MLSlistings Property Detail for MLS number 666219
STANFORD AV
Redwood City, CA 94063
$539,950

This Single Family Residence has the following features:
MLS#: 666219 Approx Age: 42 Years Approx Sq Ft: 760
Detached Single Family 1 Story Contemporary
2 Bedrooms 1 Bathroom 1 Stall Shower

If you include the drive way though, this house probably has 900 sqft!

MLSlistings Property Detail for MLS number 645292
144 N 31ST ST
San Jose, CA 95116
$589,000
Cute Home in Quiet Downtown Neighborhood
Great for 1st Time Home Buyers. Home Features: Large master bedroom, new carpet, tile flooring in dining and kitchen, cute side yard. Great neighborhood and close to downtown ammenities. Room for upgrades to make it your own!

This Single Family Residence has the following features:
MLS#: 645292 Approx Age: 82 Years Approx Sq Ft: 1253
Detached Single Family 1 Story 3 Bedrooms
1 Master Bedroom Suite 2 Bathrooms 2 or More Showers over Tubs
2 or More Tubs Living Rm/Dining Rm Combo Laundry Area – Inside

Ah… I love when being close to downtown means having bars on your front door.

BTW, doesn’t this look like a house from the beginning of Boys in the Hood?

So this ended up in my inbox today…

Go figure! Now’s the right time. I’m so confused. Because sometimes it’s the right time, but other times it’s the right time. It’s the right time now, yesterday, last week, and before. Isn’t that strange?

But there’s some blasphemy here: “double digit appreciation in recent years was an anomaly.”

Uh… HELLO! This is the Bay Area. They’re not making any more land, it’s special, we have smart people, sushi and Google. How can we have anything other than 10% appreciation a year? It’s our right!

In any case, act fast! Next week might not be the time to buy. It’s only now!

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > State — Agency says more residents left California than arrived in 2005
For the first time in a decade, the number of residents who left California for another state in 2005 exceeded newcomers who moved here, according to the newest figures from the state Department of Finance.

California recorded a domestic net loss of about 29,000 people last year – the first negative flow of residents since the mid-1990s. The biggest recent loss was in 1994, when the sputtering state economy helped California lose about 350,000 residents to the other 49 states.

That’s fine. We didn’t want those people any way. They’re
probably all jealous renters. And as we all know, renters are like vermin – they make life bad for wholesome debtors owners who are dutifully fulfilling their roles in buying and/or selling houses.

Stephen Gallant moved to Michigan this summer after nearly three years in the posh Silicon Valley suburb of Los Gatos, trading a $2 million house for one in a Detroit suburb that was about half the cost and double the size.

—
“If I’m going to spend $1 million on a house as opposed to $2 million, that opens up a lot of purchasing power, the ability to go out and do other things,” he said.

Begone Stephen Gallant! We didn’t need you anyway! California is special – and if you can’t realize that, then you don’t deserve us. Good lucking finding smart people or sunlight there in Michigan!
Here’s a surprise finding though:

In previous decades, waves of departing Californians were primarily white. But the newest exodus includes unprecedented numbers of Hispanics, primarily Mexican-Americans.

The analysis by Hans Johnson, a demographer with the Public Policy Institute of California, found that about 320,000 more Hispanics left California than arrived from other states between 2000 and 2005.

Asians were the only ethnic group to have more people move into California than leave, according to Johnson.

The state gained nearly 33,000 Asians from elsewhere in the United States from 2000 to 2005 while losing 441,000 whites and 67,000 African-Americans.

This can only mean one thing: Castro Street in Mountain View will have even more Thai restaurants.

MLSlistings Property Detail for MLS number 669528
590 CYPRESS AV
Sunnyvale, CA 94085

$550,000

This Single Family Residence has the following features:
MLS#: 669528 Approx Age: 54 Years Approx Sq Ft: 865
Detached Single Family 1 Story Ranch

So far… not too bad. A reasonable price for a 865 sqft house in special silicon valley. But there’s more…

Ah. Now it’s perfect!

MercuryNews.com | 12/13/2006 | Silicon Valley rents fall from top 10
Renters trying to hunt down an affordable Silicon Valley apartment may not believe it, but for the first time in several years, metropolitan San Jose is not among the country’s top 10 most expensive places to rent, according to a study released Tuesday.

But it is No. 11. A renter would need to make $24.69 an hour, or more than $51,000 a year, to afford the rent for a basic two-bedroom apartment in the San Jose area, an annual survey from the National Low Income Housing Coalition found. Minimum wage in California is $6.75 an hour.

Oh Noes! We’re only 11th!!

Quick! We need more apartment->condo conversions to help boost these prices. If we fall any further, we won’t be as special!

Shown below are the projected 2007 fair market rent (FMR) and the “housing wage” for several counties. The housing wage measures how much a worker would have to earn per hour to afford a two-bedroom rental without spending more than 30 percent of income on housing.

County FMR Housing wage
San Mateo $1,551 $29.83
Santa Cruz $1,359 $26.13
Santa Clara $1,284 $24.69
Alameda $1,250 $24.04
San Benito $932 $17.92

That’s actually pretty darn cheap. People who rent should be required to pay a special “Non-homeowners Tax” – because… well… they’re not buying/selling houses. And if you’re not helping house prices go up – you’re not helping your neighbors. And no one likes an unfriendly neighbor!

What can we do… what can we do.

Fortunately, the areas around us are still properly expensive according to this list:

Phew!

When you tuck your kids in tonight, be sure to read them this bedtime story…

A loan that’ll get ugly fast – Los Angeles Times
HERTZBERG bought his house 11 years ago for $129,995, immediately after his second divorce. (He has no children.) Since then, Corona and the Inland Empire have boomed.

Comparable homes in his neighborhood fetch more than $400,000. With fresh paint and a few repairs, Hertzberg could probably sell his place for $275,000 more than he paid.

He would see little of that, however, because he’s already seen so much. Over the years he has taken out $190,000 in cash through refinancings.

Hertzberg’s home equity paid off his credit cards, financed trips around the world that allowed him to indulge his passion for photography, bought a $32,000 Toyota Avalon and enabled some lousy investments. He bought dot-com stocks and lost money. To recoup those losses, he bought commodities — and lost money faster.

“Free money always has the unfortunate effect of making people go overboard,” said Hertzberg, whose living room is strewn with financial publications including American Cash Flow Journal and Donald Trump’s “How to Get Rich.” “You’d be surprised how fast $190,000 can go.”

The money wasn’t really free, of course. It just seemed that way, the result of a radical shift during the last decade in how people view their homes.

“Homeownership has become like auto leasing, where the price of the car doesn’t matter,” said Rick Soukoulis, chief executive of LoanCity, a San Jose lender that funded $7 billion in mortgages in 2005. “All that matters is the size of your monthly payment.”

Lenders say these new loans are all about payment choice, but Hertzberg is far from the only borrower who invariably chooses the smallest payment option. Washington Mutual Inc., which has one of the nation’s largest portfolios of pay option loans, said 47% of its borrowers in this category last December took the minimum option.

Few people intend to become deeper in debt every month. Hertzberg certainly didn’t.

“I assumed my future and my retirement would be taken care of by the company I worked for,” he said. “I trusted corporate America.”

He used to make a six-figure income selling vacation packages to corporations that would use them as customer incentives and employee bonuses. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the business soured.

His current sources of income include selling comic books on EBay and freelance photos to golf and travel publications. “Once you’re over 55, what employer wants to hire you?” he asked. “I’m a dinosaur.”

Moral of the story: when you make over $100,000 – don’t extract equity from your house to buy cars and fancy trips. Use it to buy another house because housing always go up!

A loan that’ll get ugly fast – Los Angeles Times
In 2003, only about 8 of every 1,000 people buying a home or refinancing a mortgage in California got a pay option loan, according to San Francisco-based data tracking company First American LoanPerformance.

Last year, 1 in 5 loan applicants got one.

In the first eight months of 2006, even as the real estate market began to weaken amid fears of a downturn, the appeal increased again. Nearly 1 in 3 California loan applicants are now choosing them. The state boasts about 580,000 active pay option mortgages, about half the U.S. total.

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTT!

We’re NUMBER 1! We’re NUMBER 1! We’re NUMBER 1!

Take that rest of the nation. We’re California – we’re special and you’re not. Hah! Just try to catch up with our option/smart/negam loan numbers!

BOOYAH!

MLSlistings Property Detail for MLS number 664162
10307 EARLANDER ST
San Jose, CA 95127
$560,000

This Single Family Residence has the following features:
MLS#: 664162 Approx Age: 55 Years Approx Sq Ft: 1192
Detached Single Family 1 Story Traditional
3 Bedrooms 1 Bathroom 1 Shower over Tub

I think I’m going to guess that this house has been on the market for almost 2 months. Just guessing. What do you think?

We’ve heard all of those doom and gloom stories about real estate elsewhere. But let’s face it – Silicon Valley is special. Here’s proof:

MLSlistings Property Detail for MLS number 648574
1204 MAGNOLIA AV
San Jose, CA 95126

$450,000

This Single Family Residence has the following features:
MLS#: 648574 Approx Age: 91 Years Approx Sq Ft: 439
Detached Single Family 1 Story Cabin
2 Bedrooms 1 Bathroom 1 Tub
Eat in Kitchen Utility Room Laundry Area – Inside

So while $450k might buy you a house elsewhere – it buys you a 439sqft junk yard here.
Buy now before this becomes $1 million!!!