I see you've discovered another facinating video!




You really need to check out his site; Here.

Labels: Bay Area Real Estate, My East Bay Agent, MyEastBayAgent, Real Estate Cycles

Andy Kaufman, of MyEastBayAgent, has moved and he's started to post some pretty cool stuff. You should check out his site!!!

Here's a sample; a Real Estate Roller Coaster;

"Over at Speculative Bubble, they took US Home prices adjusted for inflation and plotted as a roller coaster. It’s a nice little ride, but the ending is a little scary."

Labels: Bay Area Real Estate, My East Bay Agent, MyEastBayAgent, Real Estate Cycles

Labels: April 15, Income Tax, IRS, Tax Deadline

Prices also up in Alameda County, down Solano County; sales increase in March but down from 2006 - By Barbara E. Hernandez, CONTRA COSTA TIMES.

The median price paid for a Bay Area home in March was $639,000, up 3.1 percent in a month's time, bucking the national trend and regaining much of the decline since last summer, but the chorus still isn't singing "Happy Days Are Here Again." - George Raine, Chronicle Staff Writer.

"The housing market in the state will show a substantial decline this year, on the order of 2 or 3 percent,'' said Ken Rosen, director of the Fisher Center for Real Estate at UC Berkeley. Moreover, he said he expects the state's housing market to stay soft for a while.

"We had such a large run-up (in home prices) in the state as a whole in the last four years and now there is excess inventory in unsold houses -- in San Diego, Sacramento, Orange County and the Central Valley in particular,'' Rosen said. "Usually, the reaction time to an overheated market is two to three years.''

On the day after the normally glass-is-half-full Realtors trade association said the median price of existing U.S. homes will fall nearly a percentage point this year, DataQuick said that Bay Area prices are holding their only-in-the-Bay Area value.

"Prices seem to have held up surprisingly well, probably because of a relatively strong economy. Additionally, it's starting to look like much of the current sales lull may be due to the strong sales in 2004 and 2005. Some of today's demand probably got pulled into that period because of low mortgage interest rates and the availability of exotic mortgages," said Marshall Prentice, DataQuick president.

Levy, at the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy, said that the housing downturn of the 1990s, with slow and flat activity in prices and sales volumes, lasted seven years and that there is no reason to believe the current downturn will be short term. "I think we are closer to the middle of the housing adjustment process than to the end,'' he said.

"What the National Association of Realtors said about the price of homes going down screams volumes,'' Thornberg added. "It says, 'Guess what. This is not over. We have a ways to go.' To think we are out of the woods is silly.''

"The big story,'' said Michael Lehmann, professor emeritus of economics at the University of San Francisco, "was the big surge in prices of homes between 2000 to 2005. That is over here and everywhere,'' he said. "And overall, if the weakness continues across the nation, it will be hard for the Bay Area to resist it in the long run."

Labels: Bay Area Real Estate, CAR, Continuing Study of the California Economy, Contra Costa Times, DataQuick, Real Estate Cycles, San Francisco Chronicle

National decline would be first in record-keeping era - By David Armstrong, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer.

"Saying that the housing bubble has truly burst, the National Association of Realtors predicted Wednesday that the median price of existing U.S. homes is expected to fall 0.7 percent this year, the first time that has happened since records started in the late 1960s."

"The forecast was startling, coming from the normally upbeat industry group. Last year, in a sign of the start of the slowdown, the nationwide median price of an existing home rose a modest 1 percent."

"The California Association of Realtors predicted in October that statewide median prices would fall by 2 percent in 2007."

"Economy.com analyst Mark Zandi called for an even sharper statewide drop of 6 percent."

California's struggling housing market is weakening as lenders tighten underwriting standards. "Mounting foreclosures will also be a weight on housing prices as these properties are dumped into the already fragile market at a significant discount," Zandi said in an e-mail. "This outlook assumes that interest rates remain stable and that the job market outside of housing remains stable.''

"The National Association of Realtors has also lowered its 2007 forecast for sales of new and existing homes. Tighter lending standards and the continued fallout from the subprime mortgage meltdown are to blame, said association spokesman Walter Molony."

"The national median new home sale price is expected to rise 0.4 percent this year, after a 1.8 percent gain in 2006, the association said."

"However, these figures, even revised downward, are still overly optimistic, said Ken Rosen, director of the Fisher Center for Real Estate at UC Berkeley."

Rosen expects a drop of 2 to 3 percent nationally, and as much as 5 to 15 percent in some markets. "The Bay Area will do better because it is one of the top five markets in the country. It has a small inventory and good job creation,'' he said.

"In Rosen's view, home prices could appreciate from 1 to 3 percent in the Bay Area this year."

"Despite the unsettled quality of the current housing market, this, too, shall pass, housing industry experts said."

"We still view this as a cycle playing itself out,'' DataQuick's LePage said.

Labels: Bay Area Real Estate, CAR, DataQuick, Fisher Center for Real Estate, Real Estate Cycles, San Francisco Chronicle

Labels: Bay Area Real Estate, Foreclosure, Real Estate Cycles

The Masters Golf Tournament


The Masters has grown to become the most prestigious tournament in all of Golf. On March 22, 1934 Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts decided to hold an annual golf tournament in honour of golf's greatest players. Early on it was called the The Augusta National Invitation Tournament. It wasn't until 1939 that the event became known as The Masters. The Masters paved the way for modern golf tournaments. They instituted many rules that are still in use today. The tournament would be held over 4 days rather than three. They eliminated qualifying rounds, and only limited access to the playing area for players and caddies only. Since 1940 the Masters has always been held the first week of April at the Augusta National Golf Club. More on the Masters History.

History of Masters Champions



Jack Nicklaus waves to the gallery on the 8th hole during second round play of the 2005 Masters at the Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga., Saturday, April 9, 2005. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)


Payne Stewart begins to celebrate after making a 15-foot putt to clinch the 1999 U.S. Open, held at Pinehurst No.2 in Pinehurst, N.C. (Getty Images)


AUGUSTA NATIONAL GOLF COURSE

Amen Corner - "The Fateful Corner," by Herbert Warren Wind, Sports Illustrated, 1958

It's one of the most eagerly awaited stretches of holes in golf -- Nos. 11, 12 and 13 at Augusta National Golf Club.


"Amen Corner" was so christened following the 1958 Masters by writer Herbert Warren Wind in an article in Sports Illustrated. That was the Masters where Arnold Palmer earned his first major championship with the help of a ruling that, even decades later, runner-up Ken Venturi was still challenging.

Wind borrowed the name from an old jazz recording "Shouting at Amen Corner" by a band under the direction of Milton (Mezz) Mezzrow, a Chicago clarinetist. (Courtesy Masters.org)

Labels: Amen Corner, Arnold Palmer, Augusta National, Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus, Professional Golf, The Masters, USGA