New Listing! (Sort Of) by Peter Coy of BusinessWeek, (January 22, 2007 Issue, News & Insights)

Agents are pulling houses off the market and then presenting them as new offerings.

"With open houses as quiet as death lately in many parts of the country, sellers' agents are trying everything they can to make a sale, including sometimes tweaking the computerized data that potential buyers depend on. Fresh listings attract attention and can fetch higher prices because buyers are less likely to make lowball offers."

KNOWING WHAT TO LOOK FOR
"When many homes in an area are re-listed as new, it skews the "average days on market" statistic, making the market look healthier than it really is. For sellers, refreshing a listing can also disguise the fact that the previous listing was at a higher price. Buyers often regard a price cut as a sign of weakness."

"Whether it's within the local rules or not, the practice of relisting houses to give them a new debut is a symptom of an imbalance in market knowledge. Buyers can sometimes spot manipulation of the databases, but you have to know what to look for, and many buyers' agents don't."

"Is this wrong? Many MLS organizations think so."

Labels: Bay Area Real Estate, BusinessWeek, Housing Watch, Multiple Listing Service, Real Estate Cycles

Labels: Martin Luther King Jr

"Has the home market hit bottom? That is the key question for the U.S. economy in 2007. According to some housing indicators, there is some light at the end of the tunnel for homebuilders, but that cautious optimism comes with caveats."

Read the article found in the January 15, 2007 issue of BusinessWeek HERE.

"To get the most reliable signal that the housing recession is over, keep an eye on the average monthly supply of new homes for sale and the average mortgage rate each quarter. Analysis by Goldman Sachs U.S. economist Edward McKelvey of eight pieces of housing data widely used as leading indicators of the housing cycle showed those two series are better than quarterly averages of new and existing home sales, housing starts, mortgage applications, housing affordability, and homebuilder confidence."

Compare how your city has faired over the past year and half; from the "strong" summer of 2005, to the inventory highs of last October 2006, and finally to the lower winter inventories of today.


Basically, the months supply is the ratio of inventory to sales. What it tells us is how many months the stock of homes for sale would last, if sales continued at their current rate. The "State of Equilibrium" is considered to be 6 months and the norm for housing inventory. This is the state where there are considered to be an equal number of sellers and buyers. This can also be used as a guage as to whether we are in a "Buyer's," "Normal," or "Seller's" market.

Labels: Bay Area Real Estate, DataQuick, Housing Inventory, Months Supply, Real Estate Cycles, San Francisco Chronicle

"A Spruced-up yard might entice passerbys to take a closer look at the intereior."

Read the entire article by Alan Heavens of the Philadelphia Inquirer HERE.

EXPERIENCE SHOWS that this is the season for the serious home buyer. And with so many listings for that buyer to look at, the successful seller will be the one whose house stands out in the crowd.

In the trade, this is known as "curb appeal." How a house looks from the street, the National Association of Realtors says, is often enough to bring a prospective buyer in for a look.

Though the condition of the house itself is a critical part of curb appeal, so is the landscaping. If the yard is filled with unraked leaves, frozen flowers and fallen branches from the last windstorm, it's hard to see much past the curb to the house.

Landscape Staging Tips

1) Go around the perimeter of the house and remove all discarded wood scraps, extra building materials, and move the garbage cans into the garage.

2) Prune all overgrown bushes and trees. Keep plants from blocking windows. If possible, make sure the house can be seen from the street.

3) Weed and mulch all planting areas. Keep lawn frshly cut and fertilized. Remove dead plants or shrubs.

4) Clear patios or decks of all small items such as small planters, flower pots, barbecues, toys. etc.

5) Check the paint condition of the house, especially the front door and entryway rim.

Labels: Bay Area Real Estate, Housing Appreciation, Landscaping, Staging

Profile on Miles Davis written by Tim Kirker.

1926 - 1991

"The musical legacy of Miles Davis seems too huge for one man. Especially since he was a vital part of nearly every important development of innovation and style in jazz after the Second World War. His protean approach put him at the forefront of bebop, cool, modal, hard bop, and fusion. From there his sound went on to influence many other forms of music including pop, soul, R&B, funk, and rap. Davis was the last of the great trumpet players, employing a lyrical, melodic style that was known for its minimalism as much as its introspection. Another talent was his ability to assemble great up-and-coming musicians and nurture their creativity within his many bands. Both the man and his music have come to symbolize everything that jazz represents - innovative, cool, complex, and unpredictable."

What's the "all time best" jazz album, what's your favorite? I try to stay away from those kinds of debates when it comes to music. Music is so personal, and each style so unique. I could never just name one, but we all, at sometime or another, get dragged into those "Desert Island" picks just to see where it will go. I keep changing the list. It seems that I can never stop at just ten. Ten becomes twenty, twenty becomes twenty five, and so on.

And so, if you're curious, you can see my "Desert Island" picks if you view my profile. One thing never changes. There are always some that make my list and coincidently, there are always some that seem to make everyone's list.

Kind of Blue isn't merely an artistic highlight for Miles Davis, it's an album that towers above its peers, a record generally considered as the definitive jazz album, a universally acknowledged standard of excellence." Read the full review by by Stephen Thomas Erlewine Here.

"It was a relative rarity among modern jazz albums, three - quarters of an hour of extraordinary music loved equally by listeners who wouldn't know a mode from a modem, and by musicians for whom it seemed to point the way toward a fresh way of playing. "Kind of Blue" remains among the most enduring of all jazz records - more than forty years after its release, it continues to sell several thousand copies a month."

"It must have been made in heaven." Jimmy Cobb said.

(Exerpts from Jazz, A History of America's Music by Geoffrey Ward & Ken Burns).

Labels: Bay Area Jazz, Cool Jazz, Desert Island Jazz, Jazz, Ken Burns, Kind of Blue, Miles Davis, San Francisco Jazz