The real estate market over the summer was noticeably more subdued than in the first half of the year. Buyers were in an absolute frenzy in the spring, anxious to get into the market before interest rates increased, and as a result, [...]
It does not feel like it has been this long, but this October marks twenty years that I have been a full-time realtor in Berkeley. I started in real estate with my salesperson’s license in October 2002, and then completed the additional [...]
How has the negotiating environment changed as the market has shifted? When the real estate market is at its strongest, there is not a vast amount of negotiation between buyers and sellers. Buyers make strong offers in competition, often waiving the inspection [...]
There has been a lot going on in the real estate market since my last newsletter, when I wrote that competition between buyers was looking especially intense. The prospect of increasing interest rates always motivates buyers to find something before rates go [...]
How much difference do higher interest rates make for home sales in our area? Over the spring, the Federal Reserve announced a plan for multiple interest rate hikes this year to try to get inflation under control, and we’ve seen three rate [...]
Did you know that, as a Berkeley homeowner, you can schedule one free bulky waste pick-up per calendar year? Just call (510) 981-7270 to schedule for an upcoming Wednesday. They’ll pick up a maximum of 3 cubic yards, which they say is [...]
It’s time as usual to look at the previous year’s results for our local real estate market, and also talk about the results for the winter season just ended. 2021 started off with a bang. A big upswing in buyer interest led [...]
If you are a regular reader of this newsletter, you have many times encountered the notion that, everything else being equal, the amount a property sells for per square foot of living space tends to be lower for large homes, and higher [...]
Why are most sellers in our area no longer accepting “love letters” from buyers? In our market, where buying a home is a super-competitive process, it used to be the case that buyers would include a “love letter” with their offer in [...]
I mentioned in the last newsletter that the market seemed to be cooling off a bit from the spring frenzy, and that was true through most of the fall season. That has changed recently (the market has been crazy hot again in [...]
