Light at the end of the tunnel?
The Standard & Poor's/Experian consumer default composite index fell to 2.43% in March from 2.54% in February. All the major sectors, such as bank cards, auto loans, and first and second mortgages, reported declines. As for U.S. housing, sales of existing homes increased 3.7% in March following a significant decline of 8.9% February.
Dutch Babies have always been a favorite of mine for brunch. If you are looking for an easy to make brunch item that will impress your friends, family, titillate your taste buds and bring the kids hopping to the breakfast table, look no further.
A Dutch baby pancake, sometimes referred to as a German pancake, a Bismarck, or a Dutch puff, is a sweet breakfast dish similar to Yorkshire pudding and derived from the German Apfelpfannkuchen. It is made with eggs, flour and milk, and usually seasoned with vanilla and cinnamon, although occasionally sugar is also added. It is baked in a pan with sloped sides and puffs up like a popover before falling soon after being removed from the oven. It is generally served with fresh squeezed lemon, butter, and powdered sugar or fruit toppings or syrup.
The Dutch Baby was originally served as three small Dutch babies served with powdered sugar and fresh squeezed lemon juice but eventually the "Big Dutch Baby" was invented and gained popularity. The Big Dutch Baby is usually what is referred to when reading about Dutch Babies.
I prefer to make some vanilla sugar a few days in advance by adding a whole vanilla bean with some super fine sugar in a small jar for the recipe.
So how easy can I make this for you? Alton Browne of the Food Network has a great recipe which is easy to follow and produces a great Dutch Baby or Yorkshire pudding (less the sugar).
We'll top these with fresh berries and they're hard to beat!
Dutch Baby
Recipe courtesy Alton Brown, 2008
Prep Time:
15 min
Cook Time:
30 min
Level:
Intermediate
Serves:
4 servings
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Place 2 tablespoons of the melted butter into a 10-inch cast iron skillet and place in the oven. Set the remaining tablespoon of melted butter aside to cool slightly. Wait 10 minutes before assembling the other ingredients.
Place the flour, vanilla sugar, salt, milk, eggs and remaining tablespoon of melted butter into the bowl of a food processor or blender and process for 30 seconds. Carefully pour the batter into the preheated skillet. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 30 to 35 minutes or until the edges are puffed and brown. Sprinkle with additional vanilla sugar and serve with lemon wedges.
Happy Easter!
Belmont received a nice jolt today from what appears to be several small earthquakes near the San Andrea’s fault—but don’t quote me on that, it just looks that way on the map.
At 2:57 PM today a 3.8 Magnitude earthquake hit just west of Pacifica followed by a 2.8 about an hour later. If you look at the USGS website over 217 people in Belmont alone registered as having felt the two jolts.
I was working on my computer when I heard loud jolt hit our home on Hallmark–as if something hit the house. Within a second a louder wave hit and our earthquake detector went off along with my nerves. I ran out of the house like you are not supposed to do, but since I was one foot from the door and we do not have power lines up here I felt that was safer than remaining indoors.
As for pets being sensitive to earthquakes, our dog Wyatt never flinched until I picked him up on my way to open space.
Where’s the best place to be in an earthquake? In a helicopter that can land anywhere.
Shiny Penny Tour Wrap
Our Tuesday tour day produced a few shiny pennies this week. In fact, two made our list for Best Deal of the Week.
The first is a short sale on Lyon in Belmont. It’s listed for only $759,000 and to be in the west-side hills location for that price is a good buy. Of course the banks still need to sign off on the offered price but if you can hang around for awhile you may be able to get that home. FYI—most lots on Monroe and Lyon are only 4,000 square feet rather than the usually 5,000.
Here are some details:
|
Beds, Baths: |
4, 2|1 |
|
SqFt: |
1980 (Assessor) |
|
Lot Size: |
4,000 sq ft (Assessor) |
|
Yr Built: |
1962 (Assessor) |
|
Age: |
49 years |
Our next home is a favorite of mine on Eaton in San Carlos. It’s sold before, in fact my old manager used to own it. I love the feeling—it’s like you are in your own private resort with a pool and palm trees. The rear landscaping is great and it backs up to the creek for even more privacy.
Don’t be fooled by the two bedroom listing. This home was a three bedroom with one room being converted to a den.
|
Beds, Baths: |
2, 1|0 |
|
SqFt: |
1620 (Assessor) |
|
Lot Size: |
8,476 sq ft (Assessor) |
|
Yr Built: |
1948 (Assessor) |
|
Age: |
63 years |
|
Parcel #: |
051-294-050 |
|
Zone: |
R100 |
|
Tract: |
White Oaks |
Don't forget. If you would like to see one of our Best of Tour homes give us a call at (650) 508-1441
Has anyone else noticed the Chevron station at the corner or Ralston Avenue and Alameda has been systematically raising the price of their gas two cents a day for about the last two weeks now?
Not one large in-your-face price adjustment mind you, no this is a well executed plan to fly below the general public’s radar while filling the corporate coffers with what is sure to be record breaking profits.
But we’re not just picking on Chevron. All the stations around Belmont are raising their prices in lockstep, it’s just that this station is near our office and I often sit at red lights and stare in amazement that they’re getting a two-cent raise each day while my income remains flat—at best.
And I thought the media loves these types of stories…
Time to wrap-up Belmont’s single family home sales for March 2011 and this month's graph honors the San Francisco Giants opening season with the famous orange and black.
(Click on the graph for a full-size version)
Comparing March 2010 to March 2011 we see that the number of sales has increased dramatically, up 70% from ten sales in 2011 to 17 in 2011.
MEDIAN HOME PRICE
The median price fell on paper because much smaller homes sold this year. In 2010 the median home price in Belmont was $994,750 and the median size home which sold was 2,345 square feet.
In March of 2011 the median home price dropped 18% from March 2010 but the size homes which sold were 27% smaller.
What this alludes to is prices actually increased, since now you can get a home 27% larger than last year for only 18% more. Put another way, if we look at the difference in the size of homes selling and use the smaller price per square foot which homes sold for ($417 per square foot) from March of 2010 it implies homes actually cost more this year (505 sq. ft. X $417 per square foot = $210,585). Add that to this year’s March median home price of $815,000 and you get an estimated adjusted median home value of $1,025,585 or a 3% increase over last March.
DAYS ON MARKET
The time it took to sell all 17 homes dropped dramatically as well from 76.5 last March to only 25 days in March 2011.
PRICE REDUCTIONS
Five homes in March of this year had to lower their asking price by on average $43,387 to entice a buyer to bid. In March of 2010 that number was four for $47,000 on average less. As a percentage of homes which sold 40% had to lower their expectations in March of 2010 compared to only 30% this year.
MARCH 2011
Of the 17 sales in March of this year nine homes sold on average for $39,439 less than the seller’s asking price in 64 days.
Two homes sold right at the seller’s asking price in on average nine days, and six homes sold for on average of $19,842 over the seller’s asking price in only 12 days.
MARCH 2010
Comparing that to last March when three of the ten homes sold for on average $39,000 less than the asking price in on average 75 days.
Five homes sold for the seller’s list price in 88 days and two homes sold over the seller’s asking price for $244,000 an average of more in 48 days.
So what’s up with that? The home on Bayview in that sold in March of 2010 completely threw off the numbers. It was a bank owned property that was grossly underpriced and had multiple offers.
Pricing your home as close as possible to its value is still the best strategy to get you the most money for your home, but as you can see in this case, with the abundant access buyers have to information these days, even a home which has been priced well lower than its true value will simply be bid back up to market value—and many times more; while over pricing your home will simply lead to price reduction after price reduction and quickly fall off the radar of many buyers.
What is a QR code?
Wikipedia defines it as: "A QR code (short for Quick Response) is a specific matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by dedicated QR barcode readers and camera phones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded can be text, URL or other data.
Common in Japan, where it was created by Toyota subsidiary Denso-Wave in 1994, the QR code is one of the most popular types of two-dimensional barcodes. QR is the abbreviation for Quick Response, as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed."
You'll need an app for your phone to decode this which varied depending on your operating system. My Blackberry Storm uses ScanLife with good results but other blackberry devices may use code cruncher–just Google them and you'll find one that works. Then simply snap a picture of this QR code with your phone's camera (with the app open) and it runs out to the internet and delivers…well, in this case your FREE Friday photo.
We use these codes on our web site and flyers to deliver information to people's phones rather than wasting print advertising paper resources. You’ll also see them on our sign post at a listed home in case the flyers run out or someone has the ability to be eco-friendly and download rather than take a printed flyer.
Our Mystery FREE Friday Photo can be downloaded here by scanning this QR code–try it; we think you'll like the new technology.
Happy Friday!
OK it will be all over the news but here’s the local Belmont scoop. Just as a back-up to our weather station which uploads to the internet, I have this visual aid in our backyard because I guess I am a geek for starters (I also have triple redundancy for my hard drives now), but it did help when the circuit board stopped measuring rain earlier this year.
The first picture is one I took when I left for work and the second is when I came home at lunchtime.
(You can click on any image to see a larger picture.)
Our weather station reported the following (see below). Notice the rain rate at 2†per hour at 11:52 and 36 MPH winds at 8:06 AM. It was raining cats and dogs.
Now we are up to 18.82 inches for the year (July-June), 3.82 for the month and 3.15 just since this storm event!
Remember you can always view the weather station on our web site live 24/7 from our Hallmark area home.
The weather at work was amazing too as you see this poor pedestrian trying to maneuver around a small pond on Ralston Avenue whilst the cars pay scant attention to him.
We’re excited to announce three “Best of Tour†homes from our Broker’s tour on Tuesday.
These homes represent homes we think offer a good value and should get snapped up quickly.
BELMONT
There were two in Belmont we thought we’re an excellent value. The first one was at 3484 Lodge but since it already has three offers since Sunday’s open house we may as well skip that one. It was listed at $799,000 which is an ex excellent value for the West side.
The second Belmont home at 2223 Thurm listed by Better Homes and Gardens M. Smith. It’s located right on the border of San Mateo on a pastoral 13,000 square foot lot. The four bedroom three and one-half bath home is nicely appointed and at 2,714 square feet it’s a very good value too.
SAN CARLOS
We liked 132 Arundel. Looks like a nice move-in condition home with three bedrooms, two baths with 1, 390 square feet of living space on a nice sized 8,500 square foot lot. Listed by RE/MAX D. Roberts
1362 Geneva in the White Oaks is a three bedroom three bath home of 1,860 square feet on a tad bit small 4,040 square foot lot but this home looks great and should fly off the shelf. Listed by Coldwell Banker R. Jabeen
As always, if you want us to look specifically for the best of tour home for you drop us an email or connect with us and let us know what you’re looking for. We’ll be your eyes and ears on the peninsula.
This home wasn’t some fantastic steal of a deal but it was a really nice home. I say was because it was on tour Tuesday and has already sold. Who said the days of fast sales are over!
1612 Clee Street, Belmont
$848,500 2/1 1300 Sq. Ft.
Clee Street is a little known side street off of Chevy, another obscure street. Not many homes trade hands on either street. The neighborhood is part of the old golf course. The area was developed in the 1940’s for returning veterans after the golf course went bankrupt. It’s one of the few neighborhoods in Belmont with sidewalks and level streets making it ideal for the stroller set crowd or elderly. And of course it’s always nice to walk on over to Vivace for dinner.
So our best value vote goes to East Laurel Creek. What this home lacks in traditional architecture it makes up for in its bucolic setting. It’s situated across from Sugarloaf Mountain preserve and is more reminiscent of a Tahoe cabin than a traditional home. In fact, inside when you look out upon nothing but trees you might think you are in Tahoe.
3324 E Lauel Creek, Belmont
3/2 1700 Sq. Ft. $768,500
So there’s no garage. At $768,500 we think there’s some real value there and real quality of life living for someone lucky enough to snag this home.
