FRIDAY - TIME TO GO WILDFLOWER PICKING
- California Pending Sales Increase in March
- Sellers Still Rule in Bay Area; Gaining Power in Denver, Seattle, Dallas-Fort Worth
- Farming And Tech: Two Sides Of California Converging To Bring More To The Table
- New-Home Prices Are on Fire
- The Geography of Well-Being
- If You Want to Buy a Home, Here’s What You Need to Do Now
- 13 Extra-Cool Things to Do With a Backyard
Enjoy!
California Pending Sales Increase in March - California pending home sales jumped in March to record three straight month-to-month and year-to-year sales increases, portending a solid upcoming spring homebuying season, according to C.A.R. Pending home sales in the San Francisco Bay Area, Southern California, and Central Valley regions also posted back-to-back, double-digit monthly gains compared to February.
Sellers Still Rule in Bay Area; Gaining Power in Denver, Seattle, Dallas-Fort Worth - In Zillow's analysis, a sellers' market is not necessarily one where home values are rising, but one where homes sell quickly at prices very close to (or greater than) their listing price. In buyers' markets, homes are on the market longer, price cuts occur more frequently and sell for less than their asking price.
Farming And Tech: Two Sides Of California Converging To Bring More To The Table - Sometime this week, our co-host on the event, Silicon Valley Global Partners, will officially unveil a new partnership with the Western Growers Association, a 90-year-old trade group that represents more than 2,500 of the largest fresh food farmers in California and Arizona. The goal? To bring together the innovation and technological prowess of the Bay Area with the expertise and experience of California’s farmers in the hopes of creating breakthroughs that can help feed an ever-hungrier planet.
New-Home Prices Are on Fire - New homes generally command a 10% to 20% premium over existing houses because new construction tends to be of higher quality and have more up-to-date amenities, the TD economists said. But by 2014, the price gap between new and existing houses had widened to 40%.
The Geography of Well-Being - The report shows how America’s yawning inequality extends beyond just money to wide discrepancies in health, knowledge and education, too. As Stanford economist Rebecca Diamond has suggested [PDF], inequality of well-being compounds earnings inequality. Her research finds that more well-off and high-skilled Americans accrue additional benefits from living in neighborhoods with better schools, less crime and enhanced public services. Meanwhile, the less skilled and moneyed Americans are shunted off to communities with low quality schools and services. America’s economic divide registers not just in what we can afford to buy, but in the education we have the opportunity to attain and, most basically, in how much time we have to live.
If You Want to Buy a Home, Here’s What You Need to Do Now - If you’ve been sitting on the sidelines, this may be the time to act—or at least to do some serious number crunching as the housing market continues to improve. While inventory is low in many markets, it is expected to loosen up, with 1.9 million units on the market this year—far below the flooded supply of 4 million we saw in 2008. The number of homes that were “flipped” (bought for a quick-sale investment) has dropped for the second year in a row, while the foreclosure rate is less than half what it was two years ago. Those are healthy signs for everyone.
13 Extra-Cool Things to Do With a Backyard - Sure, you could just plop down on a blanket. Or you could create a dragon’s lair, a mosaic gallery, a party in a jungle ... Some of my favorites:
13 Extra-Cool Things to Do With a Backyard - Sure, you could just plop down on a blanket. Or you could create a dragon’s lair, a mosaic gallery, a party in a jungle ... Some of my favorites:
