Vicki's Blog

Realtors And The Trickle-Down

Vicki Moore (Alain Pinel Realtors) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:35:48 -0600

When Realtors get paid, it's a trickle-down effect. There are over a hundred other professionals who also get paid: Pest inspectors, property inspectors, photographers, stagers, house cleaners, haulers, painters, window cleaners, title companies, disclosure companies, home owners associations, transaction coordinators, movers, sign companies, printers, landscapers, locksmiths - that's just off the top of my head.

So what's the reality of the market? The number of home sales is down - way down. Meaning there are a lot of families struggling out there. Title companies and real estate offices are closing multiple offices at a time - and no doubt that the other companies that service the industry are too.

Here's the facts:

	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Atherton	95	75	76	96	108	103	102	80	63
Belmont	255	205	329	343	321	306	261	219	170
Brisbane	32	25	31	31	36	40	27	22	16
Burlingame	303	255	284	293	312	276	266	213	179
Colma	3	3	11	8	9	8	3	3	9
Daly City	387	337	420	552	558	493	501	334	438
East Palo Alto	125	116	127	149	214	195	155	83	165
El Granada	85	60	92	80	83	81	59	53	39
Foster City	220	148	182	220	197	190	144	117	100
Half Moon Bay	155	113	190	165	191	156	121	97	83
Hillsborough	181	141	136	142	169	152	123	127	94
La Honda	20	12	16	18	27	19	15	10	11
Loma Mar	4	1	2	2	2	2	2	4	1
Menlo Park	400	368	464	503	504	455	377	410	300
Millbrae	158	129	194	191	182	186	139	131	114
Montara	35	29	54	52	49	34	25	42	18
Moss Beach	43	35	35	41	33	26	19	20	18
Pacifica	375	325	365	423	377	317	281	193	175
Pescadero	14	8	10	9	15	9	12	8	4
Portola Valley	91	56	63	74	87	91	59	73	53
Redwood City	741	581	716	764	781	718	575	507	491
Redwood Shores	114	73	126	117	124	123	86	88	69
San Bruno	309	256	330	374	320	347	274	163	228
San Carlos	392	340	394	430	419	357	296	296	258
San Gregorio	5		3		2	3		0	1
San Mateo	705	675	811	893	897	766	707	581	473
So San Francisco	348	325	418	417	464	397	342	220	258
Woodside	120	61	86	89	108	97	60	78	48
Summary	5715	4752	5965	6476	6589	5947	5031	4172	3876

Pacifica is a familiar market to me. I grew up there and worked only that market until a few years ago when it became apparent that I needed to broaden my coverage area. Although the number of sales only declined 9% between 2007 and 2008, the dramatic difference is looking at the height - 2003 with 423 houses sold - and then looking at 2008. That's a whopping 59% decline.

San Mateo is a similar picture: 19% decline between 2007 and 2008. 47% decline from the height of 897 houses sold in 2004 compared to the 473 in 2008.

As I've shown in several past statistical reports, Daly City is boucing back. The deal-seekers have hit it hard - sales dropped to a low of 334 in 2007 to 438 in 2008; only 22% off from its 2004 high of 558.

Save Yourself

Vicki Moore (Alain Pinel Realtors) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:31:23 -0600

Suze Orman wants you to save. And she’s making an offer you can’t refuse.

Open a new (non-retirement) Save Yourself account at TD AMERITRADE and make 12 consecutive monthly deposits of $100 or more, and TD AMERITRADE will give you $100*!

Suze's Save Yourself Plan

Vicki Moore (Alain Pinel Realtors) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:44:44 -0600

Suze Orman wants you to save. And she’s making an offer you can’t refuse.

Open a new (non-retirement) Save Yourself account at TD AMERITRADE and make 12 consecutive monthly deposits of $100 or more, and TD AMERITRADE will give you $100*!

San Mateo Real Estate Week In Review 12/6 to 12/12/08

Vicki Moore (Alain Pinel Realtors) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 15:06:05 -0600

This week had a better showing for a lot of cities as compared to last week. Cities like Brisbane, Burlingame, Hillsborough, and San Mateo sold more houses than were listed. Daly City, El Granada, Half Moon Bay, Pacifica, Redwood City and Redwood Shores all kept up with the new listings by selling just as many.

Most homes sold for under the asking price; but Menlo Park had a surprising showing of selling 5 of its 6 listings for over the asking price.

For the third week in a row Belmont, Burlingame, Daly City, El Granada, Half Moon Bay, Hillsborough, Menlo Park, Millbrae, Montara, Moss Beach, Redwood City, San Bruno, San Carlos, and San Mateo all saw a decline in the number of homes available for sale.

	Available	Listed	Into Contract	At List	Above List	Below List
Atherton	23	0	0	0	0	1
Belmont	42	3	2	2	0	2
Brisbane	8	0	1	0	0	0
Burlingame	42	2	4			3
Daly City	159	9	9	2	0	6
El Granada	15	1	1	0	0	0
Foster City	27	4	2	0	0	3
Half Moon Bay	60	1	1	0	0	0
Hillsborough	50	1	2	0	0	1
Menlo Park	98	5	4	0	5	1
Millbrae	35	2	1	0	0	2
Montara	21	0	0	0	0	0
Moss Beach	13	0	0	0	0	0
Pacifica	75	5	5	0	0	1
Portola Valley	26	0	1	0	0	1
Redwood City	167	9	9	1	1	5
Redwood Shores	12	1	1	0	0	0
San Bruno	60	6	5	1	0	0
San Carlos	62	6	2	0	0	4
San Mateo	133	8	11	1	1	3
South San Francisco	119	10	5	0	2	2
Woodside	40	0	0	0	0	0

Got a San Mateo County real estate question? Call me at 650.888.9268 or send me an email Vicki [at] CallVicki.com. If you like what you've read, subscribe to the San Mateo Real Estate Blog feed.

Start your San Mateo home search here.

NAR Gets Trumped On Google

Vicki Moore (Alain Pinel Realtors) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:51:53 -0500

Outranked
I want to read the news that the housing median has dropped 7.6% from the horse's mouth. The easiest way - I assume - is to Google the headline. But the story is so big that NAR isn't even on the first page with their own story.

So I go over to NAR. They must not think it's that important. It's not on their first page either. I'm just sayin'.