FRIDAY - JUST CALL IT ANOTHER DAY
- Ideas for Making the Most of Your Hallway
- Cash Sales Made Up 35 Percent of Total Home Sales in October 2014
- Best Cities to Rent, Not Buy, in the San Francisco Bay Area
- The New California Dream: To Stay Put
- Economists Differ on Impact of Falling Oil Prices on Housing
- Will 2015 be better for California’s housing market?
- Residential Development in California: New Density Bonus Law Makes New Affordable Housing Difficult to Build
- 11 Ways to Have More Fun at Home
Enjoy!
Cash Sales Made Up 35 Percent of Total Home Sales in October 2014 - Cash sales accounted for 35.5 percent of total home sales in October 2014, down from 38.7 percent in October 2013, according to CoreLogic. The year-over-year share has fallen each month since January 2013, makingOctober the 22nd consecutive month of declines. Month over month, the cash sales share ticked up by half of a percentage point, as is typical for the fall and winter months. Due to seasonality in the housing market, comparisons with the share of cash sales should be made on a year-over-year basis to ensure accuracy.
Best Cities to Rent, Not Buy, in the San Francisco Bay Area - After analyzing 65 Bay Area cities, NerdWallet discovered it’s not the East Bay, but places in Silicon Valley where renters will find more significant differences in costs between renting and buying. In our top three cities — Palo Alto, Cupertino and Los Gatos, which are all in Santa Clara County — the median home price is typically 28 times the annual rent for a home of the same size, based on the price-to-rent ratios at the real estate website Zillow.
The New California Dream: To Stay Put - That’s a very different dream than the old one. It’s about continuity, not rapid change; about attachment, not finding your own space; about California not as a place to which you can escape, but as place where you can belong. We Californians dream today of nothing less and little more than being able to stay here, so that we might keep dreaming in this wonderful and difficult state.
Economists Differ on Impact of Falling Oil Prices on Housing - In a big increase from 2014, economists are anticipating that home builders will start construction on as many as 804,000 new single-family homes this year. But will falling oil prices affect housing construction? Some economists predict there could be an indirect benefit to the housing market in the form of more consumer spending, which will create more job/income growth and by extension make it easier for people to buy homes. But there are concerns that there could be a slowdown to housing construction activity in oil-focused local economies, such as cities in Texas.
Will 2015 be better for California’s housing market? - While prices are still very high, 2015 may fare slightly better for potential buyers in California thanks to mortgage interest rates trending lower and loosening lending standards. The California housing market stayed in line with 2014 predictions and hopefully set the pace for a better 2015, according to PropertyRadar’s December Real Property Report. California’s real estate market continues to show steady improvement, as the number of homeowners in a negative equity position fell 1.1 percent to 987,000 in December, and the number of underwater borrowers shrank 28.5 percent for the year.
Residential Development in California: New Density Bonus Law Makes New Affordable Housing Difficult to Build - Governor Brown signed into law on September 27, 2014, AB2222, which amends the State's Density Bonus Law ("DBL"), Gov't Code §§ 65915, et seq. to establish significant constraints upon the use of the incentives provided by DBL in connection with certain real estate developments. The main purpose of AB2222 is to eliminate density bonuses and other incentives previously available unless the developer agrees to replace pre-existing affordable units on a one-for-one basis. The impact of the bill will be significant because it will remove the economic incentive to undertake density bonus projects where existing units are subject to rent control ordinances or similar restrictions.
11 Ways to Have More Fun at Home - Every house needs a touch of humor — a funny sign or an accessory that always makes you smile. Some of my faves:
