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Happy Holidays

December 23, 2010 By 4 Comments

What a truly strange and bizarre year this has been! Wonderful, painful, difficult, successful and even sometimes traumatic. I’m sort of glad it’s almost over. Meanwhile…I want to thank all of you who take the time to read this blog and who actively participate in it. You’re all wonderful and I’m grateful for the fun interaction. I want to sincerely wish you all the best in the next week or so…I hope you and your families have a terrific conclusion to 2010 and a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I’m shutting it down until after the Holidays…I’ll look forward to seeing you all back here in 2011!

Filed Under: Random Musings

Endangered Species?

December 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Interestingly, the high end in Foster City seems to be changing somewhat. I guess what I mean by that is what was once a pretty active price range…that above $1,300,000 sure seems to be becoming and endangered species around here. A couple of days ago I noticed that there were only two active single family listings in Foster City priced over that 1.3 mark and that sort of seemed strange to me. I looked at the history and discovered that since January 1 of 2007 there were a total of 57 houses that sold above that mark. Only 5 of them sold in 2010. The most expensive house to sell was the wide waterfront at 851 Grenada that closed in April for $1,400,000. In that same 2007 period there had been 15 houses that had sold for more than that included 7 of them that closed over $1,600,000. Once of them being $1,870,000.

It’s almost impossible to accurately say why this is…maybe there just weren’t many big pricey house listed in 2010? There really were not a bunch of listings that came on in high ranges and took dramatic price reductions bringing them under the 1.3 mark. There were, in fact, 3 or 4 listings that were priced higher that came off the market without selling…but I think that overall prices just seemed to be lower than in the past in the high end. I guess I’m not really surprised by it either. I can’t help but wonder what the future of this lofty ranges will be going forward. In 2005, 3 houses came close to hitting the 2 million dollar mark…when do you think that might happen again?

Filed Under: Real Estate

Funky Foto Contest Winner Week 134

December 20, 2010 By 1 Comment

Lots of really good guesses on Friday! It was, of course, the Bocce courts near the Senior Center at Leo Ryan Park. Congratulations to Shrikant Iyer who arrived first and won the $30.00 gift card to Cold Stone Creamery. Way to go Shrikant! Also answering correctly was Bill, Trisha, Janny Lee, J Kwan, Leslie, Karen and Debbie. Great job folks!! Thanks for playing…see you again soon!!

Filed Under: Funky Foto Contest

Flash Mob at the Food Court

December 18, 2010 By 1 Comment

Very cool!!

Filed Under: Saturday Fun!

Funky Foto Contest Week 134

December 17, 2010 By 17 Comments

On a day like today a cover like this sure seems important, huh? This week’s question is simply, what is being covered here and where is this? If you’re first to answer this you’ll win a $30.00 gift card to Cold Stone Creamery at the Metro Center. All the rules of the road are available to view on the left hand margin as well as on the bar above. The winner along with all other correct answers will not be published until Monday morning. Any and all silly jokes, snappy quips and all wrong answers will be published immediately if not sooner. Have a great weekend!

Filed Under: Funky Foto Contest

It’s Weird

December 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

2010 has been a weird year in Real Estate…there’s no doubt about it. Just when I think it’s going in one direction, it heads in another. It’s been about as volatile a year as I can remember. Many of the long standing “truths” about Real Estate have changed a bit too. One of those is the notion that the market slows down in mid November and remains asleep until the New Year. In 20 years in this business that’s been true almost every year. It’s not true this year! Oddly enough, September and especially October were particularly dead and Nov & Dec were hot! Go figure…

Now, right before Christmas, we have another strange occurance. A weird occurrence in my mind! We have a bunch of new listings! Of the 20 active single family homes in Foster City right now (a small number really!) 7 of them were listed in the last 2 weeks. On top of that, 12 of the 14 single family pending sales in FC have happened in Nov & Dec. Three of them were homes listed in the last 2 weeks as well.

That’s weird! I’ve told clients to wait until January to list because more buyers are actively looking then…and I still believe that to be true. The fact that December has been so active certainly, in my mind at least, bodes well for the first part of 2011. Here’s a few gems from this current crop of new listings:

1093 Hatteraslisted by Bobbi Decker of Intero for $1,399,950. This is a really nice, 4 bedroom, 3 bath house on a huge 11000 sq ft lot. Nice upgrades, it’ll be interesting to see if this price works out for them.

613 Somersetlisted by Gayle Pietras of Dolphin Real Estate for $1,225,000. This 5 bedroom, 3 bath house is a little smaller than Hatteras with a smaller yard but actually is in a great location.

207 Barkentinelisted by Maury O’Hearn of Premier Property Group for $832,900. This is one of those unusual foreclosures…unusual because we just don’t see that many of them in Foster City. It’s a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house in decent shape and the price is right. Barkentine is a great street.

Fun in December!

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

So Close…Yet So Far

December 14, 2010 By 1 Comment

In yet another classic example of a dog chasing it’s own tail…the San Mateo-Foster City School District is targeting private property in Foster City on which to build a new elementary school. Here’s how the Mercury-News reported it the other day:

“District officials told the board Thursday that they plan to pursue talks over the next two months to acquire private land in Foster City. The district would also survey residents to determine what they are willing to do to support construction of a fourth elementary school in Foster City, officials said.”

Seems like it was just a  month or so ago that the District was talking about a big parcel in San Mateo at the end of Mariner’s Island Blvd. Guess that’s not the only idea they’re thinking about. I just have one question though…any idea where this big piece of public land is going to come from? The only big vacant area I can think of is the dreaded 15 acre site/Village Square. I’m thinking the city’s not going to give that one up. They’ve been clear on this one in the past…as they should be in my opinion. Outside of that, where is this dream property coming from? Think the Metro Center is going to be bulldozed? Is Charter Square big enough? Where’s is this elusive private 5 acres?

I sort of had to laugh at the last part of that quote above too…about the district surveying residents about their willingness to build a 4th elementary school. Are they going to ask residents to give up their residences? Maybe half of Antigua could be bought…or all of Foster’s Landing or Lantern Cove? Actually, come to think of it, I did hear a rumor a few years ago about Lantern Cove being sold or converted into condos…maybe it could be scraped and the land converted into a school!

I honestly can’t think of another alternative…can you? Meanwhile, the photo above sort of says it all to me. One day dizziness will probably cause an end to all this. One things for sure…we havn’t heard the end of this topic. Here’s the wholoe Merc story:

School District Pursues Private Land In Foster City For New Campus

Filed Under: Foster City, Schools

Funky Foto Contest Winner Week 133

December 13, 2010 By Leave a Comment

OK, we’re back again. This time the old data was recaptured (Yea!) but the posts we had on Saturday and today disappeared. Anyway, we can now see who participated on Friday before we went into hibernation. Our winner was Nicole Fabris who correctly answered first that the wreath above was located at Edgewater Place Shopping Center. Nicole wins the $30.00 gift card to Chipotle. Great job Nicole! Also arriving correctly was Suresh, Yee, Tezbear, Kirk Matsuo, Matthew, Roger, Ellen, and Shrikant. Good job you guys. Thanks for hanging in there…see you this Friday!

Filed Under: Funky Foto Contest

Funky Foto Contest Week 133

December 10, 2010 By 13 Comments

Tis the season! Seems like these decorations have been out there since Halloween, but clearly we’re in the home stretch. This kind of scrawny wreath is located, along with a bunch of others, someplace in Foster City. Today’s question…where is it located? If you’re first to answer that question you’ll win a $30.00 gift card to Chipotle at Marlin Cove. All the rules of the road are available to view on the left hand margin as well as on the bar above. The winner along with all other correct answers will not be published until Monday morning. Any and all silly jokes, snappy quips and all wrong answers will be published immediately if not sooner. Have a great weekend!

Filed Under: Funky Foto Contest

On The Chopping Block

December 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Seems that Foster City has a looming budget deficit to the tune of 3.4mil a year. At a study session recently, several items were discussed that would make it apparent that their demise was inevitable. If the city council gives approval in January, FC will begin to scale back some of it’s services beginning next July.

One of the most high profile items of discussion would be the elimination of the 4th of July fireworks display. The current cost to FC is about $44,000…but if the Lion’s Club steps up to handle parking and if a sponsor steps up to pay for the fireworks themselves then it may yet be salvaged.

Foster City TV will pretty much be gutted in this new fiscal year as well, ultimately existing to just broadcast City Council and Planning Commission meetings. All of it’s original programming will be mostly phased out…including, I assume, Foster City News and City Snapshots.

The Senior Express Shuttle, which is available on demand to take seniors to medical checkups and for other errands, will be eliminated.

The Parks and Recreation Department will stop producing its Leisure Update, a quarterly brochure listing all the classes available to residents. Eliminating the Leisure Update will save the city about $10,000 a year.

There’s a few other items as well that will be considered, all of which will save the City money when they’re implemented. All of us are learning to live in a new world…it is hard to imagine, though, living without the 4th of July fireworks. I can’t remember what it was like without them.

Filed Under: Foster City
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