87 BELLEVUE Ave San Jose, CA 95110

Price: $205,000
Beds: 2
Baths: 1
Sq. Ft.: 864
$/Sq. Ft.: $237
Lot Size: 6,287 Sq. Ft.
Age (Years): 110
Year Built: 1898
Type: Detached Single Family
Stories: 1 Story
Neighborhood: Central San Jose
County: Santa Clara
MLS#: 80817162
Source: MLSListings
Status: Active
On Redfin: 24 days
Fixer-upper
Total fixer-upper, As Is Sale, Home is in deteorirated condition and is not livable, has been disconnected from utilities. Check with Building/Planing for permits. .. Property been sold is APN 434-24-041 Lot 11, certificate of compliance has been approved by city, new APN not yet available.

Burbed reader Brian had this to say:

Yet it is still $205,000! And it’s not even in a good zip code!

Check out the street view for a picture of the house. Remember when we had that burned down house in Detroit? Well…. apparently THIS is how much it would have gone for in East San Jose.

Alright. Now I’m really intrigued!

Drum roll please!

This is another proud Bay Area moment. Maybe not REAL Bay Area, but Bay Area nonetheless.

That said, clearly there’s a lot potential. Just look at the sweet house next door. Hey, is that pickup lowered?
Thanks Brian for this great find. The only thing that would’ve made this better: “great opportuneity for investers”

Roche-Genentech: A Drug Powerhouse
Big Nod to Genentech

Schwann intends to keep research independent. The Genentech Founders Research Center, a massive state-of-the-art complex devoted to biotech research, will operate autonomously. And in what Schwann says is a “big signal” to Genentech, Roche will move its existing commercial U.S. headquarters from Nutley, N.J., to Genentech’s base in San Francisco. The U.S. business of both companies will trade under the Genentech name, and sales and research staff will probably increase.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

New Jersey – set for fail.

South San Francisco – set for soar.

Not planning to buy in South San Francisco this year? You’ll be priced out forever next year.

Given that the Bay Area has many of the highest median incomes, that means I know you can afford to donate to Burbed.

Donate at whatever level you feel comfortable with.

Thanks!

South Bay leads increases as rents soar
The sharpest increases occurred in the South Bay counties, with the average rent jumping 8 percent to $1,786 in San Mateo and 7 percent to $1,679 in Santa Clara in the second quarter compared with the same period a year earlier. Even rents in the East Bay, where growth was more modest, climbed, helped by the strength of the San Francisco and Silicon Valley markets, according to Jerry Smith, regional manager for Marcus & Millichap’s East Bay office.

“The East Bay is being framed by some very, very strong bordering markets that are experiencing 7, 8, 9 percent rent growth,” Smith said. “Silicon Valley and San Francisco are leading markets on a nationwide scale for rent growth. We’re seeing a lot of pressure on those rents, and it’s spilling over into the East Bay market.”

Average rents and vacancy rates

It remains a landlord’s market as rents have increased and the vacancy rate has remained stable during the last year in all nine Bay Area counties.*

County	2nd quarter, 2007	2nd quarter 2008	Year-over- year change	Vacancy rate
Alameda	$1,337	$1,409	5.4%	4.7%
Contra Costa	$1,250	$1,328	6.2	5.1
Marin	$1,528	$1,591	4.1	2.8
Napa	$1,264	$1,307	3.4	3.7
San Francisco	$1,757	$1,926	9.6	4.0
San Mateo	$1,654	$1,786	8.0	4.1
Santa Clara	$1,569	$1,679	7.0	2.7
Solano	$1,137	$1,164	2.4	5.0
Sonoma	$1,140	$1,212	6.3	5.5

Didn’t you wish you had bought a place? Prices are still rising in the Real Bay Area. Rents are zooming. That giant gap between renting and buying? Well, it’s closing fast!

Pretty soon, if you don’t buy a place, rent will be $10,000 a month, and you will have no choice but to live in a Honday down by the river.

S.F. officials locked out of computer network
A disgruntled city computer engineer has virtually commandeered San Franciscos new multimillion-dollar computer network, altering it to deny access to top administrators even as he sits in jail on $5 million bail, authorities said Monday.

Terry Childs, a 43-year-old computer network administrator who lives in Pittsburg, has been charged with four counts of computer tampering and is scheduled to be arraigned today.

Prosecutors say Childs, who works in the Department of Technology at a base salary of just over $126,000, tampered with the citys new FiberWAN Wide Area Network, where records such as officials e-mails, city payroll files, confidential law enforcement documents and jail inmates bookings are stored.

Childs created a password that granted him exclusive access to the system, authorities said. He initially gave pass codes to police, but they didnt work. When pressed, Childs refused to divulge the real code even when threatened with arrest, they said.

He was taken into custody Sunday. City officials said late Monday that they had made some headway into cracking his pass codes and regaining access to the system.

Childs has worked for the city for about five years. One official with knowledge of the case said he had been disciplined on the job in recent months for poor performance and that his supervisors had tried to fire him.

“They werent able to do it – this was kind of his insurance policy,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the attempted firing was a personnel matter.

This isn’t particularly housing related – ok, it’s not at all housing related. I just thought it was amusing.

Daniel Petelin speaks out [Burbed.com]
bob Says:
July 8th, 2008 at 11:06 a

The age remark is pretty much right-on. The youngest city in the US is Atlanta.The median age in that city is 32 years old. The median for the Bay Area is pushing 40. Alameda, where I live has an avg age of 48. Most other East Bay burbs are the same or even older. This number increases almost yearly, in step with the current age, which indicates that the majority of persons aged 25-32 do not stay. the 25-32 age group is the most highly prized in terms of growing a new economy. If the BA loses this demographic, then it’ll kill the economy eventually.

Is this really the case? For some reason I have a hard time believing that the Bay Area is that old. What about our competitors like Portland, Seattle, (cough) New York, Boston?

Unemployment: The 20 Best And Worst Cities For Unemployment Benefits

Losing a job is bad enough, but your unemployment benefits can vary wildly depending on where you live. The L.A. Times compared unemployment benefits to the cost of living and picked the twenty best and worst cities to be unemployed.

The 10 Worst Cities

10. Los Angeles, Calif.—$450 per week

5. Washington, D.C.—$359 per week

4. San Francisco, Calif.—$450 per week

1. New York, N.Y.—$405 per week

Good grief. Does NY really have to beat us in so many categories?

The more unemployed people we get rid of, the better off our properties will be and the more our housing prices could rise. Sheesh, do these people have no clue?

Why San Francisco Is No. 1 – Forbes.com
Why San Francisco Is No. 1
Matt Woolsey, 07.09.08, 5:00 PM ET

San Francisco is this year’s best city for young professionals because of its ability to attract and retain talent. It does this by offering long-term job opportunities, plenty of singles and impressive starting salaries.

The City by the Bay outshined the rest of the field in attracting alumni from the nation’s top schools. More of the class of 1998 from Harvard, Stanford, Rice, Princeton, Duke and Northwestern picked San Francisco as home, 10 years out of school, compared with any other metro. These are graduates with the skills to work virtually wherever they want, and this measure is an indicator of where high-caliber professionals have decided to settle, based on a combination of job and lifestyle factors.

It’s easy to see San Francisco’s attractive opportunities. Forbes rates the 400 best big companies and the 200 best small companies based on revenue and high rankings for corporate practices, as well as long- and short-term sales and earnings growth and stock market performance. Of the 600 companies in this index, 41 of them are in the Bay Area, which is the second-highest overall total, and when adjusted for population, this makes San Francisco the fourth-best place to find a top employer.

Congrats! Oh my god. We beat New York! I’m so happy!

So far house prices haven’t done so well this year, but with trends like this, you can be sure that our god given 10% year over year annual appreciation is right around the corner. The median here in the Real Bay Area might not $1 million this year, but 2009 – watch out!

Daniel Petelin and the $1.8 million dollar house in Redwood City [Burbed.com]
I’m Daniel Petelin — and I would like to clarify a few facts mentioned in the above comments. First of all, I have lived in the house on Palomar for 60 years — although I have lived briefly in Monterey, Sacramento and San Francisco. It is part of my Russian culture to value home life and I am proud to stay that I have lived in my parent’s beautiful home so long. The mortgage I have is due to earthquake damage to the home that has been repaired. I also have contributed monies to the repair and maintenance of the home, consequently I have no regrets that Prop 13 let’s the house pass to the children. It should be that way since I always helped out with the family obligations. In addition, I am recovering from a mini-stroke — that is why I can’t work full-time. Consequently I may consider a reverse mortgage or lease the house. In any case, I have worked hard to honor my parents wishes that the home continue to be in the Petelin Family. I know in my heart my parents wanted me to have this home and pass it on to the next generation.

Assuming this is the real Daniel Peterlin (and I believe it is) – I now feel bad for calling out someone who has had a stroke.

Burbed wishes you well.

Bubble Markets Inventory Tracking: Hell Hath No Fury Like a Short Seller Denied
Joe and Heather thought in the summer of ’06 that a purchase in Bressi Ranch of Carlsbad was a sure bet. They purchased a 2,476 sqft back loading home on 6257 Cottage Dr for $695,000, or $280/sqft.

But fast forward a year and Joe and Heather realized they were in way over their head. So in August of 2007, they listed their home of 1 year for sale. Of course, still firm believers in the Bressi Promise, they listed the home for $745,000. Joe and Heather didn’t think they were greedy. They just needed 6257 Cottage to cover the 6% commission as well as the few upgrades they made to the home.

After wasting a couple of valuable peak summer selling months in the $700k range, their REALTOR was finally able to talk them down to $649,000. But even at that price the home lingered on the market for another 6 months. Finally in April, Joe and Heather dropped down the price further to $630,000:

“This home offers 4 bedrooms or 3 bedrooms and a downstairs den, 3 full bathrooms and plenty of upgrades! Short sale approved at $630,000. Great opportunity to get into this neighborhood for a bargain price!”

After wasting a couple of valuable peak summer selling months in the $700k range, their REALTOR was finally able to talk them down to $649,000. But even at that price the home lingered on the market for another 6 months. Finally in April, Joe and Heather dropped down the price further to $630,000:

“This home offers 4 bedrooms or 3 bedrooms and a downstairs den, 3 full bathrooms and plenty of upgrades! Short sale approved at $630,000. Great opportunity to get into this neighborhood for a bargain price!”

So looks like their REALTOR was able to arrange for a short sale approval at $630k. So this gets Joe and Heather a free Get Out of Bressi card, right?

Nope, unfortunately not… the short sale didn’t take and Wells Fargo ended up taking back the property in June… only to find a few things missing in the kitchen. Currently the home is on the market as a REO for $575,000, hardly a bargain considering the replacement cost for the matching cabinets and appliances.

Well, so the saying goes… if you can’t take the house with you, at least take a few treasured mementos…

Fortunately, this happened in Carlsbad. All of us known that stories like this could never happen in the Real Bay Area. Thanks to Burbed reader Frank for pointing this out.