Arn Cenedella

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Has Silicon Valley Lost its Mojo? What do you think?

The local real estate market is closely tied to the health and vitality of Silicon Valley.

Are Silicon Valley’s best days behind her?

Check this Business Week Video out and share your thoughts.

Menlo Park Real Estate 2007 v 2008

How does the current 2008 real estate market in Menlo Park compare to the market in 2007?

Below you will find median prices for both single family homes and condominiums/townhouses in Menlo Park for the both 2 years.

The median price for both single family homes in Menlo Park decreased during the 2nd half of 2007 and has fluctuated dramatically during 2008 finishing higher at present than at the start of the year.

The median price for condominium/townhouse in Menlo Park increased during the 2nd hlaf of the 2007 and flucuated dramatically during 2008 and is finishing at about the same level as the year started.

Los Altos Market Data

Dave Blockhous of Coldwell Banker Los Altos recently did an analysis of the current Los Altos market. In this post, Dave compares market activity (number of sales and listings & average and median prices) over the first six months of the past couple of years. His analysis comes to much the same conclusions as my analysis of the San Carlos, Menlo Park, and Palo Alto markets did: The number of sales are down from years past but the average and median prices have remained stable or increased slightly.

If I am not selling real estate I may be golfing (part 2)

We see a similar trend in Palo Alto as we have in Menlo Park and San Carlos.

2008 sale numbers are below 2007 sale numbers.

The number of sales has increased through the first three months of the year.

What willthe rest of the year bring in Palo Alto?

Best of downtown Palo Alto tour

In my opinion, the best tour property today in downtown Palo Alto was 171 Cowper Street listed at $2,995,000. This property has just been put back on the market by Monica Corman of Alain Pinel.

This property contains 2 single family homes – a newly constructed rear house looks more like a San Francisco loft than a mid-peninsula residence (and I say that in a positive way) and an older original bungalow built in the 1920s.

As I have commented before, downtown Palo Alto is a fabulous location close to many fun restaurants and shops. There is always lots of action up and down University Avenue in the evenings.

Here is a picture of the main residence:

Here is a picture of the bungalow:

 

The top 10 ways Not to sell your house !

#10

Don’t allow a keysafe to be placed on your home.

#9

Require by appointment only showings and insist that you the seller be home when the showings occur.

#8

Failure to spend any time or money getting your property in excellent showing condition.

#7

Refuse to remove your family tree mural with photos tracing your family’s history back to the Civil War. Refuse to have your teenage son and daughter remove their Gothic S&M paraphenalia from their bedroom walls.

#6

Don’t allow a buyer to view your back yard because your pit bull doesn’t like woman real estate agents with too much make-up and high heels.

#5

Follow the buyers and the agents around the house and point out every insigificant thing you have done to “improve” the property – most of which in reality the prospective buyers hates anyway – better to not point that out.

#4

List the house with your second cousin Joe from Sacramento because he has agreed to take a 1% listing.

#3

List your property below what you actually want to sell the house for in hopes of multiple offers – when the multiple offers don’t come – you are up the creek without a paddle.

#2

Demand that your agent hold your home open every weekend and run 1/2 page ads too.

#1

Price the property too high – I know it only take one buyer – but any buyer with money is NOT STUPID and they are going to buy the best house they can for the money.

 REMEMBER MARKETING IS 95% PRICE !

Was that just an earthquake? Spooky!

That was a pretty big one!

Wonder what the Richter scale will say?

What will Halloween bring?