Blog
What the CARES ACT Means for You
March 27, 2020
As we're all dealing with the effects of COVID-19 on our lives, I want to share encouraging news: the government has approved the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act which will help millions of people in this critical time. Perhaps even you.
CA housing affordability report for Q4 2019
March 3, 2020
Affordability was well up year-over-year from Q4 2018 and stable from Q3 2019. The primary factor in the Y-o-Y improvement: declining interest rates, now getting close to all-time lows. One of the significant effects of the coronavirus situation is continuing downward pressure on interest rates as stock markets fall (for the time being),and investors move into bonds. As to the long term effect of the virus on the economy, stock markets and real estate market, that will depend on whether the situation gets worse or much worse, or whether it peters out and quickly forgotten. (People have very short memories of adverse events in the past. Who even remembers that the stock market fell to a multi-year low on Christmas Eve 2018, with significant fears of a 2019 recession?) Much of the economy depends on whether confidence and optimism prevail, or the reverse. Markets generally react negatively to uncertainty.
New Case-Schiller Index closes out 2019
February 25, 2020
If you wish to understand how the Case-Shiller Index works, you must read the first page of the attached report. (All numbers refer to a January 2000 home price of "100." A reading of 250 indicates a home price 150% above that of January 2000.) Case-Shiller uses a proprietary algorithm, not median sales prices, to calculate home price changes.
San Francisco Annual Sales by Price Segment
February 18, 2020
February 2020 Newsletter Bay Area Market Survey
February 11, 2020
My February newsletter for all Bay Area markets is our semi-annual Bay Area Markets Survey. (January is the lowest sales month of the year, and its sales mostly reflect deals made during the December holiday doldrums. Its statistics are typically unreliable for assessing meaningful market conditions or trends.) This report is historically one of the most popular on our reports website, as it covers macro-angles on the market no other brokerage does.