FRIDAY - FREE RAIN

Traditional Landscape by New York Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers Earth Mama Landscape Design

5 Ways to Put Fall Leaves to Work in Your Garden

- 5 Ways to Put Fall Leaves to Work in Your Garden
- Realtors are alerted on hot issues ahead for real estate
- Apartment Rents Jump — Especially In Silicon Valley
- Student loan debt curbs housing market by $83 billion, study says
- California Affordable Homes in Short Supply After Cuts
- More investment dollars pour into San Jose's North First Street
- Own a piece of Sand Hill Road: Rare offering on Silicon Valley's most famous street
- Dream Spaces: Home Offices You’d Be Delighted to Work In

Enjoy!

Realtors are alerted on hot issues ahead for real estate - Among pending issues Realtors should closely watch is the future of the mortgage interest deduction. "The mortgage interest deduction is important because real estate has such a positive benefit in the tax code. The MID is also the most tangible benefit for homeowners," said Gosselin. "Members of Congress are familiar with the MID because they, too, own a home. Even most renters support the MID because they aspire to be homeowners someday."

Apartment Rents Jump — Especially In Silicon Valley - Job gains helped drive annual effective apartment rent growth to 4.1% in August, the highest in over two years, according to a report from real estate data tracker Axiometrics. California cities rose sharply, with Oakland notching an 11.2% annual effective rent hike in August, followed by San Jose at 10.2%.

Silicon Valley Income Gap Continues to Widen, New Study Shows - The report, an analysis of U.S. census data, shows a significant increase in Silicon Valley households earning at least $150,000, up by 25,000 between 2012 and 2013. The increase in the number of high-income Silicon Valley households was nearly five times greater than the increase in households overall.

Student loan debt curbs housing market by $83 billion, study says - There’s been lots of debate lately in housing circles about the impact of student debt on home ownership. Now there’s a new study out that attempts to put a number on that impact: 414,000.

That’s how many home sales will not happen this year because of high levels of student loan debt, according to a report from John Burns Consulting, an Irvine-based firm that advises home builders. That’s equal to about 8% of all home sales, and enough to dent the housing industry by $83 billion a year.

California Affordable Homes in Short Supply After Cuts - As Brown runs for re-election, the most-populous state faces a shortage of about 1 million affordable homes, according to the California Housing Partnership Corp. The state’s economic renaissance, fueled by the growth of technology companies including Apple Inc. (AAPL) andGoogle Inc. (GOOG), is leading to surging rents and home prices that are outpacing wage gains, leaving fewer households able to limit their residential spending to 30 percent or less of the local median income.

More investment dollars pour into San Jose's North First Street - The North First district has been undergoing something of a transformation in the past couple of years, with thousands of new housing units replacing outdated R&D buildings. Samsung Semiconductor is building a large office complex at North First and E. Tasman Drive. And leasing also appears to be picking up, as evidenced by a number of notable deals at renovated spaces where investors have pumped money into bringing older properties into the modern era.

Own a piece of Sand Hill Road: Rare offering on Silicon Valley's most famous street - Office sales on Sand Hill Road are extremely rare. Just three deals have taken place in the last 50 years or so, a marked contrast to the quick flips that regularly take place elsewhere in the Valley. And despite the well documented trend of venture firms opening up shop away from Sand Hill Road, rents there are still eye-popping. (JLL regularly places it at the top of the brokerage’s annual “most expensive streets in America” list.)

Dream Spaces: Home Offices You’d Be Delighted to Work In - Warm lighting, comfortable furnishings and pleasing views can make you want to head into your home office each day. Some of my favorites: