Coastal Real Estate and Lifestyles

Got a little red postcard in my office mail box yesterday from respected local structural pest inspectors, Premier Termite & Construction.  I called owner, Kevin Palmer, to see if it was okay that I post his special offer so that you can benefit from this also.

Premier is offering pest inspections for $50 off the normal price between now and May 31, 2009.  Mention “special” when booking your inspection.  Normal price for a single family home (under 3,000 square feet) is $275; regular charge for condos and townhouses is $200.

Premier is based here on the San Mateo County coastside (Half Moon Bay), and works throughout San Mateo County and some outlying San Francisco neighborhoods.  They’ve been in business for 20 years.

If you find a suspicious looking creepy crawlie while you’re doing your winter clean up, give Kevin a call and he can probably tell you what it is.  650-726-7756.

Related articles:

Munch, Munch, Munch:  Coastside Firms interrupt bugs’ lunch by Armadillosoft.com

Structural pest control treatment options:  Coastside Real Estate and Lifestyles post 2/7/2008

Montara average and median home prices have consistently trended up over the last ten years. That’s as far back as the MLS data will go. Annual sales volume has also gone up…that is, until 2008. Why?

In my opinion, the top reasons are: a market correction that was first noticed in weaker markets in Q4-2006, fewer qualified buyers due to tighter lending qualifications, credit markets unstability, and lack of understanding of available loan products. Add California’s economic woes creating jobs uncertainty and the homeowners who have Option ARMS with a reset date coming in 2009 to this. (Look for an upcoming post on why homeowners with these loans will affect you.)

Overall, Montara has not taken the hit of other San Mateo County and California areas because there have been qualified buyers out there who want to live here and pay to do so. Median sales prices have risen most years since 1998 and are now in the $830K range. Average sales prices have also risen most years since 1998. 2008 average sales price for Montara single family homes to date is $926,800.

However, the higher price points have already begun to adjust. For example, a 3rd Street home was listed for $1,299,000 and sold for $1,150,000 in Oct 08 (the last sale in Montara). A Cedar Street home started out at $1,200,000 in July 2007 and sold for $998,000 in July 2008. Looking at the expireds, cancels, and price reductions in the last two months confirms the trend is continuing. Montara’s 2008 entry level price points in the $600K-$800K range have sales prices more in line with the list price so far; we’ll see what happens. Q4 usually quiets down, but the higher inventory may be causing more sellers to rethink strategies.

2008 Median sold prices by Quarter:

* Q1 - $740,000
* Q2 - $830,000
* Q3 - $847,500

# of closed sales in 2008 - 15
($599K to 2.6Million Sold prices)
# of available homes - “Active” in MLS - currently - 20
($375K to 4.5Million)
# of available lots - 9 ($199K to $4.5Million)

Don’t let the average and median prices fool you…Montara is an eclectic community that offers a wide range of price points. One sale can alter the numbers significantly. Since newspapers report median and average numbers, that is why I will include those numbers in these neighborhood posts. Search Montara homes to see all the price ranges and home styles.

Old way:  Don’t worry this will be short…  Newspapers and magazines sell advertising to Brokers and individual agents to promote advertiser’s company… and agent… and listings.  Said Brokers and agents pay a lot of money to buy limited space.  No tracking mechanism…it’s just the way it is.  Exclusively, it’s a dying breed.  It does look pretty if it’s in color.

New way:  This is a huge subject…  I’m barely making a dent here…  A tremendous shift is taking place.  Most Brokers and agents do what it takes to sell their clients’ properties.  We can’t rely on print advertising when we’ve known for years now that the buyers are online.  As brokers slowly reduce their print advertising budgets and increase online advertising budgets, they expect a global reach.

Readers may still be perusing the RE section, but serious buyers are tapping into multiple sites  (Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, PropertyShark, plus their agent’s business website) to get the most up-to-date listing and market information. (side bar…even though the data on some public search sites may not be accurate and can cause confusion, I look at it as an opportunity to clear up the confusion and get a little face, or ear, time.)

Agent example:  advertises online with property websites, includes proper linking to various real estate, media, networking, and news sites, leveraged by the agent’s own dynamic business site.  Property interest can be tracked with analytics tools.  Now there are real estate market news feeds…more on that to come.

Another example:  Zillow recently announced its Advertising Network.  “The network goes beyond classified listings to allow Zillow.com and the newspapers to sell each other’s premium online advertising inventory for display advertising.  National and regional advertisers will be able to deliver targeted, relevant display ads to visitors of Zillow.com and the newspapers’ Web sites.” as Sarah at Zillow comments on The San Francisco Real Estate Blog.

Another idea for newspapers (just thinking out loud here):  Wouldn’t it be great if local newspapers offered a live news or listings feed of broker, FSBO, and bank-owned listings that are automatically posted when an agent or broker purchases an advertising account with the newspaper, and then allows a link back to the advertiser’s website?   Buyers want to see everything in one site.  It makes sense for newspapers whose model is to bring news via advertising dollars.  So how do you get more advertising dollars?  Offer a solution to your advertisers.  And right now, measurable solutions are what I’m buying.  It’s a complete win-win because it will bring the search engine ranking up for the newspaper and bring additional exposure to the listing.  Too far-fetched?

Or what about a map-based property map that, when clicked on, takes you to the appropriate agent’s contact info?  It needs to be dynamic/interactive.  Newspaper readers have been and still are buyers of real estate, but newspapers have not kept up with the changes in reader habits.

In order for this to work, newspapers should bring on a real estate liaison who understands the industry.  Typical newspaper advertising reps won’t be able to expand this area of revenue.  They have to understand the industry, where it’s going, and at the speed at which it’s moving.

These are just my thoughts and opinions.  I’m no media expert, just a media advertiser and user.  What do you think?  Also, should I add a new category called “Media”?

These are the newspapers where San Mateo County coastal homes and properties may be advertised:

 New York Times

San Francisco Chronicle (Hearst Communications)

San Jose Mercury News & Contra Costa Times (Bay Area News Group)

Half Moon Bay Review

This is today’s (December 3, 2008) Altos Chart looking at days-on-market trends by quartile for Half Moon Bay, CA - 94019.  The number in parenthesis is today’s median list price for each quartile.

1. First/black quartile = most expensive 25% of available single family homes ($1,922,000)

2. Second/orange quartile = upper-middle 25% of available single family homes ($1,299,000)

3. Third//green quartile = lower-middle 25% of available single family homes ($899,000)

4. Fourth/blue quartile = least expensive 25% of available single family homes ($660,000)