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More Love Before Saint Valentine?s Day
2007-02-11 22:39:01
Many thanks to more folks who've picked up articles from 1SiliconValley.com over the past week! - Lazy Man and Money shouts out 1SiliconValley.com from the Carnival of Wealth Accumulation.  His article on Cutting the Cable TV shows how to fill your addiction to television and still have money.  In other news, who knew there was an HDTV version of Slingbox! - Political Calculations has started a whirlwind tour of blog carnivals and highlights When Not to Buy a House in the Carnival of Improvement.  - Curly Tree at The Digerati Life calls out How to Lose Your House from her reading list.  A couple of articles from MSN reminded me of one of her quests: 10 Things You Should Never Buy Used and 10 Things You Shouldn't Buy New. - And Endless Gibberish posts the 12-Month Plan to Becoming a Real Estate Investor in the Festival of Under 30 Finances.
More About: Love , Valentine , More , Valenti , Vale

Santana Row: Silicon Valley?s Urban Oasis
2007-02-10 10:37:01
Santana Row has been described as a cutout of Paris' Champs Elysees transplanted to Silicon Valley .  Its main thoroughfare, which gives name to the neighborhood, is the backbone of this urban oasis, lined with luxury stores and a variety of restaurants.  And when the weekend comes, so do the luxury cars of every make and model.  Who needs a car show when you have Saturday nights at Santana Row? But Santana Row isn't just another shopping mall.  To recreate the urban experience, they've created a new neighborhood all unto itself. Atmosphere Santana Row is designed to have the bustle and energy of an urban neighborhood complete with people dining outside, playing chess with two-foot pieces in the plaza, and sipping wine or spirits while watching the shoppers go by. While there are major chain retailers like Best Buy and Crate and Barrel, among the list of stores on Santana Row, these behemoths are safely tucked away from where most shoppers would st...
More About: Icon , Urban , Santa , Oasis

Downtown Sunnyvale Revitalization Gets Desperately Needed Kickstart
2007-02-08 16:35:01
Revitalization of Sunnyvale 's downtown area has been an on again, off again, on again, but mostly off again scenario, and the centerpiece of downtown Sunnyvale, the Town Center mall, has been closed for quite a while with the exception of the Macy's and Target anchor stores. Sunnyvale has a suburban image, and while it's consistently one of the safest cities in America and has easy access to 101, 280, 85, and the San Jose Airport, a revitalization of its downtown area could do a lot to cement its place as a must-live destination in the Heart of Silicon Valley.  But they're going to have to blow up the Target to do it… New Developer, Better Chances  Finally, after years of delays by the Georgia-based Forum Development Group, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reports today, the project to revitalize downtown Sunnyvale has been sold to a new developer who has more political sway with the local council, San Mateo's Sand Hill Property. Their exper...
More About: Downtown , Vita , Start , Star

Goodbye Vallco, Hello Cupertino Square
2007-02-08 16:35:01
The 80's neon-and-hair relic Vallco Fashion Park in Cupertino lost its battle with Westfield's Valley Fair Mall long ago and was pushed further into complete obscurity by Santana Row.  It's hard to call Santana Row a shopping mall given its balance of city living and planned but not completely contrived urban experiences, but it was even harder to call Vallco competition against the shopping juggernaut that those two adjacent shopping "districts" formed not more than a few miles away. Vallco (like the mall, its website is under construction) is determined to be more than just the building that houses Todai, the obscenely large sushi buffet. Like the Downtown Sunnyvale revitalization, Cupertino's Vallco redevelopment has been discussed for quite a while.  Even in 2000, vacancy rates were a sky high 25% compared to Stanford Mall and Valley Fair (2-5%).  With the equivalent of a quarter of the mall always empty, the rest quickly languished. Th...
More About: Cupertino Square , Hell , Good , Goodbye

Check Out the Carnvials!
2007-02-08 04:34:01
When I wrote When Not to Buy a House, I never expected it to get the reception it did but it looks like its messages really resonated with a lot of folks who took it to heart and ran with it! I'd like to thank the many thousands who read or forwarded the article and mention a few of the folks who helped make it so successful: - The folks at makingourway have presented the first edition of the Carnival of Finances for people in their 30s and 40s and I'm grateful to have been chosen for their inaugural edition.  Their blog focuses on the important investment and family decisions which people in their 30s and 40s face. - The BloodhoundBlog hosts the Carnival of Real Estate this week and selected When Not to Buy a House as a "winner."  Fellow winner Kevin Boer at 3 Oceans kindly mentions me on his blog and sets up a punchline in his article targeted towards agents, In dentibus anticis frustrum magnum spiniciae habes. - Andy at Money Walks Personal Fina...
More About: Check , The Car

How to Lose Your House
2007-02-08 04:34:01
Between the speculation and pricing madness during real estate booms, people actually buy houses so they can live long, happy lives there.   But home buyers should know — particularly if one of your goals in buying a house is achieving a more stable lifestyle for yourself and your family — that losing a house is a fairly easy thing to do.  Here are five common ways people lose their houses. 1.  Start Off With Bad Mortgage Terms Most people focus on the price they pay when they buy a house, but the reality is that the most expensive part of buying a house is the interest on the mortgage.  Even a fraction of a percentage makes a big difference on your monthly payments, and could mean tens of thousands of dollars over the life of the loan. But just as it's easy to focus on the price of the house, it's also easy to get caught up with the interest rate on the mortgage.  The terms of the loan are what really determine how much your mo...
More About: House , How To , Your , Ouse

The Three Traps of Exotic Mortgages
2007-02-08 04:34:01
Can you imagine a world where everyone had to buy a house using only cash on hand?  Very few people would own a home if the world were like that. Lenders know this and have come up with a number of loan types (they call them products) that ostensibly help people get into their dream houses.  Some of these products, however, carry more risk to you than others. The most notorious of these loans is the option ARM, sometimes called a "pick a payment" mortgage and it is as dangerous as it is powerful.  Introducing the Option ARM  It's called that because the option lets you choose between three payments: (1) an obscenely low payment with a 1% interest rate, (2) a low interest-only, or no deferred-interest, payment, and (3) a standard principal and interest payment. The ARM stands for "adjustable rate mortgage" where the interest rate is fixed for a certain period of time, say five years, and the adjusts based the on what the interest rate i...
More About: Mortgage , Mortgages , Trap , Gage , Three

When Not to Buy a House
2007-02-08 04:34:01
You've probably heard all the perks about buying a house and how it's the centerpiece of the American Dream.  But the American Dream is less about possessing the house itself than the improvement you expect in your lifestyle when you own a home. There are times when buying a house isn't the right way to go, particularly when the financial stress of keeping your home takes away from your enjoyment of it.  Here are five times when you shouldn't buy a house. 1.  You're uncertain about your job. Having a stable income is paramount in ensuring that your home doesn't turn into a financial burden, and almost everyone needs to work to bring in that money. But if your company is considering layoffs or moving their headquarters — or you are considering a career change — you may be forced into selling or renting out your home in short order.  Doing so is time-consuming and costs money. You may be mentally prepared to sell your house ...
More About: House , When , A House , Ouse

Beware The ?Wisdom of Crowds?
2007-02-08 04:34:01
My-currency.com is getting a lot of ink after Silicon Valley's VentureBeat coverage of this new real estate site.  The differentiator of this site is that people can tell the site what they think a piece of real estate is worth.  The opinions of all the people who express an opinion is aggregated into a Crow dValue, which is my-currency's official value of the real estate in question. The name CrowdValue is loosely based on the book The Wisdom of Crowds by James Suroweicki in which Suroweicki asserts that collective thought is often smarter than the individuals who participate in it.  Really? "There's No Justice Like Angry Mob Justice" Jason Kottke uses this line by Principal Seymour Skinner from The Simpsons as an opener to his article about the four characteristics a crowd needs to be a smart crowd: diversity, independence, decentralization, and aggregation. What gets left out is that crowds are emotional. When you ask the audience in Who W...
More About: War , Ware , Beware

Why the Silicon Valley Real Estate Market Is Different
2007-02-08 04:34:01
Boston has a reputation for very expensive housing.  Situated between the Atlantic Ocean and the Charles River, land is obviously limited there and because of local zoning and historic building laws, expansion (both upward and outward) is very difficult.  I mention Boston because their cost of living index is in the same ballpark with Silicon Valley — not quite as high, though pretty steep nonetheless. But there's an enormous difference between Boston's median house price of $375,000 vs. Silicon Valley's $745,000, according to Businessweek.com. Does that mean we'll see Silicon Valley's real estate prices plummet to Boston's level? Inequality of Home Prices  The fact that Boston's housing prices have dropped like your favorite metaphor is indisputable: Sellers chop asking prices as market slows (2005) Massachusetts housing prices drop (2007) But in most areas of the country, there is a large difference between the median price f...
More About: Icon , Estate , Real Estate , Real Estate Market , Market

4 Ways the Silicon Valley Real Estate Market Is Correcting
2007-02-08 04:34:01
The challenge with the market for people looking to buy a Silicon Valley home is that it's historically been extremely expensive.  Even before the insanity of 2005, Silicon Valley real estate prices have always been challenging. Here are some articles from over the years: Silicon Valley Cost of Living: Expensive (1998) "Housing prices… will deter job-seekers from relocating there" (1999) Residents Concerned About High Cost of Housing (2001) After the bust, "housing prices still too high" (2003) Silicon Valley's Housing Market Gets Scary (2004) Is Silicon Valley real estate due for a correction?  Here are four ways Silicon Valley real estate is correcting that may surprise you. Paths to Correction (1) Multiple offer scenarios are less brazen.  In practice, while you still see multiple bids on properties that are over asking price, the asking price is set low enough to attract those offers.  The unlimited upside actions of ...
More About: Icon , Estate , Real Estate , Real Estate Market

Existing Home Sales Across U.S. Plummet: Silicon Valley Take
2007-02-08 04:34:01
Local station CBS5.com reports that existing home sales dropped sharply in 2006 across the country.  2005 was the peak of this recent real estate boom and during that year a whopping 40% of all home sales were to investors or people buying vacation homes, even according to David Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. The dip in 2006 makes perfect sense.  As Lereah says, "A lot of those people have left the market." Impact on Silicon Valley: Look Around at the Central Valley The article mentions that analysts have predicted prices will continue to fall in "formerly red-hot markets" like California.  Are you waiting for a large price decrease in Silicon Valley? The number one factor in real estate pricing is jobs.  Places that have been the hardest hit often lack the number of high-paying jobs needed to support high real estate prices. For example, the Central Valley markets in California experienced a crushing dr...
More About: Icon , Sales , Home , Cross , Sale

New Orleans: The Best Way to Help
2007-02-08 04:34:01
One more temporary pause from Silicon Valley real estate.  The best way to help New Orleans is to have a blast there!  Then, tell everyone you know that you lit up the French Quarter and you ate your heart out.  Laissez les bons temps rouler! On a serious note, I was really disappointed that there wasn't any mention of New Orleans in the State of the Union Address.  Forget policy, how about a couple words about the hardworking folks who are digging out the ruined memories of their own houses, cleaning up toxic mold, and still going to work to keep normal life going for other people? The Voices of New Orleans Blog really captures the complete abandonment people there feel and summarizes opinions from publications across the country.  People donate but I'm sure they're also willing to drive through a few potholes if some of our federal tax money to goes to people who really need it.
More About: Lean , Best

New Orleans: Teachers Wanted
2007-02-08 04:34:01
Okay, this is a blog about Silicon Valley but New Orleans is a city dear to my heart because I grew up there.  And even 17 months after Hurricane Katrina, they're still trying to rebuild infrastructure. CNN.com's article Struggling New Orleans Schools Are Having Trouble Finding Teacher s details one of the infrastructure problems they have.  Now, they're looking for teachers: people who are on a mission to save a city. By the way, Mardi Gras is coming up on February 20 this year and New Orleans wants to show that it can still throw the best party on the planet with one arm tied behind its back!  You won't be disappointed…
More About: Lean , Cher , Want

How to Lose Your House
2007-02-06 16:32:02
Between the speculation and pricing madness during real estate booms, people actually buy houses so they can live long, happy lives there.   But home buyers should know — particularly if one of your goals in buying a house is achieving a more stable lifestyle for yourself and your family — that losing a house is a fairly easy thing to do.  Here are five common ways people lose their houses. 1.  Start Off With Bad Mortgage Terms Most people focus on the price they pay when they buy a house, but the reality is that the most expensive part of buying a house is the interest on the mortgage.  Even a fraction of a percentage makes a big difference on your monthly payments, and could mean tens of thousands of dollars over the life of the loan. But just as it's easy to focus on the price of the house, it's also easy to get caught up with the interest rate on the mortgage.  The terms of the loan are what really determine how much your mo...
More About: House , How To , Your , Ouse

The Three Traps of Exotic Mortgages
2007-02-06 16:32:02
Can you imagine a world where everyone had to buy a house using only cash on hand?  Very few people would own a home if the world were like that. Lenders know this and have come up with a number of loan types (they call them products) that ostensibly help people get into their dream houses.  Some of these products, however, carry more risk to you than others. The most notorious of these loans is the option ARM, sometimes called a "pick a payment" mortgage and it is as dangerous as it is powerful.  Introducing the Option ARM  It's called that because the option lets you choose between three payments: (1) an obscenely low payment with a 1% interest rate, (2) a low interest-only, or no deferred-interest, payment, and (3) a standard principal and interest payment. The ARM stands for "adjustable rate mortgage" where the interest rate is fixed for a certain period of time, say five years, and the adjusts based the on what the interest rate i...
More About: Mortgage , Mortgages , Trap , Gage , Three

When Not to Buy a House
2007-02-06 16:32:02
You've probably heard all the perks about buying a house and how it's the centerpiece of the American Dream.  But the American Dream is less about possessing the house itself than the improvement you expect in your lifestyle when you own a home. There are times when buying a house isn't the right way to go, particularly when the financial stress of keeping your home takes away from your enjoyment of it.  Here are five times when you shouldn't buy a house. 1.  You're uncertain about your job. Having a stable income is paramount in ensuring that your home doesn't turn into a financial burden, and almost everyone needs to work to bring in that money. But if your company is considering layoffs or moving their headquarters — or you are considering a career change — you may be forced into selling or renting out your home in short order.  Doing so is time-consuming and costs money. You may be mentally prepared to sell your house ...
More About: House , When , A House , Ouse

Beware The ?Wisdom of Crowds?
2007-02-06 16:32:02
My-currency.com is getting a lot of ink after Silicon Valley's VentureBeat coverage of this new real estate site.  The differentiator of this site is that people can tell the site what they think a piece of real estate is worth.  The opinions of all the people who express an opinion is aggregated into a Crow dValue, which is my-currency's official value of the real estate in question. The name CrowdValue is loosely based on the book The Wisdom of Crowds by James Suroweicki in which Suroweicki asserts that collective thought is often smarter than the individuals who participate in it.  Really? "There's No Justice Like Angry Mob Justice" Jason Kottke uses this line by Principal Seymour Skinner from The Simpsons as an opener to his article about the four characteristics a crowd needs to be a smart crowd: diversity, independence, decentralization, and aggregation. What gets left out is that crowds are emotional. When you ask the audience in Who W...
More About: War , Ware , Beware

Why the Silicon Valley Real Estate Market Is Different
2007-02-06 16:32:02
Boston has a reputation for very expensive housing.  Situated between the Atlantic Ocean and the Charles River, land is obviously limited there and because of local zoning and historic building laws, expansion (both upward and outward) is very difficult.  I mention Boston because their cost of living index is in the same ballpark with Silicon Valley — not quite as high, though pretty steep nonetheless. But there's an enormous difference between Boston's median house price of $375,000 vs. Silicon Valley's $745,000, according to Businessweek.com. Does that mean we'll see Silicon Valley's real estate prices plummet to Boston's level? Inequality of Home Prices  The fact that Boston's housing prices have dropped like your favorite metaphor is indisputable: Sellers chop asking prices as market slows (2005) Massachusetts housing prices drop (2007) But in most areas of the country, there is a large difference between the median price f...
More About: Icon , Estate , Real Estate , Real Estate Market , Market

4 Ways the Silicon Valley Real Estate Market Is Correcting
2007-02-06 16:32:02
The challenge with the market for people looking to buy a Silicon Valley home is that it's historically been extremely expensive.  Even before the insanity of 2005, Silicon Valley real estate prices have always been challenging. Here are some articles from over the years: Silicon Valley Cost of Living: Expensive (1998) "Housing prices… will deter job-seekers from relocating there" (1999) Residents Concerned About High Cost of Housing (2001) After the bust, "housing prices still too high" (2003) Silicon Valley's Housing Market Gets Scary (2004) Is Silicon Valley real estate due for a correction?  Here are four ways Silicon Valley real estate is correcting that may surprise you. Paths to Correction (1) Multiple offer scenarios are less brazen.  In practice, while you still see multiple bids on properties that are over asking price, the asking price is set low enough to attract those offers.  The unlimited upside actions of ...
More About: Icon , Estate , Real Estate , Real Estate Market

New Orleans: The Best Way to Help
2007-02-06 16:32:02
One more temporary pause from Silicon Valley real estate.  The best way to help New Orleans is to have a blast there!  Then, tell everyone you know that you lit up the French Quarter and you ate your heart out.  Laissez les bons temps rouler! On a serious note, I was really disappointed that there wasn't any mention of New Orleans in the State of the Union Address.  Forget policy, how about a couple words about the hardworking folks who are digging out the ruined memories of their own houses, cleaning up toxic mold, and still going to work to keep normal life going for other people? The Voices of New Orleans Blog really captures the complete abandonment people there feel and summarizes opinions from publications across the country.  People donate but I'm sure they're also willing to drive through a few potholes if some of our federal tax money to goes to people who really need it.
More About: Lean , Best

New Orleans: Teachers Wanted
2007-02-06 16:32:02
Okay, this is a blog about Silicon Valley but New Orleans is a city dear to my heart because I grew up there.  And even 17 months after Hurricane Katrina, they're still trying to rebuild infrastructure. CNN.com's article Struggling New Orleans Schools Are Having Trouble Finding Teacher s details one of the infrastructure problems they have.  Now, they're looking for teachers: people who are on a mission to save a city. By the way, Mardi Gras is coming up on February 20 this year and New Orleans wants to show that it can still throw the best party on the planet with one arm tied behind its back!  You won't be disappointed…
More About: Lean , Cher , Want

California Mortgage Defaults Hit 8-Year High
2007-02-06 16:32:02
That's the headline from the Silicon Valley Business Journal.  The San Jose Mercury News states it more plainly as "More Cali fornia ns fall behind on their mortgages." Impact on Silicon Valley Real Estate: There's a Moral Below… So what's the impact here in Silicon Valley?  According to John Karevoll, who works at DataQuick, the company that compiled these statistics, "None right now.  Literally none." Why?  Mortgage s are in default when a "Notice of Default" is recorded with the county by the lender.  This usually happens after falling behind a few months on mortgage payments. According to Karevoll, only 10% of Bay Area homeowners lose their homes in a foreclosure sale after a Notice of Default.  Most make other arrangements. Because the number of additional homes put on the market due to foreclosure is relatively low, overall supply has remained steady and prices have remained stable.  In fac...
More About: High , Fault

Existing Home Sales Across U.S. Plummet: Silicon Valley Take
2007-02-06 16:32:02
Local station CBS5.com reports that existing home sales dropped sharply in 2006 across the country.  2005 was the peak of this recent real estate boom and during that year a whopping 40% of all home sales were to investors or people buying vacation homes, even according to David Lereah, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. The dip in 2006 makes perfect sense.  As Lereah says, "A lot of those people have left the market." Impact on Silicon Valley: Look Around at the Central Valley The article mentions that analysts have predicted prices will continue to fall in "formerly red-hot markets" like California.  Are you waiting for a large price decrease in Silicon Valley? The number one factor in real estate pricing is jobs.  Places that have been the hardest hit often lack the number of high-paying jobs needed to support high real estate prices. For example, the Central Valley markets in California experienced a crushing dr...
More About: Icon , Sales , Home , Cross , Sale