Let’s make up a hypothetical choice for this experiment. Let us compare the purchase of a home for $500,000 with an annual real estate tax of $3,000 and insurance bill of $1,500, to the rental of a luxury apartment for $2,500 a month. Let us say you live in the home for a period of…
If you have been fortunate to have selected a slump time in the market to buy a house, and then sell when the curve swung upward, you are likely a fan of buying a house. If, on the other hand, you bought at a high and were forced to take a loss, you might regret…
It’s undeniable. San Diego is a great city. The eighth largest city in the U.S., San Diego is prized for the best weather in the U.S., a splendid waterfront, funky neighborhoods and an all-around great place to call home. But even the best can be better, and an imaginative program called Imagine Downtown is at…
Real estate brokerage is a business serviced by individuals who are usually older than their clients. A recent NAR survey found that only about 3 percent of real estate agents were under 30, and 81 percent were older than 45, with 25 percent over 65. Since we know that older people have less familiarity and…
Climate change is in the news. We reported last week that most of the great cities of the world, built on trade routes, happen to be waterfront. This is not the greatest thing in our coming future of warmer temperatures, melting icebergs and rising seas. In spite of this, we just have this incredible affinity…
Change is constant, and remarkable. Climate change, a new and undeniable reality of our times, is altering our world and our plans for the future. Recent studies have suggested that sea levels around the world appear to be rising some 60 percent faster than projections made only a few years ago by the U.N. Intergovernmental…
Selling real estate is a terrific career for lots of reasons. But not everyone has the temperament for it and will excel. In every real estate office there is always a star performer, one who sells the most and walks around with a smile on his or her face. What are the qualities that are…
Real estate and mortgages are co-dependent and though other factors impact prices and sales rates, none probably more than the ability of buyers to borrow money. So this week we’re looking at whether impending increases in interest rates will do any serious damage to what is now a hot market in San Diego and other…
Forbes Magazine, that guru of money, has recently issued a roundup of real estate realities for 2015. Rather than re-invent the wheel, this week I am presenting their insights to you in a deconstructed and simple format. Here we go: An overview: Real estate has stabilized – yay! After years of roller coaster values, we…
In the very hottest real estate markets, and we have a few here in California, the balance of supply and demand is tilting very much to the demand side. What that means is that there isn’t a lot of inventory for buyers to choose from and when something grand does come on the market, the…
