patrick.net

Honestly if not for the commute, I would seriously consider living in Alamo or Danville.

Honestly if not for the commute, I would seriously consider living in Northern Arizona. I will give up fresh sushi for the inspiring views.

Business is good in Silicon Valley. If you are in the South Bay, maybe it is time for to start looking in Tracy -- the Altamont Commuter Express is your friend. And they are making more land out there...
The Silicon Valley Leadership Group's annual CEO Business Climate Survey showed that close to two-thirds (63 percent) of respondents stepped up hiring in the past year, while only 11 percent downsized.

Housing "screams out as the most important concern of every group," the report said. A staggering 99 percent of respondents said housing costs are among the top three cost-of-living challenges, and 84 percent listed it among the top five business challenges.

"As I interview (job candidates) who might be living in another state, the idea of moving here frankly is a nonstarter," said Kim Fennell, CEO of DeCarta Inc., a San Jose company providing location-based services. "Most of them realize the cost of living here versus anywhere else in the United States is significantly more. As a result, the pool you're recruiting from ends up smaller."

SP,

I've always felt one of the most dangerous things you can do is make the assumption "you know what's up" in the P.I so I don't pretend to be an expert. I can say this though, as far as I know piracy is alive and well there.

One of the more high profile cases was the scuba divers at the resort in Palawan that were abducted in a long ranch, open sea, daring operation. When Arroyo was in office she took the position that these "extremists" or rebels were doing nothing more than abductions for hire and were really just criminals. Or pirates if you prefer. Even locals stay close to shore or in numbers when making a crossing. Bringing at least a revolver onboard is pretty much a given.

Still, I love the place. Tombobo Cove is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. IMHO.

OO Says:

> Can you imagine not seeing ONE single
> Asian in any Safeway in BA?

Try the Marina Safeway or the Burlingame Safeway (not as white as Alamo, but I would not be surprised if I didn’t see a single Asian, Black or Hispanic while shopping)…

But view is the number one priority.

No wonder you hate South Bay so much.

Lots of Forest Hill homes have ocean views, but not the ones on the side I showed you the picture of. Those do have views of forest covered hillsides though, which is quite nice.

I am not convinced an A/C is the only answer.

My climate control doctrine calls for the use of air-conditioning whenever inside temperature at 10pm is above 75 degrees. (Heat not needed above 40 degrees)

In much of the Bay Area, this will happen at least a few times a year.

Those do have views of forest covered hillsides though, which is quite nice.

Cool. :)

"I will give up fresh sushi for the inspiring views. "

Peter P, try the area outside Boise sometime.....

I live in a valley with the Owyhee mountains to the southwest and the Rocky mountains to the northeast.

Peter P, try the area outside Boise sometime…..

Nice! Looks like special places are not in short supply. :)

Actually it is a shock to go to the Boise Costco....all the shoppers are white and speak English. Often when I would go to the SJ Costco on Coleman Rd. (next to the airport) I would be the only white person speaking English in the store. There sure were lots of Russians and eastern Europeans babling away in their native languages at that location.

ptiemann,

Santa Cruz has fallen, sorry to inform you. Halfmoon Bay, maybe not, it is a bit too foggy for my taste. I have been there 20+ times and only sighted the Bay without fog once. Not sure about Alamo, but San Ramon is definitely getting more and more Asians, I heard of the place mainly from my Asian friends who are buying into the neighborhood.

There are already Santa Cruz housing development ads in Chinese newspapers. It will only be another 3-5 years before ranch 99 stakes out its presence near Santa Cruz boardwalk :-)

Last time we were visiting Santa Cruz and the boardwalk, we noticed the majority of sunbathers and boardwalk employees had Eastern European/Russian accents.

When we first moved to the San Ramon Valley 20 years ago, my husband and I thought we died and went to heaven. We first moved to Alamo and it was Very tranquil, and very safe. Schools in the DAnville, San RAmon, and Alamo area are very good for the most part. What we have been noticing throughout the years are: drugs are alive and well among teenagers, the population is no longer strictly WASPish ( the local Costco will give you a flavor of the mix of people) , and there are sex offenders living in million dollar homes. On the other hand, the area is mellow, and pretty, and we are close to the Walnut Creek and Pleasanton/Dublin job centers. My husband has been commuting to Fremont for the last 20 years.
Overt crime is low, and there are no obvious beggars and homeless people. We keep looking and we cannot find a better place to retire to.

Last time we were visiting Santa Cruz and the boardwalk, we noticed the majority of sunbathers and boardwalk employees had Eastern European/Russian accents.

I hope the men are not wearing those small speedos :)

The Danville Costco is rather small and old. Usually, the best Costcos are in the exurbs. Livermore has a huge and relatively unpacked Costco.

Let me say that I'm against all government subsidies unless a specific commons problem is involved (EPA, FDA, military, highways, etc).

I hope the men are not wearing those small speedos

Unfortunately, many of them were - think Borat (velly nice!!)

HelloKitty,
I wonder why that Malibu place only pays $3K a year in property tax when it sold for about $1.5million.

That doesn’t make sense: how can a loan have an interest rate of less than 4 percent? (It says most were even below 2.5%)

Person,
These are the infamous extreme "teaser" rates - ARMs or hybrid ARMs with very, very low introductory rates that quickly reset to much higher rates, often prime + a few points. The potential "fraud" in this is that many mortgage brokers apparently pushed the low rates to the client and the clients were not told explicitly about the resets, or they chose not to listen or read the details.

My point is, couldn’t you just refi after the teaser period, if the interest rate *really* is 2.5%, which would mean your balance *didn’t* increase? Which would then cost the lender lots of money?

Sorry I misunderstood. You're correct - in fact, FBs use ARMs to get the lowest monthly payment possible and serially refi'ed as the rates were about to reset. Lots of folks did this, and they kept their interest rates effectively low while making no dent on their principal since the initial payments even with a FRM barely dent the principal. Specuvestors, on the other hand would use very short term ARMs to get a very low rate and hope to flip the property before any rate resets.

The benefit for the mortgage broker is the fees for serial refi's. This paradigm came to a grinding halt once property values (via assessments) stagnated and then dropped. Now these FBs can't do the serial refi thing, and they are stuck.

Then there are the poor souls who weren't savvy enough to do the serial refi thing, and they are all of a sudden hit with a huge rate reset that knocks them out.

Holy $hit! Casey's really pulled the trigger! Who'da thunk it?

@Person,

You are correct sir!

I'm sure I'm not alone when I say it really grinds me when people (however well intentioned) tell you about their 30 year fixed @ ___%!

Dude, it's only ___% if you keep the same loan for the FULL 30 YEARS! If people knew how much int. they were actually paying in the first 10 years of that loan they wouldn't be bragging about it!

Person,

I think it depends on the contract. Often they will give you 2% on a 100k loan for 6 months... that then resets to 9. And they really do charge you interest at 2%. But if you refinance, they hit you with a fee of, say, 4k. So if you refi after 6 mo. of paying 2% interest, you wind up paying 10% interst for that time period.

Serial refinancers kept rolling those fees into their mortgages, so they never figured out that they were really paying 8-10%, even if the monthly nut was small. Now that home values have stalled and mortgage companies have started... you know... reading the applications and applying lending standards... well... these people can't keep refi'ing, and they've effectively added debt to their home and eroded what tiny bit of equity they may have had in the first place.

The OFHEO released its House Price Index(HPI) for Q1 2007 this morning.

Check it out:

http://www.ofheo.gov/media/pdf/1q07hpi.pdf

Looks as if bubble sitters in California are secure in their positions, but bubble sitters in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, etc will still have to put up with the snide comments from the "smart" people for a while longer.

Also, does anybody know much about refurbing houses?

A house came up 4 blocks from my workplace, and it was a nice old house turned into 3 shitty rentals. The wife and I are thinking about buying it and converting it back into a real house. Of course, we're planning on offering a 40% off asking price offer, so there's probably no way in hell we will get it, but... It's about 1800 SQ ft of craziness, old craftsman style house, but no cracks in the foundations were found. It would require knocking holes in the walls, replacing subflooring on both floors, and a complete kitchen and 2-3 bathrooms, also with an addition to connect the 3 car garage and the house.

They're asking 860k. Houses on the block with half the yard size (it's a 10000 sq ft lot) go for just under a million right now. It's in probate, and I can't find any info on it selling in the last 10 years, so they're not underwater or anything.

We're thinking of offering 450 and budgeting 300-350 for the remodel.

HelloKitty :

What's so special about Redfin ? I just browsed the site for a few minutes. I can see that it is kind of Zip + previous sale history. So it is convenient. But the information is available from other sources - like Zip+Zillow combination. So why would REIC try to shut them down ?

I think propertyshark is in real danger. They give out mortgage details. I thought that was very personal information.

SFBB,

Just the thought of budgeting 300-350k for a remodel scares the hell out of me. At what point does it become a "tear down"? I'm not saying it's a bad idea but I thought we looked at a few basket cases in Redwood City and came to the conclusion it just wasn't economically feasible?

Well, it's in Mountain View with a huge lot... and it's one of those things where you could go either way... tear down or full on restore. And it's really more of a restoration than a remodel. And the house has interesting character.

It's a combination of the fact that it is

In a town I would like living in.
Not in the crappy section of that town.
Has a big lot (It's a double size corner lot compared to everyone else)
Schools aren't total crap, but the school fetishists aren't there ruining the fun for the kids.
Probate on a home that's owned, so it's not a 'wait for foreclosure' place.
We'd try to come in under budget... worst case would be 350, but I'd prefer 200k.
Foundation looks pretty dang good.
Has a basement already, although not a big one.
It's a funky cool house with potiential.

The idea of that big of a refurbishment is pretty scary to me as well. Building a new place there would probably run 450- 500k. The 450K offer is pretty much a 'lot price' offer.

It really would be a stripping it down to the studs (SOOO much plaster and lathe) and going from there.

I know it's a bit soon for a new thread, but given this morning's bombshell, I just couldn't resist:

Haterzâ„¢ win - Snowflake throws in the murse

sfbb,
My advice re: a major rehab are:
-make sure the neighborhood is a good one (done, it seems)
-good foundation and basic support structures (sounds done)
-for converting back to a SFH, I'd look into what kind of permitting/zoning issues need to happen to get the ball rolling

It might help to wait a little bit before undertaking renovation. Once the housing market stops, building materials and labor costs will go down.

Once the housing market is at a standstill, houses like the one SFBB is bidding on will be ideal. Similar to buying from long time owners with high equity, with the added advantage that the heirs would like to get cash NOW.

SP,

But missing-pirate induced global warming could destroy BA's cool nights.

After all, have you seen a pirate lately? Outside of SF's gay pride parades?

Well, I think we're going to submit the lowball. The worst that happens is we don't get the house and piss off an heir/etc we'll never meet.

With Bay Area’s climate, a properly designed house will NOT have inside temperature above 75 degrees at 10pm.

When outside temperature is 82 degrees, it is difficult to keep cool inside. I would say that A/C is necessary anywhere in the world. I remember once being thankful for having A/C in an Oslo hotel room.

After all, have you seen a pirate lately? Outside of SF’s gay pride parades?

I saw many pirates in Mountain View. But that was inside a movie theater.

My builder here in Boise, Syringa Homes, is an Energy Star Certified builder (for whatever that's worth). My house is engineered for conservation up the yin-yang. During August, when it generally gets into the 90's and even a few days in the low 100's, my electric bill stays around $50 a month. I use the same method I did in San Jose (except I didn't have A/C there). I close up the house when I get up in the morning, and it passively stays cool until around 4PM when I turn on the A/C. Then around 9PM, when it's cooled off outside, I turn off the A/C and open the windows again. Having ceiling fans helps.

Winter is a little more extreme in Boise. January this year had typical highs from 10-20 deg. F. - that's cold. Natural gas bills got as high as $200 a month for January, but nowhere near that high in other months.

My house here in Boise has 1,980 square feet.

My San Jose house, built in 1959, was a bare cage of 2 x 4's nailed up with chicken wire and hey-presto a half-inch layer of stucco sprayed thereon. No wall insulation, and only about R19 in the attic added by a previous buyer.

My Boise house, built in 2005, has a cage of 2 x 4's but more often 2 x 6's, 2 x 8's, or better. A layer of 9/16 CDX is nailed up over the cage, a layer of Tyvek is applied, and then the final siding is added. The final siding is 3/8 manufactured siding, which is made up of wood fiber, glue, concrete, and who knows what. R19 insulation is added to all walls and the floor (I'm on a conventional foundation) with R38 in the ceiling. The garage is less-well insulated but the two roll-up garage doors (3 car garage) and man door are all insulated and weatherstripped. Bleed heat from the insulated water heater and furnace keep the garage above freezing all winter long.

The weatherstripping of the house is something to see. All wires and pipes have that spray-can expanding foam applied at all holes. All electrical outlets have the foam gaskets applied. When the double-pained windows are fit, the openings are multiple wrapped with Tyvek, foamed up, and then fitted a second time once the windows are nailed in.

Testing, posts not showing up on this thread for some reason.