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From the Sacramento Bee – March 14, 2008

The Sacramento-area housing market is still declining, but a surge of buying by investors in February helped spark the first major slowdown in Sacramento County's long slide since 2005, DataQuick Information Systems reported Thursday. Some highlights: • Sacramento County showed a February median sales price of $257,000. That was down 27.7 percent from a year ago. But it was up from $253,000 in January. The median price is the point at which half sell for more and half sell for less. • Placer County reported a 30.7 percent drop in sales of new and existing homes in February compared with the same time in 2007. Its $364,000 median sales price was down 15.3 percent from February 2007. But it was up from $360,500 in… Read Full Post

Well, if I didn’t have it before, the extra daylight at the end of the day has certainly brought on a bit of Spring Fever in me as well as the Sacramento real estate market. At MagnumOne Realty we have all been busy which reminds me we really need to find another agent who believes in building relationships with service and exceeding client expectations. 

Based on our antidotal information the activity level in real estate market all over the Sacramento area has dramatically increased in the past few weeks. I have been working with a number of clients who are looking to buy, including an investor who believes the time is right to pick up a rental property. In addition we have had two new listings in the past week, both short sales in Sacramento and one is… Read Full Post

Don’t forget, Daylight Saving Time officially begins this year on Sunday, March 9th at 2:00 AM but for most of us it means we set the clocks forward when we go to bed on Saturday night. This year DST will run through November 2nd.

Some interesting notes about Daylight Saving Time:

We don’t actually save any daylight. Turning the clock forward an hour, effectively moves an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening.

The official spelling is Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight Savings Time although it is the more common term and is found in dictionaries.

Can bars serve alcohol for an extra hour in November? The official answer is that bars that the bars do not stop serving liquor at 2:00 a.m., but actually at 1:59 a.m. So, they have already stopped…

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I have spent the better part of a month showing homes to a nice young couple with a baby. It has been difficult because he wants to stay on a strict budget and she doesn’t want to live where the homes with the features they MUST have are located. During our last trip out, just as conversation, I mentioned this cute little house I have listed as a short sale and said it was too bad it didn’t meet any of their requirements. They were looking at newer homes; my listing was built in 1948. They had to have three bedrooms; my listing has two and a room that is a large closet. They had to have at least a two car garage, my listing has a carport.

I could end the post now because you know exactly where I am going. Yes, she went to my website and looked at a few of… Read Full Post

Check this one out! Located in Fruitridge area on 53rd Street, this property has two homes on a large lot! Although both structures are small they are very cute and have a tremendous amount of potential. The main house is a 2 bedroom, one bathroom, 683 square feet with lots of hidden charm while the studio cottage is 240 square feet. Yes, as with many short sales in Sacramento, this one needs some work to bring it up to the neighborhood which is in the process of a very positive revitalization. Many of the homes, including the ones on both sides of the subject house have been renovated.

The seller purchased this property at the height of the real estate market with plans to complete the renovation and bring the house up to its full potential. With the… Read Full Post

If you have been a long time reader of my blog you may well remember I used to spend a fair amount of print writing about the monthly statistical reports. I can’t remember when was the last time I posted something to my blog or wrote an article on the monthly results. I suspect there are several reasons, including the media spotlight on real estate and the “downturn,” “crisis” or “meltdown” stories in the Sac Bee and other outlets almost daily. Other blogs, especially the bubble blogs like Sacramento Land(ing) focus almost every post on the market and do a good job keeping readers informed of the latest reports about the Sacramento area real estate market.

But today I would like to call your attention to the continued decline in the median prices in our… Read Full Post

I got an email over the weekend asking what was new with my actress/singer friend Karmyn Tyler. If you have been following me or get our monthly newsletter you will know that we have a friend who lives in Beverly Hills and is working hard to make it in entertainment industry. She is a wonderful singer, actress and podcaster. It has been fun for us to follow her career and hear about the things she is doing. Karmyn had some wonderful insights about the recently ended writers strike and is now keeping us updated with information about the actor’s contract. I just learned that she filmed another episode for Boston Legal. You can count on us watching the show carefully to see her; I think she plays an assistant DA in a scene with Candice Bergen. 

During the… Read Full Post

We just got back from an overnight trip up to Amador County where we helped our good friends and clients bottle the barrel of wine they made. It was all done at Amador Cellars where the owner winemaker, Larry, makes wonderful wine and went out of his way to make all of us feel like we were part of the winery family. 

Although it was work, we had a blast bottling, corking, capping and labeling the wine. Best of all the wine, a 2006 Zinfandel, is excellent and has the potential to get even better. Joe and Erin joined what is called Amador Cellar’s Crush Club and this was their weekend to bottle the wine they made. I am thinking about doing the same thing for some of my clients and referral sources.   Think of the fun we could have over the 18 months from… Read Full Post