Roof Magazine

Our Far-Flung Correspondents: A Report From Sycamore Park

2008-06-02T14:09:00.000-07:00

You might think that we could pull ourselves away from Scrabulous long enough to walk a few blocks to see Mill Valley's newest "green house," a mid-century modern redo (asking price $2.2 million, previously sold for $973,500 in 2006) that recently went on the market in a trendy walk-to-town neighborhood. Especially after we made such a fuss about Marin's growing obsession with sustainable living, bamboo flooring, tankless water heaters, etc. But our friends at the ultra-hip design blog Remodelista.com beat us there. Their verdict:

"One of the greener homes we’ve seen in a while"

Danielle Steele's Stinson Beach House For Sale

2008-05-29T09:29:00.000-07:00

Add Danielle Steele's name to the growing list of homeowners who are trying to sell their beach houses in Stinson Beach's gated Seadrift community. The best-selling author's 3BR, 3B "personal play house on the beautiful Seadrift Lagoon" went on the market today, with an asking price of $2.65 million. Not everyone thinks it's worth that much, however. Meanwhile Steele, who paid $1.55 million for the house in 2003, still has another personal playhouse in Pacific Heights.

The House Down The Block Sold For How Much Again?

2008-05-20T14:29:00.000-07:00

April sales figures for Marin are in, showing that the local market is still weaker than last year. In other words, there were fewer sales (147 vs. 212 in April 2007) at slightly lower prices ($1.02 million was the median vs. $1.08 million) after houses sat on the market for more days (75 vs. 56).

That said, 31 houses in Marin sold above their asking prices. What did those houses have in common? Some were well-priced, others were brand-new, some had one-of-a-kind locations. A lot of them you read about here first, because they caught our eye for one of the above reasons. Here's a comprehensive list:

Corte Madera
390 Prince Royal: asked 1,495,000 and sold for $1,515,000
5 Alta: asked $1,225,000 and sold for $1,275,000
14 Portola: asked $799,000 and sold for $820,000
Greenbrae
18 Via Cheparro: asked $2,495,000 and sold for $2,550,000
23 Gretchen: asked $1,550,000 and sold for $1,600,000
Kentfield
421 Woodland: asked $2,895,000 and sold for $3,325,000
23 Bridge: asked $1,495,000 and sold for $1,500,000
Larkspur
3 Crystal Creek: asked $1,399,900 and sold for $1,437,580
39 Cornell: asked $1,095,000 and sold for $1,136,000
Mill Valley
111 Locust: asked $3,395,000 and sold for $3,750,000
6 Tartan: asked $2,395,000 and sold for $2,520,000
890 Chamberlain: asked $1,350,000 and sold for $1,400,000
30 Juanita: asked $1,050,000 and sold for $1,095,000
Novato
156 Montego: asked $534,900 and sold for $571,000
318 Grandview: asked $489,000 and sold for $500,000
1103 Simmons: asked $469,900 and sold for $495,000
2418 Center: asked $459,900 and sold for $476,000
1430 Elm: asked $264,900 and sold for $315,000
409 Fernbridge: asked $299,000 and sold for $305,000
San Anselmo
190 San Francisco: asked $759,000 and sold for $850,000
9 Kenrick: asked $799,000 and sold for $819,000
180 Creek: asked $729,000 and sold for $800,000
San Rafael
21 Santa Margarita: asked $1,125,000 and sold for $1,200,000
31 Bonnie Brae: asked $959,000 and sold for $1,000,000 2518
Las Gallinas: asked $599,900 and sold for $638,000
33 Jefferson: asked $475,000 and sold for $495,000
20 Miraflores: asked $405,000 and sold for $481,000
Tiburon
85 Spring: asked $3,649,000 and sold for $3,890,000
334 Blackfield: asked $2,625,000 and sold for $2,675,000
1496 Vistazo: asked $1,595,000 and sold for $1,680,000
104 Howard: asked $1,425,000 and sold for $1,471,420

Why Is This Man Smiling If His Company Just Lost $1.8 Million On A Tiburon Mansion?

2008-05-14T15:26:00.000-07:00

Maybe because it was his mansion?

The Italian-style villa at 3650 Paradise Drive cost Edward Mueller $8.3 million a few years back, and it came with bay views, beach access, a wine cellar, a bar and a large limestone veranda.

But then the former Williams-Sonoma exec got hired in August to be Qwest Communications' CEO and moved from Marin to Denver; Qwest bought the house for $8.9 million in September.

Qwest listed it for $9.95 million—but ended up selling it for $7.5 million in December. According to today's Wall Street Journal:

Qwest ... reaped only $7.1 million after closing costs and commissions when it sold in December, the latest proxy statement says.

The moral of the story:

If you want to sell your house above market value, get hired by Qwest, which "promises to buy the residence of any transferred employee at the vice-president level and above if the home remains unsold for 60 days," the Journal noted.

Google vs. MLS: Guess Who We're Betting On?

2008-05-14T15:12:00.000-07:00

Google has a cool new addition to its always evolving Maps site. You can now search for real state listings in any area, by price, number of bedrooms or bathrooms. The "Google Operating System" blog has the lowdown here.

Here's What Marin's $116,626 Median Income Will Buy

2008-05-14T13:09:00.000-07:00

Median incomes in Marin are among the highest in the state—OK, in any state. Among married couples who file joint tax returns, the median adjusted gross household income is $116,626. If they're first-time homebuyers, how much house can they afford these days? One that costs $462,126.15, but only if they have saved up a 20 percent down payment:

Here's how the numbers would work out with a 30-year fixed rate mortgage at 5.82 percent, according to Money Magazine:
House price: $462,126.15
Loan amount: $385,105.15
Down payment: $77,021
Monthly mortgage payment: $2,264.52
Monthly taxes/homeowner insurance: $456.75
Total monthly payment: $ 2,721.27

So what's on the market in that price range?
746 Diablo, Novato: 3BR, 1 B, $450,000. Amenities include a rope swing in the front yard and a skylight in the dining room.

Other possibilities include a 1BR, 1B condo in Mill Valley for $455,000, a 2BR, 1 B condo in Greenbrae for $469,000 and a 2 BR, 1 B condo in Corte Madera for $459,000.

Where The Brokers Hang Out Online To Get The Inside Scoop

2008-05-13T13:47:00.001-07:00

Think of it like a Facebook for real estate brokers. About two years ago, two Seattle-area entrepreneurs launched a blog-hosting site for brokers, called ActiveRain, which has grown into a social network where nearly 90,000 members post and bid for each others' referrals.

We recently conducted an interview via email with co-founder Jonathan Washburn, who noted that the referral service has helped ActiveRain set itself apart from the herd of Web 2.0 real estate sites competing for agents' attention. "Our members receive a great deal of value from the site. Both in terms of income earned and knowledge gained," Mr. Washburn wrote.

But what lures the average real estate junkie to the site? The same thing that keeps us coming back: gossip.

If you search the ActiveRain site for local news (like we did), you'll see that 107 Marin real estate professionals—including agents, mortgage brokers and real estate attorneys—are members (and bloggers). For the real estate enthusiast, there's no end to the interesting tidbits you can pick up from such posts as broker Kelley Eling's monthly market conditions update. Average number of days on the market in April varied widely throughout Marin, Eling notes, ranging from 13 in Greenbrae to 150 in Kentfield.

Other ActiveRain blogs we follow religiously: Marinhealthyhomes.com, Marinmodern.com.

The following is an edited transcript of our interview:
ROOF: Can you tell me a little about how you got the idea for the site,
how old it is, did you launch it with venture investment money or was
it a by-the-bootstraps project, etc.?

JONATHAN: We initially started ActiveRain with the idea to create a real estate social network around transaction management but after we built
out the entire network we had lots of trouble gaining traction on the
network. It just didn't spread virally like we had initially
imagined. In 2006 Matt Heaton, an ActiveRain co-founder thought of a
way to scale down our initial idea and add a competitive element to
it. After about a month of development we launched ActiveRain.com and
that has evolved to what you see today. We bootstrapped the company
ourselves for the first couple of years, then we received a few
hundred thousand dollars from some very supportive angel investors,
and recently we announced an investment for a couple million dollars
from HouseValues.
ROOF: Your own background. I saw on the site that you have extensive
experience in real estate and wondered how that helped you come up
with the idea for Active Rain.

JONATHAN: I started as a real estate agent when I was 18 years old. After a
couple years I created my first real estate website, which after years
of hard work eventually led to the creation of my first real estate
brokerage WhyNotOwn Real Estate. I would say that my on the ground
real estate sales experience has played a huge roll in the development
of ActiveRain. It has allowed us to see things from our members
perspective and keep our company very real estate professional
centric.

ROOF: Why do you think Active Rain is taking off so quickly? Is the
secret to the site's success the referral forum?

JONATHAN: I think ActiveRain has achieved fast and significant success
because our members receive a great deal of value from the site. Both
in terms of income earned and knowledge gained.

ROOF: How does the referral feature work? Can anybody post a referral or
respond to one?

JONATHAN: Yes, any member can post or bid for a referral.

ROOF: Are there other social networks for realtors and, if so, how is
Active Rain different (better!)?

JONATHAN: here are a ton of web 2.0 websites or products for real estate
agents. Integrating web 2.0 marketing tactics into a real estate
agents marketing repitoure is extremely important in this day and age.
Investing the time to learn about web 2.0 businesses and how to
utilize them in your business is something that every forward thinking
real estate agent should be doing; ActiveRain is a good place to do
that.

How the Real Estate Bubble Differs from the Dotcom Bubble

2008-05-13T08:09:00.001-07:00

At the turn of the century, day trading—tech stocks in particular—was the great American past time. Everyone was investing in fly-by-night companies that had little more than a .com bolted onto their idiotic business plan. That, needless to say, didn't end well. Too many people saw their savings wiped out when the companies they invested in crashed and burned.

But as bad as it is now? For people living in Northern California, unless you bought a home within the past few years, your real-estate investment is still looking smart. Check out this chart: the median price of a home in Marin County, while down 26% from its historic peak last June, is still up 56% since 2000.

Got $1.1 million? Buy a Starter House in Mill Valley

2008-05-12T17:29:00.000-07:00

You can get get "vintage charm" and "character" and 1,094 square feet of living space if you buy this brand-new $1.099 million Mill Valley listing. No, that's not a typo and yes, it does work out to $1,004.57 per square foot. Nice-looking kitchen, no?

A Flipper Horror Story

2008-05-12T15:45:00.000-07:00

Starting four years ago, a guy buys nine homes in Northern California as investment properties. One by one, they slip into default. Now, he's looking at likely foreclosure—and the bank's coming after his own home and assorted assets, which could force him into bankruptcy. Is he freaked out? Nope: "Everyone stumbles. I'm not going to hide or run or live in denial, or with regrets,"he tells Reuters.

In Escrow: A Flurry Of Pending Sales In Marin

2008-05-05T12:36:00.000-07:00

Conventional wisdom is that April and May are the best months to put a house up for sale. Based on what's been going on in southern and central Marin in the past couple of weeks, it looks like conventional wisdom is right, for once. Here's a look at nine recent listings—including one $5.995 million San Anselmo house—that have gone into escrow after being on the market for fewer than 14 days:

BELVEDERE:
322 Beach Rd.: This seller had a deal before listing this "vintage" waterfront house for $2.69 million (3,781 sq ft, 5BR, 4 BA, no interior photos available).

GREENBRAE:
35 Corte Alegre: This four-bedroom house within walking distance to Bacich School, asking price $1.395 million (2,152 sq ft and it's on a cul de sac).

KENTFIELD:
17 Acacia Ave: Level lot, has a pool, asking price was $1.55 million (2,079 sq ft, 4BR, 3 BA).

MILL VALLEY:
123 Ricardo Rd.: Strawberry Point 3BR, 3BA, described as "executive home," asking price $1.595 million (1978 sq ft).

SAN ANSELMO:
100 Holstein Rd.: 5BR, 3.5BA on an oversized lot (28,265 sq ft), asking price was $1.05 million (2,477 sq ft).

11 Idalia Ct.: Remodeled 3BR, 2.5 BA descrived as "the epitome of San Anselmo Seminary lifestyle, asking price $1.485 million (1,962 sq ft).

109 Fawn Dr.: Tennis, anyone? Dip in the pool? This 5 BR, 6.5BA house (7,363 sq ft), asking price $5.995 million, also has a spa and yoga room.

SAN RAFAEL:
6 Dogwood Ct.: Almost new 4BR, 3BA w/cherry cabinets and granite countertops in the kitchen, asking price $1.195 million (2,856 sq ft).

11 I St.: Vintage brown shingle with 4 BR, 3BA, asking price was $1.45 million (2,194 sq ft).

Breaking: Houses Selling Above Asking

2008-05-01T10:51:00.000-07:00

Remember that house at 111 Locust Street, Mill Valley (see here)? The asking price was $3.395 million. Our sources say it closed yesterday after getting three offers. Price: $3.75 million.

Meanwhile, 55 Buena Vista Avenue, a remolded three-BR stucco house in a flat, sunny walk-to-town location, got at least two offers in under a week. The house, which was listed for $1.749 million (1,800 square feet), is already in escrow. Let us know if it also sold above asking.

Mill Valley: Bizarro World.

Same House, Lower Price

2008-04-28T13:30:00.000-07:00

Back on the market in Mill Valley is a recently renovated house at 45 Laverne ($2.35 million for 2,753 sq ft, 4BR plus office, 3.5BA). Last fall, when we first heard this modern house located behind Whole Foods in Homestead Valley was for sale, the owner was asking $2.5 million. More of the scoop:

According to Zillow, where the owners posted more details about the 1951 house, a major remodel was completed three years ago. Improvements include: a new roof, new siding, four newly renovated bathrooms, a kitchen remodel and a two-story addition. Oh, and also a sauna and steam room.

Lots of Foreclosures In California; Not So Many In Marin

2008-04-23T08:51:00.000-07:00

Lenders moved to foreclose on 110,392 homes in California during the first three months of 2008, according to DataQuick. The high number of foreclosures was a record for every county in the state except Los Angeles (which was hard hit during the recession of the early 1990s and which, as a result, had even more homes in foreclosure eight years ago than today). What about the local picture? A 166-percent increase in foreclosures in Marin sounds scary, until you look closer at the real year-to-year numbers:

San Francisco	216	420	94.4%
Alameda	1,578	3,194	102.4%
Contra Costa	1,969	4,718	139.6%
Santa Clara	1,058	3,074	190.5%
San Mateo	382	911	138.5%
Marin	118	314	166.1%
Solano	914	2,091	128.8%
Sonoma	407	1,392	242.0%
Napa	88	284	222.7%
Bay Area	6,730	16,398	143.7%

Lenders moved to foreclose on 314 houses in Marin in the first quarter (up from 118 during the same period last year). More than half of the 314 are located in Novato. What the numbers show, overall, is that Marin is one of the three counties in the state (along with San Francisco and San Mateo) where mortgages are least likely to be delinquent. The most likely are Stanislaus, San Joaquin and Merced counties.

New Listings: $1.7 Million In Southern Marin

2008-04-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

Somebody took a finger out of the dike. More than 60 new southern Marin listings have come on the market in the past week, and here's a sampling of the kind of kitchen you can get for $1.7-$1.75 million:

279 Riviera Dr., San Rafael: $1.749 m, 4 BR, 3BA, 3,347 sq ft ($523 per sq ft)

314 Kent Ave., Kentfield: $1.7 m, 5BR, 4BA, 2,200 sq ft ($773 per sq ft)

2 Overhill Rd., Mill Valley: $1.749 m, 4BR, 3.5B, 2,515 sq ft ($695 per sq ft)

55 Buena Vista Ave., Mill Valley: $1.7495 m, 3BR, 2B, 1,800 sq ft ($972 per sq ft)

California Scene: Inventory Up, Asking Prices Not

2008-04-22T08:18:00.000-07:00

HousingTracker looks at asking prices and inventory in more than 50 metro areas around the country. So, how are things in San Francisco? Um, bad:

Last week, the supply of listings increased in San Francisco, Santa Cruz and San Jose but down (bright spot!) in Riverside and Sacramento. Inventory stayed the same in L.A. As for asking prices, they dropped or stayed the same in all those markets.

In San Francisco, the market closest to Marin, the 12-month trend looks like this:

Trend	04/21/2008	1 month	3 month	6 month	12 month
Median Price	$521,000	+0.2%	-0.8%	-10.9%	-13.5%
Inventory	18,072	+5.5%	+19.5%	-3.9%	+28.1%

The takeaway message remains the same: It's not a good time to sell, so don't put your house on the market if you don't have to.

Weekend Reading: Buying a green home in Marin

2008-04-18T11:42:00.000-07:00

Lots of things start in Northern California, then spread, trend-like, to the rest of the country. Williams Sonoma, for instance, was born in Sonoma way back in 1956 when the rest of the U.S. had yet to find frozen peas. Banana Republic (Mill Valley, 1978); Smith & Hawken (Mill Valley, 1979); and Restoration Hardware (Eureka, 1980) all debuted here. Mountain biking was invented on Mt. Tam, and the American love affairs with hot tubbing and biscotti originated here, then rolled out like hula hoops to the nation.

So it's a little surprising that the green homes movement actually started in... well, probably Colorado or Washington State. Not to worry, though: Northern California is playing catch up with a vengeance. The whole sustainable-homes thing—as exemplified in Dwell Mag azin e (brain child of a Mill Valley resident!)—is sweeping across Marin County like a brush fire.

Recently, we visited a pretty amazing, green, luxury home (of all things) high above San Rafael. The 5100-square-foot residence is the first of six units for sale at Live Oak Estates, an eco-friendly enclave with protected (and spectacular) views of Tam. We drove up there with Stacey Stephenson, the first Mill Valley-based real estate agent to be certified as an "EcoBroker," who filled us in on the burgeoning green real-estate scene.

"My mission is to make Marin County real estate a green industry," she said, while driving her Prius (what else?) up the 101 (we qualified for the carpool lane) to San Rafael.

An "EcoBroker" is a graduate of the Built Green course, a Colorado-based program that "encourages homebuilders to use technologies, products, and practices that provide greater energy efficiency and reduce pollution, provide healthier indoor air, reduce water usage, preserve natural resources, and improve durability and reduce maintenance."

Stacey is the first of five brokers certified and practicing in Marin. Business is brisk as increasingly, home buyers are starting to think about sustainability and protecting the environment. "More and more, clients are finding me on Google after they do a keyword search on 'healthy homes,'" she said.

Stacey carries a checklist so she can keep track of the healthy home attributes of her listings. Included: energy-efficient appliances and windows, zoned heating, natural carpets, low-flush toilets and cabinetry constructed "forest-stewardship council certified" wood, which is harvested in an environmentally conscious way. The house at 15 Live Oak Way boasts all of those attributes and more.

The $3.85 million, 4 bedroom, six bath (dual-flush toilets!) home is built in an old chert quarry and feels more like something you'd see nestled in the red rocks of Sedona than NorCal. Much of the 30-acre communities property is set aside as perpetual open space, making it possible to hike from your back door 20 miles to Inverness on protected trails. The horse-shoe-shaped design of the house is ingenious because all the rooms overlook the swimming pool, which is solar heated via a thousand feet of water tubing buried beneath the concrete patio slabs. It features 100% wool carpet with recycled natural padding (no offgassing!); recycled, hand-painted tile and Saltillo Mexican clay tile; and all wall and ceiling paint emits zero or low Volatile Organic Compounds (protects the ozone layer!) Solar panels help power the place, of course.

"Every material that was chosen for this house was looked at from a green perspective," said Michael LeValley, the principal who materminded the project. With listing broker Abby Kagan, Michael and Stacey showed us around the place. "What we're really doing is returning to classical architectural principles," Michael said, as we entered the kitchen, where a recyling station is built into the island cabinets. "It was only post World War II when we got away from paying attention to those principles because of the rush to create mass housing for returning GIs."

We said we loved the house, but noted the paradox of building a giant, sprawling house that's supposed to use fewer of the world's resources. Michael said: "Remember that the first adopters of any new technology are those who can afford. Some people are always going to want big houses, so why not give them environmentally conscious big houses? Don't you want to convert the biggest consumers first?" He added: "If I told you I could get every Hummer driver to drive a hybrid SUV, wouldn't you feel like we were making progress?" It was a good argument. If only only we could afford the house.

15 Live Oak Way will be shown from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m during an open house on Sunday, April 20.

Last week's weekend reading: The Flipper tries to buy a foreclosure at an auction on the courthouse steps

Back On The Market

2008-04-18T09:59:00.001-07:00

Among this week's "new" southern Marin listings are two houses that were on the market last fall. Trying again (one at a reduced asking price, one not) are:

18 MIRABEL: This $3.85 million house, perched on a ridge above downtown Mill Valley, is exquisitely sited. Not only does it have dead-on Mt. Tam views, it also offers a good-enough-for-a-spy perch to keep track of what's happening below you in town. Why didn't it sell last fall? Well, with only three bedrooms, the dramatic '70s modern style of the house may not appeal to everyone (although we'd move into it in a heartbeat). Also, upkeep. All those miles and miles and miles (it seemed) of boxwood hedges won't clip themselves twice a year.

77 MARGUERITE: This vintage Klyce house (COMING NEXT WEEK: What Exactly Is A Klyce House?) situated in Mill Valley's Middle Ridge neighborhood is back on the market with a price chop, reduced from $2.195 million to $2.075 million. Nice floorplan, sweet yard (we were particularly fond of the well-established rose garden and the blowsy lilac at the bottom of the hill), but no master bath. Laundry is in the garage.

But on the other hand, Bay Area is the strongest market in the state

2008-04-17T12:47:00.001-07:00

A silver lining of sorts. Never mind that the Bay Area has also seen the median home price drop to its lowest levels on record (Note: records started in 1988.) See San Francisco Chronicle story here. The take-away message: Just like elsewhere in the U.S., the closer you are to the action (jobs), the better.

As has consistently been the case, several counties - notably those close to job centers and in affluent areas - were in better shape. In San Francisco, the median price inched up to $755,000, up 0.3 percent from last year - the only county where the median grew. Sales in San Francisco were down 20.6 percent versus last year, a modest drop compared to the 47.2 percent decline in Alameda County, for example. San Mateo and Marin counties saw their medians slip about 4 percent, compared with the double-digit declines of the six other counties.

Pew: 1 in 33 homeowners will be in foreclosure within 2 years

2008-04-17T12:04:00.000-07:00

More fallout from the subprime lending crisis. See here. California, to no one's surprise, is actually doing worse than 1 in 33:

Some states with severe problems have lagged behind. California, where one in 20 homeowners is projected to experience foreclosure, primarily over the next two years, issued a notice to loan servicers encouraging them to agree to wholesale loan adjustments, but as of the end of 2007, had provided little additional help to financially distressed homeowners. California has a task force and is exploring other relief, however, and has proposed expanding the types of loans regulated and strengthening the state’s underwriting standards for high-cost mortgages to prevent future challenges.

Soon It May Be Easier (And Cheaper) To Find A Rental In Manhattan Than In Marin

2008-04-17T08:53:00.000-07:00

Move over, New York City. The famously low apartment vacancy rate in Manhattan—about 1 percent—is not that much lower than the rate in Marin County these days. According to data collector Real Facts, the vacancy rate here in the first quarter of 2008 dipped below 3 percent, making it one of the lowest nationwide. And, according to the Marin Independent Journal, some apartment complex managers here aren't even bothering to advertise vacancies anymore; wait a few days and an empty unit miraculously fills itself:

Josephine Agnew, resident manager at Strawberry Shores in Mill Valley, credited the housing market with boosting the demand for two-bedroom, two-bathroom units. The 202-unit complex on Seminary Drive has been completely occupied for the past year, she said.

Agnew said she gets calls and e-mails from people who don't understand the tight apartment rental market.

"Some of them call and want an apartment in weeks or months and that just doesn't happen in Marin anymore," she said.

No wonder Marin rents have been risking steadily; the average is $1,669 a month.

Photo credit: [Whyfiles]

"X" Out The Ex-Urb: Shorten Your Commute

2008-04-17T08:39:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting piece from BusinessWeek that correlates rising gas prices with declining home values. If everybody in your town is commuting an hour to work, you may have experienced a steep drop in home prices:

Take Murrieta, Calif., incorporated in 1991. The population of Murrieta more the doubled to 100,000 over the past eight years, as residents traded hour-long commutes to San Diego or Orange County, Calif. for newly built mini-mansions at lower prices. In the past year though home prices in Murrieta fell 31% to a median $329,000.

[Photo credit: Sfgate]

How To Get Multiple Offers: Anatomy Of A Successful Sale

2008-04-15T15:33:00.001-07:00

When we published a list yesterday of all the sellers in Marin who sold their houses above the asking prices last month, it raised a lot of questions. Well, one question, mainly: How did they manage that?

Easy. They did everything right. Of course, you can too. Here's a blueprint to follow, a case study of how the owners of one Mill Valley house flawlessly played their hand and got $1.835 million for a house they listed at $1.795 million:

1. LOCATION, OF COURSE. The 1,021 sq ft bungalow (built in 1946) that the owners bought in 2005 at 74 Nelson (for $850,000) may have been situated on one of the more modest blocks in Mill Valley's family-trendy Sycamore Park neighborhood, but it had one exceptional plus: the lot is adjacent to a popular vest-pocket neighborhood park. It's also an easy walk to Park Elementary School, Mill Valley Middle School and Tamalpais High School.

2. GET THE RIGHT ARCHITECT. Barbara Chambers, one of Marin's most versatile architects, designed a new, slightly bigger two-story house (1,200 sq ft) that somehow managed to incorporate an open first-floor floorplan, three bedrooms, 2.5 baths and a second-floor family room into that relatively small amount of space. The result was a house sited ingeniously on the lot, facing the street but with a "front" entry on the side of the building.

The exterior, in fact, greatly resembles Chambers' own, larger house a few blocks away, with a two-car garage topped by window boxes facing the street. (See photo, right)

3. KNOW YOUR MARKET. The new floorplan, with three second-floor bedrooms that opened off a central family room, was ideal for a young family. So was the gate in the backyard fence that leads directly to the park and playground behind the property. The Sunday open house a few days after 74 Nelson went on the market attracted a steady stream of young couples, prospective buyers in SUVs outfitted with infant seats.

3. THE PRICE IS RIGHT. The sellers priced 74 Nelson, in mint condition, at $1.795 million, significantly lower than the recent sale prices of two other slightly larger, and lived in, houses a few blocks away—81 Sycamore (sold for $2.185 million in November 2007) and 95 Sycamore (sold for $2.3 million, also in November 2007). Within days of the Sunday open house, they entertained multiple offers. In the end, the house sold for $40,000 above asking, after a mere 31 days on the market at a time when 74 days on the market is the average in Marin.

How To Get Negative Information Removed From Your Credit Report

2008-04-15T08:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, a client called and asked about refinancing, so the first thing I did was run his credit and his wife's credit, because they're co-borrowers. Within seconds, I see the wife has a 730 FICO score, but the husband is lower, at 719. They're both still high enough to qualify for the best rates, but just barely.

"Let's see what's dragging you down," I tell him, and then, as I scan the readout, "Uh oh, you have 10 late payments. On an auto lease. That you paid off in 2006."

Of course, he flips out. He says he has no idea why Bank One reported 10 lates. So I say, "We have to get them off your credit report." Then I tell him how:

The first thing I tell the client to do is to dig out proof that he paid that auto lease bill during every single month that the payment was reported late. Next, I tell him to make copies of the canceled checks—or in his case, all the old monthly checking account statements that list the online payments his bank sent—and to send copies to the creditor along with a letter requesting removal of the delinquents.

I tell him to send a letter with the standard wording I tell all my clients to use:

Dear So-and-So, Recently when my credit report was run, I found you reported this account no. xxxx as delinquent. As you can see, by my attached records, this account has never been late. All payments have been made on time. Please stop reporting this account as delinquent and send me evidence you have done so. Please feel free to contact me directly with any questions. Thank you. Sincerely.

You want to get a letter from them saying they're taking it off. That's the holy grail. The phrase "send me evidence" is key.

By law, the creditor has to respond within two weeks. If they say, "No, it was late," then at least you have something to argue about. But they might just go ahead and correct it, because the payments were made, and you have so much evidence that you made these payments that they'll have a tough time arguing about whether the payments were late.

A Tale of Two Counties

2008-04-14T11:47:00.000-07:00

While there's no denying that the real estate crisis is hurting Marin along with the rest of the country—the county's foreclosure rate doubled in the past year, for instance—there's also evidence that an unusually high percentage of listings still are selling above their asking prices. In March, for instance, 12 percent of the 134 houses and condos sold for prices higher than asking. Those listings also sold much faster—after an average of 21 days on the market—than the typical Marin listing, which was on the market for 74 days. Here's a look at those 16 sales by location:

In Corte Madera, two sales:

4 Wildflower, asking price $1,089,000, sold for $1,112,000 (102.1%)
438 Oakdale asking $850,000, sold for $885,000 (104.1%)

In Fairfax:

43 Bay , asking $939,000, sold for $950,000 (101.2%)

In Mill Valley, four sales:

171 Elinor, asking $2,368,000, sold for $2,430,000 (102.6%)
74 Nelson, asking $1,795,000, sold for $1,835,000 (102.2%)
111 Stanford, asking $1,595,000, sold for $1,600,000 (100.3%)
78 Marguerite, asking $899,000 sold for $975,000 (108.5)

In Novato, two sales:

801 Sutro, asking $470,999, sold for $480,000 (101.9%)
27 Lakeview, asking $279,000, sold for $290,000 (103.9%)

In Ross:

5 Madera, asking $2,595,000, sold for $2,800,000 (107.9%)

In San Rafael, three sales:

14 Westwood, asking $889,000, sold for $905,000 (101.8%)
106 Plymouth, asking $649,000, sold for $659,000 (101.5%)
25 Wharf, asking $336,900, sold for $342,000 (101.5%)

In Sausalito:

1 Willow, asking $889,000, sold for $890,000 (100.1%)

In Tiburon, two sales:

143 Gilmartin, asking $4,795,000, sold for $4,800,000 (100.1%)
1837 Centro West, asking $1,250,000, sold for $1,357,000 (108.6%)

COMING TOMORROW
How They Do It: An Inside Look At The Techniques One Marin Seller Used To Get Multiple Offers

Greenbrae Condo Prices: Then And Now

2008-04-14T07:00:00.000-07:00

One of these things is not like the other:

Just sold:
632 Via Casitas
2BR, 954 sq ft
Built in 1974
$410,000

Sold a year ago:
823 Via Casitas
2BR, 954 sq ft
Built in 1974
$485,000

[Photo credit: Skovgaard]

Weekend Reading: How do you know if a deal is a steal?

2008-04-11T15:32:00.000-07:00

Here's what I'm looking at now: A bank-owned property in Oakland priced at least 40% below its market value in 2005. And the question is: Can this really be the screaming bargain it appears to be on first glance, or am I the proverbial sucker at the table?

The house was built in '02-'03 and was initially priced about $100K more than it's selling for now. (You'll forgive me for not disclosing its precise location; this is business, after all.) In '05, the house next door-same square footage, same floor plan, built by the same builder-sold for another $100K above that.

I know what they were originally listed for (and when) from MLS data. I know what the house next door sold for in '05, and how much was owed to the bank on this one, from PropertyShark, ironically, Flipper's best friend...

That said, the location is iffy-one block over and you're solidly within a well-kept middle-class neighborhood where home values have been holding steady, but one block the other way it starts to gets kind of dicey. There's a small senior living apartment building across the street, and a good public elementary school at the end of the block. And there's one bit of obvious damage: At some point the upstairs toilet was leaking, and you can see the water damage on the living room ceiling. (Since it's bank-owned, I'd be buying "as-is.") But rental comps in the area suggest that, at 30% down, I can easily cover the mortgage, taxes, and insurance and probably would even eke out some positive cash flow.

So...deal or no deal? Discuss.

Read the Flipper's last adventure here.

Marin (elementary) Schools of Distinction

2008-04-11T08:43:00.000-07:00

Four Marin elementary schools were among those honored as "California Distinguished Schools" this week. They were among 343 elementary schools cited by the state Department of Education across the state—roughly 5% of California's public schools. The program is voluntary, and honors elementary and secondary schools in alternate years:

The criteria for school selection are designed to reflect the consensus of the education community regarding what constitutes a quality education program by incorporating the major themes of state and national policies and research related to effective schools. The criteria focus on all aspects of the school's educational program.

Full list of schools here.
Other, related state stuff here.

Warning: This house is in a spray zone

2008-04-11T08:29:00.002-07:00

Marin County real-estate agents are considering disclosing whether homes are in moth-spray flyover zones, according to the Associated Press. Pesticides, described as "a low dose of a synthetic pheromone mixture approved for use on organically grown crops," are being used to fight the light brown apple moth, which has been feasting on cash crops. Flyovers are scheduled for the Bay Area this summer.

In Marin County, real estate agents are considering amending their disclosure forms to tell future home buyers about the aerial sprays scheduled in the Bay Area this summer and advising them to consult a doctor for more information before closing a deal, said Levi Swift, president of the Marin Association of Realtors.

Though analysts say the spray is unlikely to have any lasting effects on properties in the spray zone or on the real estate market, attorneys said it was wise to notify buyers to ward off potential lawsuits.

"If my real estate agent had knowledge of the spraying activity and didn't tell me, I could certainly sue for misrepresentation," said real estate attorney Lewis Feldman, a senior partner with Goodwin Procter in Los Angeles. "The fact that the government says something isn't harmful doesn't prevent people from filing suit."

You don't get many murders in Mill Valley. And at these prices—no wonder.

2008-04-10T10:07:00.000-07:00

Case closed: A body found in an unused part of a Mill Valley cemetery in February turns out to be that of a local resident missing since 1964. Her husband, Bruce Jones, an erstwhile San Fransisco longshoreman, appears to be the suspect, but he died nearly 20 years ago.

The killing may have been—what else?—real-estate related. According to the San Francisco Chronicle:

Bruce Jones told authorities that he had an argument with his wife because she refused his request to have his name placed on real estate that she owned separately. He said that she became angry, walked away down the road - and never returned.

[Picture credit: Tam Valley Improvement Club]

Marin inventory surged 25% last month—biggest jump in Northern California

2008-04-09T18:23:00.000-07:00

Marin County saw a 25% increase in the number of homes for sale last month, according to Zip Realty's blog. (Note that this is for single family and condos only.)

The data, which shows 955 homes on the market in March, versus 763 last month, was culled from the MLS. San Francisco is in second place with 1,342 homes on the market—up 11% from 1,210 last month.

Welcome To The Neighborhood

2008-04-09T17:44:00.000-07:00

After barely a week on the market, a $3.395 million Mill Valley house at 111 Locust Ave.—yes, the one with the new two-story garage that some neighbors would have preferred not to see built—is in contract. Will the sale price will set a new record for Sycamore Park? Last year, 50 Walnut (3,850 sq ft) went for $2.936m; an oldie at 35 Sycamore Ave. (3,876 sq ft) went for $3.1 million.

Robin Williams Does Mill Valley. A lot.

2008-04-09T15:48:00.000-07:00

One of the great unkept secrets of living in Mill Valley is Tuesday Night Comedy Night—"Mark Pitta and Friends"—at the 142 Throckmorton Theater. Local comedian Mark Pitta, who looks a lot like a young Charlie Rose, and has a Jon Stewart-like delivery, does a great job hosting the event.

But the main reason Comedy Night tends to be standing room only (like, buy tickets at least a day in advance) is that San Francisco resident Robin Williams and Mill Valley resident Dana Carvey tend to show up, unannounced. Our neighbor, who goes pretty often, says Williams has been performing there about once a month, and bet that Williams would be there last night. He was.

Williams is so prolific, it's easy to take his genius for granted and forget how unusually gifted he is. You can tell that performing for a room this small is what (we bet) he loves most. (Does he even get paid for this? Doubtful. We wouldn't be surprised if he paid to do it.) Supposedly, he and Carvey use the Throckmorton to work out new bits.

Williams tends to look as if he's channeling something—something very funny and chaotic. We assume he's basically taking dictation from himself, noting the good bits and saving them for later.

One thing we especially loved last night was his riff on Mill Valley, which he says closes down at 8 p.m. He launched into the character of an old town crier, swinging a bell: "It's 8 o'clock! It's 8 o'clock! Everyone inside!" So funny! But you probably had to be there.

Best Language in a Flyer: Open Houses today

2008-04-09T11:31:00.000-07:00

This "original" 3 BR, 2 BA home in Mill Valley at 5 Hillcrest, is still on the market for $1.46 million. (Maybe it's the enormous redwood that lists uneasily at the corner of the lot.) We're starting to collect examples of laudable marketing prose.

From the Sotheby's flyer: "There is so much untapped potential in this 1952 home. It is a perfect canvas for those wanting to remodel..." A perfect canvas: Great title for a novel.

What $1,000 Bought You In Marin In The 1800s

2008-04-08T08:00:00.000-07:00

Don't feel bad. We're sure that if you index for inflation, it all comes out even.

Marin foreclosures at a glance

2008-04-07T18:04:00.000-07:00

Not a pretty sight, but a really pretty site. Real estate startup Hotpads scrapes national housing data (for sale, rental and foreclosure) and displays it on a map for your browsing pleasure. The foreclosure data comes from RealtyTrac; rentals and for sale data comes from homeowners and real estate agents' sites.

[Story via TechCrunch]

Market still brisk in Marin?

2008-04-07T08:43:00.000-07:00

Houses that cost more than $1 million don't last two weeks on the market in Marin says Redfin.

Price Choppers: More Tales of Marin's Most Motivated Sellers

2008-04-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

With one of last week's price choppers already in contract (we're referring to 171 Stanford in Mill Valley, where the seller cut the price from $849,000 to $795,000), we figured it was time to toss some fresh meat into the water. Here are some sellers who've reduced their asking prices:

Stinson Beach: There are only 325 lots in the Seadrift neighborhood, an exclusive enclave we've always thought exhibited great optimism, built on that spit of land that juts so trustingly out into the ocean at the end of Stinson Beach. The price of one older oceanfront property on the market since October, at 234 Seadrift Rd., has been cut from $3.6 million to $3.3 million. Depending on whom you ask, it either has ocean views or partial ocean views. Either way, they're better than our views. To give you some perspective, the seller of the house down the road at 296 Seadrift Rd., listed at $6.2 million last July, is sitting firm.

Mill Valley: A block or so over from the Stanford listing we discussed earlier, on another of those streets named after colleges, 222 Princeton has Bay views, 3BR, 2BA and a price cut, from $1.275m to $1.175m.

WEEKEND READING: A guide to Eichler homes

2008-04-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

Many of the urban hipsters we know in San Francisco (and a few friends in NY) want to quit their cramped city apartments and buy retro, mid-century Eichlers. Especially now that prices are starting to drop in Northern Marin.

What is an Eichler home? Joseph Eichler was a prolific builder who had a dream of California living that integrated the outdoors with the indoors. This was very forward thinking in the 1950s when people didn't have houses with big walls of sliding doors that opened onto sunny atria, where they could eat in the garden. But it made perfect sense for California's crisper-drawer climate.

Eichler teamed up with a number of architects to build 11,000, mostly low-cost homes in developments throughout the state. He also built some custom homes. Marin County has an especially high concentration of Eichlers—about 1,600 of them—in six neighborhoods, from Strawberry Point to upper Lucas Valley.

To see what all the fuss was about, we spent an afternoon with David Shapiro, a real estate agent with Frank Howard Allen who's been selling Eichlers for 30 years, and lives in one. Here's what we found out.

We met David at 1075 Las Ovejas Avenue in Terra Linda, one of his latest listings—a three-bedroom, two-bathroom Eichler which is on the market for $769,000. It sits in the middle of an Eichler neighborhood, on the kind of sunny, winding street where you'd expect to see a boy with a fresh buzz cut pedalling his new Sting-Ray. David, an athletically trim man with neat, gray hair and a quick smile, knows this neighborhood better than anyone. "I started in business in the late 1970s and I built it up by doing a lot of door knocking," he said. "There are approximately 750 Eichlers in Terra Linda and I've been to most of them."

In those days Eichlers were "kind of looked down upon by the real estate community and public in general" as out-of-style tract homes, he added. "But about 10 years ago they experienced a renaissance and now they've really come into vogue and sell for as much—or even more than—houses of other builders."

At 1075 Las Ovejas, David pointed out some of the tell-tale details that make an Eichler a hipster's dream: an open floor plan; a kitchen with two walls of windows that flow into sunny courtyards; beamed ceilings; and a long hall, lined with bedrooms and bathrooms as efficiently as a ship.

Over the years, certain architectural details have disappeared. Most original Eichlers have Philippine mahogany paneling that, in this home, has been replaced with more traditional wallboard. While real connoisseurs prize the paneling, "rarely wold you find it in impeccable condition," David said. "It was pretty flimsy and you have to remember that people raised kids in these houses."

This house is one of three Eichlers for sale in a three-block area. At 1020 Las Ovejas, for instance, another three-bedroom, two-bath Eichler is on the market for $799,000. And around the corner, at 794 Las Colindas Road, the same sized home is $759,000.

You can probably buy any of these houses for less than it would have cost you a few years ago, now that the Northern Marin real estate market has weakened. But you'll face competition from savvy Eichlerphiles. Just last month, one of David's listings, an $810,000 Terra Linda house, sold after getting three offers. Two came in at $775,000; the winner was $785,000.

David offers these tips for would-be Eichler buyers:
1. Thoroughly check out the original radiant heating system (the pipes below the floor) to be sure it's still functioning.
2. Inspect the flat roof to make sure it doesn't leak. ("The beams you see inside are both the interior ceiling AND the roof support. So a hole in the tar and gravel above will leak right in.")
3. Check out the Eichler Network for info on maintenance and atrium gardening.

More on Eichler: "Old Modern Houses With Futurist Ideas"
More Eichlers for sale in Marin.

Last week's Weekend Reading: Buying foreclosed houses with The Flipper

The Way We Were

2008-04-04T19:03:00.000-07:00

Yes, Virginia, there was a Mt. Tamalpais Gravity Train.

Two, Two, Two Houses In One

2008-04-04T12:41:00.000-07:00

The neighbors find more reasons than there are trees to hate the house you're building in Mill Valley—any house. In the case of this pricey new Sycamore Park listing (a just-completed $3.395 million Dutch Colonial-style home at 111 Locust Ave.), the offending feature was a detached, two-story building with a rental unit in the backyard.

A one-story garage would have been fine. But a two-story rental cottage would "tower over our rental cottage," one neighbor wrote in an email message to the city planning department. That was just the beginning.

The owners went to city hall to make an impassioned speech about the house. And about how their family was looking forward to living in the neighborhood. As for that two-story garage/apartment? A perfect place to house grandparents.

With the wisdom of Solomon, the planning commission ruled that a slightly shorter version of the garage could be built. It also asked the owners to investigate whether "prehistoric resources" were buried on the property. (They weren't, according to an archaeological survey.) And finally, it asked the owners to paint the trim a tasteful color. (The city approved linen white.)

We don't know which of these requirements, if any, put the owners over the edge. But they decided to leave the neighborhood after all. Which is why this lovely house is on the market.

Peek In Your Neighbors' Windows Without Getting Arrested

2008-04-04T08:44:00.000-07:00

Go on, you know you want to see what's going on in there.

Now you can, by paging through America At Home, a new collection of photos and essays created by two long-time Marin residents who wanted to give the rest of us a glimpse into the private, everyday—and in some cases, unusual—rituals unfolding inside other people's houses:

From the Mother Goose of Mill Valley (see above) who shares her condo with waterfowl to the Wrigley Field neighbors who installed in-home bleachers to watch Chicago Cubs play, the book created by Rick Smolan and Jennifer Erwitt offers a look at what it's like to live in America today. "Wouldn't it be cool if you went up to your grandparents' attic and found a book that showed what home life was like before electricity and the Internet?" asks Mr. Smolan.

In a hundred years, someone will find this book fascinating for the same reason (actually, we already do). In the meantime, at the book's website you can upload your own family photo and make a custom cover for your copy. The book, which retails for $40, sells for $26.40 at Amazon.

Luxury Apartments For Corte Madera?

2008-04-04T08:29:00.000-07:00

The new owners of Madera Vista—one of Marin's largest if not best-kept apartment complexes—are embarking on a $25 million plan to spruce up the joint, according to today's Marin Independent-Journal, which notes that the aging seven-buliding complex has "sweeping views of San Pablo Bay and easy access to public open space."

Tenants in Building 7 were the first to be told to scram (by June 1). Rents, for anyone who might be thinking of moving back into the 126-unit complex after renovations are finished in three years, will set a Marin record:

Apartment broker Scott Gerber of NorCal Commercial Inc. in Larkspur, said Madera Vista will probably have among the highest rental rates in the county. Average two-bedroom apartments go for $1.76 to $1.79 per square foot in Marin and properties at the high end cost about $2.30 per square foot. He said Stellar could end up asking $3,575 for a 1,300-square-foot two-bedroom unit given their investment, the location and the views.

A New Place to Shop For Mortgages

2008-04-03T10:19:00.000-07:00

Zillow today launched a tool to help borrowers comparison shop for loans. At the Mortgage Marketplace, if you enter your zipcode, the amount you want to borrow and your credit score, the site promises to email you lenders' quotes. The site is free for borrowers; lenders pay $25 to sign up. So far, 1,214 users have requested loan information (including us), and lenders have responded with 640 quotes. We're still waiting for ours.

Belvedere Brouhaha: My View Is Bigger Than Yours

2008-04-02T17:09:00.000-07:00

There are two rich men in Belvedere who own fabulous waterfront lots with great views. One already has a big house. The other wants to build his own (presumably even bigger) one. They have been fighting about this for a long time.

A front-page story in today's Marin Independent-Journal describes more details of this not-so-neighborly feud—although not necessarily the juicy ones we'd most like to know. Next time, please, a little more about the "two large, vicious and peace disturbing dogs that are allowed to roam their yard day and night."

Marin County real estate: not especially overpriced

2008-04-02T13:19:00.000-07:00

Glad to see Marin County did NOT make it into Forbes's Top 10 Most Overpriced Suburbs. That said, for some reason, Berkeley did. The mag's entire real estate package (America's Riskiest Real Estate Markets) is definitely worth a look.

Sneeze And You Miss It

2008-04-02T09:59:00.000-07:00

A new $1.295 million listing in Ross—described as a "very private home on a private lane" with 2BR, 2B, 1,893 square feet—came on the market on Monday. Within 24 hours, the seller accepted an offer. Can anybody guess why?

Historic Schwingers' Pad for Sale

2008-04-02T07:46:00.000-07:00

We were surprised and a little excited—in a good way—to see that the old Swiss Club recently went on the market. (Asking price is $4.995 million.)

Anyone who's hiked Mt. Tam and put in around the Mountain Home Inn in Mill Valley has surely seen it: a sprawling, wooden chalet that, until a few years ago, had the words "Swiss Club" on its door. We figured it for some kind of Alpine hiking club (was excellent European beer on tap inside?) but we didn't know anyone who was a member, or even anyone who knew a member. Since the "For Sale" sign has stimulated recent discussions about the place, we figured it was a good time to head over to the library to investigate.

All we can say is: Who knew Swiss immigrants were such schwingers?

It turns out that there were many Swiss saloons in San Francisco in the early 1900s. Homesick for the Alps, many expats enjoyed taking the ferry to Sausalito and hiking to Mill Valley. Armed with pickaxes and shovels, they began clearing a path on the hillside—so they could haul a sled full of construction materials up the grade, and build a clubhouse. (The path would later become Edgewood Avenue.)

They raised a house in 1920 and dubbed it Schweizer Verein Tell—or Swiss Club Tell—after the apple-shooting, 15th century Swiss hero, William Tell. After the building slid downhill in a big storm, they rebuilt and that house is the one you see today.

For the first few decades of its existence, the Swiss Club Tell hosted parties and picnics and housed "a certain piece of equipment which was able to produce some kind of a liquid which looked to the uninitiated like holy water," according to reminiscences from early members. "But it was of much greater proof. It is said that those mountain waters supplied the necessary spirit in various Swiss saloons in the city."

During the Great Depression, "the club decided to open its doors for those few unfortunate enough to have lost their job and with it their place to live."

By the 1950s, the place was swinging. Or more accurately, schwinging: "There was a major gathering every month, including a Fastnacht dance, a March festival, a Hobo ball in April, a Mayfest and a Summer dance....They held several Schwingfests."

More Unusual Houses: The Flying Saucer of Chattanooga

Fast forward to the 50th anniversary gala in 1970, when both San Francisco's Swiss Gymnastic Club and Swiss Singing Club (practices were every Thursday at 8 p.m., all welcome) sent their congratulations. These were the days of raucous yodeling contests and dancing to Al Fassler's Swiss Orchestra.

Eventually, however, the club fell on hard times; the property was sold and, in the 1990s, the neighbors strenuously opposed the new owner's plan to connect the property to the city's sewers. He won on sanitary grounds. When the place sold in 2004, it fetched $2.75 million.

According to the current listing, $4.995 million buys you a "main lodge and three charming guest cottages...dramatically restored with character and attention to detail. The grounds are breathtakingly beautiful, with approximately 65,000 sq ft. of sun-drenched redwoods, lawns and private stone patios."

This time around, we're taking up a collection to buy it. We'll revive the yodeling contests.

[See related 2002 San Francisco Chronicle post]

[Photo credit: Swiss Club Tell file]

Some People Say Marin County Is Perfect

2008-04-01T11:47:00.001-07:00

Is it?

BREAKING: That Little House On Park Sold

2008-04-01T09:24:00.000-07:00

Less than a week after it went on the market, the "contemporary, urban chic, oh-so-close to town" $1.129 million house at 19 Park Ave. in Mill Valley is under contract. Now you see why we urged you to go see it fast. More on this breaking story as it develops.

On the Market: Walk to Death Row

2008-04-01T07:15:00.000-07:00

It's historic. It's on the water. It's one of Marin's tiniest close-knit enclaves, with about 40 houses and a 10-unit condo complex. Oh yeah, and its Main Street dead ends at the gates to San Quentin State Prison.

We're talking about Point San Quentin Village, and we're willing to bet it's the only place in Larkspur where you can get spectacular views for $1.26 million:

A new listing in the community boasts 3BR, BA, access to two beaches and the sort of one-of-a-kind location that Marin Magazine recently described succinctly as being walk-to-jail, since it's just a few yards away from "the massive medium-security San Quentin State Prison, home to more than 5,000 inmates—the road dead-ends (possibly a poor choice of words) at the prison’s main gate."

Possibly.

[Photo credit: University of California]

New report shows Marin real estate is stable. Sort of.

2008-04-01T00:15:00.000-07:00

We were always taught to be suspicious of surveys, polls and other data that partisans collect to prove a point. Don't get us wrong, we want to believe the just-released Marin Realtors Reality Report—desperately. The problem is the free, 43-page report was prepared on behalf of The Marin Association of Realtors whose agenda is, well, to sell houses.

Two appraisers did the research and concentrated on 13 towns and communities, from Sausalito to Novato. And guess what? Marin's real estate is remarkably stable. Through 2007, that is. Given what's going on in other affluent areas, which are just starting to see drops in their markets, it would be interesting to see data from 2008.

Here's the report summary. It's hard to find an unpleasant adjective—though when you look closely at the data, in many cases you can see the local markets slowing or dropping:

BELVEDERE SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENCE MARKET SMALL BUT STRONG
CORTE MADERA PRICES PEAKED IN 2007MEDIAN PRICE HITS $1,040,000
CORTE MADERA CONDO PRICES PEAKED IN 2005
FAIRFAX MEDIAN SALES PRICE PEAKS IN 2007
GREENBRAE REBOUNDS IN 2007 FROM UNEVEN 2006
KENTFIELD MARKET STABLE THROUGHOUT 2007
LARKSPUR HOMES IN THE $1M-$2M RANGE UP 8 PERCENT IN 2007 FROM 2005
MILL VALLEY CONDOMINIUM PRICES REACH NEW HIGHS IN 2007
MILL VALLEY SINGLE FAMILY HOMES BUCK NATIONAL TREND
NOVATO CONDOMINIUM PRICES DECLINE IN SMALLER, SLOWER MARKET
NOVATO DETATCHED SINGLE FAMILY HOME PRICES CONTINUE TO WEAKEN
ROSS MEDIAN SALES PRICE PEAKED IN 2007
SAN ANSELMO MEDIAN SALES PRICE PEAKS IN 2007
SO. SAN RAFAEL (94901) MEDIAN PRICE IN $1M-$2M RANGE UP 13 PERCENT IN 2ND HALF OF 2007
NORTHERN SAN RAFAEL (94903) MEDIAN PRICE PEAKED IN 2006
SAN RAFAEL CONDO PRICES PEAKED IN 2007
DEMAND REMAINS STRONG FOR SAUSALITO CONDOMINIUMS
HEALTHY MARKET FOR SAUSALITO SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENCES
TIBURON SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENCE MARKET INCREASING
TIBURON CONDOMINIUM MARKET MIGRATES UPWARD

(See related story at the Marin IJ here.)

The Mystery At The Top Of Telegraph Hill

2008-03-31T16:17:00.000-07:00

The weather was so nice yesterday that we took the ferry to San Francisco so we could hike to the top of Telegraph Hill like tourists. We wheezed up the last steps, past the Open House at 333 Greenwich (amazing views, but no parking for $1.65 million, so tell us again how we get the groceries home). We caught our breath while clutching the chain link at 115 Telegraph Hill Blvd.—that weedy, overgrown $4 million parcel that's been for sale for years—and thought once again that there must be an amazing story behind the vacant property with panoramic views of everything between here and Asia. There is:

A little wooden shack once sat on the hill, home to a labor activist named Bill Bailey. Mr. Bailey, eulogized for being a "celebrated San Francisco longshoreman" when he died at age 84, had in his youth organized a legendary local waterfront strike to unionize dock workers. He was the fiery sort of idealist who tore Nazi flags off German ships and who fought fascists in Spain. Then, in the last decades of his life, he lived in a 300-square-foot box that had the best view in the world.

After his death in 1995, the lot's owners got city approval to demolish the house and build four condos on Mr. Bailey's hill. Neighborhood residents decided to save the house and in 1999 got it towed to a Muni lot near Islais Creek.

In the years since, the lot's owners let the permits lapse and the weeds take over. If any view is worth $4 million, it's this one. But the problem is taking advantage of it. As neighborhood resident Peter Dwares said in an interview, "There are a lot of people here on the hill who haven't made it very easy."

[Photo credit: The Volunteer]

Manhattan real estate: Going down

2008-03-31T13:51:00.000-07:00

Ever since the national real estate market started to tank, we've been watching Manhattan. That's partly because we used to live there, partly because we have good friends and family there and partly because New York housing—the high end at least—seemed impervious to the meltdown. That last point would appear to make Manhattan a bellwether of sorts for Marin.

A Bloomberg story today suggests though that even Manhattan is beginning to feel the real-estate crash. Apartment sales are falling, inventory is climbing quickly, and agents are starting to manage the expectations of their clients—especially in the "middle-luxury" category for $3 million to $7 million apartments:

``In 2006 and 2007, they looked at the last 12 months' worth of sales and priced their apartments at 10 percent more,'' [Brown Harris Stevens broker John] Burger said. ``Today they are sitting down with the soon-to-be listing broker and saying `Do you think we can get what they got in '06?'''

[Miller Samuel President Jonathan Miller] estimates the number of deals closed in Manhattan has fallen 6.4 percent and [Gregory J. Heym, chief economist for Terra Holdings LLC] says they have dropped about 4 percent. Neil Binder, co-founder of the Bellmarc Cos., said contracts signed at his firm in January and February were down 20 percent.

Manhattan real estate at the high end, like Marin's, has tripled in value during the past decade.

However, New York's market may well be responding to trouble on Wall Street, with the most financial sector jobs being lost in seven years, Bloomberg reports. By contrast, employment in the Bay Area is brisk, and has yet to flag—especially in Techland. Indeed, our friends at tech companies complain that it's nearly impossible to find talent these days, with the job scene looking a lot like it did back during the late 1990s.

While that didn't end well, we continue to believe that history won't repeat itself in Techland.

Price Choppers: Marin's Most Motivated Sellers

2008-03-31T10:07:00.000-07:00

A friend asked what we were going to write about today and we answered, "Sellers in southern Marin who have dropped their asking prices," and then the friend said, "Is that a joke? Or do people actually do that here?" Short answer is yes, they do. All the time. Long answer is:

GOLF COURSE VIEW: After being on the market less than three weeks, the owners of 10 Country Club Drive in Mill Valley cut the asking price from $3.495 million to $3.195 million, for 3,200 square feet in a sunny location. Best feature: the wraparound deck and outdoor fireplace. Why the price cut? Somebody must have noticed that 72 Cypress, another view house that came on the market the same day, has a much lower asking price -- $2.3 million -- for a slightly bigger house. Granted, Cypress is in shade for much of the day.

ONE YEAR LATER: An "utterly charming, remodeled Sleepy Hollow home on a 27,000 sq ft lot" that went on the market more than a year ago asking $1.25 million is now for sale for $1.239 million. Does this mean the seller might actually be willing to settle for $1.238 million? Would $1.237 million be an insult?

WORTH A LOOK: After nearly two months on the market, 171 Stanford Ave.'s asking price is down from $849k to $795k. Zillow estimates the Mill Valley house is worth $820k and that all its nearest neighbors on the view side of the street are worth more.

[Photo credit: Dreammoods)

Save 30 Percent on Remodel By Shopping Online

2008-03-31T00:15:00.000-07:00

We're no psychics, but we suspected it was time to renovate the bathroom the moment the floor collapsed under the toilet. But who wants to pay $3,219.93 for fixtures? Not us. Luckily, we figured out how to get everything for $2,247.05 instead. Here's how:

First, we went to a retail showroom to figure out what we wanted to buy. We wrote down manufacturers' names and model numbers for every fixture (including such unsexy ancillary items as rough valves, shower arms and connection pipes that also were necessary).

Then we went online to do some comparison shopping. Pay dirt. It turned out we could get the same Kohlers Memoirs toilet (yes, the one with the elongated bowl!) for well below the $488.95 list price if we bought it at a site like Faucet.com ($350, and they charge no sales tax if you live outside NY) or Faucetdirect.com ($337.37, with free shipping on orders over $99).

A few clicks of the mouse later, we'd saved $972.88, 30 percent less than if we'd ordered from the showroom. Plus, we avoided whatever heinous surcharge the contractor would have tacked onto the order when he placed it for us.

Downside? If we had to do it over again, we would prepare the neighbors better for the sight of our new toilet, awaiting installation, for all those weeks. Next time we'll definitely put a potted fern in the elongated bowl while it sits on the front porch.

[Photo credit: Gardening-Guy]

Our Picks: New Listings You Should See This Weekend

2008-03-29T08:38:00.000-07:00

We sorted through this week's four dozen new southern Marin listings—priced from $875,000 for three bedrooms on the outskirts of Mill Valley, to $4.85 million for panoramic views in Belvedere—to come up with a list of the ones you should see this weekend:

BEST $1.46M TEAR DOWN: You wouldn't guess it from the street, but this unassuming corner lot at 5 Hillcrest in Mill Valley boasts terrific southwestern views of everything you want to see from here to the Headlands. The other thing you'll get for your $1.46 million is a walk-to-town location.

BEST LITTLE HOUSE: Somebody was smart enough to figure out how to take advantage of every single one of the 1,249 square feet at 19 Park in Mill Valley. This teensy $1.129m house on the edge of the family-fueled Sycamore Park neighborhood feels ship-shape; but be warned, the third bedroom is so small that it was necessary to put up a sign that says "Twin bed will fit along this wall." (Open from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday)

HOW THEY USED TO BUILD HOUSES: We're a sucker for a gracious, curved stairway, and 1715 Lincoln Ave. in San Rafael ($1.395 million) has one that managed to survive against the odds and the remodelers. 3BR, 2B and we can't help but wonder what happened to the original clawfoot tub.

Weekend Reading: How to buy a foreclosed home on the courthouse steps

2008-03-28T17:33:00.001-07:00

(Ed: We know a journalist who’s decided that the mortgage meltdown represents a great opportunity to get into real estate—in Northern California. He thinks it’s such a great opportunity, in fact, that he quit his day job to get into this. He agreed to file occasional posts charting his progress.)

I’ve been spending a lot of time on PropertyShark trying to find a deal on any decent house that was in foreclosure. Propertyshark not only tells you what’s been foreclosed, it tells you when and where the house is being auctioned. Recently, I saw something that looked interesting—a house in Piedmont was being foreclosed for $420 grand.

I drove by to take a look at the house. It was in the flats of Piedmont, at the bottom of the hill—the less nice part of town. Still, because the school district is so great here, everything is expensive. Any lot alone would be well worth $420,000.

The house was a small, blue stucco home; the shrubs around it were overgrown, so it was hard to really see what was going on. You’re not allowed to go in—all you can do is drive by. This house was definitely still occupied. You could see though the shrubs that a dog was sitting in the front window. I thought about whether I could buy the house, then rent it back to the tenants. Maybe a lease-to-buy option.

On the appointed day, I went to the courthouse in Alameda. Houses are auctioned off there, literally on the front steps, every day at noon, and again at 12:30 p.m. The only difference between the auctions, except for the auctioneers, was different groups of homes were being sold off.

The buyers remained the same. I've since returned a few times and can say that every day, a crowd of regulars—a dozen people or so—assembles. Most of them are pros, know each other and are friendly even though they bid against each other. Most of them also wear Bluetooth headsets in their ears so they can talk to investors during the bidding.

One curious thing, from a sociological perspective: the bidding usually ends up with some Asian guys on one side bidding against everyone else. The “everyone else,” in this case, is an ethnically diverse group of people—white guys, an African American woman, a few Latinos and some dudes from the Middle East. But when a particular home is hotly contested, invariably the Asian guys bet against the rest. I asked one of the regulars why this was and he shrugged. “We all know each other. That’s pretty much the way it works.”

He said most of the people that gather here are pros who buy the homes, evict the people who live there—the bank basically assigns that ugly task to the new buyer—fix them up and flip them. Sometimes they rent them out.

When the bidding starts, it’s actually very tedious. The auctioneer has to read off a bunch of legal mumbo jumbo very fast; that alone takes an endless minute. Then he starts the bidding process. The floor—where the bidding starts—is always the mortgage amount owed to the bank.

The vast majority of the homes didn’t sell, which surprised me. Every now and then someone would bid on one, and the Asian guys would jump in, and there would be a little excitement. But most of the homes didn’t sell. The house was no longer worth the amount owed to the bank. What the pros are hunting is diamonds in the rough.

That, apparently, described the Piedmont house: As soon as the auctioneer put it on the block, a bunch of people started bidding. It quickly got to $600,000, when I and just about everyone else, dropped out. A white guy and an Asian guy hung tough. Now the pace slowed to a miserable, endless crawl, as the bids moved in thousand-dollar increments. Every time it got to “Going once! Going twice!...” the other guy would add a thousand. Then the action would pause as information was relayed into Blueteeth. It took 20 minutes or so to get to the final bid—the Asian guy got it for just over $620,000.

The pros know what they’re doing and tend to be pretty conservative.

One interesting thing was how you pay for one of these houses. The bank will only take cash—as if anyone would carry that much around—or cashier’s checks. Cashier’s checks have to be made out to precisely the right amount. But since you never know what you’ll be paying until you clinch the bid, how does that work? Easy: The pros carry wads of cashier’s checks, made out in a variety of denominations—a $400,000 one, say, and a couple of $100,000s, $50,000s, $10,000s and $1,000s. There’s maybe 10 checks in a roll—probably close to $1 million in different denominations.

(Virtually everyone I told this story to has suggested that the courthouse steps at noon would be a great place to stage an armed robbery. That either tells you something about my friends, or their intelligence. You wouldn’t get very far with those stolen cashier’s checks.)

It turned out that on my first outing to Alameda, there was another non-pro on the courthouse steps, looking for a deal. He had his eye on a place in Dublin, which has a bunch of nice, new homes on the market that are going into default. In better times, they tend to sell for $1 million to $1.1 million new. So this guy bought one of them for the floor price: $970,000. No one else bid.

Happily, he produced a cashier’s check for that amount, and was handing it over, when everyone realized he had made a newbie mistake: The purchase price must exceed the floor price. He looked chagrined, until one of the pros reached into his pocket and flipped him a penny. That satisfied the bank, and he got the house.

After he left, the pros said, the Dublin buyer got hosed.

Six Ways To Spend Less To Make More At Resale

2008-03-28T08:37:00.000-07:00

There you are on the sidelines, waiting out the real estate meltdown by not selling your house. Which, you cannot help but notice, could use a new coat of paint. Not to mention a kitchen facelift. You're not a Rockefeller, but minor upgrades would go a long way toward making the place more liveable.

But then you remember you live in uncertain times. With the economy in free fall, can you justify spending money—even a small amount of money—on a new deck? Yes, yes, yes.

Especially a small amount of money. As this story points out, the renovation projects that pay off most are often those that cost the least. The list of the six savviest ways to spend money on your house includes:

1. New siding (because the average homeowner will recoup up to 88.1 percent of the cost at resale; )
2. New wooden deck (get back as much of 85.4 percent at resale)
3. Kitchen makeover (recoup up to 83 percent)
4. New windows (as much as 81.2 percent)
5. Bathroom facelift (up to 78 percent)
6. Install crown molding (can cost as little as $100 a room, so how could it not be worth it?)

BREAKING: That House On Throckmorton Sold

2008-03-28T07:09:00.000-07:00

Barely a week after the brokers' open house—you remember how we were so excited about the live piano player and the shrimp platter— the Mill Valley house with the perfect Mayberry location at 445 Throckmorton (5+BR, asking price $3.489 million) is in contract. More on this developing story as details unfold.

Lost and Found

2008-03-27T17:50:00.000-07:00

Our favorite checker was rooting through a baggie of old eyeglasses under the cash register when we were buying our dinner tonight. "Lost and found," she explained. "You'd be amazed at the kinds of things we get."

For instance? "A table cloth," she said. A white one. Not new, not old. Not even just back from the dry cleaners in a cleaning bag. Neatly folded up and placed on a shelf in one of the aisles. She figured someone bought it up the street at the Thrift Store, came into the Market and forgot about it. "It stayed in Lost and Found for 30 days [ed: standard Mill Valley Market Lost & Found policy] and no one claimed it." So another check-out lady took it home.

As our checker-outer put the rest of our stuff in a bag, she laughed her explosive laugh. "I'm waiting for a fur coat," she said.

How to Fix The Mortgage Mess

2008-03-27T15:47:00.000-07:00

We've always admired Daniel Gross, Slate's Moneybox columnist and resident Bubbleologist. The guy is everywhere. In this Q&A, which first appeared on washingtonpost.com, he takes readers' questions on the mortgage crisis. His best idea? Creating a New Deal-style federal agency that would buy up foreclosed properties and slowly sell them off:

One possibility would be something like a Resolution Trust Corp. (from late 1980s or early 1990s) that would buy up the bad debt and take ownership of foreclosed properties—and work them out or sell them over time, rather than dumping them on the market en masse as is being done today. The way the foreclosure dynamic works in the private sector, there's no way the lenders can handle the sort of one-on-one negotiations necessary to modify mortgages, etc.

[Photo credit: Russ Abbott]

Primetime, Rather Than Subprime, Mortgage Meltdown

2008-03-27T13:47:00.000-07:00

This ought to be good: Fortune's Managing Editor Andy Serwer teamed up with CNN to produce an investigative report that, from the sound of the press release anyway, concludes that we're all to blame for the housing mess. The hour-long program:

...takes everyone to task, from loose lenders and slick Wall Street operators to lax regulators and greedy homeowners. No one is off limits in what is shaping up to be the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression.

Participants include NYT columnist Paul Krugman, securities expert Janet Tavakoli, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and erstwhile Fed boss Alan Greenspan.

Premieres Friday, March 28 at 8 PM EST

Obama on Mortgages: Take The Middle Road

2008-03-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

In a speech today in Manhattan, Democrat Barack Obama said the government has to "confront the housing crisis" to help end it.

He said the way to do this is to give lenders incentives to buy out upside-down mortgages and convert them to new fixed-rate loans homeowners can afford:

"Over two million households are at risk of foreclosure and millions more have seen their home values plunge. Many Americans are walking away from their homes, which hurts property values for entire neighborhoods and aggravates the credit crisis. To stabilize the housing market and help bring the foreclosure crisis to an end, I have sponsored Senator Chris Dodd's legislation creating a new FHA Housing Security Program, which will provide meaningful incentives for lenders to buy or refinance existing mortgages. This will allow Americans facing foreclosure to keep their homes at rates they can afford."

What Obama's really doing is carving out a moderate position on the real estate meltdown that clearly differentiates him from both Republican John McCain (opposes government bailouts) and Democrat Hillary Clinton (who proposed freezing foreclosures and creating a $30 billion fund to buy up distressed properties). Obama would spend his $30 billion like this: $10 billion to help bail out distressed homeowners, $10 billion to the 19 states whose expected budget shortfalls could lead to higher taxes and reduce services and $10 billion to prop up the unemployed.

BREAKING: That house in Strawberry Point sold

2008-03-27T10:09:00.000-07:00

We were in Produce this morning, considering the virtues of the local organic strawberries that the teachers at Park School told the fifth graders to tell their parents to buy. (Supposedly, they prevent global warming.) That's when we ran into one of the 4,000 real estate brokers who live in our little town of 13,000 people.

To divert her from the baby arugula, we said casually, "So, how are things?"

"Busy," she said. She looked more excited than you would expect of someone who was examining carrots, even if they were tiny purple-colored carrots that save polar ice caps.

"Really?" we asked skeptically, having read in the paper how there's this big real estate crisis that is going to plunge us into bankruptcy and out on the street, where we'll be living off the muddy stems of other people's arugula that we scrounged from the garbage.

She leaned closer. "Did you hear about the house out on Strawberry Point?" she asked. "The one that was listed for almost $4 million?"

"You mean the one that's been sitting there for a while now?" we asked.

"It's not sitting anymore," she said. "It sold!"

True story? Eager to confirm it as quickly as possible, we bypassed our favorite checker Barbara (she chats) for the fast bagger on Three.

It turned out that not only is the house—5 BR, 4581 square feet, with "take-your-breath-away views"—in contract, it also got multiple offers. At least two. We'll let you know the sale price when it posts.

LoanShark Confesses: I Can't Pull A Credit Score From A Hat

2008-03-27T07:00:00.000-07:00

Ever since most major lenders tightened credit standards, my job got harder. Borrowers used to need to have a 680 credit score to qualify them for the best rates. Now it's 700. Anything lower and you can't get a non-conforming loan. Clients ask if one 30-day late payment will be detrimental enough to disqualify them from getting the best rate. Or does it take one 60-day late? Or three 30-day lates along with a high debt-to-credit ratio?

I wish I knew. A FICO score, which can range from the 300s to 900 (although I've never seen one that high) is based on a complicated proprietary formula nobody has cracked. Believe me, I've tried. I've seen people with a lot of lates and they have a score of 720. I've seen somebody who had one late and it brought him down to 600.

I tell clients to get a copy of their credit reports ASAP (get all three because we get all three, every time, and we will use the middle score to qualify you). I tell people if they see anything at all negative on the report, be proactive. Contact the creditor to ask to have the negative information removed (in my experience, it's a lot easier to get a late car payment removed than a late mortgage payment). It's better to write a letter than to phone, and attach copies of your bank statements showing the payment was made.

It's worth the trouble. On a $300,000 loan, here's what you could save:

FICO® score	APR	Monthly payment *
760-850	5.600%	$1,722
700-759	5.822%	$1,764
660-699	6.106%	$1,819
620-659	6.916%	$1,979
580-619	9.220%	$2,461
500-579	10.242%	$2,686

Parallel Universe: Noe Valley Apparently Didn't Get The Memo

2008-03-26T17:33:00.000-07:00

Today, as we continued to obsess over this week's news that the real estate market tanked badly in January, we heard a story that sounded so bizarre we thought at first it came from the Twilight Zone.

"We keep trying to buy something, but then we get outbid," said a friend of ours who lives in San Francisco and who drove north over the Golden Gate Bridge to have lunch with us today. "Each weekend we keep running into the same people at open houses. I feel like I'm starting to get to know them."

Apparently, all those people are looking for the same thing as our friend and his wife: a condo in the $1.1-$1.3 million price range in San Francisco's Noe Valley, the hip-to-be-a-family-with-one-or-possibly-two-kids neighborhood where, if this wild tale is to be believed, multiple offers and bidding wars are still common.

Freshly bruised from a failed attempt to buy a 4BR condo on Church (a 2,283-square-foot Zephyr listing, with an asking price of $1.199 million), our friend had a haunted look in his eyes. "We were one of six who bid," he said. "And we came in No. 2."

"Who got the condo in the end?" we asked gently.

"Somebody who bid $1.31," he said. "We thought we had it, but they came in with a no-contingency offer and agreed to close in fourteen days. The owners had already moved out, and they just wanted the cash fast."

"Weird," we said, although frankly we would have taken the cash fast, too.

"You'll get the next one," we said (as if we knew the first thing about what's going on in the San Francisco real estate market). "It must have been a fluke."

Or was it? Is there some secret, robust real-estate market hiding out in plain sight in San Francisco?

[Photo credit: Historic Noe Valley street scene by way of Noevalues.com]

McCain on Mortgages: Don't Blame The Rich Guy

2008-03-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

The government has three choices in assigning blame for the real estate meltdown. It's the fault of the borrowers, the lenders or both. Republican John McCain blames both and says it's not the government's duty to bail them out:

"A sustained period of rising home prices made many home lenders complacent, giving them a false sense of security and causing them to lower their lending standards. They stopped asking basic questions of their borrowers like 'can you afford this home? Can you put a reasonable amount of money down?' Lenders ended up violating the basic rule of banking: don't lend people money who can't pay it back.

"Some Americans bought homes they couldn't afford, betting that rising prices would make it easier to refinance later at more affordable rates. There are 80 million family homes in America and those homeowners are now facing the reality that the bubble has burst and prices go down as well as up."

What he's really saying is they wipe each other out, so there's nothing the rest of us who aren't in trouble can do about it. At least nothing that wouldn't cost money.

On the market: Celebrity homes in Palm Springs

2008-03-26T08:29:00.000-07:00

Pssssst--got $9.2 million lying around? Have we got a house for you. This villa, once rented by Elizabeth Taylor, is among the celebrity pads for sale in Palm Springs, California these days.

The Desert Sun reports today that a number of pre-owned-or-rented-by-stars homes are crowding the market in Coachella Valley, including the Suzanne Somers retreat—65 mountain-top acres, for the low, low price of $27.5 million. That price, the paper says, would set a record, even for Palm Springs, which has long been a playground for Hollywood's finest. Also for sale are homes formerly owned by Frank Sinatra (his "hide away") and Sidney Sheldon. Check out the photo gallery.

[Photo credit: mydesert.com]

Missing: One 6BR, $1.875M House In Marin

2008-03-26T07:48:00.000-07:00

Marin County's stratospheric home prices are so wildly out of sync with the rest of America that they've caught the eye of New York Times columnist David Leonhardt repeatedly. Last summer, he described how one Mill Valley house sold for $1.4 million without ever officially being put on the market, which he took as a sign back in July that "much of the housing market there seems to be doing just fine."

Today, at breakfast we read that Mr. Leonhardt revisited Marin County, this time to point out how homeowners here are just as pigheaded as everyone else in the country about dropping their asking prices in a falling market. In 2005, the owner of one six-bedroom, $1.875 million house somewhere in Marin, he writes, refused to accept a $1.575 million offer. The last time the would-be buyer (is this him?) checked, the house was still for sale.

Were we the only Marin residents who immediately shrieked, "We can get six bedrooms for $1.875 million?" before leaping from the breakfast table to run to the computer to check the multiple listings?

Sadly, we couldn't find the house listed, so perhaps it went off the market unsold at some point since the last time the would-be buyer checked. Whenever that was. Or maybe the house is still there, lurking among the Novato listings? If anyone knows of a 6 bedroom house for sale in Marin County, please email us ASAP.

Mill Valley Shocker: Owners Ask Less For House Than They Paid For It

2008-03-25T14:20:00.000-07:00

Real estate brokers here in our twee Northern California town have been circling like buzzards around this downtown house for weeks, waiting for the listing to go live. The big question on their minds was whether the owners, who paid $2,750,000 for the 4bdrm, 2 bath house less than two years ago, would try to push the price envelope upward by asking more than $3 million.

The answer? Apparently not. The house came on the market today with an asking price of $2,700,000. Although some brokers we talked to speculated the house was priced to encourage multiple offers, others weren't so sure. Despite its vintage charm, the house has some quirks—such as its flagpole lot—which kept it from selling quickly in 2006.

Remember The Old Days, When Contractors Didn't Return Your Calls?

2008-03-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

Now is a good time to remodel, the Los Angeles Times says, for five reasons that we have taken the liberty of paraphrasing:

1. With interest rates low, you can borrow against untapped equity at a lower cost than a year ago.

2. Houses age. When you need a new roof, you need a new roof.

3. Not a good time to sell, so make your current house comfortable enough to live in for a while.

4. New-home builders are now competing with remodeling contractors for your job so you can negotiate a lower price.

5. The contractor needs the work so badly that the crew may even show up on the date promised. (If this happens, please let us know. We'll want to take photos to show our grandchildren someday, after we have grandchildren.)

[Photo credit: Bat Phone courtesy of Bat Cave]

How Much Can I Get For This House?

2008-03-25T08:29:00.000-07:00

Now is not the time to insist on asking $10,000 more for your house than your neighbor got for his last year. Asking prices dropped or were stagnant last week in more than two-thirds of the nation's 55 metro areas, according to new numbers from HousingTracker.

Inventory, meanwhile, continued to climb in more than 75 percent of those markets.

Here's how things look in the Bay Area where we live, where asking prices are starting to inch up:

Trend	03/24/2008	1 mo	3 mo	6 mo	12 mo
Median Price	$519,898	+0.2%	-3.5%	-13.1%	-13.4%
Inventory	17,135	+6.3%	+7.4%	-11.2%	+36.4%

Photo credit: Gdargaud.net]

Seaside and Suburban Slums

2008-03-25T00:51:00.000-07:00

As more homes move into foreclosure, local governments are under increasing pressure to clean up the neighborhoods. A front-page story in the Dayton Beach News-Journal says that as scores of homeowners move into default—some in seaside communities such as Ormond By the Sea—local police and code-enforcement departments are having a hard time keeping up with the growing number of overgrown yards and falling-down houses. That creates a problem for the rest of the neighborhood, needless to say.

With the number of foreclosures continuing to mount from the fallout of the housing bust, more properties could fall into seediness. But apparently it will be up to residents to steer government to do something about it.
Carol Kerrigan, Volusia County's code enforcement manager, acknowledged it's a growing problem, but her officers only respond to complaints from residents and don't proactively cite offenders.
"The philosophy of code enforcement is to let each neighborhood determine the level of tolerance it will accept," Kerrigan said.
For a home in foreclosure, however, often the property is in the control of a bank, and the financial institution cannot do any maintenance until the foreclosure is final, she said.

The problem isn't confined to Florida's seaside communities, of course. A grim piece in The Atlantic asserts that abandoned McMansions in suburbs across America could create suburban slums.

[Photo credit: Jawad Zakariya]

Crouching tiger, running bamboo

2008-03-24T15:10:00.000-07:00

Bamboo is taking over suburbia. This is not a good thing, according to a wonderful Matthew Rose piece in today's Wall Street Journal.

Running bamboo, whose 8-inch-thick stalks can grow 80 feet high, is particularly invasive, with steel-cable-like roots that can tunnel dozens of feet away to establish clusters of new shoots. It's also hard to kill; Rose writes that bamboo can even survive a nuclear blast:

Bamboo growers claim the plant was the first to re-emerge after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. William Aley, an import specialist at the Agriculture Department's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, says he can't say whether the story is true, but confirms that "depending on how deep the heat flash was at a bomb blast, the shoots are formidable enough to survive having the above-surface portions destroyed."

Rose says that the 2003 hit movie, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, helped popularize the plant, which, in some bamboo-infested areas of the U.S., is sparking neighbor-on-neighbor lawsuits. Personally, we love the stuff. Then again, we keep it contained in giant pots on our deck.

[Photo credit of running bamboo: bamboo-sales.com]

On The Market: Frank Lloyd Wright

2008-03-24T12:25:00.001-07:00

I used to ride my bike past this house practically every day when I was growing up in Elmhurst, Illinois. Looked like a box to me (I was not a child with discerning taste and preferred this house for its curving driveway). Little did I know I was snubbing a Frank Lloyd Wright house and that it would one day be on the market for $2.3 million.

Now I'd love to own the F. B. Henderson house, if I didn't have all those children to put through college. Even if it is the most expensive house in the neighborhood, it's one of the few Wright buildings you still can buy.

Calculate Resale Value Before You Buy

2008-03-24T10:50:00.000-07:00

Walking everywhere is good. Walking everywhere does not cost $3.50 a gallon. Walking everywhere does not melt polar ice caps (unless perhaps you are walking directly on a polar ice cap while wearing heated boots).

This is why we predict that houses in neighborhoods within walking distance of everyday destinations—such as libraries, schools, parks and liquor stores—are going to appreciate in value far faster than others during the next few years.

Before you buy, calculate a house's walk score on a scale of 1 to 100. At Walkscore.com, you can type in an address and learn, even if you're not familiar with the area you're considering, if the neighborhood is one where you can walk to do most of your errands. A walkable neighborhood, as defined by the site, has "a discernable center, whether it's a shopping district, a main street, or a public space and ... dense enough for local businesses to flourish and for public transportation to be cost effective."

Home Sales Are Up; Prices Are Down 8.2%

2008-03-24T08:08:00.000-07:00

New numbers show home sales increased 2.9 percent nationwide in February over the previous month. But year-to-year prices are down 8.2 percent, dropping from a median of $213,500 to $195,900.

What does this mean? Looking at the big picture—that is, the bad stuff happening to the overall economy that may never affect your life on a day-to-day- basis but which you lie awake worrying about at 2 a.m.anyway—it could be good news. Increased sales may indicate that prices have come down enough to tempt buyers who have been sitting on the sidelines for the past few months. If there's enough pent-up demand to buoy sales for a second month in March, prices may stop dropping.

As the National Association of Realtor's chief economist Lawrence Yun put it, "We’re not expecting a notable gain in existing-home sales until the second half of this year, but the improvement is another sign that the market is stabilizing."

What does it mean for you and me? If you have been debating about when to buy, now may be the time prices are lowest. If you've been waiting for the right time to sell, keep waiting. In the meantime, stop worrying and go work in the garden. Digging a nice hole deep enough to plant an antique climbing rose will take your mind off this stuff fast.

You Can't Afford Not to Renovate

2008-03-23T19:02:00.000-07:00

We all know that the best way to make more money on your house is to spend more on it by renovating with, say, an upscale kitchen remodel that costs $117,254. If you execute this maneuver properly, you can recoup $104,241 of that investment when you eventually sell the house. And in the meantime, you get to use all those shiny new appliances.

There is of course one little catch. The last thing you want to do is to spend money on things that potential homebuyers might think are, well, ugly. And let's face it, not all of us have the good taste to execute every detail of a renovation flawlessly. Luckily, however, the editors of Remodelista do.

Remodelista's pull-no-punches remodeling guide makes it easy to pick things other people will want to buy from you one day when you put the house on the market. They do it by:

"offering our opinionated (OK, bossy) ideas on the best faucets, the best sinks, the best bathroom hooks. Our combined experience includes a dozen remodels, so we’ve pooled our knowledge and compiled lists of our greatest hits. You’ll find our top ten picks in kitchen categories such as sinks, faucets, ranges, counter stools, and more."

Even better? They tell you where to to go to buy the stuff.

[Photo credit: PatrickandTiffany]

Fixer-uppers: Why buy a house when you can get a whole town?

2008-03-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

Poor Monse, Washington. Nobody wants it. The town, population 12, in northeastern Washington, made headlines in 2005 when a group of sellers put it up for sale on eBay for $575,000. For that, you'd get 60 river front acres, including 12 houses, a post office, general store and school.

The LA Times reported today that the historic town, which, during the 1800s, was a trading post and steamboat stop, got no takers. A number of people considered buying it and turning it into a family compound, but never closed the deal. The town's pretty run-down apparently. So instead, the buyers chopped it up and sold off a few desirable parcels.

[Photo credit LA Times]

Can This Listing Be Saved?

2008-03-22T16:30:00.000-07:00

What kind of house sits on the market for nearly six months in Marin, the pricy northern California county just north of the Golden Gate Bridge where the typical house sells in about half that time for 94.7 percent of its asking price?

A) A teardown whose previous owner was a smoker and had 27 cats.
B) A teardown whose previous owner was a smoker and had 27 cats who also were smokers.
C) A 4,200-square-foot, 5-bdrm house in Mill Valley that has a really nice kitchen.

We feel bad about what happened to "C," the sprawling gray frame house at 16 Bolsa that has been sitting on the market since last fall. With a gracious floorplan like that, the house deserves a better fate.

Of course, the house isn't actually the problem. The original listing price of $3,495,000 was. Call us stingy, but that seemed like kind of a big leap from the previous sale price in July, 2006 of $2,190,000. (Yes, we know about the very nice new retaining wall in the backyard, but still.)

But don't cry for 16 Bolsa yet. After a dramatic price cut to $2,995,000, the listing agent feels confident enough to expect offers on Monday. We'll keep you posted on this developing story.

Rates that sound too good to be true probably are

2008-03-22T13:06:00.000-07:00

Some people are hearing about rates on 5/1 and 7/1 ARMS that are much lower than those offered by the main players in the mortgage market.

The main players—Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank, and BofA—are currently offering rates on these loans in the range of 6% to 7% depending on whether or not you pay any points. Some secondary mortgage players (Union Bank and IngDirect) are offering rates as low as 5.5%. So how can they make money offering rates that are essentially out of the market?

Easy: They make their money by requiring up-front points and having prepayment penalties. They're betting the rates will drop to even lower interest levels than their current offer. The catch? Their borrowers will not be able to refinance to take advantage of lower rates because of stiff prepayment penalties.

How to sell your house for more

2008-03-22T09:23:00.000-07:00

One word, says the "American Association of Realtors:" Landscaping. The association estimates that good landscaping can increase a home's sale price by as much as 15%.

We tried to find the source for that statement, contained in a PRWeb release today touting garden fountains as a smart way to gussy up your home-price-enhancing landscape. But we couldn't even find an American Association of Realtors, let alone a report quantifying landscape value. Perhaps they meant the National Association of Realtors? Here's a story on NAR's site that says good landscaping can increase your home's price by 20%. Oh well. This stuff isn't science, but it makes some sense.

Remodeling Online actually does a pretty credible job of trying to assess the cost of home remodeling, versus resale value. The site gets granular and lets you look at home-improvement projects by region. Nothing on fountains or landscaping though.

[Photo: kriptonfountains.com]

Finally, A Country Where Things Are Worse!

2008-03-22T08:51:00.000-07:00

Those poor Brits. Not only do they have to eat spotted dick, but it turns out they have more debt, credit cards and mortgage headaches than the average American. After a decade of rising real estate prices, low interest rates and easy-to-get loans, British households have a debt-to-income ratio of 1.62, according to today's New York Times. Although we're not exactly sure what that number means, we're relieved that our ratio here in the New World (1.42) is lower and therefore sounds less scary.

Meanwhile, the Times says, the real estate market is melting down in England, where more than 1 million homeowners have adjustable-rate mortgages that will reset at much higher rates in the next year:

"Home prices are falling, despite a dearth of housing and an influx of wealthy Middle Easterners and Russians, especially in London. Last year, housing foreclosures reached the highest level since 1999 and are expected to rise still further this year."

The rest of Europe might still be better off than us, though, because "the trend on the Continent was the opposite. Home prices in most European countries barely moved" during the past decade. Why? "Markets were more regulated, there was more housing stock and renting was more popular."

[Photo credit: TexasChapBook Press]

Sell your house in Northern California, buy this and say so long to The Man

2008-03-21T16:13:00.000-07:00

New 3 BR, 3.5 BA on 9 acres in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley for $699k.

You've got your stream. You've got your views of Shenandoah National Park and George Washington National Forest. You've got your 48-inch JennAir cooktop with grill in the center island. There's even enough room for you and your cronies to sit around all day and chillax:

"The wide wrap around porch could hold 100 rocking chairs, and it comes with 6 Cracker Barrel Rockers."

Best of all, you can buy it on eBay. Wish we could make the open house Sunday at noon.

My Monthly Mortgage Payment is Bigger Than Yours

2008-03-21T09:34:00.000-07:00

New homebuyers are being more cautious. The typical monthly mortgage payment of February's buyers in the San Francisco Bay Area is a mere $2,446—down 15 percent from a year ago, DataQuick reports. In southern California buyers were even more risk averse last month, committing themselves to $1,821 a month, down nearly 21 percent from the previous year.

[Photo credit: Momadvice]

It's the School District, Stupid

2008-03-20T18:22:00.000-07:00

Vote "yes" for your local school district's budget. A new study identifies nine lucky suburbs (click on map) around the country whose top-notch school districts have managed to keep the towns' home prices high even as the rest of the world was engulfed by darkness. The lesson here, according to Trulia.com, is:

"...purchasing a home with excellent local schools helps buffer the home from industry downturns."

And once you own the home, be sure to join the PTA.

On the market: Flying Saucer House

2008-03-20T17:17:00.001-07:00

Pardon me boy, is that the Chattanooga Space House? The Associated Press reports that Pearl Johnson of Cincinnati bought the mountainside house for a bargain $135,000 last weekend at auction. The price was disappointing for a landmark home, which sits atop six cement pillars and has a retractable staircase. Then again, it was built without architectural plans. Every wall is curved. It also has (winter) views of the Tennessee River and is on Signal Mountain.

Terry Posey, who auctioned off the 30-year-old home, writes on his website that if you Google Earth the address of the home it's labeled a "flying saucer." Of course, that and 50 cents will get you a cup of Tang (or would, if Tang were still the drink of Astronauts.) Anyone can label anything on Google Earth. Still, the house has a unique history. In the 1970s, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, the couple who lived in it got in a fight and the wife trapped the husband inside by parking her pickup under the retractable stairs. Writes Posey on his auction site:

This is an opportunity to own a unique property and is ideal for that weekend get away. It has app. 2,000 square feet [ed: 1,940 according to the video tour] of living space. Home has 3 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, kitchen, living room and large bar area. There is a poster of an alien at the bar that reads "I AM ONLY HERE FOR THE BEER".

This strikes us as the deal of the century. UFO-shaped houses were fads in the 1960s and 1970s—see the Futuro houses, designed by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen—as the space race heated up. The Tennessean reports that this one was built around the time Star Trek went off the air.

Here's a really cool video tour of the home.

[Photo credit Terry Posey]

Calculate Your New HELOC Savings

2008-03-20T12:01:00.001-07:00

In response to our recent post about a simple equation to keep track of the interest you'll save on your HELOC as rates drop, a friend in the mortgage business offers this suggestion for those who want to give the old desktop calculator more of a workout:

"You overlooked the fact that HELOC interest is calculated on a daily basis, not monthly. To get really nerdy and precise, use this equation: Multiply the amount you owe by the amount the prime rate decreased, and then divide the total by 365 to see how much interest you'll save each day of the year. For your monthly payment, multiply that daily interest rate by the number of days in your payment cycle."

In other words, if you owe $200,000 in principal on your HELOC and the prime rate drops by three-quarters of a point, the two-step equation will look like this:

(200,000 x .0075)/365=$4.11 in interest saved every day

4.11 x 31=$127.41 in interest saved in a 31-day billing cycle

Fed Chairman Bernanke's Home Value Plummets $270k

2008-03-20T11:34:00.000-07:00

As your home equity disappears into thin air, comfort yourself with the knowledge that even the chairman of the Federal Reserve has the same problem. As Bloomberg reports:

The U.S. housing recession has arrived literally on the doorstep of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke. Bernanke lives in Washington's Capitol Hill area in a four- bedroom, 2,600-square-foot house he bought new in May 2004 for $839,000.

"Even though he's the Fed chairman, he's going to get hit -- but I think lot of people will in Washington,'' said William Wheaton, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The value of Bernanke's home ``probably went up to $1.1 million and it's probably back down to $840,000,'' because prices in Washington just a couple years ago ``got out of control,'' Wheaton said.

Let's hope Bernanke put down 20 percent.

From The Mouths of Realtors

2008-03-20T09:14:00.000-07:00

This just in from south Florida, where John Tuccillo, former chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, predicted:

...by summer or fall of 2009, the economy will be better, the housing market will be good and mortgages will be going for about 2 percent more than now.

The hat trick that will pull South Florida from the dumper, he said, is “population growth, falling home prices and a better economy.”

He urged the crowd to watch for three things that will indicate improvements in the real estate market: a drop in the number of home listings, a drop in the amount of time homes remain on the market and an increase in the ratio between the sale price of a house and its listing price.

Until that happens, however, “if you don’t have to sell your house, don’t,” Tuccillo said. Of course, not everybody trusts his advice.

[Photo credit: Nocirc]

Open Houses: We Go, So You Don't Have To

2008-03-20T08:10:00.000-07:00

Still no sign of a housing slump in rarified Mill Valley. When we showed up at 445 Throckmorton Avenue for the brokers' open house—and free lunch—the place was a madhouse, with enough real estate agents' BMWs hogging the on-street parking spaces to persuade us that we're the only ones who think the $3,489,000 asking price is kind of ballsy.

The first thing we noticed: A piano player had been hired to entertain the brokers. The second thing we noticed: The shrimp platter had already been decimated.

This one-of-a-kind vintage house falls into the same category as such recent listings as 255 Hillside (an old Tudor with commanding views of San Francisco that sold for $3,450,000 in November) and 35 Sycamore (a sprawling Craftsman in Mill Valley's most kid-friendly neighborhood that sold for $3,100,000 last summer).

Pros: Location, location, location. It doesn't get any better than this sunny corner lot if you want the full-on Mayberry experience of daily walks to town, school, the park and the library. Also, the house has five real bedrooms (and by real, we mean we saw an honest-to-God closet with a door and everything in every single one of them).

Cons: This is a matter of taste. The traditional center hall colonial layout and the floral wallpaper in the foyer scream Connecticut and may not appeal to the knock-down-the-walls-so-we-can-live-in-one-room-with-toddlers crowd. A kitchen renovation is in this house's near future.

Due diligence: The Victorian painted lady half a block away at 418 Throckmorton—with a legal second unit—sold for $3,250,000 in April 2007 after an extensive upscale renovation.

Play Hardball With Your Real Estate Agent

2008-03-19T09:06:00.000-07:00

Even if the value of your house dropped nearly 9 percent last year, that doesn't mean you have to pocket 9 percent less when you sell. Pass along the pain.

Pay a lower real estate commision. You can negotiate down from the going rate—5 to 6 percent, depending on your market—by pointing out that you are the sort of reasonable seller who is willing to price your house realistically for a quick sale. (Be sure to use the words "reasonable" and "realistically," and also throw in "motivated" for good measure.)

Yes, haggling makes us feel creepy too. But feeling creepy was a luxury that disappeared with the seller's market. On a $200,000 sale, paying a 4 percent commission will put $2,000 more in your pocket than paying 5 percent.

[Photo Credit: Ezrealestateguide]

From flipping burgers to flipping houses

2008-03-19T08:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a guy in Newton, Massachusetts who's quitting his successful restaurant business to concentrate on buying up foreclosed houses full time. Though the food biz is still good, Fran Yerardi is shuttering Yerardi's Restaurant after 16 years because he's making more money from his real-estate franchise.

Yerardi sounds like a natural-born real-estate maven and entrepreneur. As he told a reporter for Wicked Local, a network of 158 local websites that cover New England:

About four years after Yerardi’s opened, Fran began buying up nearby houses as they came on the market.
“Any neighbor that would complain about the noise, I’d buy up their house,” he joked.
In May 2006, Yerardi opened the first New England franchise of HomeVestors, a real estate firm that specialized in flipping unappealing or foreclosed homes for a profit. According to their bright yellow billboards, the company gladly buys “ugly houses.”
As more and more homes head to the auction block, Yerardi has found that his real estate business was hotter than his restaurant business.
“We got to the point where the restaurant wasn’t our main source of income,” he said. “We still loved it, we still kept it, but we weren’t killing ourselves over it.”

We've seen the "We buy ugly homes" signs but don't know anything about Homevestors. If you've had any experience with them, let us know.

Mortgage Rates: Heading Down?

2008-03-19T08:32:00.000-07:00

Good news: The federal government took a big step today that should encourage mortgage rates to stabilize—and perhaps start to drop. The move, which gives Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac more leeway to buy loans, could shore up the secondary mortgage market by reassuring lenders that they'll find investors for the mortgage money they lend you and me.

What Today's Fed Rate Cut Means

2008-03-18T11:48:00.000-07:00

For fixed-rate mortgages: Nothing.
For your HELOC: A nice drop in your minimum payment. See here.

Seventy-five basis points isn't what Wall Street wanted so don't expect your 401K accounts to stop bleeding anytime soon either.

My Town

2008-03-18T10:07:00.000-07:00

In some curious way, the real estate prices in my little town of Mill Valley (pop. 13,600) have more in common with Manhattan than any other market. Nothing is affordable here. Nothing has been in years, and nobody's really concerned by the news that prices are dropping elsewhere.

Nobody but me, that is. I hope I'm not the bigger fool. I moved here six years ago and, unlike my neighbors who paid nothing for their houses decades ago, I'll be in real trouble if the market turns south. For now, prices in my northern California town continue to buck the trend, by increasing 7.7 percent last year even as they dropped 3 percent nationwide, according to Zillow. My neighbors are confident values will continue to climb, if these recent local listings are any indication:

Listing #20808136: 4br, 3 bath "almost new" 1-level home, asking $2,395,000 (sold for $1,580,000 in July 2007)

Listing #20807490: 4br, 3 bath "top quality remodeled spacious hm," asking $1,875,000 (sold for $1,375,000 in April 2004)

Listing #20807511: 4br, 3 bath, "tastefully remodeled and updated spacious home," asking $2,195,000 (sold for $1,200,000 in March 2006)

The sellers may be right. After all, one condo unit that sold for $379,000 in 2000 went on the market this week, asking $559,000; it already has a buyer.

[Photo credit: Epodunk]

Smart Borrowers Have ARMs

2008-03-18T08:52:00.000-07:00

Stop skulking around, feeling sheepish about your adjustable rate mortgage. So what if your next door neighbor keeps reminding you his fixed rate is never going up? He's already paid thousands of dollars in interest that you didn't. And when your rate adjusts, it probably still will be lower than if you had gone for a conventional, fixed-rate loan. Here's how Money magazine explains the situation:

If the Fed cuts rates by a half point Tuesday, the cumulative effect of the Fed cuts could entirely offset what would have been a significant rate reset for many homeowners.
For instance, a borrower with an adjustable rate of 4.5% could have faced a rate reset up to 7.5% before the Fed started cutting rates in September. Before the rate cuts, that homeowner would have seen an increase of $370 in monthly payments on a $200,000 loan.
But after Tuesday, that rate could reset only a little higher. And for some, the rate might not go up at all - and may actually drop - according to Greg McBride of Bankrate.com.

[Photo credit: Ironage]

Silver Lining: How Much Your HELOC Payment Is About To Drop

2008-03-17T17:04:00.000-07:00

Finally, good news. You'll probably see the minimum monthly payment on your home equity line of credit drop after the Fed cuts rates again tomorrow. That's because most HELOC rates are tied to prime. Here's how to calculate your savings:

Multiply the amount you owe by the rate decrease, and then divide the total by twelve. So, if you owe $200,000 and the rate drops by three-quarters of a point, the equation will look like this:

(200,000 x .0075)/12=125

The best use for the $125 you won't owe next month? Send it anyway to painlessly pay down the principal that you should have been paying down anyway to avoid getting into this mess in the first place.

How To Buy Your First House

2008-03-10T10:38:00.000-07:00

The Wall Street Journal says it's a good time for first-time homebuyers to buy a house. Except, the Journal says, it isn't. Twenty years ago, when we wanted to buy our first house, we got the same unhelpful, broadly general and contradictory advice. We decided to buy.

The house cost $215,000. We put down 10 percent (we scraped together the $21,500 + points from money I inherited from my grandfather, our tax-refund checks and some cash we got at our wedding.)

About two seconds after the closing, the real estate market crashed and the value of our investment dropped 20 percent. Then the 7.8 percent teaser rate on our one-year ARM started going up every year. Then I had all those expensive children. So it was impossible to buy a bigger house with a nice yard. But we did in 1994, by looting our 401K accounts. (That time we didn't get contradictory advice—EVERYONE told us not to do it.) This time it worked. The real estate market slowly started to rebound and, eight years later, we sold it for twice what we paid.