Bay Area California Real Estate Blog and News

I'm pleased to announce the sale of my Eichler listing at 52 Los Cerros Avenue, Walnut Creek, in the Rancho San Miguel neighborhood. I had the opportunity to list, stage, professionally photographed and market this exceptionally updated Eichler that closed escrow at a final price of $843,750.  

I enjoyed assisting my seller clients with the sale of their Eichler as well as the lucky buyer and welcome the opportunity to assist you with the sale or purchase of an Eichler in the East Bay.  Let my Eichler-specific experience work for you!

Ken Fox 510-999-0923

[email protected]

Below you'll find information on number of sales, number of listings, average sales price, and the percentage of homes on market that closed in under 60 days for the cities of: San Rafael, Novato, Mill valley, San Anselmo, Sausalito, Corte Madera, and Fairfax.

We are happy to announce that Realtor Hanna Jung has joined our modern real estate family!

The newest member of our San Francisco Modern Real Estate team, Hanna's interest in real estate began when she made investments of her own in out-of-state properties. Prior to real estate, Hanna worked as a producer for an online gaming industry. With an M.A. in Translation and Interpretation, Hanna also worked as an executive assistant to the Consul General of the Republic of Korea.

Hanna's main focus as a Realtor is to find a great deal for her clients and she is proud and excited to share her experiences with those looking to buy a home in San Francisco.

We welcome Hanna to our San Francisco Modern Real Estate team and encourage you to contact her for all your San Francisco real estate needs.

Navigating the course of purchasing a new home can appear daunting.

For instance - what is Escrow? Most buyers know about the beginning process of purchasing a home: pre-approval, working with a buyer's agent, making an offer and doing inspections but what is escrow?

Buyers and sellers of a property establish, through the sales contract, the terms and conditions for the transfer of ownership. The escrow holder is the neutral, third party that oversees that these terms are fulfilled.

So often buyers hear that...

It has been a relatively quiet week, at least until today when big news came from China showing a weak manufacturing report (PMI). If China's economy is weak, that means that the world is not ordering as many goods from China (so maybe the world economy is weaker than thought?) Of course a Chinese slowdown would have significant implications for global markets. This news sent US Stocks plunging and pushed investing dollars into the safe haven of the Bonds and improved interest rates. (see rate sheet below)

Housing Crisis is Quickly Becoming a Memory

The foreclosure crisis is showing signs that it's finally fading away. The number of new foreclosure filings -- which includes default notices, auctions and bank repossessions -- dropped 15% in November. The biggest monthly decline since November 2010 and foreclosure filings are now at the lowest level since December 2006. Filings are down 37% from one year ago.

View...

The terms pre-qualified and pre-approved sound pretty interchangeable. In fact, there is a huge difference, which I promise to explain! But, before I get into that, let me address a more basic question. "What is a pre-approval and why do I need one?"

Here in Marin County, our real estate market, though active, has experienced a severe shortage of inventory for quite some time now. A recent check revealed slightly over a one month supply of homes for sale, while 4-5 months is considered healthy by many agents and analysts. One important cause of this shortage is the perception by potential sellers that prices are still too low for them to sell. With recent appreciation in the market, this is not necessarily the case, but it will take a while for this information to filter down and be absorbed by the average homeowner. In fact, it is a great time to sell! With many buyers chasing too few homes, it's not unusual for attractive listings to receive multiple offers,...

Why do you love living in Marin or San Francisco? A top benefit for me is access to our World Class Wine regions in Napa, Sonoma and Healdsburg/Russian River Valley.

In just a short 60-90 minute drive you can find yourself in another world, surrounded by miles of vineyards, rustic country inns and some of the best wineries in the world. How lucky are we? Very!!!

Napa Valley produces some of the best wines in the world and is a wine lovers paradise but it has become crowded and expensive to wine taste there. A tasting can cost between $20-50 depending on the winery.

Sonoma...

On Christmas eve 2013, six Ross Valley teens were involved in a serious car accident on Lucas Valley Road. Sixteen year old Louie Vaccaro was seriously injured. He went through an eleven hour operation to repair his second vertebrae. Fortunately, his spinal cord is intact. And apparently, he has some feeling in his legs. However, the doctors have given him a ten % chance of walking again.

Louie is the son of Chris Vaccaro of Vaccaro Tree Service. I have used this company for many years for both my personal home and professional Real Estate related tree services. I have found this company to be reputable and very reasonable. I wanted to blog about Louie because our community is working diligently to raiser $100,000 for Louie's ongoing medical needs. (Though, I suspect the family is going to need much more). There are many ways that you can participate:

1. If you are a Realtor or in the home buying or selling business, consider using ...

687 Larkspur Dr., Healdsburg CA 95448: New Construction in Healdsburg-SOLD!

It is hard to find new construction housing in Marin County and impossible to find it under $600,000, so my buyer clients headed north to Healdsburg.  That is where they found D.R. Horton's Sonata; a cute little community of new 2 story homes within walking distance to the chic downtown. My clients bought prior to being built and were able to customize their finishes creating a home perfect for them. The lack...