A new video was posted at the Mercury News website regarding a few volunteers trying to maintain our rose garden. Check it out here:
http://www.mercurynewsphoto.com/blog/2007/12/17/rose-garden/#more-2402
I ran the numbers for downtown San Jose (including the Rose Garden & Naglee Park neighborhoods) for February and found some interesting info.
Let’s start with inventory numbers. Inventory is up 82% in Downtown San Jose. Quite a big jump really. Sales were down 56% over this time last year. What does all this mean? Well, seasonally we see an increase of inventory build up starting in spring and peak during the summer months. But the sales numbers are interesting, they’ve been pretty flat the last three months (16 in Feb., 19 in Jan, & 15 in Dec.) we’ll have to watch the numbers next month to see if trends start to appear. From a buyer’s perspective there are a lot of houses to choose from, and seller’s are willing to negotiate. We’ve finally seen some decent homes priced in the $400,000 for the first time in a couple of years.
Interestingly sales prices keep ticking up. Traditionally we see a pretty clear bell curve for sales price, with the peak hitting during the summer months. But with this much inventory we’ll have to wait and see how that effects home prices. Especially since we only had 16 sales in February and numbers may have been effected by the big sale of $2,486,000 on Hanchett Ave. Also of note, we had 6 houses sell below $500,000.
Days on Market went up significantly this month over last year as well. It’s showing the upward trend that we’ve been watching the last few years. Though the numbers could have been effected by the 3 houses that sold in February with over 200 days on market.
questions? comments? want the full report? contact me at jamesf@remax.net
Last Monday and Tuesday I spent two days in Seattle attending the Buffini & Company Turning Point Retreat. The head of the company Brian Buffini is an amazing speaker and I walked away from the event not only pumped up about real estate but inspired in many aspects of my life.
Brian discussed how right now is one of the most exciting times to be a real estate professional. With the longer listing times, increased inventory on the market, and negative press, most people think Realtors are out holding signs that say “I’ll sell your house for food”. However, now more than ever, we provide a service that can amount to a huge win for our clients. The agents role in the process is more important than ever. Being more than an agent…a resource, a friend, and a “hub” of information will set a professional full time agent far above the rest.
One of the biggest “ah-ha” moments for me was on the discussion of finances. Maybe because we are going through our financial plan now, or because I was just ready to hear it but the idea of saving, planning for the future and investing for future sources of income really hit home with me. It got me started on a path to dig a little deeper and I’ve already started the reading. (more on that later)
The most enjoyable part of the weekend though was the mixer on the first evening were I got to meet some really great people from all around the Pacific Northwest. I really had a great time and can’t wait for the Master Mind event in San Diego in August.
