Jeff's Blog

You may have noticed that print ads in newspapers such as the Sacramento Bee and hard-copy magazines have virtually dried up over the past 2 or 3 years.  A recent National Association of Realtors report states that nearly 90% of all home research is now done online.  This applies to both rental h...

Yesterday, Zillow announced a True Cost tool tauted to allow borrowers to make an apples-to-apples comparison of custom quotes.  Mary Miller - director of product management writes: What is True Cost?True Cost is the sum total borrowers will pay in interest and fees during the expected time they ...

Hi Neighbors, Today, the Sacramento Bee has an excellent article about both the benefits of purchasing a home as an investment as well as the emotional and personal side of going through a foreclosure.  All from the point of view of Sherie Coelho who has done both in the past decade. As an invest...

National news has been reporting 3 months of increasing home prices in the US.  The same can be said for Northern California.  For example, the Modesto Bee reported that the median home price in Stanislaus County has risen $4,000 to $139,000 over the past 2 months. Craig Lewis, president of Prude...

Nick Timiraos of the Wall Street Journal recently wrote about the possible positive signs in the California Real Estate market: ZipRealty reported a 56% decrease in San Bernadino county to a level last seen in 10/05.  San Francisco area dropped to 20,000 listing which was last seen in 2006.  Simi...

 This article appeared on MSNBC.  Especially in the past year, in the Sacramento - Roseville area, home prices have dropped to the most affordable level in decades.  There are lots of homes in the area that allow for renters to move into their home for about the same or even less than they are pa...

Hi Neighbors, New federal rules require that consumers receive initial disclosures of the estimated mortgage costs within 3 business days of a loan application.  Lenders cannot collect any fees prior to the consumer receiving loan-cost disclosures.  This includes fees for appraisal, credit, and o...

Hi Neighbors, I wanted to remind those folks using the link page on my website to look up the mello-roos and special levy taxes for Placer County that this information will not be loaded onto the county website until September.  In the meantime, you can call the tax office to get that information...

 Another helpful tool from the folks at Google as reported at the Media Daily Online. Google says it has improved its search capabilities for real estate shoppers.Its new landing page allows buyers to link directly to property and rental listings using general screens like "homes with pools in Wi...

As always at Neighborly, we keep an ear and eye out for changes and updates to help us live green and have a more sustainable environment.  H.R. 2454 recently passed and the California Association of Realtors reported a summary of the bill that has important information for home owners retrofitti...