EMERGENCY ALERTS Have you signed up yet for Alameda County emergency alerts? The system is called AC Alert, and it’s very easy to sign up to receive notifications from city and county agencies in the case of an emergency. Just go to [...]
The local real estate market looked like it was slowing towards the end of last year, but it sure has bounced back this spring! I talked in the last newsletter about the common perception that big IPOs were going to create wealth [...]
In the Berkeley hills this past quarter, there were 73 active listings, which is pretty typical for the spring season. Between March and the end of May, 45 properties sold, on average after 18 days on the market. The median sale price [...]
How have the massive fires in recent years affected homeowner’s insurance locally? I spoke with Ruth Stroup with Farmers Insurance, who is always a great source of information about the insurance world, and asked her what changes she’s seen as a result [...]
Update (January 2026): After many wonderful years with The Grubb Company, I decided to join District Homes, a locally owned Berkeley brokerage whose geographic focus and approach to working with clients are a particularly good fit for my business. I’VE MOVED! After [...]
The real estate market is constantly in transition -- seasonally, through market cycles, in response to changes in changes in employment and interest rates, and in response to changes in preferences. Over the last handful of years, the North Berkeley market has [...]
Towards the end of last year, all the talk was about the real estate market softening, with buyers being more cautious, and a greater supply of listings for sale. Lately, though, the talk is more about big upcoming tech IPOs, and the [...]
We already know that UC Berkeley is one of the top universities in the world, but I still love to see it getting the recognition it deserves. In the latest rankings of graduate programs by US News & World Report, there were [...]
Many times over the years, when counseling new buyer clients, I have pointed out that the majority of the homes in Berkeley are older, built in the early part of the 1900s. I know this anecdotally, and from looking at so many [...]
There have been some real changes in the broader real estate market (in the Bay Area, statewide and nationally) since the beginning of 2018. With interest rates rising, and more limitations on the deductibility of property taxes and interest on home loans, [...]
