Your Real Estate Expert for Berkeley and Beyond
“Marilyn is exceptional. Her knowledge base, enthusiasm for her job, professional ethics, organization, sensitivity to our aesthetic requirements, loyalty and gentle perseverance set her apart.”
-- Bill and Carol Seidel
Marilyn Garcia, PhD Broker Associate, Realtor® CA DRE LICENSE #01355514
The Grubb Company 1656 Shattuck Avenue Berkeley, CA 94709
Direct: (510) 390-5406
Changes Afoot!
Changes Afoot! My 20-year anniversary in real estate has inspired me to look over my work systems and find ways to improve going forward. One area that I have re-vamped is the way I collect and analyze local market data. My goal has been to reformat my ongoing database to make it easier to create charts and graphs. I’m also going to start saving data for Berkeley as a whole, in addition to data for North Berkeley and the Berkeley hills. Another change: In the past, I have looked at real estate “seasons” that correspond with the level of activity [...]
Bulky Waste and an E-Waste Resource
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 the equivalent of about 20 large trash bags. Everything they pick up goes to the landfill, so be sure to separate out recyclables, green waste, and consider Urban Ore for items that can be re-used. Some things are not eligible for the bulky waste pick up. Included on the “not OK” list are things like hazardous waste items, [...]
Variations in Sold Price per Square Foot
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 for small homes. To illustrate this point, I grouped the detached homes sold in North Berkeley and the Berkeley hills* over the course of 2021 by size category, and found the average sold price per square foot for each category. The results are above. As you can see, the pattern holds as a general rule: the larger the [...]
Changes Afoot!
Changes Afoot!
My 20-year anniversary in real estate has inspired me to look over my work systems and find ways to improve going forward. One area that I have re-vamped is the way I collect and analyze local market data. My goal has been to reformat my ongoing database to make it easier to create charts and graphs. I’m also going to start saving data for Berkeley as a whole, in addition to data for North Berkeley and the Berkeley hills.
Another change: In the past, I have looked at real estate “seasons” that correspond with the level of activity we see in the local market. The winter season was defined as December through February, corresponding to the slowest time of the year in our market, and spring (March through May) corresponds with the busiest. Going forward, I am going to instead focus on quarters as traditionally defined. So instead of winter (December, January, February), I’ll track and discuss Quarter 1 (January, February, March), and so on. Since real estate transactions take weeks to close, roughly half the properties that go into escrow in one month close (and show up in the sale data) the following month. This means that switching to quarters won’t make a big difference conceptually, and there are benefits to using quarters in terms of chartmaking and recordkeeping.
Bulky Waste and an E-Waste Resource
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 the equivalent of about 20 large trash bags. Everything they pick up goes to the landfill, so be sure to separate out recyclables, green waste, and consider Urban Ore for items that can be re-used.
Some things are not eligible for the bulky waste pick up. Included on the “not OK” list are things like hazardous waste items, mattresses and large appliances, tires, auto parts, and items (other than sofas) that are more than 5’ long or 50 pounds in weight. They also do not take electronic waste, but there is a non-profit that does.
The Ewaste Collective, located at 620 Page Street, is a non-profit committed to household electronics and computer recycling (ewastecollective.org). They accept monitors, TVs, computers, keyboards, cell phones, tablets, wires & cables, microwaves and toasters, printers, scanners, fax machines, game consoles and games, and more. This is a great resource, not only because you can be confident that your electronic waste is being handled properly. They also refurbish computers and give them away to those in need. Your drop-off may be tax deductible, and they will wipe the memory of your computer for a $10 fee.
Variations in Sold Price per Square Foot
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 for small homes. To illustrate this point, I grouped the detached homes sold in North Berkeley and the Berkeley hills* over the course of 2021 by size category, and found the average sold price per square foot for each category. The results are above.
As you can see, the pattern holds as a general rule: the larger the home, the lower the sold price per square foot, everything else being equal. For specific properties though, everything else isn’t equal, and characteristics such as a large lot, architectural pedigree, views, etc., still push up the value in general, and in price per square foot.
Your Real Estate Expert for Berkeley and Beyond
“Marilyn is exceptional. Her knowledge base, enthusiasm for her job, professional ethics, organization, sensitivity to our aesthetic requirements, loyalty and gentle perseverance set her apart.”
-- Bill and Carol Seidel
Marilyn Garcia, PhD Broker Associate, Realtor® CA DRE LICENSE #01355514
The Grubb Company 1656 Shattuck Avenue Berkeley, CA 94709
Direct: (510) 390-5406