Bruno. I learned that ALL of the public schools in California are expecting a lot of teacher and counselor layoffs next week. San Bruno’s only middle school, Parkside Intermediate will possibly have the most layoffs cutting out music (they have an awesome marching band), art, leadership, counseling, and more. Our elementary schools will have no art, music, PE, large classroom sizes of 30+ kids per class, no English tutoring, GATE programs, loss of funds to improve libraries and to supply instructional material like BOOKS and one school, I hear, will loose up to 7 teachers, leaving them with 4!! Read more
Don’t Expect Too Much From Tax Credits
We are speaking of the federal homebuyer tax credits, in particular, which seem to be invoked as the blanket explanation for anything that does or doesn’t happen in the housing market. We were more circumspect than most of their ability to sustain any market rally after being extended and embellished in November. That appears the case today. Credits are good at pushing demand forward, but not so good at sustaining demand over time.
We’ve also been circumspect over the ability of low interest rates to keep things moving forward in perpetuity. To be sure, low rates matter and low mortgage rates make more homes more affordable to more people, but it’s still a matter of taking on new debt with a home purchase or lower-cost debt with a refinance. The only way debt can be serviced is with income, usually a job.
It’s really all about employment at this point. Fortunately, the news is improving on that front based on the past three months of employment data. Things might be moving slower than we’d like, but for potential borrowers, that’s actually good news. When employment shifts into gear, interest rates are likely to follow.
So, we’ve said it before, but we’ll say it again: improving employment, low mortgage rates, and stabilizing home prices (which, by the way, we think will remain stable, even with the REO and foreclosure overhang) coupled with soon-to-expire tax credits suggest to us that now is not the time to procrastinate
From the weekly newsletter of Dean Rizzi
Visit my website at www.deanrizzi.com
The Power of Permits
An acquaintance of mine came home from work to see a “stop work notice” posted on her front door. Two years ago, she submitted plans to build a second story addition and remodel her existing kitchen and bathrooms. She went thru the planning commission process and the application was approved. Due to the economy situation, it was decided not to go ahead with the addition.
Recently, they decided to go ahead with just the kitchen and bathroom remodel. Apparently, a neighbor called the city which resulted with a stop work notice even though the previous plans were approved, the application expires a year from the approval date.
I attended the meeting with the code enforcement officer, who met the homeowner, and I was pleased on how he interacted with them. It is a very intimating to have a stop notice on your door, and a city official in your home scrutinizing all the work that is in process. Even though they were in violation, the officer went thru the house, and told them what they needed to do to get back on track. Read more
Is Housing Still the Leader?
That appears to be the case, at least according to data released from the Census Bureau. Going back to 1968, the trend in housing starts has portended the trend in the overall economy. Should we be optimistic or pessimistic? That’s difficult to say. Monthly figures on starts are volatile, and housing starts fluctuate more than many indicators. It takes several months for total housing starts to establish a trend. The good news is that going back to October, the trend in starts has been mostly stable and up. The bad news is that January’s free-fall in new-home sales could pressure the trend to change direction. Or maybe not. The problem in vetting the data is that no two periods are exactly alike and history never repeats itself perfectly. For example, Census Bureau data show that housing completions generally lag housing starts, as would be expected, except in the latter half of 2009, where starts have fallen off a cliff compared to completions, creating a wide, unprecedented divergence. So what does it all mean? Economists who believe that housing is the leading economic indicator aren’t very bullish on the economic outlook. We tend to be a little more bullish, because it can be misleading to read too much into historical correlations of two variables – in this case, housing and the economy. What’s more, the more correlations are vetted and become known, the more their predictive value tends to break down.
DeanRizzi
http://www.drlending.com/
Whadda Ya Mean They Said “NO”?!?!
There is a subject that’s been coming up a lot lately…the subject of Low Ball offers. It would seem many are advocates of offering a price on a house that is well below asking & what the current market will support. The thinking goes, you are showing the seller you will not be taken advantage of and you have the upper hand in negotiations. What never seems to be addressed is the notion that the seller might not be interested in playing this game and will simply say “NO”. No counter offer and negotiations officially over.
If a seller wants to sell and a buyer wants to buy then there is no reason a deal can’t be worked out. This is predicated on the idea that both parties are going into this with a willingness to negotiate in good faith. Writing under asking is not a bad idea, writing a reasonable offer below the asking says to the seller “I like your house and want to buy it, we just have a difference in opinion of value.” A low ball offers sends a different message. Read more
REOs, Short Sales, or Regular Sales?
I met a lady today at the Tanforan Mall. She says, “My husband wants to buy a house but only if it’s REO.” I asked why, she says because he believes he gets a great deal and that he can also bargain and offer less if it’s foreclosed. He believes that short sales and regular sales are not good real estate investments. She said that her husband doesn’t want to look at anything but foreclosed properties.
Is this how the public thinks? But, how about short sales? And what about those regular sales? As one of my colleagues says, “Regular sales, are really the short sales these days!” Isn’t that the fact? What, in your opinion, is a regular sale in today’s real estate market?
Shokoofeh Nowbakht
www.shokoo.com
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