Just Listed–OPEN SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26th 2008 1:30-4:30 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
Belmont–Coming Soon!
|
COMING SOON TO BELMONT |
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Belmont’s “Green†Spring Faire
Mark your calendars for Belmont’s Spring Garden Faire, Saturday, May 17th at Twin Pines Park, adjacent to Ralston and 6th Avenues in Belmont from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. This fun and information-packed day will prepare you for Spring! Hear environmentally savvy suggestions for your home and business. Be inspire
d by ideas from local exhibitors and industry experts that will make your Spring gardening and landscaping a success! Come and browse, then take a shuttle ride to the winners of the Beautify Belmont Awards Program along with other notable home and business landscape designs. Vote for your favorite in the garden planter competition on-site. Activities for the kids include a coloring contest and a flower planting station. Play in our jump house. Bring your appetite and check-out our give-aways! It’s a great day for family fun and involvement!
Calendar of Events
| Â | |
|
Date(s): |
5/17/2008 |
|
Times: |
10am – 3pm |
|
Contact: |
Parks & Recreation |
|
Telephone: |
650-595-7441 |
|
Location: |
Twin Pines Park |
|
Website: |
www.belmont.gov |
|
  |
|
|
Come to a fun, family friendly event for everyone! Get giveaways and info about getting into spring in your garden and in general ‘going greener’. We all want to make a difference and here are some ways you can! WE have ideas, vendors, expert demonstrations (like solar cooking), garden experts, silent auction for community made planter boxes and much more! |
|
Â
Ready, Set, GO!
We’ve been hesitant to comment on the economic stimulus plan until all of the cards fell into place.
Now that the stimulus package has been signed by President Bush, the lending industry will get a much needed infusion of cash.
For the Peninsula, by far the most stimuli will come from the provision which raises the conforming loan cap. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are government sponsored companies which back home mortgages. Until now, the largest loan they would dish out was $417,000. That did little good on the Peninsula where the median price is closer to $900,000. Being able to sell these new larger loans to Wall Street as government backed securities means rates will be lower.
It’s a bit tricky as to what the new cap will be, since it will be indexed to your local median home price, but the conforming cap should be raised to $729,750 on the Peninsula.
WHEN WILL THESE NEW UPPER LIMITS BE AVAILABLE?
Optimists say in about a month from now (April 2008) but don’t hold your breath.
PLAY YOUR CARDS RIGHT AND ACT FAST.
If your current loan is less than $729,750 and more than $417,000 you could directly benefit from the new conforming cap but you only have until December 31st of this year to refinance your home. That means there will be about an eight month window of opportunity.
WATCH THE LENDING INDUSTRY SCRAMBLE.
Since the program is supposed to end in December, it’ll be a mad dash to get all of those loans refinanced. Lenders will have to staff up, Title companies will have to re-hire many of those recently let go due to waning home sales and appraisers will begin raising their fees again.
Fence-sitting first time home buyers will no doubt see the window of opportunity to purchase since the same home will now carry a lower monthly payment and home values have softened for the first time in years.
There will be a whirlwind of activity until the end of the year—it should be quite, shall we say, "stimulating"…
How Low Will it Go?
Our best guess is that this housing retraction will be more similar to 2001 than in 1990 which is to say it should be relatively short lived so long as jobs remain plentiful. This means the housing market should level off this year as far as declining sales go. Our feeling is it will be later in the year rather than sooner. We don’t anticipate a "light switch" suddenly going on and people flocking back in droves to the market. The market will probably remain flat through 2009 with sales picking up later that year. That’s the national picture.
On the San Francisco Peninsula, real estate is not suffering from the same issues as many other parts of the state and country. Regionally, the main reason for a slowdown in sales has been tighter lending practices (causing Jumbo loans to be more expensive), low homeowner affordability (due to high prices), and buyer skepticism brought about by the housing issues which dog the industry and has many buyers taking a wait and see approach.
The San Francisco Peninsula market continues to outperform the country as a whole and even fairs better than San Francisco. Stand & Poor’s released their November data suggesting the largest decline "in history"—their history dates back only to 1991.
The decline, measured as a percentage, they estimate at -8.1% for the year in San Francisco (metropolitan area).
San Mateo County posted a -4.3% decline in appreciation in 2007 the first drop since 2001 when appreciation levels declined -8.4%. Notice in the graph below how in later years as prices rise even a small percentage in appreciation can mean a large increase in real dollars; conversely a small dip in the percent of appreciation can mean a lot in terms of real equity evaporating (if there is such as thing as real equity). 
How low it will go is anyone’s guess, but experts seem to think the turnaround could be in mid to late 2008.
-
Don’t Expect a Housing Turnaround Anytime Soon
The Mortgage Bankers Association Says Housing Problems Will Linger Until Mid-’08-ABC News, October 2007
-
Forecast 2008: Economy Slows, Housing Woes The decline in the turnover of existing homes is expected to bottom out by early 2008. But the related home construction activity that is so important to the economy is not expected to turn around until well into the year. As for the troubling housing price slide, that’s not expected to hit bottom until the end of 2008. By Phillip M. Perry (Dec/Jan 08)-Area Development
New Year’s Day. Why January 1st?
Why do we celebrate New Year’s Day on January 1st? For the same reason the sun never came up in Brittan for 12 days back in 1784—calendars.
On September 2, 1752 the good people of England went to bed and when they awoke it was 12 days later. The sun never came up during those days—no newspapers were printed, no one died and no one was born. What happened to freeze time for 12 days? It was the British Calendar Act of 1751, which declared the day after Wednesday the 2nd of September to be Thursday the 14th.
The reason for the correction was that Brittan continued to use the Julian calendar well after many countries had switched to the Georgian Calendar we us today. Hence the official British calendar differed from most of continental Europe by 11 days. That meant that September 2nd in England was September 13th In France.
The Julian Calendar, named after Julius Caesar who requested its creation in 45 B.C.E, consisted of 11 months of 30 or 31 days, and a 28 day February—to include an intercalary day every fourth year. This calendar only varied from a solar year by about 11.5 minutes each year. By the sixteenth century though this variation had the effect of putting the Julian calendar behind the true solar calendar by 10 days. Pope Gregory VIII advanced the calendar 10 days in 1582 and adopted the Georgian Calendar. Several other key changes were made including the first of the year would begin on January 1st, not March 25th.
But protestant countries such as England were reluctant to make these changes resulting in a difference between British colony calendars and that of some European countries of 11 days by 1752.
There were other hold-outs. Germany and the Netherlands did not agree to adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1698. Russia waited until after the revolution of 1918, and Greece did not weigh in until 1923.
|
Season’s Greetings!
Wishing you and your family a wonderful holiday. |
|
|
|
Cheers,
Drew & Christine Morgan
|
Mark your calendar: The best meteor shower of 2007 peaks on Friday, December 14th.
My Brother and I have a long history of watching asteroid showers from our roof top as children. Today, they still excite us as we enjoy the "fireworks" that the heavens offer us so many time a year. This particular show appears to be a good one–though they have promised such before and we’ve been disappointed,. Yet unlike the Fourth of July fireworks which have been less than spectacular in years past, these folks really have no control over the outcome. Here’s to hoping the sky is clear.
Click here for the full story… http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/03dec_asteroidshower.htm?list192695
Happy watching,
Drew
USGS and NASA–Always Entertaining…
Ever wonder what all those satellites are doing meandering across the sky at night? Some are for weather and others, such as this one, catalog our landscape. Scroll down and watch as satellite Lansat 7 takes a distant view of America.
What’s Eating Your Home’s Equity?
What’s Eating Your Home’s Equity?
This time of year after a heavy rain-followed by a sunny day-we see these long-winged creatures flittering about. If you aren’t familiar with a damp-wood termite, you might think it’s just another fly-by-night pest. But in fact these little buggers are responsible for BILLIONS of dollars in damage to property each year.
These are a few of the unlucky damp wood termites who were caught by a little spider friend of mine at sundown. Damp-Wood termites typically venture out toward artificial light in the early evening hours. CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO SEE A CLOSE-UP.
The process of termite "swarming" is in an effort to establish a new colony. Frequently, they will do so after a heavy rain followed by a sunny day. In the Bay Area peninsula where we live this is not relegated to any one time of the year as in other parts of the country. Our Indian summers make both the typical spring swarm as well as a fall swarm likely. What do you do if you also hate spiders too? Why call an exterminator of course.
The sign of a swam does not mean your home has termites. These critters will often fly from a neighbor’s yard, dead brush or tree. After they land, they will drop their wings and look for a place to nest. Once a male and female mate and a colony is established, they look nothing like their flying alter ego. They are a translucent-almost albino color-as compared to their flight suit of black, yellow or orange. Finding termites in or near a structure does not mean you have an immediate emergency since the rate at which damage occurs is relatively slow.
There are three common types of termites: Dry Wood, Damp-Wood and Subterranean. Subterranean termites follow much of the same swarming pattern as their larger cousins the Damp-Wood termite, though they are much smaller and more readily confused with ants. They too will drop their wings but fly much shorter distances in more of a glider style flight and are often simply carried with whichever way the wind is blowing.
If you’ve ever seen your car covered with little black wings you are more than likely seeing the result of a subterranean swarm-good thing they no longer makes cars of wood. Subterranean termites live in the ground, as opposed to damp-wood termites which typically live outdoors in dead trees, fences and wood retaining walls; while dry wood termites prefer to live in your walls, floor, ceilings and attic. In order to reach edible wood in your home, subterranean wood termites will build what is referred to as a "mud tube"
from the ground up until they reach their food supply-often, your home. Mud tubes are an easy indicator you may have subterranean termites eating away at your home’s equity. We’ve seen colonies of subterranean termites in the ground under trees where an ample supply of dead foliage keeps them well fed.
The most immediate home remedy and effective treatment for these cellulous devouring bugs is good old fashioned Windex. 
If you see a swarm landing near your home, this quick clean-up solution does the trick. Of course Windex is no long term solution to use. If you see any indication of termite activity, often noted by what appears to be "sand" (mixture of soil, feces, and saliva) on your floors, windowsills, walls of near vents, it’s a good idea to get a professional home exterminator to come out and treat your home with more effective chemicals.
