patrick.net

Space_Acer,

I actually don't think we have that much land in the more discovered urban spots, Gilroy is of course is a whole different world with as much land as you desire.

I drove through some vacant lots in Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Saratoga, and what I found out was, the vacant land was either held by a local developer who bought it many years ago, or by the city for preservation, or voted down for development by NIMBY neighbors. If land was really not an issue, we would not have seen so many townhomes, SFHs and condos built on the fringe of the freeway.

If you go down 85, and get off any exit in one of the major cities, you will see a new residential development right off the ramp. I'd like to believe that developers may assign a higher preference to lots NOT so close to the freeway if they have a choice.

Harm quoted the article...

"Learning what to offer is part science, part intuition, say Realtors. “With a market that’s still extremely hot, it’s the only way to be successful,”

Im an accountant by trade I work with numbers. In a audit everything has to be justified and documented. Else you get Enron/WorldCom accounting fraud. Even our corporate sales team works with visiability in contract negotations. I really feel we are going to see lots of fraud first before we see any bottom in price. When you read stuff like this, you really know something is wrong.

Based on the Wall Street Journal's sage advice, the Mrs. and I will be tendering an offer this weekend for a quaint 1 Bdm shack under the Freeway overpass in lovely "South" Los Angeles we've had our eye on for some time.

Since other similar crackhou... er, homes, have been going for north of $500K, we will be bidding at least $600K. We will be waiving any buyer contingencies (as this can only impair us in our goal of "winning" the bidding war), including home inspection. I am sure if there's *anything* wrong with the home, the sellers (a nice Gypsy couple) will tell us about it, right?

Per the WSJ, we will also waive the right to keep appliances, electrical fixtures, plumbing, wiring, windows, doorknobs, etc. Who really wants to keep someone's old doorknobs and plumbing anyway? And if the seller wants to remain rent-free tenants indefinitely at our expense --no problem! We can just continue to rent until the sellers feel "ready" to move on. Anything we can do to make the transition easier for those kind-hearted souls...

Of course, we *will* be writing the sellers a personalized "love letter" with wedding photo, telling them how much we worship them and the ground they walk on, etc. I'm wondering if we shouldn't also offer a free BJ to, you know, set ourselves apart from the other buyers?

Unfortunately, we do not yet have children, so cannot include pictures our kids have drawn of the home. However, we do have a very prolific cat, who has kindly contributed some "found art" to the cause. Here is Mr. Whisker's rendering of the seller's home:

@Surfer-X,

Sounds do-able. Do we know when the NCAL blog party is taking place? We should talk soon.

OO-
I think you will find new developments scattered inward as well. Bottom line there is lots of land out there.

Use Zillow photos...

5307 Fraschini Cir, San Jose, CA 95136

HARM,

that WSJ article was written in Jan 05, wake up, it is Mar 07!

Actually I dont think we need more land, we have plenty of land already.
We can also look at the vacent business parks .. lots of space there!
We are already seeing that on Tantau in Cupertino... form site of Tandem Computers...

Local employers are not eager to increase spending in our area to due higher salary costs.

OO,

Yes, I know, but most sellers' minds and expectations are still stuck in Jan '05. I am just "Facing Reality". ;-)

Seriously, though, I really enjoyed re-reading that --an unintentionally hilarious reminder of how absurd things got at the peak. It must be preserved in the Hall of Shame.

LOL!

"You might even include pictures your children have drawn of the home.

Ms. Grove and Ms. Wells included a photo from their wedding and described themselves in a personal letter to the owner of the home they wanted in San Rafael. "

Feed the chipmunks everyday....

BAHAHAHAAH !

@HelloKitty,

If the wife is hot, make sure to ask for a ‘date’ with her too

:lol:

On topic.

Last thread I mentioned to OO that Cupertino inventory is around 72. Today it is 82. Evergreen is 338 according to Zip Reality.

I see inventory UP. The prices and sales in DQ numbers for Santa Clara are up as well. The price per SQFT jumped from 485 to 500.

This is in the fortress areas. The fringe areas show continuing decline.

This is very interesting. I am looking forward to April-May numbers to see if the subprime meltdown has any effect.

Peter P Says:

If you have to compete, you are doing the wrong thing at the wrong time.

No kidding. Also, it’s important to remember that competition is really for us proles. The truly rich never have to "compete" for anything. The only "competition" going on in boardrooms is: (a) who can get the most outrageous compensation package, (b) who can (metaphorically) screw over rank-and-file employees and customers the hardest, and (c) who can (literally) screw the most supermodels.

It used to be 10 years ago if someone was giving you 1 million dollars they a night with Demi Moore. Now they get a fixer in Cupertino.

LOL. But can she teach math to my kids ? Hah ... see that's why one buys in Cupertino. Your kids will be set for life. Glory and prosperity will be theirs. Live in a crappy house, give up all your youth years so that your kids can learn 2+2 better than other kids. You won't have money for their college, they MAY not give a sh1t about you when you retire broke, but hey ... you can't put a price on ELEMENTARY education.

Is there any proof that the same kid, over a lifetime, do better by attending a Palo Alto school rather than a Mountain View school?

Is there any proof that the same kid,

What more proof do you need ? People paying 75% of their net income is not proof enough ? Are you doubting the judgment of so many geek parents "with a bad case of school fetish" (copyright SP) ?

StuckinBA,

A lot of this does come from FOB Asian immigrants' background of early age sorting. Suddenly maturing at 30 and becoming successful doesn't happen amongst the Mandarins of the East.

If you go down 85, and get off any exit in one of the major cities, you will see a new residential development right off the ramp. I’d like to believe that developers may assign a higher preference to lots NOT so close to the freeway if they have a choice.

I thought those were all rentals. Maybe we're talking about something different.

I know astrid. It's hard to control the disgust, the shock.

I am quite confused about this market. As much sales are there, there doesn't seem to be any conviction. A few weeks ago I mentioned about the person who exclaimed to me, "It doesn't make any financial sense to buy right now, but I cannot wait forever !". That is one of the best quotes I heard in person. I happened to meet them again. They have bought, moved in but are very unsure about the smartness of their decision. They haven't lived there even for a month !

I see this in people around me. People know something MAY be wrong with the housing market, but they cannot get themselves to accept that the market can go down significantly.

The thing is nothing terrible has happened in BA. In fact things are better. Unlike the exploding inventory of Florida/Phoenix, or rising foreclosures of San Diego, BA is actually doing OK. Unless these things happen here (not in that proportion), some people will keep buying and feel smart abut getting 10% off last year's price.

In 1990 the workforce of SV was around 850K, todays its the same number if not less. So demand for housing has been flat for 15+ years.

I keep seeing this stat - but yet I find it hard to believe. I'll be honest, I wasn't here since 1990 - but those who have say that it's getting more and more crowded, and congested.

I haven't heard of an AIDS insurance policy. It seems that it would be an astoundingly stupid business model.

view from silicon valley has great stats...

it matches my personal observations... i been here since 1970

yes we had a flux in late 90s but no rush to hire that amount of people again.

http://www.viewfromsiliconvalley.com/id54.html

SFWoman,

I think BruceB meant the gays who, pre-AIDS cocktail treatment, cashed in their life insurance payment in anticipation of soon dying. Though I could be completely completely wrong.

Mountain View school > St Francis High School has been the best over 3 decades... but thats never been the reason people living there.

Sunnyvale High was closed due to declining enrollment back in 1981.
SHS, Fremont, Cupertino, Homestead... ah home of burnouts/potheads...
Few of us were interested in Math and Sciences... Im one of them.

Space Ace,

Yeah, that's what I was getting to. Reasonably bright kids with supportive parents should be able to succeed in any middling to good school. I don't see the obsession with going to the "best" school.

eburbed-

My daily travel distance 12 miles is the same as back in 1990... 15-20 minutes its unchanged..

I still see traffic today from South San Jose to Mt View using 85 as I did back in 1985....unchanged. St Thomas and Lawrence is unchanged.. Depends on your commute.

Your so rigth astrid...And i went to dopers school... I mean really rough crowd..so glad to leave SHS.

astrid,

Thanks. That makes sense.

StuckInBA - thats totally funny....LOL

CB -
Homes in 1996-7 were fetching arount 110/sq ft... that home was way overpriced in 2001. The sellers were fishing for IPO lotto winners. And yes, as is.. That made me sick of the garbage i saw back in 2001. Thats when I first learned of the Fake Bids realtors were using on buyers. You saw prices double by 2000. 180K to 500K in just 4 years.. now same place is 700K.
Give me a break...

Maybe I should not move to BA AKA Land of Lotus Eaters. If I move there I may never be able to leave again.

I took some Berkeley classes one summer and had my project mates describe Berkeley weather as "too hot for about one month in the summer and too cold the rest of the time". The mind boggles.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/states/california/16951941.htm

Enjoy. (Sorry for long URL...)

SJ Merc Headlines.... ( i hope to see)

Cheaploans.com closing doors.
Other also fearing similar faith.

I finally earned my first capitalism 2.0 carryover blog troll from patrick.net. I think it's theOtherside's husband. I especially like the part about me being a metrosexual -- which I had to actually look up being I'm a bit slow and don't watch much tv. I have to say, thinking of myself as that made this month's blogging all worth the effort, lol.

Where I grew up we'd call this person a "choad".

Randy, you clearly have too much time on your hands as a rental-house-bound, stay-at-home modern-day metrosexual. Those "Stickiness" graphs of yours expose you as someone with some real "issues" you might want to explore with a pro and treat with med's, if you aren't already.

Posted by: Rankbull | Thursday, March 22, 2007 at 15:44

I miss trolls. :(

They seem to be having self-esteem issues lately.

I don't think this troll is smart enough to know the definition of metrosexual.

Or it could be the latest iteration of jukubot...

Nice!

Myth #2: Silicon Valley House Prices Never Go Down

http://www.viewfromsiliconvalley.com/id315.html

Or it could be the latest iteration of jukubot…

I don't think an autonomous vacuum cleaner is capable of trolling the site.

Maybe Jukubot is an early version cylon. One day it'll come back as super hot blonds to terrorize us.

I hadn't considered the Jukubot angle. The anger does sorta sound a bit like "The Futurist" and his persistent phobia with "5th Columnists".

Perhaps there have been M&As among trolls.