On the other hand, a lot of low end houses in Santa Clara county are in fire sale. In SC county, there are 2348 property in pre-foreclosure, 1036 scheduled for court auction, 1385 bank owned, according to RealtyTrac.

Inventory, 12-month avg source: rereport.com/scc/ (click on relevant cities), Zillow, Trulia

MV=25 homes in inventory, 12-month avg. up ~ $200K (Zillow MV non-condo=$100K gain)
LA=20 homes, 12-month avg. up ~ $150K (Zillow LA = $200K gain)
PA=20 homes, 12-month avg. up ~ $300K (Zillow PA = $200K gain)

Current snapshot of mlslistings: 46 homes for sale in MV, 27 in LA, and 31 in PA… very low, and it’s been that way for 6 months…

Trulia has MV & LA up for non-condo (3&4 bed) units. Kinda tough to tell on Palo Alto 3&4 bed.

And, my favorite, Creekside Realty: top 10% of homes in SCC increased median from $1.37M to $1.70M in one year. Check it out: http://www.creeksiderealty.com/bay_area_real_estate/2008/santa_clara_county/1jan.htm Yeah, I know there are more high $$ selling than low, but look at the historical trend back to 2000…

I’m just proving the premise of this site – There is The Real Bay Area (>$1M houses in NW SCC county) and there’s everything else… Make the splurge, you won’t regret it now, you won’t regret it later.

You bet! It is never bad time to buy a home. David Lereah all over again.

Steveo,
Reading your first post I really thought you as are a homeowner. But your 2nd post sounds more like a real estate agent.

BTW, I would love to see your reference about Palo Alto, Mountain View inventory zero. Here some info that indicates opposite:
http://www.trulia.com/real_estate/Palo_Alto-California/

Median price dropped. Number of sales dropped. Drop in number of sales is not an indication of zero inventory.

In some areas the inventory could well be zero. If that happens at all, it won’t be due to a hot market where homes are selling quick. It is because homeowners are not putting their homes in market due to bad real estate market. Market freeze is in not uncommon in bad housing market.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/25/MNS7UL6SQ.DTL&tsp=1

“well, I’m ecstatic.”

You got to be. After so much bad news, a tiny bit of positive news got to be a reason for being ecstatic, even if the news is silly and the package will hardly helps foreclosed home owners.

“I bought in October 2005 on the Peninsula (the good part), my house has appreciated $200K while everyone said it would never happen, and now I can refinance out of my jumbo loan to save $$$ every month.”

Well, until you find a buyer who is willing to buy your house with $200K appreciated price, your home value is ZERO. The fact is that nowadays most of the homes are selling (if they are selling at all) in lots less than the Zillow’s zestimates. And that is also after lots of home improvements and including the closing cost in mortgage.

“Can’t wait for my 15% appreciation in the Spring!”

Even the NAR is not that optimistic. That tells a lot, isn’t it?

“I love Bush!”

Senior Bush? I think you will remember the real estate plunge in California when he was president.

What are the odds that this $10B is going to bring new jobs to anyone? That’s a serious question: I’m not an economist I would’ve thought that consumer spending is low not just because people don’t have a lot of money but because they anticipate, rightly, not having any in the future… And I cannot imagine that the enormous corporations whom I pay to keep my life moving along, Safeway or Shell or Blue Cross Blue Shield, give a shit about consumer spending or hiring in CA or in any part of the U.S. for that matter.

Uh, Bill Clinton didn’t cut those back by himself. Have you already forgotton Newt Gingrich, the Republican Revolution of 1996, and the Contract with America?

I’m not sure how you can say the Republicans can be the good guys and increase those – considering they fought (and won) to keep those out of the current House proposal for the stimulus package.

The Republicans were also the ones who fought to prevent EIC recipients from getting a rebate.

Increasing stuff like food stamps, WIC, General Relief would actually stimulate the economy the most, since the poorest people will certainly spend it the quickest. And these things have been cut back like crazy by Clinton, so the Repubs can be the good guys and increase these things.

Can’t wait for my 15% appreciation in the Spring! I love Bush!