Quick! Houses in SoCal aren’t selling as fast as they used to! As a Used House Salesperson Realtor, that’s bad news because aging inventory looks bad, and your livelihood depends on commissions

So what do you do?

SoCalMLS
To that end, the SoCalMLS BOD, after getting input from MLS Committees and other practitioners, have decided to remove the DOM and CDOM fields from all Client reports.

Of course! You make it harder to find out how long the house is on the market.

Note that this is in SoCal, not the prime Bay Area. It’s special here – unlike there. We have Google – they have Paris Hilton.

809 North Rd, Belmont, CA 94002 – Property Details.
809 North Rd, Belmont 94002

Bedroom: 3 Bathroom: 1&1/2 MLS#: 730128 Square Footage: 1160 $900,000
Status:
Active
Year Built: N/A Parking Spaces: 1 List Date: 6/1/2007 Lot Size: N/A

DESCRIPTION -
809 North Rd, Belmont
Great opportunity to own this home on a large 7040 Sq.foot R-4 zoned lot.Many expansion possibilities. Complete with plans and drawings for a second unit. Spacious yard with deckand storage room. Plenty of off street parking, 5 Cars

Let’s say that you do tear this down and take advantage of the R4 zoning – would you still have the ability to park 5 cars?

And why is parking 5 cars such a big selling point for a house that’s 1160 sqft otherwise?

Curious minds want to know!

Mortgage Mess Shines Light on Brokers’ Role – WSJ.com
In 2005, World Savings Bank honored Secure Financial Inc. with a “Top Broker Award.” It was a tribute to the sales prowess of Zak Khan, who arranged more than a hundred mortgages out of the small real-estate firm’s Union City, Calif., office.

But Mr. Khan, a onetime professional cricket player, wasn’t all he seemed. For starters, his real name is Altaf A. Shaikh. Contrary to California law, he never held a license to broker mortgage loans. Still, he managed to find jobs at a variety of mortgage firms since 1997, leaving a trail of unhappy borrowers and a lengthening list of criminal charges and lawsuits filed against him.

Good reporting by the Wall Street Journal.

Burbed reader William submitted this idea. Which of these sub-$350k houses are not like the others?

1	2
3	4
5	6
7	8
9

Yep – you guessed it. Only #6 and #8 are desirable places to live in. All of the other ones are not in the Bay Area! Sure William will tell you that the other houses are in college towns, but really, are the colleges other than De Anza, Stanford, Berkeley, and Cal State East Bay? (No – only smart people live here) And sure these house are all under $350,000 – but do you think you can earn an income above minimum wage anywhere other than the Bay Area? (No – all jobs pay $100k here) If you’re diverse, do you think you can live there for 5 minutes without being beaten or shot? (No – the Bay Area is the only safe place in the world to live)

So thanks for proving the point William – the Bay Area is special.

If you’re still interested in the other ones, here’s their locations and prices:

1. Bloomington, IN – $300k
2. Bloomington, IN – $385k (4200 sqft)
3. Des Moines, IA – $310
4. Des Moines, IA – $350
5. Des Moines, IA – $340
6. Oakland, CA – $315k
7. Granger, IN – $330k
8. Oakland, CA – $349k
9. Granger, IN – $350k

It’s July 4th! And to celebrate our independence, I’m going to simply repost the Memorial Day post!

As you may recall, last Thanksgiving I found that the exact same groceries at Safeway in the Bay Area were more than the exact same groceries at Safeway in Redmond, WA.

The point of this comparison was to see how Apple/Sony would compete against Nintendo/Microsoft. In that study, I found that on average, groceries cost 20% more here than there.

Which makes sense – have you seen Apple’s stock price? Have you seen our great weather? Of course grey poupon should be 30% more expensive here than there. Grey poupon is simply better here!

Well, Memorial Day is coming up, so I thought it would be fun to come up with a comparison for a BBQ. But to add a twist, I decided to compare groceries in the Cupertino, to groceries in Redmond, Washington – as well as Washington DC!

Yep, that’s right! There are Safeways there – and they sell the same Safeway Select stuff there.

Let’s take a look:

Woot! We win again! Groceries here are 11% more expensive than Washington DC, and 17% more expensive than Redmond, Washington.

Woot! We’re #1! We’re #1! Hurray! Huzzah!

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “WTF? Houses are 2x more expensive than renting, and now groceries are more expensive than in Washington DC, and Washington state – where they don’t even have an income tax? WTH am I doing here???”

Before you consider leaving the Bay Area, just remember that they don’t have any Chinese restaurants, Korean restaurants, Japanese restaurants, Thai restaurants, Vietnamese restaurants, gay-friendly, smart people, diversity, tech companies, snow sports, hiking, mountains, universities, In-n-outs, or 9 months of sun. And let’s not forget our cheap housing, amazing public schools, great roads, low taxes, lack of traffic, and our Governator.

I hope your BBQ turns out well!

MLSlistings Property Detail for MLS number 713192
952 N 5TH ST
San Jose, CA 95112
$499,000

This Single Family Residence has the following features:
MLS#: 713192 Approx Age: 67 Years Approx Sq Ft: 804
Detached Single Family 2 Stories Cottage/Bungalow
2 Bedrooms 1 Bathroom 1 Stall Shower
1 Shower over Tub 1 Tub Eat in Kitchen

Come on – is it just me or does that Mini look absolutely huge parked in that driveway? It looks like a Subaru or something compared to the scale of the house. But then again, the house is 804 square feet.

Imagine if you had a Ford Excursion parked in the driveway!

Reports

612 PALO ALTO AV
PALO ALTO (Palo Alto) 94301
Detached Single Family (Class 1)
Bed/Bath: 2 / 2
SqFt: 740
Lot: 2,178 sq ft
Age: 90 years
List Price: $778,000
Assoc Fee:
Remarks
ROSE COVERED COTTAGE, DNTN PA LOCATION, QUIET & BRIGHT, AS-IS! UNDERGOING WORK REQUIRED BY CITY, DARLING LITTLE JEWEL HYBRID TIC OWNERSHIP

No, I’m not picking on the fact that this house is  $1051 per square foot. I mean, come on, it’s in Palo Alto on a huge 2178 sqft lot. I decided to feature this house because it’s apparently a TIC ownership.

I thought TICs only existed in San Francisco – but I guess I was wrong. And now you know!

Daily Pilot
A problem for the county, according to Doti and Adibi, was the housing market, which was slowing due to high mortgage rates and a decrease in the population — between the ages of 25 and 49 — that usually bought homes. Adibi said the average Orange County family paid 49.8% of its gross income on mortgage payments last year, a record amount.

Does anyone have statistics on what it is for Santa Clara or San Mateo?

I so hope it’s 51%… or at least 49.9%. Come on – we’ve gotta beat Orange County!