Cirios TrendsCirios Trends Special Edition: Mid-Year Review – Will Housing Slide Again?In this month’s Cirios Trends Special Edition: Mid-Year Review – Will Housing Slide Again?, check out: The State of the Markets – Will Housing Slide Again? Prices are falling, should you care? Why Are Home Prices Falling Again? The answer may surprise you. Is Housing Policy Working? Running the numbers on foreclosure prevention. Picking Winners [...] The State of the Markets – Will Housing Slide Again?This post first appeared in the June edition of: Cirios Trends Special Edition: Mid-Year Review – Will Housing Slide Again? According to Gallup’s annual survey on home buying attitudes, more than 75% of Americans believe the housing market has bottomed. Talk about a huge red flag. Humans are emotional animals, and as a result you [...] Why Are Home Prices Falling Again?This post first appeared in the June edition of: Cirios Trends Special Edition: Mid-Year Review – Will Housing Slide Again? Ask any housing expert worth his (or her) salt why home prices are falling again and you’ll likely hear a litany of reasons, all of which sound completely plausible: Tax credit expiration, weak job market, [...] Is Housing Policy Working?This post first appeared in the June edition of: Cirios Trends Special Edition: Mid-Year Review – Will Housing Slide Again? From WhiteHouse.gov: “President Obama’s programs to prevent foreclosures will help bolster home prices.” Reams have been written, and will continue to be, about the wisdom of our country’s current housing policy, and whether unintended consequences [...] Picking Winners in the Next Housing CycleThis post first appeared in the June edition of: Cirios Trends Special Edition: Mid-Year Review – Will Housing Slide Again? The next leg down in the housing market is going to take a lot of people by surprise. Make no mistake, the downturn is underway and data is beginning to verify what has been known [...] Cirios Trends — June 2010In this month’s Cirios Trends: Finding Real Estate Opportunities, check out: The State of the Markets: June 8, 2010 Something isn’t adding up in the market for bank owned homes. Feature: How Much Should I Pay? Tips for buyers not interested in overpaying. Around the Bay: Local News Bites Goings on that move markets. Zip [...] Feature: How Much Should I Pay?This post first appeared in the June edition of: Cirios Trends: Finding Real Estate Opportunities. “Mow much should I pay?” is about the most common question we get here at Cirios. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the answer to this question is never black and white. Depending on a buyer’s desired use for a property, there are [...] Around the Bay: Local News BitesThis post first appeared in the June edition of: Cirios Trends: In Search of Real Estate Opportunities. Toyota Gets Long Electric Cars (San Francisco Chronicle) Toyota Corp. is plunking down $50 million to help Tesla Motors restart the recently shuttered Nummi auto plant in Fremont. Tesla is hiring 50 staff per month to get the [...] The State of the Markets — June 8, 2010This post first appeared in the June edition of: Cirios Trends: Finding Real Estate Opportunities. There is no ambiguity about the goal of current US government policy when it comes to housing: Prevent home price depreciation at all cost. As such, this month’s State of the Markets was going to discuss shadow inventory, diving into [...] Cirios Opportunities – Is Seller Financing Right for You?This post first appeared in the June edition of: Cirios Trends: Finding Real Estate Opportunities. As the aftershocks of the housing crash continue to rumble through the mortgage market, many home sellers, from investors to individuals, would be wise to look into the benefits of offering seller financing to sell their properties. Seller what? Seller [...] Talking Charts – Who’s Back on Track?This post first appeared in the June edition of: Cirios Trends: Finding Real Estate Opportunities. If there is a theme we at Cirios harp on more than any other, it’s that just because a particular city or neighborhood is considered “more desirable” than another, that does not mean by extension it’s also a better place [...] Cirios Trends — May 2010In this month’s Cirios Trends: In Search of Real Estate Opportunities, check out: The State of the Markets: May 5, 2010 Watching as the world wobbles. Feature: What’s in a CDO, anyway? Complex securities bite Goldman Sachs as the SEC closes in. Around the Bay: Local News Bites Goings on that move markets. Zip Code [...] The State of the Markets – May 5, 2010This post first appeared in the May edition of: Cirios Trends: In Search of Real Estate Opportunities. It feels a bit like the world is starting to come apart at the seams. Again. The EU finally “solved” the Greek problem, only to find out the solution just accelerated the day of reckoning for Europe’s other [...] Feature: What’s in a CDO, anyway?This post first appeared in the May edition of: Cirios Trends: In Search of Real Estate Opportunities. Over the past several weeks, the federal government’s increased scrutiny of Goldman Sachs has brought complex financial securities at the heart of the housing market collapse back into the government’s crosshairs. We thought an attempted explanation of not [...] Around the Bay: Local News BitesThis post first appeared in the May edition of: Cirios Trends: In Search of Real Estate Opportunities. Silicon Valley Defies California Gloom (Silicon Valley Business Journal) Even though consumer confidence in California has fallen to a historic low, Silicon Valley residents remain some of the country’s more optimistic folks. California’s Index of Consumer Sentiment registered [...] Zip Code Spotlight – Los Gatos – 95032This post first appeared in the May edition of: Cirios Trends: In Search of Real Estate Opportunities. This month’s zip code spotlight falls on a decidedly high end area of the San Francisco Peninsula – Los Gatos. Lot Gatos is a suburb to the southwest of San Jose, known for large, secluded lots at the [...] Cirios Opportunities – Is it Time to Buy Commercial?This post first appeared in the May edition of: Cirios Trends: In Search of Real Estate Opportunities. One of the most frequent questions we get here at Cirios is, “Is it time to buy commercial yet?” Clearly, this is an immensely complex question, particularly because “Commercial Real Estate” means something different for each person you [...] Talking Charts – Local Market AnalysisThis post first appeared in the May edition of: Cirios Trends: In Search of Real Estate Opportunities. As the consensus builds that the worst is over for the housing market, it’s a natural extension that proclamations such as, “it’s a great time to buy” will continue to grow louder. As readers of this newsletter know, [...] Cirios Trends — April 2010In this month’s Cirios Trends: In Search of Real Estate Opportunities, check out: The State of the Markets: April 5, 2010 Some data show the worst may be over – so are we out of the woods? Feature: HAFA – Double Edge Swords Abound Will the latest housing market fix sink or swim? Did You [...] The State of the Markets – April 5, 2010This post first appeared in the April edition of: Cirios Trends: In Search of Real Estate Opportunities. For 12 months now, the Case Shiller Home Price Index – the most widely watched home price indicator – has been hinting that the housing market has at the very least stopped getting worse. In February’s Cirios Trends, [...] Feature: HAFA – Double Edge Swords AboundThis post first appeared in the April edition of: Cirios Trends: In Search of Real Estate Opportunities. Every six months or so, Washington’s political will seems to coalesce in support of the only issue where there is true agreement across party lines: The housing market is still broken. Sadly, in our view, the Treasury Department’s [...] Did You Know? $1 Million is the Magic Mark in San FranciscoThis post first appeared in the April edition of: Cirios Trends: In Search of Real Estate Opportunities. Single Family Homes are highly sought after within the city of San Francisco. A look at the chart below helps explain the relationship between average/median home prices and the distribution of high priced sales vs. low priced sales. [...] Around the Bay: Local News BitesThis post first appeared in the April edition of: Cirios Trends: In Search of Real Estate Opportunities. Tower in Pyramid Shadow One Step Closer (San Francisco Business Times) Liberty Hill Development, the developer working on a controversial project to build a 248-unit condo tower adjacent to San Francisco’s Transamerica Pyramid received good news last month, [...] Zip Code Spotlight – San Jose: A Tale of Two CitiesThis post first appeared in the April edition of: Cirios Trends: In Search of Real Estate Opportunities. San Jose is a vast city, encompassing many varied neighborhoods. This month, the zip code spotlight falls on two zip codes within the city of San Jose: 95124 (Cambrian Park) and 95127 (Alum Rock). While these zip codes [...] |