patrick.net

Still no takers at $950k? Don't you know that they are not making any more land in Saratoga?

Ok, last chance. Let's meet on the courthouse steps on 4/30.

http://www.recontrustco.com/property_results.asp?county=Santa%20Clara

I certainly would prefer to live in a secured building in the next few years.

Perhaps I should be even more paranoid, I do work on K St.

Cupertino, anyone?
http://www.zillow.com/HomeDetails.htm?zprop=19632320

Another one seemingly headed for the auction block... (But don't they have good schools? How can this happen?)

PAR,

RE: the Saratoga listing - I wonder if the "straw that broke the camel's back" for that FB was the hottub in the back they likely bought at Costco, probably during one of their serial refi's.

RE: the Burlingame property - SFBB is right. It's nasty there. Plus, the house is in pretty awful shape. I wonder if it was a flipper who got caught upside down in a changing (read falling) market?

Either way, both these properties show me how screwed up things are. Someone paid over $1M for each of these POS's, and they couldn't hack it. In what universe is either of those properties worth over $1m???

PAR, my wife and I actually went to look at the saratoga place. The guy handling the listing literally would not let people in to see it if they had a realtor. I have no idea what was going on there, but it was shady to say the least.

Also, Quinto is the end of the Lawrence Expressway. My wife and I nicknamed the street "Baby Killa Avenue" because of the heavy traffic.

That cupertino one is weird, as the 2006 taxes were 1,600 bucks, saying it's been Prop 13'd for a good long while. Is that a HELOC casualty? I think it must be!

Speaking of Cupertino.... Becky Lee just got a commission from a December sale in Cupertino. A nice 3/2 on 19121 Barnhart Ave. Way to go, Becky!
http://www.beckyleehomes.com/page.asp?num=8505

I hope their kids enjoy the great schooling...

None of those http://www.recontrustco.com/ links seem to work

Uh-oh. NOD filed in March. Back to the courthouse steps for this one.

http://www.recontrustco.com/property_results.asp?county=Santa%20Clara

Don't like the previous 6-bedroom that I listed? Then how about this $2.3m beauty?
http://www.trulia.com/property/11463320-15545-Quickert-Rd-Saratoga-CA-95070

(Bidding starts at 11:00am sharp on 5/9. Don't be late.)

I guess those links are cached. Try going to the main site, click on CA properties and scroll down to the county you want...

FWIW, if you want to go back to gun control debating, you should post them at this link:

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2007/04/16/more-to-come/

"FBI Warns of Copycat Attacks"

http://www.housingtracker.net/askingprices/California/SanJose-Sunnyvale-SantaClara/

Just refreshed

Date Inventory
(SFH + Condo) 25th Percentile 50th Percentile
(Median) 75th Percentile
04/16/2007 5,414 $577,500 $689,900 $915,000
04/09/2007 5,161 $579,000 $689,950 $915,000
04/02/2007 5,219 $579,000 $690,000 $924,000
03/26/2007 4,985 $584,750 $695,000 $928,888

Frickin Fortress South Bay

Here's a funny one from the archives. "doodler" posts on patrick.net in April 2006:

doodler Says:
April 3rd, 2006 at 8:11 pm

My good friend is the listing agent for a PRIME active listing Los Altos property: 1722 Selig Lane, Los Altos. This home has been on the market for weeks with NO BITES. Oh yes that spring surge is definitely upon us.

Well, if you missed your chance back in '06, here's your second opportunity. Just meet here with cash in hand:

AT THE NORTH MARKET STREET ENTRANCE TO THE COUNTY COURTHOUSE, 190 NORTH MARKET STREET, SAN JOSE, CA 5/11/2007 11:00:00 AM

From “FBI Warns of Copycat Attacks”

Today’s events are perfect argument for gun ownership. A conceal carry owner could’ve taken this nut job down!

Comment by Hugh Higgins

I totally agree. Banning guns will only make the innocent more vulnerable.

Frickin Fortress South Bay

Inventory rising. Prices falling. What else do you want?

This just in . . .

There is a glimmer of a hope that we might be able to escape South Marin. My wife and I are talking about looking at Menlo again. I hope I'm not going to wake up from this one. Now if only I could get the hell out of here before they make Hwy 1 one way through Tam Valley.

Inventory is rising fast (faster than last year at this time). My Santa Clara County YOY stats:

4/03/2006 - 3809
4/17/2006 - 3879

A difference of 70 listings.

4/02/07 - 4531
4/16/07 - 4983

A difference of 452 listings.

Skibum,

How about the big jump in Milwaukee crime-

http://tinyurl.com/2dgkxp

PAR,

the 6-bedroom is a disaster waiting to happen. I grew up in a place full of landslides every summer, so I am ultra-sensitive to landslide-prone terrain. This house was built recently with little consideration to the steep slopes at the back and I see no fortification. The occupants of this house are paying $2.3M to bear the risk of being buried alive in the next earthquake, or rain-induced landslide.

lunarpark and eburbed,

Not only is there a big jump in inventory and a drop in median asking price from last week, but the ablsolut total number of listings remains significantly higher than last year at this time.

Paul,

I'm not familiar with Milwaulkee's local economy and housing market, but I'd take a guess that it's part of the Midwest economic downturn. In that case, it wouldn't surprise me that the crime stats are so bad there, even in 2006.

Peter P Says:
From “FBI Warns of Copycat Attacks”
Today’s events are perfect argument for gun ownership. A conceal carry owner could’ve taken this nut job down!
Comment by Hugh Higgins

I totally agree. Banning guns will only make the innocent more vulnerable.

This just gets nuttier and nuttier. Some of the comments on that blog are the most insane and parochial I've read anywhere on anything. Most other 'civilised' countries where guns are effectively banned don't have any problems with school massacres. When was the last time you heard about a school or college massacre in the UK? (Apart from a single one some years back that triggered even stricter gun control laws. And I would argue that was a 'copycat' of events reported from America.) Security forces, private or public, are the only people who should be allowed to carry guns, and even that is a little scary.

When guns are outlawed, they are increasingly taken out of the hands of criminals as well -- given that every time they are apprehended, they are removed from circulation. There will always be some illegal ownership, but overall there is a net reduction. Crimes involving guns (holdups, etc) have dropped 60% in Australia over the last few years, for instance. And no, they don't substitute baseball bats to intimidate 7/11 owners...

The other thing is, someone wrote (as certain Americans always do) that the Bill of Rights need no further amendments, and still does the job perfectly, even in a modern, industrialised society. I find it amazing that a document written 2 centuries ago under completely different conditions in a frontier society should be so perfect today -- in a time where attempted assassinations of a king would be met with being hung, drawn and quartered in public view, for instance, and you could be hung for stealing an item of clothing.

For those who consider themselves innocent and vulnerable, do you carry a gun around?

I don't, and I have no intention to live in a society where everyone is obliged to carry a gun with him wherever he goes so that he can "protect" himself. Do I need to carry a gun when I go to grocery shopping? Do I need to carry a gun when I send my kid to school? Does my kid need to carry a gun to school so that he can "protect" himself? Do I need to fit out bullet-proof windows and solid rubber tires for my car to "protect" myself?

I have no idea what we as a whole lose if nobody is allowed to carry a gun, plain and simple. I grew up in a place with strict gun control, lived in a few countries with strict gun control, all of them have substantially lower crime rate than the US.

Back to real estate.

The spike in CA foreclosures is on the national MSM:

http://money.cnn.com/2007/04/16/real_estate/bc.usa.subprime.californiadefaults.reut/index.htm?postversion=2007041618

Even the RE lackey posing as an academic, Alan Gin, thinks there's a ways to go, although I don't see why he is so confident the Fed will cut rates at the end of this year:

"It's hard for me to say whether or not the damage is done in those areas," said economist Alan Gin of the University of San Diego's Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate.

"It probably won't be until 2008 before we seen some improvement," Gin said, referring to California's default trend. "I anticipate the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates in late 2007 and into 2008, and I expect that will help give some support to the housing market."

I propose a small start: let's shame the killer. Really really shame them. Killed themselves, let dogs and cats defecate on the corpse. Leave it out to rot. Do everything possible to de-glamourize the taking of another's life.

I am sure there will be far more shootings when foreclosure rate shoots up.

I still remember one case back in 2001, a laid-off postman went into his office and shot 6 colleagues. Mark my words, there will be many shootings to come by disgruntled FBs who are losing their home, their jobs and ultimately their mind.

There is a glimmer of a hope that we might be able to escape South Marin. My wife and I are talking about looking at Menlo again.

Randy H,

Cool. Welcome back to the Peninsula (maybe). Goodbye insanest-of-the-insane Bay Area home prices, hello almost-insanest-of-the-insanest Bay Area home prices!

I love how RE shills can say "Mortgage rates are still at historically low levels! Buy while it's this good!" and ten minutes later say "The Feds are obviously going to lower rates to support the housing industry."

"Goodbye insanest-of-the-insane Bay Area home prices, hello almost-insanest-of-the-insanest Bay Area home prices!"

LOL, I needed that.

Randy,

Good luck! I like the pennisula, but man, finding homes here is like pulling teeth... pulling shark teeth out of your intestines, that is.

Hopefully it'll be getting better. :)

OO,

This WSJ article would support the thesis (excerpts only):

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117650906019369740-search.html?KEYWORDS=real+estate&COLLECTION=wsjie/6month

MarketWatch / Weekend Investor
Even the Seemingly Well-Off
Caught Easy-Borrowing Virus

If CPAs and insurance agents are among the first to spot the problems while they are occurring, divorce attorneys like Bruce Hughes, also of Orange County, are among the first to see the actual fallout. "We see it as it happens," he says. "From industry to industry over the years, they come in groups when various industries go through turmoil. Now it's real estate's turn. I can't tell you how many mortgage brokers, builders, developers and others associated with the building industry have come in for a divorce in the past six months -- and it's increasing." Those not associated with real estate, but hurt by the false sense of financial security because of it, are no doubt next.

First divorce, then crimes...

I propose a small start: let’s shame the killer.

Yep. The killer should be disinterred and posthumously executed.

Add to this volatile mix 100K+ brutalized vets from Iraq and Afganistan, many of them maimed, many more divorced and in dire economic straits, all trained to use guns.

Australia keep sounding better and better.

There is a glimmer of a hope that we might be able to escape South Marin. My wife and I are talking about looking at Menlo again.

If you do, we will have sushi. My all-time favorite Japanese restaurant is in Menlo Park.

I am sure there will be far more shootings when foreclosure rate shoots up.

Should a get a Level II vest? Or do I need one rated at Level IIIA?

On a loan-by-loan basis, mortgages were least likely to go into default in Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties.

The Fortress still stands. How much longer though?

I posted this earlier, but it never came out of moderation. Too spammy, I guess.

Anyway, trying again. A newsletter I read and have referenced here before just added a "foreclosures" link. Is this a sign of the times, or what?

http://propertyshark.com/mason/text/servicedetail/sfnewsletter.html

What if they go for your head?

I like Menlo Park as well. My wife is trying to convince me that we need to move out of The City and into a better school district and most tech jobs are on The Peninsula, so it makes sense to move in that direction, rather than East Bay, which we both prefer.

Menlo Park has a nice mellow vibe as well as good (but not great) schools. It is also quite a bit cheaper than Palo Alto, probably for that reason. I have heard that Menlo-Atherton was a bad school, but that was from some people who are from Palo Alto. It seems fine to me.

But we agreed to hold off for a while and see where the housing market goes. I assume you are not buying anytime soon, right Randy?

All I have to say is, if you are in a position to fire or lay off someone, be extra careful, you may be laying the last straw on the camel's back.

In 2001, a friend of mine who had to lay off one long-time employee got death threat mailed to his home address. The police got involved and didn't find plausible links between the ex-employee and the death threat notice, but my friend was convinced of its originator. Luckily nothing happened.

In 2002, a laid-off mid-level manager of a pharma startup in South Bay went to the ex-VP's home and shot him dead before taking his own life.