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los altos real estate: Home is Destroyed in Los Altos, California - 03/04/09 02:48 PM
The economy is soft and money is tight yet there continues to be a lot of construction occurring in Los Altos and it's surrounding communities. On my street alone, there are five homes under construction. Check out the short video below and see the demolition of one of my neighbor's home.
It probably took a year to build, was lived in for over a half century, yet took just 75 minutes to tear down. If you enjoy watching a large excavator smash into a wooden framed house, you'll love the video.
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los altos real estate: Two reason's Investors are Purchasing Los Altos Real Estate. - 03/04/09 01:43 PM
Sue McAllister had an interesting article in the San Jose Mercury News. The topic of the article focused on who is buying homes in our declining real estate market. Her conclusion; first time home buyers and investors made up the majority of today's home buyers.
Below is an example detailing one investor's reasoning for purchasing a single family home in Los Altos as an investment.
I represented the seller of a property in south Los Altos that closed escrow in December 2008. The buyer completed a 1031 exchange, selling two properties in southern California and "trading up" and purchasing a single family home as an investment property in Los … (0 comments)
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los altos real estate: Great Value In This South Los Altos Home! - 11/24/08 09:10 PM
I just received a price reduction for my listing at 1701 Penny Way in Los Altos.
For those of you who may have missed it, it's a 4 bedroom 3 full bath home located on the Cupertino School District side of Fremont Avenue in South Los Altos. At almost 2100 sf and on a lot of slightly over 9500 sf, it's a great value at $1,428,000.
The home was remodeled and expanded approximately 20 years ago and features a fabulous living room with vaulted ceiling and bay window. The kitchen is spacious with an abundance of counter space and storage. Each of the bedrooms … (0 comments)
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los altos real estate: Grant Park, A South Los Altos Gem! - 11/24/08 09:06 PM
Located at the old Grant Elementary school site at 1575 Holt Avenue, the Grant Park Center offers south Los Altos residents excellent recreation facilities. There is a large natural grass soccer field, three outdoor basketball hoops, a playground area with two age appropriate play structures, toddler water play area, individual barbecues and picnic area. Most importantly, there are public restrooms.
In the summer, there are outdoor concerts where locals come with folding chairs and food to enjoy the music. There are also meeting/classrooms and a large multipurpose room with stage available for rent. Dogs are allowed on leash. Note: I've been there … (0 comments)
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los altos real estate: Is Real Estate Selling in Los Altos? - 11/17/08 12:44 PM
Are homes selling in Los Altos or has the economy tank our local market? If you look below, homes are still selling, but not quite as briskly as in prior years. You will also see that prices haven't tanked as well. However, single family home sales in Los Altos continue to trend down. Below is a year over year look at the last three months of sales for single family homes in Los Altos.
2006 2007 2008
August 39 28 26
September 33 15 21
October 26 21 18
Totals 98 64 65
Below is the most recent 90 day history of the … (0 comments)
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los altos real estate: Los Altos Real Estate, What A Difference A Year Makes! - 11/17/08 12:41 PM
Image via Wikipedia
I recently had a discussion with another realtor about the state of the Los Altos real estate market. We both felt that it is somewhat easy to tract the number of home sales. However, we also both felt that due to the lower volume, the effect on sales price trends was not as easy to tract. Because sales volume is drastically down, each individual sale has a greater affect on the MLS statistical trend data.
In order to get a better understanding of Los Altos price trends, I ran a little experiment. Note: I realize that this may not be statistically sound, but … (0 comments)
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los altos real estate: Today's Los Altos Real Estate Tour, A Retrospective - 10/20/08 07:55 PM
Today's Los Altos/Los Altos Hills Real Estate tour consisted of 14 single family homes priced from $1,290,000 to $5,195,000. Eleven of these homes are new listings and 3 are properties being re-toured. Below are some of my thoughts on today's tour.
Highlights
1142 Lisa Lane - Listed by Brandon Schaeffer of Coldwell Banker. This is an original 3 bedroom 2 bath home on a large lot. The hardwood floors are quite nice and the spacious yard make this a home to buy and, within a few years, do a major expansion. The list price is $1,290,000.
932 Parma Way - Listed by Marc … (0 comments)
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los altos real estate: Los Altos Real Estate, Home To Two Of America's Most Expensive Zip Codes - 10/20/08 07:50 PM
Image via CrunchBase
According to a recent article by Matt Woolsey of Forbes.com, Los Altos real estate is home to two of the most expensive zip codes in the nation, 94024 and 94022. The zip code 94024, which covers much of the southern portion of Los altos and Los Altos hills, was ranked 30th with a median price of 1.57 million dollars. The zip code 94022, which covers much of the northern part of Los altos and Los altos hills, was ranked 45th with a median sales price of 1.5 million dollars.
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los altos real estate: Los Altos Real Estate Statistics, What Do The Third Quarter Sales Numbers Tell Us? - 10/20/08 07:47 PM
The Multiple Listing Service is our most efficient means to sell a home and the most reliable source of local market information. The following information was taken from our local MLS and is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
According to our local MLS provider (ProMLSlistings.com), there currently are 98 single family homes for sale in Los Altos. Of these, 23 are under contract. That leaves us with 75 homes that are actively being marketed for sale on the MLS.
Above is the July through September (3rd Quarter) sales statistics for Los Altos single family homes since 2004. As one can see, over the … (0 comments)
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los altos real estate: Are Los Altos Real Estate Agents Still Using Old School Marketing Techniques? - 09/10/08 07:01 PM
Promotional flyers have been used by agents in marketing homes in Los Altos and the surrounding cities for many years. With technology getting better and more sophisticated, one would think that the number of agents who use promotional flyers targeted at real estate agents as part of their marketing efforts would be zero (or close to that).
Promotional flyers are just that, 8 1/2 by 11 inch flyers that describe a property and it's amenities. They are targeted towards the real estate agent and are similar to the flyer that is handed out at open houses.
About 15 years ago, when the MLS … (1 comments)
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los altos real estate: How To Reduce Your Title Insurance Costs When You Purchase A Home In Los Altos? - 08/27/08 08:25 PM
When I began selling homes in Los Altos 15 years ago, a consumer's knowledge of the Title Insurance product was relatively low. Today, that level of knowledge isn't much better. What I have found is that the consumer assumes that the cost of title insurance is somehow fixed and rather than investigate, they take the recommendation of their agent.
Taking the recommendation of your agent is not a bad thing. In fact, the consumer should rely on their agent. After-all, that is (in part) why Seller's hire a real estate professional in the first place (because we have experience and knowledge related to buying and selling … (0 comments)
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los altos real estate: Los Altos Real Estate Statistics, What Do The First Half Sales Numbers Tell Us? - 08/27/08 05:15 PM
The Multiple Listing Service is our most efficient means to sell a home and the most reliable source of local market information. The following information was take from our local MLS and is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
According to our local MLS provider (ProMLSlistings.com), there currently are 94 single family homes for sale in Los Altos. Of these, 30 are under contract. That leaves us with 60 homes that are actively being market for sale on the MLS.
Above is the January through July semi-annual sales statistics for single family homes since 2005. As one can see, over the last four … (0 comments)
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los altos real estate: Los Altos Is Going To The Dogs! - 08/25/08 07:10 PM
Los Altos has always been a very pet friendly city. The annual Los Altos Pet Parade draws thousands of residents and non-residents alike to watch the many animals (and their owners) that live in and around our town. I enjoy walking our dog to downtown in order to visit my office, get a cup of coffee from Peets or to pick up dinner. For those of you visiting downtown with your dog, below is a map of some of the watering holes provided by our local merchants. Enjoy and remember to always pick up after your dog.
Can you figure out the location of … (2 comments)
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los altos real estate: Selling Los Altos Real Estate With Photosynth - 08/22/08 04:31 PM
Back in the late 90's, I thought it was cool to be one of the few Los Altos Realtors to use software that "stitched" photos together to create "virtual tours" of my real estate listings. Flash forward to today and I now can use Photosynth.
Photosynth creates a futuristic 3-d experience with user submitted photos. Could this service replace real estate virtual tours and/or ad pizzaz to listings that only use still photos? Take a look and judge for yourself.
According to it's website, Photosynth allows users to:
"Imagine being able to share the places and things you love using the cinematic quality of a movie, the control of … (1 comments)
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los altos real estate: The First Day Of School For Los Altos Elementary School Children - 08/22/08 04:27 PM
Today was the first day of school for children in the Los Altos Elementary School District. Last night my children seem extra amped in anticipation for today's festivities. Who will their classmate be? Will they like their teacher? Will there be any changes in their classrooms? Will their mom (or in this case, dad) take those embarrassing pictures in front of the school (and their friends)?
The first day of school in our household revolves around making it a great day. We ready their backpacks the night before and then its off bed early. In the morning they are met with a great breakfast - hot … (0 comments)
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los altos real estate: Marcia, Marcia, Marcia, Why Do Real Estate Agents “Buy” Listings? - 08/14/08 08:06 PM
There is a less than admorable side to the practice of real estate that involves agents "buying" listings. Buying a listing is when a real estate agent artificially overvalues a seller's home in an effort to convince the seller to list the home with him/her. The scenario usually goes as follow. Seller contacts three agents to interview about selling the home. The agents provide the seller with a comparative marketing analysis (CMA) of the home detailing current listings, homes that are under contract and homes that have recently sold that are similar to the home in question. Usually the information is taken from the local multiple Listing Service (MLS) and possibly county records. The seller … (4 comments)
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los altos real estate: Has The Circus Come To The Rancho Shopping Center In Los Altos? - 04/24/08 01:31 PM
Although is looks like it, the circus has not come to the Rancho Shopping Center in Los Altos. Rather, the shopping center is being fumigated. In my 30+ years of living in Los Altos, I don't recall the shopping center being closed down completely for any reason. Enjoy the photos of Los Altos' largest tent!
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los altos real estate: Does Los Altos Real Estate Have A Seasonal Pattern? - 01/05/08 05:08 PM
I just read an interesting article by Arn Cenedella, another Coldwell Banker agent located in our Menlo Park office, about inventory patterns in Menlo Park. I thought I would check if there was a similar inventory pattern in Los Altos.
If one takes a look at the graph below, Los Altos Real estate certainly has a seasonal pattern.
Inventory in January is very low. The homes that are available for sale tend to be the "leftovers" that didn't sell during the previous fall. They are either over priced, poorly located, marketed improperly and/or a combination of all three. Inventory will gradually increase over the next several months with spikes in April/May and again … (0 comments)
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los altos real estate: High Voltage Transmission Lines, Electric and Magnetic Fields (EMF’s) And How They Effect Real Estate Prices - 01/05/08 05:06 PM
Over the years I have had the pleasure of selling homes in what many buyers have described as unfavorable locations. Homes that front or back up to busy roads (typically highways 85 or 280), homes that back up to train tracks (along the Cupertino foothills and Central Expressway) and homes that are near high voltage transmission lines. One of the more difficult locations has been homes that run along Highway 85 between El Camino Real in Mountain View and Highway 280 near the Los Altos/Sunnyvale border. The problem hasn't been the Highway noise (although that doesn't help), its been the high voltage transmission lines that run … (3 comments)
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los altos real estate: Megan’s Law Disclosure, Now What? - 12/31/07 01:19 PM
In the news of late there have been prominant news stories featuring Curtis Dean Anderson, who recently died in a Bakersfield hospital and Michael Dodele, who was recently killed in Lakeport, CA by a neighbor. What do these two men have in common? Besides their current health status, they both are registered sex offenders and presumably on California's Megan's Law website. I indicate "presumably" on the Megan's Law website. Like most Realtors, I have been advised not to enter into the sex offender portion of the California's Megan's Law website. Should I access the sex offender locator part of the site, I could be held legally liable in a real … (1 comments)
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David Blockhus, Los Altos Realtor and Silicon Valley Real Estate Pro
Los Altos,
CA
More about me…
Coldwell Banker - Downtown Los Altos Office
Address: 161 S. San Antonio Road, Los Altos, CA, 94022
Office Phone: (650) 917-4250
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