For several years, we’ve seen declining residential real estate prices in much of Silicon Valley.  In many areas, though, prices are now either flat or bouncing up and down within a small range such that the probable buyer’s value or market value is very close to where it was a year or two ago.  Today’s San Jose Mercury News reports

“In a report to be released Monday, Clear Capital, a real estate valuations company in Truckee, predicts that prices will remain almost flat this year — compared with a 4.7 percent drop in 2011 — in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metropolitan area, including Contra Costa County. Silicon Valley should see a 1.6 percent increase in home prices, compared with a 2.5 percent drop last year, the company said.” (Bolding mine.)

A small, modest increase in pricing is usually healthy for home sales as it gives buyers the confidence needed to finally take the plunge. It’s immensely challenging for people to buy when they believe any product – cards, home appliances or houses – will be cheaper in a day, a week or a month.

Home sellers who have wanted to move up from a starter home to the one they hope to spend decades in have felt somewhat trapped by lack of equity in many cases.  In others, the idea of selling for less than at the peak was so upsetting that they felt terrible about moving ahead prior to a full recovery.  Most now understand that getting back to prices at the peak of the realty market in San Jose and Santa Clara County will take many years.

Some of them are tired of waiting and are electing to forget about the profit they could have had if they’d sold at the peak.  These folks have decided to make the jump now to get on with their lives, despite less equity than hoped for initially, while at least interest rates are so favorable.  (It should be added that the move-up home will now cost less also!)  This can be a very wise decision since buying a house, townhouse or condo is usually not one purchase but two: you’re buying the loan product also and the total cost of home ownership should factor in both the costs over the lifetime of the loan as well as the purchase price. (more…)

Recently a friend asked me about the way in which vendors are selected when people buy and sell homes.  In some cases, Silicon Valley home buyers or home sellers know which title company, home inspector, home waranty provider or other vendor to hire.  Most of the time, though, they don’t. They are hoping that we real estate professionals can put them into contact with good providers.

When working with my clients, for most vendors I provide a trusted  list of sorts.  For the various inspections (roof, chimney, home, pest, etc.) or other service (lender, home warranty, title company) there might be as few as two or as many as six resources listed.  Most often, my clients ask me if I have one or more which I prefer, and most of the time it is one company for each category (I have a favorite termite company, favorite home warranty company, etc.).

The home buyer or seller in Santa Clara can pick or hire anyone or any company he or she pleases for these various jobs. We agents can and will assist with sharing the names and numbers of those whom we know, like and trust, but at the end of the day, it’s the client who chooses. So really it’s up to the client – he or she can do some research or not.  But if they tell me (as they most often do) to go with my preferred vendor, there’s one in each category and I don’t tend to “spread the business around”.  Over the years, agents tend to build relationships with people in these companies and get a sense of whom they can trust and want to work with. (We agents would hate it if a client with six homes to sell picked six different Realtors to rotate through, too. We tend to want and also to give loyalty.)

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