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Make mine PB&J, hold the jelly. - 03/29/11 01:38 AM
Did you know that at the beginning of the 20th century only 4% to 7% of people in their sixties had at least one parent still living? Today, nearly 50% do. And, as recently as 1990, only 25% of young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 lived with their parents. By 2000, the number had grown to 52%-and it's still rising.
There seems to be a newly emerging generation that did not exist in the past dubbed the "sandwich generation;" a term coined to describe 60-somethings who are trying to prepare for their own retirement while simultaneously caring for aging parents and adult … (3 comments)
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Get Green for Going Green - 03/24/11 08:09 PM
I've written before about programs to help fund or repay the costs of making home energy efficiency improvements (Do you think we should replace the windows? and New Loan Program for Home Energy Improvements) and now there is another California program recently announced.
A coalition of energy players, including the California Energy Commission, local governments, utilities and the California Public Utilities Commission, have developed a $300 million program called "Energy Upgrade California." Rebates up to $4,000 could be available to San Jose and Santa Clara County homeowners who make significant energy-efficiency improvements to their homes.
If you are thinking of making energy improvements … (1 comments)
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Must see videos for homebuyers - 03/22/11 11:43 AM
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has produced an excellent three-part video series targeting home buyers, especially first-time buyers, covering the basics of shopping for a home, shopping for a loan and what's involved in closing a deal.
These videos are excellent. They are very well done and the level of information and explanation is just right. The explanation of the Good Faith Estimate (GFE) in the Shopping for a Loan video is well worth watching more than once. Understand this complicated form and you'll truly be ready to compare loan packages. Likewise, Closing the Deal contains an excellent explanation of the HUD-1 form … (1 comments)
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“Strategic defaults” aren’t. - 03/18/11 11:04 AM
In a recent study, the Chicago Booth/Kellogg School Financial Trust Index found that a full 36% of Americans would consider "strategic default"-another term for walking away from your mortgage-if they were underwater (owed more on their home than what it was worth).
Now that more than one in four American homeowners is "underwater," I feel that it's important for the community to know the truth about strategic default.
The truth is the foreclosure process carries with it credit issues, current and future employment challenges, issues with security clearance and possible debt collections.
That's why it is vital to explain the three … (0 comments)
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Get the Worm! - 03/14/11 12:04 PM
"There might finally be some good news this year about the nation's dismal housing market. Or, at least, the bad news could stop."
That's the opening sentence of a recent Wall Street Journal article titled Why 2011 May Be the End of the Housing Crash arguing that the housing crash could be at its end this year. Top two reasons the author gives: 1) housing is the most affordable it has been in decades and 2) investors are betting on a rebound and buying up properties.
I won't go into all the details of the article here as you can read it for yourself. The … (0 comments)
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San Jose & Santa Clara County Real Estate Market Trends Report – Mar 2011 - 03/12/11 01:06 AM
The March 2011 edition of my Santa Clara County Real Estate Market Trends Report covering San Jose and surrounding communities is now available. This report covers the state of the real estate market in February 2011, and is a wealth of practical and statistical information about the current state of the real estate market in Santa Clara county. Key headlines from this month's report:
Home sales up second month in a row. Median price for homes down 3.6% year-over-year. Foreclosure stats are a mixed bag. The report is available to download from http://www.box.net/shared/hdsfvvu5vg.
Feel free to pass the report along to anyone you think may … (0 comments)
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The happiest U.S. city to work in is... - 03/07/11 02:19 PM
San Jose! That's right. A study by Forbes magazine and CareerBliss.com (an online career web site), gave San Jose top billing as the happiest city to work in within the United States. San Francisco was right behind in second place. Principle reasons given in the study are that both cities have technology-focused economies and are regions where employees are more than satisfied with their compensation, benefits packages and work-life balance.
Do you agree? Disagree? Click here to read the full article on Forbes.com.
… (0 comments)
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Got Loan? - 03/02/11 11:01 AM
Have you talked with a lender? That's one of the first questions I ask homebuyers looking around in San Jose and Santa Clara County, and it's probably the most important. Are you preapproved for a loan? Do you know where the money for your down payment is coming from? These all fall under one over-arching question: do you know what you can afford?
The first step for any home buyer is to know what you can buy even before you start looking around at what is available. There's no sense dreaming about homes you can't buy and equally no reason to … (1 comments)
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Jeff Spoelstra
San Jose,
CA
More about me…
Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate
Address: 5985 Almaden Expressway, San Jose, CA, 95120
Office Phone: (408) 256-4330
Cell Phone: (408) 838-5820
Email Me
Working the real estate world in San Jose, California.
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