[kiki]

I am definitely addicted. my husband likes to get the “summary” version of my learnings but he hates that i expend to much time reading this blogs.

He warned not to start posting because that meant i was definitely doomed.

I wake up in the morning and while eating breakfast i read the blog.. no more morning news.. i get back from work and i am on the blog again.

i also feel that in this site i learn much more than real estate.

[kiki]

“ He had been willing to lower his asking price by $25,000, he said, but instead chose to pay out a higher commission ….
In the end, Caty netted about $14,500 less in the deal than he would have had he dropped the condo’s price $24,000 and sold it with a regular commission…..

Caty said the deal left him feeling uneasy “

We all agree that buyer is crazy for not being upset,. But at the end he find out “after the fact”
But the seller also paid 14K more, why would he do that? Would the condo not sold 617K? As I buyer I would feel more than uneasy. Why give 14K away?

I do not the details but $600K+ for a 1 bedroom!!!! Buyer is definitely in denial.

What I like about this site is that I always learn something. Some realtors give you 1% back, sometimes depending on the commission they may give you less. But today I learn the % could be higher (as it depends on the seller) so I will need to have a discussion with my agent in case I like (or he/she shows me ) a house with this special buyer’s agent’s offer.. Now I will not only negotiate a % of the commission but if the commission exceed the industry standard I want the price to be dropped by the excess commission, else I won’t buy the house. I am not sure if I will be able to know the commission but if the agent can/will want to cheat because if I find out I can take legal actions.

[kiki]

i just want to clarify that i give PS what i consider a constructive feedback. i actually love her research. I also said that a blog is different but when talking to journalist she may get more from them if she did not use the attack apprach.

I was pleased at PS’s positive actitud toward the feedback. At the end she can change or not – i never expect to tell her what to do, only to give a suggestion. At the end is her decision on how she behaves.

Regarding Sony, Sony HQ is staying here but i asked and a few months ago a TV factory was closed, not sure of how many people were laid off, though.

[kiki]

i guess i understand you. i guess that if i try many time at some point the patience is gone.

i hope you find a journalist that will listen to you and your ideas, as i said before, by informing people you can change many lifes!

[kiki]

PS, I think you have started a great thread. I admire you for taking the time to write to reporters and journalist to open their minds.
You are doing this for so many people that are no even aware. You could be changing their lives. I am sure there are thousands of people that do not understand ARM or underestimate it, many other think that houses will appreciate forever. The sooner this madness is gone the less people that will be affected.

I however have, I hope, a constructive feedback. I hope you will not take it as an attack. I think you need to improve your manners (at least in writing to people that disagree with you). Even if the person is a jerk you have to be better person and make your point without offending. In this case Comparing the reporter to a 6th grader will not make her listen to your feedback. I do not know how you wrote to her in the first email but if the tone was the same, attacking her for her bad job (excuse me if I am wrong- I am guessing that was your tone) will not help her to be open to listen to you. In case of a blog I think we can be more lose – a joke here and there or a comment born from frustration – although I still prefer to keep certain politeness level but there are other instance that you need to follow certain protocol.

*****************
If you accept a suggestion, I would have approach a journalist as reader that has been following the market for X months, experienced in person the selling of your house and are aware of houses that are sold at less for what they were purchased, plus have done a lot of research on the topic that has make you consider yourself maybe not an expert but person very educated on the topic (for sure more educated than an caverage seller or buyer or potential seller or buyer) . Plus given that you do not have a job related to the industry and will not be affected if the bubble burst or not (which I think is true, even if you buy your house at the same price in 5 years, you won’t loose money, true?) you do not have any bias – that some realtors or economist might have when reporting.

Based on your research you think there is data/analysis that is not being properly reported or being reported at lot and that you would love to hear the “specialist” take on certain questions like (and you can list your questions)
*****************

I agree with you that is a journalist’s job to research and ask the tough questions, and it is frustrating that their answer is “why should I refute if they are the experts”, I understand if they are interviewing Einstein but in RE they could do a simple google search on housing bubble and more than a million links will come up with many blogs explaining in basic English why a there IS a bubble in RE especially in California.
I just think that your tone and attack approach is the factor that impacts negatively and causes people to be more defensive than collaborative.

Regarding your initial post I have a question. Why do say Sony has left? Actually Sony moved their HQ from New Jersey to San Diego on March 2004. Why I still do not know, but a lot of people that move bought during the time when inventory was at is lowest and the last thing they want to take about is prices not appreciating or declining. Maybe you are talking about a factory line?

[kiki]

duplicated entry

[kiki]

duplicated entry

[kiki]

mrquoi thanks for the info on tax deduction for student loan. Unfortunately this year we will exceed the income limit so we won’t be able to deduct interest. We are now working on paying as much possible.

good luck finding your rental.

[kiki]

“There’s a lot of support for the idea that the mix of homes sold is skewing the median. The problem is noone (at least to my knowledge) has yet presented data showing this to be the case. It seems to be all anecdotal.”

Jim the realtor published in his website data from the zips he track
************
Number of Sales, First Half of 2006
Number of Closed Sales, January 1 – June 30

2004 2005 2006 % chg. from 2004

$400K or less 324 61 63 -81%

$400K – $700K 1,065 1,185 859 -19%

$700K – $1M 332 396 318 -4%

$1M+ 97 115 84 -13%

Totals 1,818 1,757 1,324 -27%

(He removed 23 closings from 2006 of new homes from tract builders that wouldn’t have listed in the MLS in 2004)
************************

in these zip codes the sales of houses less than $700K have dropped by 34% while sales above $700K only dropped 6%. what i read from this is tht rich people are still being able to pay but the entry market is in fact suffering. i added the first two price ranges together because i think that even in 2005 the less than $400 were actually in the high 400s so they might be the only houses that have seen a litte appreciation – there might be fewer buyers but still this prices is attractive to generate a small price bid.

[kiki]

first, sorry for placing the post here. i thought i was writing on the Poway school thread.

Second, ‘I pretty much echo what PS said” “So sdrealtor is almost right I” wow, i made SDR and PS agree!!! 🙂

Nadorenter, I am not sure why schools are so bad, and higher education is great. This is the perception from people that have studied here (in either or both levels). We may be wrong and is only perception. I wanted to mentioned because i thought it was funny that in the US you had the opposite view about us.

Anyway, I do not consider I own the truth but I wanted to share my view from my experience and that generalizing may not be correct.

One example, people that come from my country to the US are mainly well educated, even the illegals, so the perspection is that we are very hard working and smart. People that migrate from my country to Spain are from lower, uneducated class and the perception there is that we are lazy and thiefs. Countries or people from ethnic groups are too big and diverse too generalize.

[kiki]

“When you have hispanic kids growing up in homes that english is the second language you will naturally see lower API scores for them that will pull down the schools average”
“There is an ethnic bias against education among Mexicans, because they don’t value education as much as whites or Asians”

PS and SDR, as a Hispanic (not Mexican) I have to tell I was a bit offended my the generalization “ naturally will see” “Mexicans do not value education” .

I have not skimmed the threads, I read them twice to make sure I was not missing anything. SDR you first said “naturally” as if were a fact for Hispanics kids to perform lower than average and then say that you were talking abut poor areas or ethnicity serves as surrogate for househould income.

I have no stats or do not know any Hispanic with kids going to school here is SD so both you SDR and PS could be right about your statement, here is SD. However I think it has a lot to do with the class of people that live here.

I come from middle class from a country in South America and the consensus among us (middle and upper class families) is that schools in the US are horribly bad. Higher education is great but middle and high school are really bad. English is not first language for any of us. I studied one year in the Midwest and have friends that have spent summers or year in various cities in the US (parent in the Army, doing advance studies, or diplomats) and all of us agree that school was a piece of cake (even lazy kids got As) , which was great while studying here but sucked when we had to come back to our country and we had to learn everything that was not taught to us to pass to the next grade. My sister and I had to spend a whole summer studying all we missed during that year.

I am sure if you compare kids from the same educational background Caucasian, Asians or Hispanics will score same in average. Most of the immigrants here are less educated and that is why it may seems it is the Hispanics. Same if you compare poor Caucasians, Asians and Hispanics maybe they all perform equality bad.

Anyway, I do not think neither SDR or PS meant bad, they only pointed a fact from their experience or data that they had available. I only wanted to give another perspective to it.

“Thanks for sharing that and participating in this forum. I invite you to consider my point of view…”

[kiki]

my husband and i also have significant student loans from grad schools but i think you cannot deduct them if you hit a certain income level. Am i wrong? I am in the same boat as you are mrquoi , my husband also thinks houses will only drop 10% (although he does believe that now renting is more cost effective). His believe is that prices will never be affordable even for 2 MBAs so we better get out of here. We are actually trying to move out. Of course we need to find a job elsewhere first.

[kiki]

the house i listed on the previous thread was actually up 11,232 from prior week. i still do not understand what drives the price movements week by week there is no additional sale nearby that could change the value.

[kiki]

i feel that zillow is overvaluing houses. houses on sale priced well below zillow value are still sitting on the market.
This one for example :10151 PRAIRIE FAWN DRIVE in rancho bernardo.
Zillow value $804,741 – $1,010,397, zestmate $894,157

now is being offered 740,000 down from 775,000. i do not know when they dropped the price but still is not selling.

last sale 10/29/2004: $734,500

[kiki]

I can suggest some threads :
Kirkwall Driveway
Foreclosure
What’s going on with Pendings? 10% Drops at Bressi Ranch
More North County Price Reduction Examples

all with some examples of prices dropping in same house sales/prices

[Author]

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