Archive | 2007

Home for the Holidays

December 14, 2007 • Uncategorized

So here’s the deal. It’s the holidays. You know, the season of rushing around in 10 different directions, worrying about office parties, shopping, Holiday cards, finding a parking space at the mall, and all the other assorted stresses that send most of us into overload. And if you are trying to sell your home, certainly [...]

November Pleasanton Market Update

December 7, 2007 • Uncategorized

The Pleasanton CA real estate market slowed as expected in November. While the month of November started out reasonably well, the market stalled towards the end of the month thanks to Thanksgiving (recent studies have suggested that the tryptophan in Turkey not only makes you sleepy, but also slows a person’s desire to buy real [...]

Do Swimming Pools Add Value to a Home?

November 27, 2007 • Tips and Advice

This is one of the questions I get asked a lot. Like most questions dealing with real estate values, the answer is … it depends. Certainly, no one can deny that in the Pleasanton/Dublin/San Ramon area, a sparkling pool on a hot sunny day is hard to beat. But pools can also be a detraction [...]

Why Are Some Markets Better Than Others?

November 13, 2007 • Real Estate News

We’re all guilty of it. We read all the doom and gloom headlines about the national and California real estate markets, and automatically project it into our own market. The truth is that while overall the market is sluggish, some markets are much weaker than others. The Central Valley and the distant reaches of Contra [...]

What a Bad Market is Really Like…

November 5, 2007 • San Ramon Market Stats

Okay, we all know the Pleasanton/Dublin/San Ramon real estate market is struggling overall, but sometimes it is helpful to gain some perspective by looking at how good we have it, relative to some other markets. I have a realtor friend who has a listing in Antioch right now, and her story certainly helps us understand [...]

Pleasanton October Market Update – Lower Inventory, More Sales

October 31, 2007 • Uncategorized

The Pleasanton Ca real estate market showed some life in October, especially on the high end, with pending sales up from a disappointing September, and inventory continuing to drift downward. The prospect of further interest rate cuts is hopefully spurring some buyers go get off the fence and take advantage of some of the values [...]

In the Waiting Room…

October 30, 2007 • Uncategorized

Okay, so word on the street is that the Fed is going to lower the Federal Funds rate tomorrow. Wall Street and the Bond Market has already priced in a 1/4% rate drop. If Bernanke lowers the rate 1/2%, it could give an additional boost to the stock market, and ease short term rates even [...]

Music From Commercials

October 28, 2007 • Uncategorized

Yeah, we all tend to hate commercials. Non-stop interruptions, same dumb ads over and over. But there are some good things that occasionally come out of commercials. Sometimes, there are pop culture references that become integrated into the mainstream, such as the “Wazzzzzzup” bud light commercials, or the Geico Caveman ads (which got morphed into [...]

The Weekly Dose of News

October 27, 2007 • Uncategorized

Okay, time to get our weekly dose of bad news out of the way. Hopefully in the near future, we will be able to write about good things are for Pleasanton real estate, but we are not quite there yet. So here it goes; * New home sales nationally were up slightly from the revised [...]

The Ins & Outs of Location

October 23, 2007 • Uncategorized

The old saying in real estate is location, location, location. Certainly this is true on macro level. An average home in Manhattan is certainly worth more than an average home in Jackson, Mississippi. But as the Pleasanton/Dublin/San Ramon market slows, the location of a property takes on more significance in terms of how quickly the [...]