You are here: Home / 2008 / Archives for October 2008

Funky Foto Contest Week 31

October 17, 2008 By 18 Comments

No, it’s not the level the DOW will be at by January. (Bad joke, I know…sorry!) Warren Buffett’s buying stocks, maybe I should too. Today’s pic requires two answers. 1) what’s the name of this place, and 2) the name of 1 of the tenants there. This week’s winner will receive $30.00 in gift certificates to Round Table Pizza in Marlin Cove. As usual, all quips, sharp barbs, decent jokes will be published immediately along with all wrong answers. Any and all correct answers will be posted on Monday morning. The rules of the road here are available on the left hand margin as well as on the bar above. Good luck and have a great weekend!

 

Filed Under: Funky Foto Contest

Ups and Downs

October 16, 2008 By 4 Comments

Way, way back on September 25…a whole 20 days ago, we had 24 active single family listings in Foster City. Today we have 33. Why there’s been a rush to put houses on the market is a tad confusing to me. Personally, I think there’s so much fear in the marketplace today that sellers will be much better served waiting until January, but hey! I don’t get to make those decisions.  More inventory right now is clearly going to mean far more negotiating leverage for buyers. 33 single family listings marks the high for 2008 in terms of active listing inventory…and I’ll bet that number goes up until some semblance of confidence is restored. Never the less, some of these houses are pretty darn nice and are worth a look:

602 Somerset listed by Mary Bee of Re/Max Today for $1,330,000. Great house in really nice condition and Sea Colony remains a very coveted neighborhood. Nice upgrades too. Here’s some pics:

SomersetPics

201 Spinnaker listed by Robert Reid of Keller Williams for $1,188,888. Good price for this 5 bedroom house. Great neighborhood too. This is a pretty common and popular floorplan and in this location it’ll be interesting to see how this house does. 3 months ago it would sell in the first week on the market.

SpinnakerPics

612 Crane listed by Rumana Jabeen of Coldwell Banker for $940,000. There’s another house on the market in Foster City with this floorplan priced higher and with far less upgrades. This house is really clean and nice and priced really well. Again, a couple of months ago it would have sold really quickly…interesting to watch now. Here’s some pics:

CranePics

When the roller coaster we’ve been in hits the uphill part, when the fear subsides, there’s going to be alot of pent up demand. The question is, will that come sooner or later.

Filed Under: Foster City, Real Estate, What's For Sale?

The Sky Is Falling!

October 14, 2008 By 3 Comments

Running

There’s a terrific website that I read alot called Agent Genius and the other day I happened upon a great post written by that site’s founder, Benn Rosales, titled “Freedom of the Press”. I liked it so much that I decided to post it verbatim right here. I’ve had the same experience calling lenders as Benn…there’s money out there and available. If you’re qualified you can get an FHA backed loan, right now, with as little as 3% down. Betcha didn’t hear about that on CNN, huh? By the way, I myself felt a little like the chicken in that photo above last week too, so believe me, I’m not calling anybody out. Anyway, here’s Benn’s piece:

 

Controlling the Message

A poll reported on FOX News yesterday told America that over 60% of us are paying very close attention to the economy and the financial mess on Wall Street- this would be a great thing if the pundits on the issues actually had a clue what was going on.

Irresponsible Rhetoric

I’ve heard on a daily basis that you cannot get a home loan, and each day I’ve reached out to local lenders and asked if anything has changed. Over and over again, I am told that money is flowing fine, and not to listen to the news. Well, that’s great, but 65% of the country is listening to the news, and if it’s wrong, then over 65% of Americans will more than likely believe what they’re hearing.

Who’s in Charge?

I’ve heard over and over again after 9/11 when George Bush called on Americans to go shopping, to spend money, that the country did exactly that. I have to wonder, if the opposite is being said to 65% of Americans today- don’t bother, our economy is dead. Who’s in charge around here? The media? Who determines the course of America’s future- the press? After all, all we heard all weekend was to not to invest in the market, and it surprises me that folks were surprised when a massive sell off occured after the opening bell Monday morning.

Apparently They Control the Message

This isn’t an attack on the free press, but it is an attack on the pulpit they’re being given in a so called crisis. If you give the press enough room they’ll hang us all if no one steps up and leads on the issue. Someone needs to step up, someone needs to set the correct message, someone needs to set records straight, otherwise, the solutions being formulated will only be met in the end with a larger challenge- a paralyzed market.

Recession/Depression is the New Reality

It must be true, because I heard it on FOX, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, NBC, and on the radio. Why must it be true? Because no one is leading on this issue but the press and they’re leading with a Headline that says “DOOM!”

The credit crunch is real, the ability for businesses to get credit is a huge reality, but I’m not sure that scaring Americans into mattress stuffing is an answer that will help small, medium, nor large employers.

So I’ll Do My Part

Yes, you can get a home loan, yes, you can buy a house, and yes, you can save a ton of money when you buy one, and no, the quick flip is not a great idea, but the long term investment of home ownership is.

Help your local small businesses by doing some shopping, call your stock trader and see if there are any choice bargains and pick up a few shares, take your family out to eat, trade in that gas guzzler for something a little more efficient. I don’t care what you do, so long as you don’t allow your fears to overtake you.

I realize that what I am saying is not a gut wrenching analysis of the economy and financial problems in the market, but rather, a snapshot of a country that is gripped with fear that is being fed between each commercial break- by what we call “the free press.”

Good job Benn! Three agents told me they each had over 100 people at their open houses Sunday…two days ago.

Filed Under: Buyer info, Getting a Loan

Funky Foto Contest Winner Week 30

October 13, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Since 1968 the Hillbarn Theatre on E. Hillsdale has really been sort of a landmark in Foster City…and it actually has a rich history before that on the Peninsula. Check out their website right here… HillbarnTheater . Friday’s foto was identified early via the eagle eye of Erika Jahnke. Way to go Erika! She wins the $30.00 gift card to Chipotle. Also chiming in with the correct answer was Bill Hastings, the great Steve Toler, Laura and Sue. Great job you guys! Thanks for playing! Hope to see you again on Friday.

Filed Under: Funky Foto Contest

Port Royal Park

October 11, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Port Royal Park is on the south end of town overlooking Oracle. At 3.98 acres, it’s a good sized park and features a full soccer field as well as a basketball court. It’s located on Port Royal just off of Edgewater and is niched between the Williams Landing and Nantucket Cove developments. Here’s a map:

PortRoyalGoogleMap

 

Filed Under: Foster City Soccer, The Parks

Funky Foto Contest Week 30

October 10, 2008 By 10 Comments

Upon close inspection it’s hard to tell what city this is supposed to be, huh? Is one of those pointy things supposed to be the TransAmerica building in San Francisco? No matter…the question is what is this symbol in relation to Foster City? Another good question would be, where is it? This week’s winner will receive a $30.00 gift card to Chipotle at Marlin Cove. All the rules of the road are available on the left hand margin as well as on the bar above. All correct answers will not be published until Monday morning, while any and almost all snappy retorts, semi obnoxious quips and some good, or bad, jokes will be published immediately, along with all wrong answers. In the last two weeks we’ve had a spate of pretty good jokes! Keep up the good work. Have fun and good luck! Enjoy your weekends. 

Filed Under: Funky Foto Contest

Temporarily Off Market

October 9, 2008 By 7 Comments

I sure have been hearing alot of comments, both here on the blog and elsewhere that expresses the position that our “bubble” here on the Mid Peninsula has burst. Actually there’s been some degree of gloating by some folks who have been predicting it for awhile now. My opinion? It’s too early to tell. “But the DOW’s under 9000 and falling fast”, you say. That’s not the Foster City real estate market. Amazingly, 13 properties have sold in Foster City since September 15. We won’t know if the real estate market has fallen significantly until those places, as well as those sales yet to come in the 4th quarter of this year, close escrow. The fact that these places sold in the midst of this crisis can’t be understated, it’s remarkable. 3/4 of the clients I’ve been working with have moved to the sidelines and are waiting it out. Many are fearful about further financial problems in the overall economy and how that will impact a buying decision right now. Those fears seem reasonable to me this week. Here’s the thing: Sellers don’t appear to have that same fear…and when they do many of them have simply taken their homes off the market.

In the last year 118 properties have come off of the market in Foster City alone either by expiration, cancellation or withdrawal. That’s a pretty significant number. Many of these properties came right back on the market again at a new price (a game realtors play trying to manipulate the MLS), or came back on via a change in real estate agents. The lions share, however, came off and stayed off. What this means is simply that these particular sellers would not entertain a price reduction that would be needed to sell their home and decided either to stay put or to rent the home out and move. In my opinion the presense of all of these off market properties tends to insure more stability in Foster City’s values. Call it an exercise in the free market. Most sellers here have the option of simply staying and getting their price later…it’s yet another indication of how few subprime loans were done here. There’s no “blue light specials” in town…yet.

The tension that we’ll be witnessing in the coming months will be how the presence of reduced numbers of buyers plays on the psyche of these sellers. How many will go off market and how many will reduce their prices…and to what level will those reductions be until they get an offer. At this point though, you won’t be seeing any realtors out on Hillsdale holding those big arrows offering 50% off trying to get people into their open houses. If you see me doing that at somepoint though…stop and say hi!

Filed Under: How's The Market?

A Little More Perspective

October 7, 2008 By 7 Comments

Yesterday was a strange sort of milestone, it was the 2nd anniversary of a sale I had of this house on A Street in South San Francisco. My client’s had bought this place originally in August of 2004 for $520,000 and decided they wanted a bigger place and a neighborhood upgrade and we listed it on July 29 2006 for $645,000. The house was on the market for 44 days and during that time we received 3 offers…all of them zero down, subprime borrowers, the first two of which fell apart.  It became clear pretty early on that subprime was going to be the only offers we were likely to get in that area and on our third ratification we accepted an offer of $630,000 and hoped and prayed that it would close! It did on October 6 2006. This was a really cute house folks, my clients had put alot of love and attention into it in the 2 years they were living there. Here’s some pictures:

AStreetPicsSSF

I noticed it back on the market last month as a short sale listed for $399,000. It didn’t sell and went into foreclosure. It, most likely, will end up back on the market as an REO, bank owned, and sell at some price lower than $399,000. Amazing! I’ve got some clients who are interested in houses in Daly City or Pacifica on the west side of 35 and I was amazed to see how many homes up there are just like this A Street place in price. There are 6 houses on the market on Oceanside, both active and pending, listed in the mid 400′s to high 300′s. One’s owned by Frankfurt based Duetsche Bank. Most of these houses had sold a few years ago for as much as $720,000.

With the possible exception of that foreclosure at 250 Curlew earlier this year, we have not had this kind of spectacular erosion of values in Foster City folks. Foster City is nothing like these other areas. There have been a small handful of short sales or foreclosures but certainly nobody who bought a home in 2004 has lost 20% of their value since then…not to mention those who bought after that. Why, you ask? Because very, very few homes sold here via subprime loans with zero down and stated income. People who bought here had down payments and they were qualified. What’s really going to be interesting going forward is that in the future only those who truly qualify will be buying homes…and thus we’re really going to see a Bay Area of haves and have nots. In areas that are really quite close to one another geographically.

Filed Under: How's The Market?, Real Estate

Funky Foto Contest Winner Week 29

October 6, 2008 By Leave a Comment

It’s, like the sign says, the Foster City Library (and Community Center). Those little mosaic’s fill the interior of each wall, you can kind of see them around the windows in this shot. Congratulations go out to first time winner Alex Ousherovitch who won the $30.00 gift certificate to My Big Fat Greek Restaurant in Edgewater Place. Good job Alex! Again some pretty darn good jokes this week too…congrats to all who participated in that area…any Raiders jokes are always very much appreciated! In addition to those folks special recognition also goes out to Bill Hastings (who got there first, but was ineligible), Dana, Ryan, Gloria, Richard, Anu, Asif and Linda. Thanks folks for playing!! See you again next week!

Filed Under: Funky Foto Contest

Gull Park

October 4, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Gull Park is a 3.14 acre area located between Swan & Killdeer Ct on Gull Ave. I know because my Aunt’s house is located on the immediate south end of the park, that a ton of kids and their families use this beach almost every weekend. It’s very similar to Erckenbrack Park except that it faces west. The picnic tables here can be reserved for large groups and there’s lots of kid friendly play equipment. Here’s a map:

GullParkMap

 

Filed Under: The Parks
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »