Here are some interesting mortgage data maps from the Wall Street Journal. Click on each thumbnail.
Deliquency Rates for First and Second Mortgages
Post-Boom Changes in Home Prices and Deliquency Rates
High Rate Loans, by State and Metro Areas
Month: March 2008
I wanted to give an update on the New Listings page since I see by my web stats that a lot of you are using it- http://www.slocountyhomes.com/newlistex.php
I’ve contacted the vendor that I use to display the property detail page when you click the MLS#. I’ve found that they are a day behind on the data file they are using but so far, I’m having a problem convincing their technical support group they have a problem but hope to make some progress today.
So, the newest listings at the top of the report will still say “property #xxxx not found” when you click on the MLS # but if you go down the list, the previous days new listings will display the property detail just fine. For those listings you can’t get detail for, you could wait and try them the following day and it will give you the detail. Or…
For a workaround until I can get the problem fixed, you can get details of one of the newest listings by entering in the MLS# on this page:
http://www.slocountyhomes.com/search_mls_page_2.htm
Sorry for the incovenience.
Lots of updates coming!
Not only do we have end of the month statistics, but it’s the end of the first quarter too. So I’ll be updating the median home prices and the indiviudal city Sold reports on http://www.slowatch.com/ on April 1st (no foolin’). I also plan to break down the March Pendings Sales to show how many are foreclosures and Short Sales.
Stay tuned!
In the Fortune Small Business April 2008 edition, they have a 100 Best Places to Live and Launch and San Luis Obispo is #78 on the list. The cities are ranked for the best mixture of business advantages and lifestyle appeal.
For San Luis Obispo, here’s what they say:
“Sunny San Luis Obispo boasts a mild Mediterranean climate, vibrant retail, and beautiful views – as well as one of the most tech-savvy populations around. The city is home to the prestigious Cal Poly University, creating an enviable talent pool for local businesses in addition to breeding a youthful culture.
But San Luis Obispo is wired in more ways than one: The area’s fiber optic lines create superior connectivity. Not surprisingly, high tech businesses flourish, as well as engineering and architecture firms.”
I sure wish the above was all true. We do have a talent pool with Cal Poly being in our backyard but I don’t see any significant high tech businesses in the area. Sure, we have a few web design companies but that’s about it. We had some of the larger high tech firms in Slicon Valley and elsewhere that have had satellite offices with people telecommuting but I think most have (or are) closing these.
As for fiber connectivity, the only fiber I’m aware of is the cables that go under the ocean to Japan and come out to the switching station on Los Osos Valley Road near Foothill. We can’t even get Verizon’s high-speed network for wireless Internet connectivity in our area.
I hope that this article is read by some entrepeneurs and we do get some high tech startup companies in the area. It would be nice not to have to rely so much on tourism. Don’t know how to access the talent pool at Cal Poly though. I’ve tried to get students to do some programming for me and I advertised on Craigs List but didn’t get any responses.
Take our Poll!
A few days ago I added a “widget” to my blog to track and map where vistors were coming from.
Following is the map of where people have accessed my blog from over the past week.
Here’s a nice secluded Beach retreat in Oceano for under $500,000 ($475,000 to be exact!).
I’m catching up on some of the news articles over the past week.
I really liked the article in the Wednesday’s Tribune with the headline “COUNTY HOME SALES SINK AGAIN, BUT NATIONAL PICTURE BRIGHTENS”
Once again the Tribune is behind in their reporting. I don’t know why so many wait for the DataQuick sold numbers and then write articles about what the local real estate market is doing. I really think Buyers and Sellers want to know how the market is currently doing, not what it was doing 1-2 months ago which is what you get with the DataQuick numbers. I’m starting to believe that the people writing these articles don’t understand the real estate process where homes go Pending Sale, then spend 30-60 days in escrow. Either that, or they don’t have access to any other information than Sold info that DataQuick reports (which they get from public records).
Want the real pulse on the local market???
As I reported at the beginning of this month, in February we had over 400 Pending Sales which we haven’t had since August of last year. I just checked the Pending Sales for this month thus far and we’re at 476. With 3 days left in the month, I’d be surprised if we didn’t break 500 Pending Sales. We haven’t done that since May of last year.
But don’t wait for the Tribune to report this trend as they won’t have the data until May. By then, I’ll have reported two more months of market statistics.
(click image for a larger one)
Whew…what a week! We took our German exchange student on a whirlwind tour of California. Hollywood, Venice Beach, San Francisco, and Santa Cruz. Today, the students took kayaks on Morro Bay. What a beautiful morning it was!
If you want to experience Morro Bay on a Kayak, I recommend Kayak Horizons. Dennis, the owner, is a longtime blog reader and he’ll set you up with a kayak for a wonderful experience.
If you’ve tried the New Listings report and clicked on a MLS # and got a “MLS # xxx Not Found” it’s not just you. It appears that the database that retrieves the listing details isn’t as updated as my new reports so it takes a day to be updated. It’s only the new listings from the previous day (the ones at the top of the report) that won’t display the details until the next day. It you click on listing numbers further down on the report, you’ll see the detail. Now that I know that the other listing database is a day behind, I’ve contacted the vendor that provides me the other service and reported the problem.