HOW TO CHOOSE LED BULBS I spend a lot of time looking at light fixtures and choosing bulbs, because replacing light fixtures is one of the most cost-effective ways to create an updated look in a home for sale. Choosing LED bulbs [...]
I find this sort of amazing given what’s been going on in the world this year, but our real estate market has continued to do remarkably well through the fall season. The combination of super low interest rates and the desire to [...]
LOW RATES AND HIGHER CONFORMING LOAN LIMITS Interest rates are low, low, low right now! As I write this, the 30-year fixed rate is lower than it’s been since Freddie Mac began tracking mortgage rates in 1971. While it’s not surprising that [...]
How are property tax assessment transfer rules changing due to Proposition 19? If you are one of the many people in California who at some point considered moving but decided not to because your property taxes would increase sharply, you could be [...]
Between the pandemic, the wildfires, and the blanket of smoke we’ve had to live with lately, one would think that the local real estate market would have gone into hibernation, but this has not been the case. The pandemic has caused many [...]
Why (and how) do so many local sellers spend so much money getting their homes ready for sale? Sellers in our area routinely spend tens of thousands of dollars on work and staging in preparation for putting their home on the market. [...]
ARE YOU UNDER-INSURED? The huge wildfires this year are a reminder that we should all periodically evaluate our insurance coverage, and make sure that we could rebuild if we ever needed to. Most insurance policies auto-renew each year, and the coverage may [...]
I’m going to shift focus somewhat for this issue of The Outlook. We’re living in a time right now when many of our usual concerns seem trivial. Compared to the importance of the growing calls for an end to systematic racism and [...]
Let’s start with a look back over the previous year in North Berkeley real estate, and then take a quick look forward. Over the course of 2019, there were 89 active listings in North Berkeley, and 81 properties sold. Both of these [...]
In Berkeley hills, there were 195 active listings over the course of 2019, and 161 properties sold. 81% of the sales were for more than list price, with multiple buyers interested in most properties, and sale price averaged 20% above list price [...]
