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The Finals!

March 31, 2009 By 6 Comments

finals

The Finals! How about that! One last vote for all of the marbles (most of which I thought I had lost a long time ago…but that’s another story!). In the Finals we’re matched against quite possibly the best real estate blog in the country…honestly! Miamism.com is a constant source of inspiration for me and Ines is a really fantastic lady. It’s a privilege to have made it this far and to be matched against Miamism. Having said all that…let’s close the door right now. Tiny Foster City Blog against Miamism? It’s Hoosiers all over again! Thanks Folks! Here’s the voting booth:

Finals Voting Booth

Filed Under: Blog Brawl

Funky Foto Contest Winner Week 49

March 30, 2009 By 1 Comment

hillsdale

No question about it…it’s the entry bridge on Hillsdale from San Mateo to Foster City. I had to laugh at all the people who said to me “Hey, I know that place! It’s really gross down there!” Well, maybe I won’t go back there to picnic after all. Congratulations go out to first time winner Richard Berman, who I’m guessing to be about 5 and who’s parents, Eugene and Irina, drive across this bridge en route to Richard’s school. Great job guys! Richard wins the $30.00 gift card to Chevy’s. Also arriving with the correct answer was Harish (just a little bit late again!! Sorry!) Eugene, Priya, Alex O, GS-Dos, Ryan, Kali, Narayanan, Ranjana, Erika, the great and powerful Mr. Toler, PB, and Bill. Great job folks! See you again this Friday!

Oh, by the way…if you haven’t voted in the Final Four please scroll down and click on the Varbuzz Final Four Booth and have at it. Thanks!

Filed Under: Funky Foto Contest

Final Four!!

March 28, 2009 By 1 Comment

brawlWell, we’ve made it to the Big Dance…the Final Four! In this round we’re competing with a giant in the blogging world…Matthew Rathbun’s www.theagenttrainer.com. Matthew is also a big contributor at the website www.agentgenius.com. This is REALLY a David and Goliath kind of an event folks! Help little old FosterCityBlog triumph over this kind of incredible adversity. I need your vote!

Voting ends on Tuesday morning and only one vote per IP address is allowed…so vote from lots of different IP’s! Thanks folks…I hope you’re having as much fun with this as I am. It’s all great stuff! Have a great weekend!

Here’s the voting booth:

Varbuzz Final Four Voting Booth

Filed Under: Blog Brawl, Saturday Fun!

Funky Foto Contest Week 49

March 27, 2009 By 28 Comments

bridge2

Unlike all the other bridges, you really can’t go directly underneath this one…so I did the best I could. This particular structure is unique in Foster City for one simple reason, and that’s essentially the question today. Where is this bridge? All the rules of the road are available to view on the bar above as well as on the left hand margin. This week’s winner will receive a $30.00 gift card to Chevy’s in Edgewater Place…or whereever else you may be around here for that matter. The winner and all other correct answers will not be published until Monday morning. All humorous jokes, smart alecky quips or comments and all wrong answers will be published ASAP. Have a great time today and an equally great weekend!

Filed Under: Funky Foto Contest

Elite 8

March 25, 2009 By 3 Comments

brawlMoving right along…. We made it into Round III, the Elite 8 in the 2009 Varbuzz Blog Brawl. Thanks to all of you for voting!! Now we get to do it again! This time you’ll need to vote four times, and in this round we’re up against a Marin County Blog written by Ginger Wilcox called www.blogbythebay.com . It’s a great blog and I’m clearly going to need all of your support to make it into the Final Four!

Just click on the link below to be ushered immediately into the Round III voting booth. As always, your support is GREATLY appreciated! Let’s keep Foster City on the National Blogging map by defending our championship! Here’s the link:

Blog Brawl Voting Booth Round III

Filed Under: Blog Brawl

Help For Jumbo’s

March 24, 2009 By 12 Comments

jumbo

I was going to use a photo of an Elephant, but I decided that I liked this Hong Kong tourist trap better. Of course, neither image is even slightly relevant to this post so it doesn’t make much difference anyway!

One of the most difficult aspects of the Real Estate business in this area has been the difficulty in obtaining  a jumbo mortgage loan. Most of all the talk about low interest rates on home loans has pretty much been focused upon conforming loans, or loans of $415,000 or less. These loans are backed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or FHA and are typically not the type of loan needed by most buyers of single family homes in Foster City…or elsewhere in the Mid Peninsula. Not only has the criteria become more rigid but the interest rates on jumbo loans have really been significantly higher than on conforming products.

Now it would appear that some major banks are heading into the jumbo market again and are now originating loans at much more affordable rates…in fact under 6% in many cases. Since it’s entirely possible that all 39 of Foster City’s active single family listings could have buyers that would need a jumbo loan, this could be a really good thing for the local marketplace and the stability of home values here. We’ll see…

Here’s a link to a Washington Post article from Saturday about this topic:

Washington Post Jumbo Article

Filed Under: Buyer info, Getting a Loan, How's The Market?

Funky Foto Contest Winner Week 48

March 23, 2009 By 2 Comments

bball

It’s Baseball field # 5 at Sea Cloud Park. This one proved to be a tad obscure for alot of folks. Harish arrived first with “Sea Cloud Park” but I was looking for more details…and so our winner of the $30.00 gift certificate to Olives Restaurant was Alex Ousherovich. Sorry Harish! Congrats to Alex! Also providing a correct answer were Tom Olsen, ultimately Harish and Priya! If any of you were out at Sea Cloud last weekend for the opening of the Foster City Little League you got to see quite a spectacle! Kids in all shapes and sizes running all over the place. It was great! There’s a “City Snapshots” video coming up on that topic one of these days too.

If you didn’t get a chance to vote for the blog please do so by tonight. The voting booth was in Saturday’s post…right underneath this one. Thanks!! See you all again on Friday.

Filed Under: Funky Foto Contest

Sweet 16

March 21, 2009 By 1 Comment

brawlLydia thinks I forgot…I’m WAY to competitive to forget! Yes, we made it through the first round!! On to the vaunted Sweet 16 in the 2009 Varbuzz Blog Brawl…the winner of which will be crowned the “National Champion” Real Estate Blog.

Your help in this endeavor is most appreciated too! In this round you’ll need to vote 8 times. This time we’re up against Loudoun County, Virginia’s blog locomusings.com and it’s author Heather Elias. Heather won the all Virgina version of the Blog Brawl earlier this year so we’re up against some stiff competition! It’s an outstanding blog and I’m going to need all of your votes to beat them!

Just click on the link below and have at it! Please vote in all Zones to make it count…we’re in the first one, as you’ll see. Thanks folks…here’s the link:

Sweet 16 Voting Booth

Filed Under: Blog Brawl, Saturday Fun!

Funky Foto Contest Week 48

March 20, 2009 By 13 Comments

b5

No, it’s not an ad for U2′s new opening act…as in U2 with special guest B5. The question is…what and where is B5? If you’re the first to answer correctly today you’ll win a $30.00 gift ceretificate to Olives Mediterranean & Greek Restaurant in Edgewater Place. It used to be Athena Gyro…My Big Fat Greek Restaurant. Same owners, new name…and the food is great! Just follow the rules posted on the bar above or on the left hand margin. All correct answers will be published on Monday morning. Any and all silly jokes, amusing banter, quips barbs and smark alecky comments will be published immediately along with all wrong answers. Have a great time this weekend!

Filed Under: Funky Foto Contest

Pure Excitement

March 19, 2009 By 4 Comments

sleep

Well…maybe not exactly excitement? What I’m talking about is the pace of home sales in Foster City. As of today there’s two pending sales in town…one of them is with a release clause, meaning the buyer’s will go through with the sale when their place sells. That’s kind of not a sale at all in my mind. That leaves us with 36 active single family listings. It’s slooooowwww out there. When I began to write this the release clause pending was the only one, the other one just just went pending this morning. The good news about that is the fact that I was going to highlight that house as a great bellwether to watch regarding how the market was doing. I figured if this house didn’t sell, nothing was going to! Here’s three to watch:

940 Crystal Court listed by Jan Majeski of Alain Pinel for $1,078,000. This is the one that just sold. It’s stunning and I think it’s priced right. Really nice detail in this place too…and it’s on a big lot. I would have really worried if it didn’t sell.

398 Chesapeake listed by Kim Foster, Broker for $790,500. It’s an REO (foreclosure) that’s in great shape with granite kitchen…etc. A price under 800k is pretty darn low in Foster City and I can’t imagine this being around for long…we’ll see!

756 Coronado listed by Sue Dickey of Alain Pinel for $1,699,000. What an amazing house…but nothing has sold in this range for months. This is now the highest priced house in Foster City. It’s as gorgeous a home as any you’re likely to see. Now let’s see if it sells!

Again, I’m really glad Crystal Court sold. I hope that’s a good sign for us going forward.

Filed Under: How's The Market?, What's For Sale?
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