Archive for the ‘Classic’ Category
June 27, 2008
Forget your psychic friend and magic 8 ball. CurbedSF has it that today’s savvy home hunters leave it to programmers to come up with a way to tell them, via scientific survey, whether a neighborhood is a good fit or not. Indeed, Hoodeo is the “neighborhood match maker,” your online connector of human to ‘hood.
So I gave it a spin- God knows I am having a hard time finding a place I can afford in SF; maybe Hoodeo knows something I don’t. Among its questions, the survey asks me if I wanted to stay in this city or if I would go anywhere. Since my job and friends and life are here, I actually do want to stay here, but just for fun, I chose “will go anywhere.” Hoodeo also smartly inquires how much I make and how much I “want to spend” on my next home, as well as how big I want it, cleverly reminding me that those square feet I desire will also have to be cleaned (I picked 1000 square feet, and since I had the option, 2 beds and at least 1.5 baths since I share with a man whom occasionally disgusts me). I decided the fair amount to pay, based on what we make, and that we would like to have money left over to travel and buy beer and such, would be 400 to 450K.
I should be, according to Hoodeo, living in Philidelphia. Wait, but you didn’t ask if I like sub-zero winters! I don’t!
Back to Hoodeo then, this time insisting on staying in the Bay Area. If I am to spend what I want to spend, I will need to think about Pacifica, San Bruno, South San Francisco, or– if I want the city proper– Bayview. Wait, you didn’t ask if I like gunfire in my front yard. I don’t!
Needless to say, Hoodeo has left some poignant questions off the list in determining if a ‘hood will fit you. For instance, nowhere am I asked what I think of On Deadline’s report that
Members of the Presidential Memorial Commission tell the San Francisco Chronicle that they’ve already collected 8,500 signatures on a petition to put the proposal before voters this November. If it passes, the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant would be renamed [the “George W. Bush Sewage Plant.]
To which I say: I am home.
May 27, 2008
And now, another nasty wrinkle in the foreclosure mess: If a whole lotta people in your condo get foreclosed on, suddenly there are far fewer people to pay homeowners’ association dues covering grounds and pool maintenance, roof repair and other costs, the New York Times reports. (Photos at left, from the Times: Multiple brokers’ lockboxes for foreclosed, vacant apartments; foreclosure notice tucked into condo door. AieeeEEEE!)
So the responsible condo owners in foreclosure hotspots like Miami, Chicago and San Diego find themselves hit with huge assessments, yea, unto $1,000 extra a month, or stuck with broken washers and dryers, nagging neighbors to pay their bills and, in some cases, mowing the grass themselves.
A few weeks ago, I asked blog readers, “To Condo or Not to Condo?,” and regulars including David, Doug, Susan Kuchinskas and others said, “Well, it’s like renting because your homeowners’ association dues will always go up.” Little did you all know how right you were. Personally, this is the last straw and I’ve crossed condos off my list. At least in a single-family dwelling I only have to worry about myself making the payments.
With this in mind, here’s a list of price drops on SINGLE FAMILY DETACHED HOMES in Walnut Creek.
1349 Cafeto Drive, Walnut Creek: 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2,269 sq ft, was $799,900, now $785,000. This looks like a great value, and it’s soooo beautiful. Gorgeous hardwood floors, two big ol’ trees in the front yard, good schools in the ‘hood … just seems to scream, “Raise your kids here!”
2675 Overlook Drive, Walnut Creek: 5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 2,644 sq ft, was $849,000, now $839,950. Wrap-around porch, slab granite, professional landscaping, paver tile walkways, rock walls, new asphalt driveway, and views of Mt. Diablo.
1518 Brooks Street, Walnut Creek: 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, 1,349 sq ft, was $718,000, now $698,000. Fireplace, hardwood floor, sunken tub in the master bedroom, looks nice in the photos.
304 Deerpark Court, Walnut Creek: 4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, 2,214 sq ft, was $849,500, now $819,500. Another “Raise your kids here!” gem; the listing tells us you can walk to three different schools from here, and the pool looks gorgeous.
May 12, 2008
Back in February, a whole bunch of readers vociferously opposed the idea of the federal government’s economic stimulus package bailing out homebuyers facing foreclosure. At the time, I was caught by surprise and wondered if David, Doug, Slappy, Scott, Red and others weren’t being a bit cold. Well, looks like they were way ahead of a national movement.
The Angry Renter blog exists for one purpose: to oppose government bailouts, and man, when they say they’re angry, they mean it. (Check out the video, above, they created to oppose the bailouts.) They claim to have gained 45,000 signatures on the petition they posted on the site.
But how is throwing these people into the street going to help the angry renters on this and related sites such as ”Stop The Subprime Bailout,” “NoBailout.org,” and “NoMortgageBailout.com“? Isn’t it going to mean their neighborhoods will soon be infested with drug dealers and homeless people squatting in abandoned, foreclosed houses? (This is going on in my Contra Costa County ‘hood right now and it is not fun.) And that their entire neighborhoods will suffer? How does punishing these people do renters or non-foreclosed homeowners any good?
December 17, 2007
Back in the day 
when I lived in Redfin’s birthplace, I saw a lot of residences that advertised child care. When some of my co-workers began talking about opening their own in-home day care centers I wondered how extensive (and profitable) the phenomenon was. But since I don’t have kids I didn’t wonder for long and moved on to wonder about other things. Then two years ago I moved back to the Bay Area and I began to notice the infamous in-home day care centers around Oakland, including one around the corner from me (pictured here right). This home at 2219 12th Ave. used to look like a big pink barn before it sold this past June for $425,000. The new owners did what many an excited new homeowner would do: they applied a fresh coat of paint (it is now a more demure yellow than its previous screaming pink), landscaped the front yard and re-vamped an entryway. Oh yeah, and they put in a daycare. At 1691 SF, 3bd/1.5ba I guess it has enough room for little ones to run around in. But after reading a recent Oakland Tribune article about the shortage of quality and affordable daycare in California, I’m back to wondering:
1) What’s more popular: “in-home” daycare or “commercial” child care centers?
2) How much are folks paying for child care?
And more salient to this blog but probably much more difficult to find an answer to:
3) What kind of effect is this soft real estate market having on in-home daycare and homebuying, if any? E.g., can operating an in-home facility help offset the cost of buying a home?
4) And finally, I’ve just gotta wonder: if you didn’t have kids could you afford to buy a house? And conversely, does homeownership preclude some of us from having kids due to the cost? I know it’s not an either/or question for many folks, but I feel that this actually comes up for people in expensive places like the BA.
The OT article noted that average child care costs about $10,000 per year at a licensed facility in California. On the high end, at the Montessori schools in Oakland I looked up (1 in Rockridge and 1 in the Dimond District) tuition is about $20,000 per year per child for full-time care/school. (These rates seem to be national as I have a friend in New Jersey who is spending over $23,000 a year at a Montessori school for her 6-month old).
What about you? Got kids in day care? Was it difficult to find? How do you feel about the quality of care? And what share of your income goes to child care?
Also, do you notice in-home child care around your ‘hood? Are in-home facilities found around the Bay Area or is this an Oakland thing? Let me know, even if you don’t have kids/child care! Thanks!
December 17, 2007
You may very likely have had turkey on Thanksgiving, and it wouldn’t be shocking if you had it again on Christmas, depending on which holidays you celebrate. But Contra Costa County - specifically Richmond, the biggest city in this fair county - has its own unique turkey rituals, and it’s not a bad idea to know about them if you’re considering buying a house here.
Take, for example, the Turkey Shoot. Participants include Richmond Councilmember Tom Butt, who along with other folks from the Point Richmond neighborhood has for years gathered in the town center, marched to the bar and engaged in Read the rest of this entry »
December 15, 2007
Greenhouse gas, climate change and oil prices, oh my! I don’t know about you but these three things seem to be on my mind a lot these days. The U.S. has finally come to “consensus” with the rest of the world about climate change at the talks in Bali; everything from coral reefs to polar bears to really the whole planet is being threatened by greenhouse gases; and oil prices continue to climb with the peak oil crisis theory gaining more evidence. So I’ve been thinking about how these phenomena intersect in our everyday lives and what my role is. For me, as I guess for many, they all come together in transportation. The Oakland Tribune reports more folks than ever are riding BART, and as someone who rides BART everyday I must agree that it can be tricky to find an empty seat of late.
Back in 1997 when I moved back to the Bay Area after college, I didn’t have a car for two reasons: 1) I couldn’t afford it, and 2) I didn’t really need once since I lived in San Francisco and could get around well without one. Time wore on, I moved around the Bay Area and continued to ride my bike and take public transportation. However, I eventually got a job that required a car and have had several cars until now.
Fast forward 2006. With global warming hot on my mind, my partner and I decided to invest in a hybrid car. It seemed like a good idea at the time: we saved money on gas and felt it was doing something (even just a little bit) to lower carbon emissions. But shortly after buying the new hybrid last year, my partner and I decided to buy a house. So we chose to sell the hybrid to free up cash flow for mortgage payments (lucky for us it was at the point when they were still giving out the carpool lane stickers so we sold the car quickly).
Now that I’m a homeowner in the Bay Area, I feel as though I’m back to where I was ten years ago at the beginning of my career: cash-strapped and (semi) car-less (full disclosure: my partner has a car that we share on the weekends, so while I take the bus and BART to work during the week I’m not completely without my own transportation). But while I take public transportation to save on gas, car payments, and insurance I’m also trying to do my share to lessen my carbon footprint. Even if I could afford to buy my own car, my plan is not to buy one unless it can run on biodiesel or recycled vegetable oil. I’m doing my best to remain true to my commitment to reducing carbon emissions. And while public transport wasn’t a deciding factor on the home we bought, we are close to several bus stops and a BART station which helps me stay true to the cause.
How about you? How do you see gas prices and climate change affecting your living in the Bay Area? And if you’re looking for a home, is access to public transportation a factor for you?
Photo: 20th Century Fox, The Sound Of Music (1965) “A Few of Our Favorite Things”
August 30, 2007
Last weekend a Tudor-style four-bedroom home (1276 Dana Ave in Palo Alto, CA), received three solid offers and sold above the listing price of $3,235,000.
I thought I’d use this fresh sale to test the accuracy of several home value estimator websites. Here are the rather surprising results:
Actual Sales Price: Over $3,235,000
Zillow: $2,775,516
Comments: The interface includes a nice image showing sales prices of nearby homes.
Eppraisal: $1,966,161 to $2,660,099
Comments: The delivered price range seems to be too wide to be useful. The site includes a satellite map and table showing comparable houses in town. The entry field for city and state seemed to be very fussy with regards to format. (Don’t forget the comma and don’t enter the city/state AND the zip.)
CyberHomes: $2,426,391
Comments: I liked the aerial photos and clean visual appearance, as well the historical price listings of nearby houses.
Real Estate ABC: $2,831,000
Comments: The search engine didn’t work the first time I tried it, telling me to come back later. It worked the second time around, when I entered the zip, not the city/state. I like their house pointer graphics and the “Recent Sales” table a lot. The one unique feature that this site had was a sliding “market conditions” bar, that significantly improved the estimate for Palo Alto’s hot, hot market.
Conclusions: Overall RealEstateABC (pictured above) had the most accurate price estimate and the best user interface. But with the best estimate being more than $400,000 underpriced, these tools are clearly no replacement for a living, breathing realtor who knows your local market.
PS: I guessed the list price as $3.2M when I first drove by.
August 25, 2007
If you’ve ever built or remodeled a house, you know how frustrating it is to have to compromise on your original vision because of budget constraints.
Even if I was personally unable to spend **infinity** money on the remodel of my Tudor Revival home, I vicariously enjoyed watching the building of this authentic Tudor on Hamilton Avenue in Palo Alto. 
The white oak framing of this Tudor was fabricated and assembled in England, then disassembled and shipped to California. When it arrived in the New World, the original English carpenters flew out to reassemble it, board by board. Note that the framing contains NO NAILS. It was pieced together with wooden pegs and mallets. Think of it as the ultimate Tinker Toy project.
Other details of unapologetic “irrational exuberance” include authentic leaded glass, imported slate, carved seraphims on the eaves, a heritage English rose garden, and gargoyle corbels. (I love gargoyles.)
More after the jump….
Read the rest of this entry »
February 9, 2007
Some houses just have a good feel to them. I don’t think it has anything to do with propitious karma or well disposed spirits (even though I live in hippy-dippy Berkeley). I think it largely comes down to pleasing proportions and good flow. This house has both.
769 Spruce Street, which had its first open house last weekend, is a traditional (circa 1937) style house that comes with a separate vacant lot. (I’m told this has tax advantages whether you choose to build on it or not - but don’t press me on it, I’m no financial wizard.) The lot has been landscaped to complement the garden which is an informal but pretty jumble of planting, brick walls and rockeries.
The house is described as having four bedrooms but it’s worth noting that one is on the first floor, immediately to the left of the front door. It comes with its own bathroom, but personally I like to see a little more space, preferably a whole story, between bedrooms and living areas.
I really liked the master suite which is at the top of the house under the eaves. It has been given a country house decor and is quite charming. The adjoining study with built-in desk has great views of the gardens. I could imagine making a start on my first novel there over the course of a balmy Californian summer. The kitchen and bathrooms are fine - in keeping with the house, not super deluxe but far from shabby.
One thing you can’t tell from just reading the description is that the house is on a fairly wide, curved section of Spruce Street and cars come round the bend at a fair pace. I wouldn’t want young children going anywhere near the road - getting out my car was hairy enough.
If what you’re after is an elegant but comfortable home tucked up in the Berkeley hills, this is worth taking a look at.
February 8, 2007
My companion in the car wasn’t too happy when I braked abruptly and reversed the car to take a closer look at this ‘For Sale By Owner’ house on 1083 Alcatraz Avenue. When I actually got out of the car and started taking photographs he was positively cringing.
But duty called.
Here we have, according to the owner’s own rather professionally printed details, a 2-bedroom 1.5 bathroom, approximately 1,020 sq ft bungalow in Oakland offered at $509,000. It looks as though the house has been taken care of — it’s painted lemon yellow with a raspberry front door — and although I didn’t venture inside the interiors look reasonable on the flier.
Alcatraz is a main thoroughfare so the location isn’t great. The North Oakland Community Charter School is across the street.
