Your mileage may vary.

You mean SV Shopper’s wife? I don’t think so. That’s why she need a “big on education” title from her husband.

No, she wasn’t. The only wife in this world is “big on education” is someone whose husband drives NYC Yellow cab on Madison Ave.

That’s simply impossible. There is “TOTALLY no inventory right now”. And “professional realtor” from Coldwell Banker is saying “multiple offers are becoming quite common”. Based on these two facts, how do you explain that inventory is rising and sale volume is dropping in higher priced areas? Your data is simply incorrect.

BTW, probably you started thinking that SV Shopper is looking for cheap 1 bedroom condo in East Palo Alto (lower priced areas where inventory is dropping). Stop right there. His wife is big on education. He even defined his requirement.

The image below shows the 94061, 94062 and 94063 zip codes in Redwood city. The first zip code is the moderately prices areas of Redwood city between El Camino Real and Interstate 280. The 94062 zip code includes Woodside and the higher priced areas. The 94063 zip code has the lowest priced homes between highway 101 and El Camino Real
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34699369@N04/4129284858/

The housing market in these zip codes have fared very differently. The lowest priced zip code has seen falling inventory over the last two years while the higher priced areas have rising inventory as seen in the the graph below
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34699369@N04/4129284864/

Another indicator that the market in the lowest priced zip code has gone back to normal is that the sales are currently above average for this decade. The higher priced zip codes currently have sales far below normal levels in the 2000s. See the graph below
http://www.flickr.com/photos/34699369@N04/4129284868/

Earlier this decade, the Legislature increased unemployment benefits, which at the time were among the nation’s most meager. But a proposal to raise employer contributions to fund that expansion failed because it required a two-thirds vote.

Employers pay unemployment taxes only on the first $7,000 each worker earns. That makes California’s cap on taxable wages the lowest in the nation, officials say, and it means the state doesn’t save enough money in good times to weather significant downturns.

Why didn’t they write the legislation to say IF the tax increase passed, THEN the benefits would be increased??

That’s where the sliver-lining. CEOs/CFOs in private firms are not dumb. They already started doing the cost-benefit analysis of laying off employees vs keeping them employed and hiring new employees. They will figure that it is less expensive to hire people than paying higher tax. They simply won’t allow tax to go up. To achieve this, they will start hiring people. Just wait for the sudden fury of hiring and California unemployment rate going down from 12% to 0%. As a side effect of this, home price will start going up too. Don’t wait for that moment and get price out forever.

P.S. Nobody mention that some may choose to do business in another state, okay? Which actually raises an interesting question – how to unemployment taxes (on businesses) compare in CA to other states?

And if the state is unwilling to tap its operating funds to pay the interest, the federal government would step in with its own tax increase for employers.

To head off those doomsday scenarios, Schwarzenegger and two lawmakers — Assemblyman Joe Coto, D-San Jose, and state Sen. Denise Moreno Ducheny, D-Chula Vista — have called for increasing the taxes paid by employers.

Schwarzenegger also wants to re-examine benefits. He’s proposed reducing the percentage of lost wages that unemployment checks replace and tightening eligibility requirements.

All the three options just sound perfect. We’re all clear for take-off.

You don’t need to. There are investors who have interest in buying all properties. They will buy with a hope that
- market will turnaround and double digit appreciation will come back pretty soon.
- they will be able to flip their properties to now-unemployed people when they get employed (and it is going to happen pretty soon).

Just look at the EPA property featured on Burbed last week. According to Zillow, 2002 sale price is $402K and current zestimate is $358K. Don’t you think that an invenstor can buy this property for $171K and sell it for $400K next year? If you don’t think so, you are a doom-and-gloom pessimist who failed to get “pulse of the market”.