Month: November 2007

Here we have another report on the hosuing market. This one, from RPX, takes a look at $/sq ft changes in major metropolitan areas. Their lastest report (for September) shows Sacramento decreasing the most (-14.8%) over the previous 12 months. San Diego was -12.2%, and Las Vegas -11%. San Jose actually reported an increase of 0.2%. You can read the report here.

If you compare these numbers with the Case-Shiller price index for the same time period you’ll see that the results differ depending on how you analyze the data. For example, the RPX report says that New York city gained 3.3% in $/sq ft but the Case-Shiller index reported a -3.6% decrease in value. For Phoenix, the RPX had it at -2.5% while Case-Shiller came in at -8.8%.

A few weeks ago, I ran a bunch of reports looking at $/sq footage for the Central Coast. The results didn’t really tell a story that I could see which is why I didn’t report them. I think that was partly due to the low number of Sold properties in our area which meant that a few properties could skew the results. Also, we have such a diversity of properties in the area that certain areas receive a lot higher $/sq footage than others. Maybe running reports on neighborhoods would result in good info but then you run into the problem that there may have been only 1 or 2 homes selling in a neighborhood over the past 12 months.

The Colony Park Community Center is having it’s grand opening on Saturday December 1,2007

For more info call 805-461-5000

11:00Am -3:00PM
5599 Traffic Way
Atascadero, CA

Grand Opening and ribbon cutting kick off at 11:00 AM-Teen Center and Sol Cafe opens
11:30- 3:00 PM
Activities include: karate demo, K-9 demos, art demos, dinosaur fun, dance demo, bounce houses, obstacle course, senior fitness, open gym.

Here is the link to the “buy it down” calculator I was talking about http://finance.yahoo.com/calculator/loans/home/hom-05

I apologize for not putting that in the first time, I think the altitude is getting to me here in Reno 🙂

Ryan

Four in Five of All U.S. Adults – An Estimated 178 million – Go Online

According to the latest Harris Poll, the number of adults who are online at home, in the office, at school, library or other locations continues to grow at a steady rate. In the past year, the number of online users has reached an estimated 178 million, a ten percent increase.

In research among 2,062 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone in July and October, 2007, Harris Interactive® found that 79 percent of adults are now online. This is a steady rise over the past few years, from 77 percent in February/April 2006, 74 percent in February/April 2005, 66 percent in the spring of 2002, 64 percent in 2001 and 57 percent in Spring of 2000. When Harris Interactive first began to track Internet use in 1995, only nine percent of adults reported they went online.

The amount of time that people are spending online has also risen. The average number of hours per week that people are spending online is now at 11 hours, up from 9 hours last year and 8 hours in 2005.

See more results from the Harris poll here

Ryan’s Mortgage Blog:
Hello from Reno! Well, I guess I was wrong about the Feds not dropping rates again for while. CNN.com confirmed that stocks surged Wednesday after comments from Donald Kohn, the Federal Reserve’s No. 2 official, suggested that the central bank will cut rates again at its next policy meeting. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks tonight and investors will be looking to see that his speech adds to such bets. While the housing market still struggles across the nation, the economy had its best gains in four years during the summer and early fall. The GDP continues to grow in the three months ending Sept. 30. If you are in one of the job markets making some money right now, I can’t stress enough how many great deals are out there, with the low home prices and great mortgage rates.

Changing topics quickly, I found a great calculator you should take a look at if you are in the market to purchase or refinance. It calculates whether or not you should “buy-down” your rate. It is very simple and informative. http://finance.yahoo.com/calculator/loans/home/hom-05

You know I can’t write a blog today with out talking about the big game tonight between the Cowboys and the Packers. Let’s see if Brett Farve has anymore tricks in his bag because he is going to need them to beat the Cowboys. My prediction…Cowboys win fairly easily.

Feel free to contact me with any mortgage related questions at RBaker@PeregrineLending.com or 805-540-0866.

In something that reminds me of the movie Jaws, the Port San Luis Harbor District revised their policy to close getting into the ocean for 5 days after a great white shark sighting. Avila Beach business owners have argued that the ocean closures during peak toursit season has hurt their business. So now, upon a credible shark sighting there will be notices posted for 3 days.

Actually, I don’t see the big difference except for the notices being posted for 2 days shorter. If people are aware that a shark was sighted and want to get into the water, that’s there choice. I would think that posting it for 5 days (or more) is justified though but I guess the belief is that would scare away business too.

With about 2 1/2 days left in the month, we’re sitting at 285 Pending Sales. Will we break 300?? Probably, but it’s still going to be a record low as I’d be surprised if we have an additional 55 Pendings coming in the next few days to reach the previous low of 340. Last November, we had 384 Pendings, November 2005 we had 491, and in November 2004 there were a whopping 668.

I don’t know if many are aware of this but we have transpacific phone cables that go all the way to Asia (and other countries?) and first go under the sea at Montana de Oro. AT&T is wanting to add a Terabit cable (one trillion bits) to Asia and is starting the environmental reports. I believe that the little building that sits on the left side of Los Osos Valley Road as you start driving to Los Osos from Foothill Blvd is the switching station for the undersea cables.

You may have heard about the “mosquito ringtone”. It’s a high frequency sound that only teenagers can hear. Some kids are putting these on their cell phones as ringtones so they can hear them, but teachers can’t.

Guess that as we age, we are no longer able to hear high-pitched frequencies. I didn’t want to believe it but I did find a site that had the pitches you can play to see how high you can hear. I was able to hear the 12khz one but nothing higher.

I’m thinking this has other applications. Maybe it’s a way of finding out how someone is without having to ask their age. Just play the different tones and look for the reaction!

You can test your hearing here

Some homeowners are being serious about selling their home in todays market and doing some significant price drops to try to bring a buyer. Here are some examples over the last few days:

– An Arroyo Grande home dropped from 527K to 499K (Days on Market = 57)
– An Arroyo Grande home dropped from 762K to 728K (DOM=33)
– A Los Osos home dropped from 818K to 749K (DOM=307)
– A Paso Robles home dropped from 395K to 325K (DOM=95)

But, there are still some that are doing price drops that won’t mean anything. I doubt that the home brochures for these homes have the price printed on them since it would be a pain to print up new brochures for such an insignificant price drop.

– An Avila Beach home dropped from $1,000,000 to $999,950 (DOM=447)
(actually this one may make a difference by being under $1M because of the way people search for homes. I would never price a home at exactly $1M.)
– A Paso Robles home dropped from 462K to 461K (DOM=138)
– A Paso Robles home dropped from 569K to 567K (DOM=288)
– A Paso Robles home dropped from $699K to $695K (DOM=94)
– A Templeton home dropped from 1,045,000 to 1,040,000 (DOM=55)