West Valley School Scores Support Strong Housing Market Demand
Click >here for the latest school API scores now available from the State for Silicon Valley. Saratoga elementary schools all ranked very high: Argonaut (969), Foothill (945) and Saratoga (952); Redwood middle school is also high (951). Los Gatos elementary schools were not far behind with Blossom Hill (918), Daves (879), Louise Van…
More Signals The Bottom Has Occurred?
Information from Dataquick, reported last Friday by the Mercury News, indicates that home sales in Silicon Valley in April 2008 were up 33% over March 2008, although they were still down 27% from April 2007 and the current median of $699,500 is down 12.9% from the prior year. Taken by itself,…
What Are County Property Tax Reassessment Procedures?
There has been much media attention about declining property values. As a result I am starting to be asked if it makes sense to appeal for a reassessment of property values. Here are some basics to get you started: The lien date for the assessment of property on the assessment…
Mortgage Rates to Move Up as The Election Race Heats Up
The federal reserve lowered the prime rate to 5.0% last week, but the market did not react strongly leaving the longer term interest rate coupons largely unchanged week on week – the current rate for 30 year fixed, fully amortized, non-conforming home loan is 6.875%; jumbo loans ($418-729K) are at 6.5%;…
Reserve Funding for Homeowners Associations
Homeowners Associations in California are not required by law to fully fund reserves for upkeep, repair or replacement of various parts of common areas (which for a condominium usually means everything other than what is actually within the defined air space of the condominium itself), but they must disclose their methodology for…
A Sign the Bottom is Near?
Sue McAllister had a good article last week in the Mercury News about Anxious Home Buyers trying to purchase real estate owned in Santa Clara. I particularly thought the zip code map was instructive, showing both the geographic concentration of REO and what markets are minimally affected by this unfortunate…
