A lot of us use the Zestimate on zillow.com to get the value of a house. How is it calculated? Watch the Zillow videos.
For real estate professionals:
For general site users:
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
Real Estate Seminar (Part II)
The second part of the seminar had 25-30 attendees from Cisco. The questions from the audience were very specific:
- is real estate in bay area hitting the bottom yet?
- when is a good time to buy?
- how is the rental market in bay area?
- shall we look outside of bay area if we want positive cash flow?
- what are the tax advantages of real estate investment?
- what about loan options for investment properties?
Dr. Ho addressed the questions based on his first-hand info on the market and 30+ years of experience of seeing the ups and downs in the real estate market in bay area. It was a greatly informative and educational seminar, for veteran investors as well as first-time home buyers.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Real Estate Seminar (Part I)
Last Friday, Dr. Ho hosted a real estate seminar in San Jose with 35-40 attendees from Cisco, including their family and friends. It was an open forum with the purpose to address questions on people's mind regarding real estate and investment in bay area.
Dr. Ho brings together his expertise in medical knowledge and 30+ years of experience in real estate, and started the session with an anatomy on decision making:
Dr. Ho brings together his expertise in medical knowledge and 30+ years of experience in real estate, and started the session with an anatomy on decision making:
- Should I buy?
- Can I buy?
- Will I buy?
After all, buying your first home or an investment property is probably one of the most important decisions to make in life. Dr. Ho went on to open up the floor to the audience, addressing their specific questions as well as throwing in some fundamental guidelines for real estate investment. Some highlights:
- 4 Quadrants: wage earner, salary earner, business owner, investor. The goal is to become an investor and make the money work for you.
- Dr. Ho's 2 Principles of Real Estate Investment, from his 30+ years of experience (sorry we can't divulge the "secret" here; you'll have to attend the seminar or contact Dr. Ho otherwise to find it out)
- Criteria to buy an investment property: cash flow analysis, ROI, rental market, supply and demand curve
- Your own home is not an investment, as contrary to some popular belief.
- Why does the housing market behave like a basketful of rice?
The session was nicely concluded with a delicious catered lunch and mingling among the attendees. It was a diverse audience with some people looking to buy their very first home, and some others looking to add more investment properties to their portfolio. People exchanged information and learned from each other.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Find out where mortgage rates, home sales, and the median price are headed
Find out where mortgage rates, home sales, and the median price are headed. The Association recently released a mid-year update of our 2009 Housing Market Forecast. Click here to view.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Bay Area Cities Ranked in Top 25 Places for Rich Singles
#5 Santa Clara: high tech as well as sports loving.
#20 Campbell: bar hopping in Campbell?
#21 Sunnyvale: how about Segway polo?
Complete list: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/moneymag/0906/gallery.bplive_richsingles.moneymag/index.html
#20 Campbell: bar hopping in Campbell?
#21 Sunnyvale: how about Segway polo?
Complete list: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/moneymag/0906/gallery.bplive_richsingles.moneymag/index.html
Bay Area Home Sales and Median Price Rise
Home sales in the Bay Area jumped to their highest level in almost three years, the result of improved mortgage availability and a perception among potential buyers that prices have bottomed out. The median price paid for a home increased month-to-month for the third month in a row, a real estate information service reported.
A total of 8,644 new and resale houses and condos sold across the nine-county Bay Area in June. That was up 16.1 percent from 7,447 in May and up 20.4 percent from 7,178 in June 2008, according to San Diego-based MDA DataQuick.
Home sales have increased on a year-over-year basis the last ten months. June sales have varied from a low of 7,118 in 1993 to 15,735 in 2004 in DataQuick’s statistics, which go back to 1988. Last month was 16.1 percent below the 10,306 for an average June.
“Getting mortgage financing this last year has really been an egregious process, especially for borrowers in the upper half of the market. We’re just now seeing the beginnings of more normal mortgage lending patterns. There’s still a long way to go, but it looks like the worst of the grind is over,” said John Walsh, MDA DataQuick president.
The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos sold in the nine-county Bay Area was $352,000 last month, up 3.1 percent from $341,500 in May and down 27.4 percent from $485,000 in June 2008. It was the highest since $375,000 last October.
The current median is 47.1 percent below the $665,000 peak reached in June 2007. It hit a low of $290,000 in March this year. About half the downturn appears to be price declines, the other half is the absence of of high-end home sales in the statistics, which pulls the median down.
Financing with home loans above the old “jumbo” limit of $417,000 edged up to the highest level in almost a year. Last month 28.8 percent of all Bay Area mortgages were jumbos, the highest since 31.9 percent in August last year and well above the bottom of 17.1 percent last January. Two years ago jumbos accounted for more than 60 percent of all home purchase loans.
Bank of America and Wells Fargo are the two most active lenders in the Bay Area with 30 percent of the market between them.
Use of government-insured FHA loans – a common choice among first-time buyers – represented 24.1 percent of all Bay Area purchase loans in June, down from a record 26 percent in April but up from 10.7 percent a year ago.
MDA DataQuick is a division of MDA Lending Solutions, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates. MDA DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts. Because of late data availability, sales counts were estimated in Alameda County.
Last month 37.3 percent of all homes resold in the Bay Area had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months, down from 40.5 percent in May and the lowest since 36.0 percent in August 2008. The peak was 52.0 percent in February this year. By county, foreclosure resales ranged last month from 6.3 percent of all resales in Marin to 62.7 percent in Solano.
The typical monthly mortgage payment that Bay Area buyers committed themselves to paying was $1,585 last month, up from $1,443 the previous month, and down from $2,407 a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, current payments are 39.7 percent below typical payments in the spring of 1989, the peak of the prior real estate cycle. They are 55.4 percent below the current cycle's peak in July 2007.
Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions. Foreclosure activity remains near record levels, while financing with adjustable-rate mortgages is near the all-time low but has recently edged higher. Financing with multiple mortgages is low, down payment sizes and flipping rates are stable, and non-owner occupied buying is above-average in some markets, MDA DataQuick reported.
Source: MDA DataQuick Information Systems, www.DQNews.com
A total of 8,644 new and resale houses and condos sold across the nine-county Bay Area in June. That was up 16.1 percent from 7,447 in May and up 20.4 percent from 7,178 in June 2008, according to San Diego-based MDA DataQuick.
Home sales have increased on a year-over-year basis the last ten months. June sales have varied from a low of 7,118 in 1993 to 15,735 in 2004 in DataQuick’s statistics, which go back to 1988. Last month was 16.1 percent below the 10,306 for an average June.
“Getting mortgage financing this last year has really been an egregious process, especially for borrowers in the upper half of the market. We’re just now seeing the beginnings of more normal mortgage lending patterns. There’s still a long way to go, but it looks like the worst of the grind is over,” said John Walsh, MDA DataQuick president.
The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos sold in the nine-county Bay Area was $352,000 last month, up 3.1 percent from $341,500 in May and down 27.4 percent from $485,000 in June 2008. It was the highest since $375,000 last October.
The current median is 47.1 percent below the $665,000 peak reached in June 2007. It hit a low of $290,000 in March this year. About half the downturn appears to be price declines, the other half is the absence of of high-end home sales in the statistics, which pulls the median down.
Financing with home loans above the old “jumbo” limit of $417,000 edged up to the highest level in almost a year. Last month 28.8 percent of all Bay Area mortgages were jumbos, the highest since 31.9 percent in August last year and well above the bottom of 17.1 percent last January. Two years ago jumbos accounted for more than 60 percent of all home purchase loans.
Bank of America and Wells Fargo are the two most active lenders in the Bay Area with 30 percent of the market between them.
Use of government-insured FHA loans – a common choice among first-time buyers – represented 24.1 percent of all Bay Area purchase loans in June, down from a record 26 percent in April but up from 10.7 percent a year ago.
MDA DataQuick is a division of MDA Lending Solutions, a subsidiary of Vancouver-based MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates. MDA DataQuick monitors real estate activity nationwide and provides information to consumers, educational institutions, public agencies, lending institutions, title companies and industry analysts. Because of late data availability, sales counts were estimated in Alameda County.
Last month 37.3 percent of all homes resold in the Bay Area had been foreclosed on in the prior 12 months, down from 40.5 percent in May and the lowest since 36.0 percent in August 2008. The peak was 52.0 percent in February this year. By county, foreclosure resales ranged last month from 6.3 percent of all resales in Marin to 62.7 percent in Solano.
The typical monthly mortgage payment that Bay Area buyers committed themselves to paying was $1,585 last month, up from $1,443 the previous month, and down from $2,407 a year ago. Adjusted for inflation, current payments are 39.7 percent below typical payments in the spring of 1989, the peak of the prior real estate cycle. They are 55.4 percent below the current cycle's peak in July 2007.
Indicators of market distress continue to move in different directions. Foreclosure activity remains near record levels, while financing with adjustable-rate mortgages is near the all-time low but has recently edged higher. Financing with multiple mortgages is low, down payment sizes and flipping rates are stable, and non-owner occupied buying is above-average in some markets, MDA DataQuick reported.
| Sales Volume | Median Price | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All homes | Jun-08 | Jun-09 | %Chng | Jun-08 | Jun-09 | %Chng |
| Alameda | 1,441 | 1,753 | 21.7% | $455,000 | $335,000 | -26.40% |
| Contra Costa | 1,528 | 1,817 | 18.9% | $378,000 | $250,000 | -33.90% |
| Marin | 258 | 271 | 5.0% | $846,000 | $710,000 | -16.10% |
| Napa | 113 | 108 | -4.4% | $440,000 | $355,000 | -19.30% |
| Santa Clara | 1,626 | 2,090 | 28.5% | $612,000 | $445,000 | -27.30% |
| San Francisco | 571 | 561 | -1.8% | $726,750 | $635,000 | -12.60% |
| San Mateo | 565 | 622 | 10.1% | $690,000 | $565,500 | -18.0% |
| Solano | 511 | 851 | 66.5% | $300,000 | $185,000 | -38.30% |
| Sonoma | 565 | 571 | 1.1% | $389,500 | $300,000 | -23.00% |
| Bay Area | 7,178 | 8,644 | 20.4% | $485,000 | $352,000 | -27.40% |
Source: MDA DataQuick Information Systems, www.DQNews.com
Saturday, July 11, 2009
New Tools for Home Buyers
You are walking in the neighborhood and see a house for sale that you really like. You can't wait to check out the details: price, square footage, sales history, etc. Now, whip out your iPhone and check out everything at your fingertip.
As an investor, you wonder how profitable an investment property will be? What's cash flow like? Log on to InvestorLoft.com to sort the properties by different options.
With so many properties priced below market, you are interested in finding out how many times a house has dropped its price, and by how much, so that you may price your offer accordingly. Check out Trulia.com for price reductions.
Video is an efficient means of communications these days. Why not use it for real estate? Watch realtors talk about the areas that they service in, and, better yet, watch listing videos when you hunt for your favorite home.
Check out the latest and the greatest new tools for home buyers.
As an investor, you wonder how profitable an investment property will be? What's cash flow like? Log on to InvestorLoft.com to sort the properties by different options.
With so many properties priced below market, you are interested in finding out how many times a house has dropped its price, and by how much, so that you may price your offer accordingly. Check out Trulia.com for price reductions.
Video is an efficient means of communications these days. Why not use it for real estate? Watch realtors talk about the areas that they service in, and, better yet, watch listing videos when you hunt for your favorite home.
Check out the latest and the greatest new tools for home buyers.
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