THE BUZZ

March is the month where real estate activity traditionally springs forward. The National Association of Realtors® forecasts that the housing market will start to move up in the second half of this year. Chief NAR Economist Lawrence Yun reports that sales have held steady at 5 million (plus or minus 100,000) since September of last year.

Still, the old cliché holds true–it’s all about location, location, location. For example, NBC 11 news recently reported on Brentwood, a Northern California East Bay town that has all the makings of a community in real estate free fall. Thousands of new homes have been built over the past few years, creating a situation where there are more homes for sale than there are interested buyers. It is a classic scenario for falling prices. A home bought 2 years ago for $1.1 million in Brentwood was re-listed for $795,000.

In contrast, real estate just 50 miles to the west of Brentwood is a different story. Inventory is low, jobs are plentiful and the result is multiple offers and new price heights. For example, a Sunnyvale home listed in February for $1.1M actually sold at $1.3M, and a Woodside property listed at the same time for $4.7M had 5 offers and sold for $6.6M.

So is real estate springing forward? The real estate service ShowingTime reports that January 2008 showing requests jumped 40% compared to January 2007, a terrific start to the year. In addition, the increase in showings from December 2007 to January 2008 was the biggest month-to-month increase recorded since ShowingTime began tracking this metric in 2001. 

JUST ASK
Q: Are your paying too much in property taxes?

A: Maybe. It is important to see if your property has been wrongly assessed. Property-tax increases largely are based on rising home values, not the increase of taxes by local governments. Some jurisdictions use a home’s actual market value, while others use a percentage of a property’s worth.

As home values increase, so do their assessed values. What happens if values decrease? The National Taxpayers Union estimates that as much as 60% of taxable property in the United States is over-assessed. But only half of homeowners protest their assessments. This means many may be paying more in property taxes than necessary. Your accountant may have more insight into this. It’s worth a little research to make sure you’re not overpaying Uncle Sam.

The Sterley Team – Pacific Union Real Estate
Jeff Sterley
189 Sir Francis Drake Boulvard, Greenbrae, CA 94904
415-464-3760
sterleymgr@macunion.com

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