Local Real Estate News

Attention All You Crazy Drivers In The Fair Oaks Neighborhood: Those Traffic Circles Are There To Slow You Down

Having spent much of my life in former British colonies, I am well versed in various British-isms:  marmite (yuck), lifts (not elevators), sprinkling my words with extraneous u’s … and the correct use of roundabouts — or “traffic circles” as they’re commonly known... Read more »

Mortgage Mania 19 - The Jumbo Strikes Back

Amid all the celebration and hullabaloo associated with the recent drop in conforming interest rates as a result of the Treasury Department taking over management of GSE’s Fannie May and Freddie Mac, there has been scant analysis of the elephant in the room, namely Jumbo (aka non-conforming) loans... Read more »

Mortgage Mania 18 - Can You Say Taxpayer Bailout?

What The Government Seizure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Means To You Unless you have been hiding under a rock the past couple of days, you couldn’t miss the announcement that the U.S. Department of the Treasury has placed government backed mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into a... Read more »

Good News About Real Estate in the Mercury? Well Sort Of

Long-time readers know that I do my newspaper reading online via the New York Times. In a throwback to a quieter time, I do subscribe to the San Jose Mercury News on Sundays as we like to peruse the articles and share witty banter about the headlines over morning coffee. In an interesting twist, I also... Read more »

Timing the Market, A Banker’s Viewpoint

Credit for this post really goes to 3 Oceans contributor Eric Trailer who sent me this content in a letter this week. My clients got it last week, and the blogoshpere can now benefit. We can assume that Eric has better things to do on Labor Day than blog. I’m guessing something involving his lovely... Read more »

A Housing Rebound? - Looking for the bounce

CNN Money is a favorite consumer source for news and sensationalism about issues affecting us financially. A friend uses it as his homepage, and sent me this article on indications that the housing market is pulling out of its downward spiral. Judging by the commentary on the Yahoo news service that... Read more »

Geeks Of The World Rejoice! Behold The First-Ever Twitter-MLS!

I’ve been accused — rightly, I might add — of being a geek. I also happen to be in real estate. You put the two together, plus a keen interest in using new social media tools like Twitter, and what do you get? The Twitter-MLS! For a long time, MLS searches have been available via... Read more »

“I’m Sorry, I’m Twittering” — A Shameless Parody Of An Old Classic

Sorry I'm Twittering SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "“I’m Sorry, I’m Twittering” — A Shameless Parody Of An Old Classic", url: "https://3oceansrealestate.com/blog/im-twittering.html" }); Tags: Humor  Read More →

Wine Country Agent One-ups Us

About a year ago we did what may have been the world’s first virtual open house.  Alas, we’ve been one-uped by Pam Buda, a Coldwell Banker agent in the wine country north of San Francisco.  In conjunction with Trulia, she’s live-web-casting her open house in Healdsburg today. As video... Read more »

From The “I Missed That Class Where We Talked About ‘Place Value’” Department: Palo Alto Per-sq-ft Prices Drop Precipitously Down From $75,000

In a former life, I was a middle school math teacher. In the Peace Corps. In Botswana. I distinctly remember spending a number of days teaching about the importance of place value in numbers — you know, the concept that decimal points and zeros aren’t just decorations. .32... Read more »

Real Estate Industry News

Mortgage Mania 19 - The Jumbo Strikes Back

Amid all the celebration and hullabaloo associated with the recent drop in conforming interest rates as a result of the Treasury Department taking over management of GSE’s Fannie May and Freddie Mac, there has been scant analysis of the elephant in the room, namely Jumbo (aka non-conforming) loans... Read more »

Mortgage Mania 18 - Can You Say Taxpayer Bailout?

What The Government Seizure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Means To You Unless you have been hiding under a rock the past couple of days, you couldn’t miss the announcement that the U.S. Department of the Treasury has placed government backed mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into a... Read more »

Hate Speling Misstakes And Bad Pictures in the MLS? Support My Campaign For NAR President And Put an End to this Nonsense once and for all

Having a little too much post-Inman fun and excitement… SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Hate Speling Misstakes And Bad Pictures in the MLS? Support My Campaign For NAR President And Put an End to this Nonsense once and for all", url: "https://3oceansrealestate.com/blog/hate-speling-misstakes-and-bad-pictures-in-the-mls-support-my-campaign-for-nar-president-and-put-an-end-to-this-nonsense-once-and-for-all.html"... Read more »

Geeks Of The World Rejoice! Behold The First-Ever Twitter-MLS!

I’ve been accused — rightly, I might add — of being a geek. I also happen to be in real estate. You put the two together, plus a keen interest in using new social media tools like Twitter, and what do you get? The Twitter-MLS! For a long time, MLS searches have been available via... Read more »

Wine Country Agent One-ups Us

About a year ago we did what may have been the world’s first virtual open house.  Alas, we’ve been one-uped by Pam Buda, a Coldwell Banker agent in the wine country north of San Francisco.  In conjunction with Trulia, she’s live-web-casting her open house in Healdsburg today. As video... Read more »

From The “I Missed That Class Where We Talked About ‘Place Value’” Department: Palo Alto Per-sq-ft Prices Drop Precipitously Down From $75,000

In a former life, I was a middle school math teacher. In the Peace Corps. In Botswana. I distinctly remember spending a number of days teaching about the importance of place value in numbers — you know, the concept that decimal points and zeros aren’t just decorations. .32... Read more »

Right Along With the Grunge Look, the Housing Crisis is Over

Yes, for those of you gents who still may be holding on to the rather relaxed “grunge” look from the 1990’s, I’ve got a newsflash for you: grunge, along with the current housing crisis, is over.   Articles about the housing crisis ending have been few and buried in their... Read more »

Public Service Announcement: Nationwide Home Mortgage Loan Company Is Stealing Content

Another despicable splogger is stealing content from various places on the Internet, including this blog.  Sadly, the side gives no contact information, so I’m not able to send my usual polite “cease and desist” notice. Hopefully this post and picture — which will soon appear... Read more »

Symantec Issues High-Priority Security Patch For Trulia Widgets, Called

Symantec, the Internet security firm, today released what they described as a “code red” security patch for all real estate bloggers currently using the now-infamous “Google Juice Sucking” Trulia widget. Tipped off by an anonymous Active Rain’er who had come across this... Read more »

A Perfect Example Of Co-opetition: The Real Estate Industry … Barry Nalebuff Would Be Proud

Maybe it’s the frustrated business school professor in me, or the memories of sitting in Professor Barry Nalebuff’s classes during business school, but what has fascinated me the most about the ongoing debate about Trulia’s no-follow outbound listings links (started here by Galen Ward,... Read more »

Atherton Updates

Lifestyles of the rich and famous ... Atherton's top quartile pri...
11 Sep 2008 at 10:16am

$4,495,000 :: 63 Selby Ln, Atherton CA
10 Sep 2008 at 1:55am

$2,995,000 :: 36 Irving Av, Atherton CA
10 Sep 2008 at 1:53am

Menlo Park Updates

Menlo Park lowest quartile prices continue their downward plunge ...
10 Sep 2008 at 11:08pm

$2,249,000 :: 2124 Oakley Av, Menlo Park CA
10 Sep 2008 at 1:47am

$369,000 :: 1338 Madera Av, Menlo Park CA
9 Sep 2008 at 1:06pm

Mountain View Updates

$674,000 :: 161 Easy St, Mountain View CA
11 Sep 2008 at 8:01pm

$675,000 :: 142 Alley Wy, Mountain View CA
11 Sep 2008 at 11:35am

Mountain View inventory numbers continue their rise
11 Sep 2008 at 10:37am

Palo Alto Updates

$1,749,000 :: 2432 South Ct, Palo Alto CA
11 Sep 2008 at 8:00pm

$2,595,000 :: 134 Park Av, Palo Alto CA
11 Sep 2008 at 4:50pm

$1,495,000 :: 2250 Amherst St, Palo Alto CA
11 Sep 2008 at 3:17pm

Other Cities

Coming soon!