San Mateo County parks are full of beauty not to be missed.

Are you ready for the 2012 season of Take A Hike?  This year, they’ve scheduled each hike for the third Saturday of the month. So mark your calendars…
April 21 – Wunderlich Park (Woodside)
May 19 – Memorial Park (Loma Mar)
June 16 – Edgewood Park (Redwood City)
July 21 – Crystal Springs (San Mateo)
August 18 – Pillar Point (Moss Beach)
September 15 – San Bruno Mountain (Brisbane)
October 20 – Huddart Park (Woodside)
November 23 – Pick a Park, Take A Hike
For more information, visit: http://www.SMCoParks.org/takeahike, on Facebook at Take A Hike San Mateo County, or call 650-599-1009

photo taken at Crystal Springs Reservoir 

My passion is working with first-time home buyers. I’ve learned a lot over 14 years in real estate, and I love to share it.   Talking to clients about the why of home buying, inspections, escrow – all of it.   It’s a complicated process and it’s only gotten more complicated since I started.   Complicated, yes.   A nightmare, no.

I hear stories all the time about somebody’s cousin’s brother’s uncle and how difficult it was for them to buy a house.   Oh, how this happened and then that…It’s just like that old “telephone” game.  By the time the story gets to me it’s huge!  And awful.  And scary.  I’m not sure why, but as soon as you tell someone you’re going to buy a house, they want to share all of those horror stories with you.

If you’re nervous about buying, you should be!  It’s normal and reasonable.  I’m here to say, “Hey, look out for that pitfall!”  Or, “That’s not  good idea!”  Or, “Watch out for that one!”

If you’re thinking about buying your first home, contact me.  I’m happy to help.

Vicki

Wednesday, February 22, 2012, 6:30 PM

Save room for dessert!

Glamburgers, fish and chips, Bourbon Street Omelettes, 6 different milk shakes, steak, salads.  Everybody will find something they like on this menu!

I’ll bring the Tums.

 Find full details and RSVP info here.

Do open houses sell houses?

Whenever agents want new business, we start looking for houses we can hold open on Sunday.  Which begs the question are open houses used to sell the house or get business?  I think it’s both.

If you don’t have a listing of your own available, you’ve got to find someone else’s.  This week about five company-wide emails went out from agents looking for houses to hold open.  Then we started talking about how there’s nothing on tour.

Every Tuesday we jump into our cars and go look at houses – usually newly listed ones – that are open for the agents to preview before showing our prospective buyers.  There wasn’t much to look at.

So where’s the inventory?

I went on the hunt for some numbers.  January of 2010 there were 120 houses for sale.  January 2011, there were 157 houses for sale.  Right now there are 82 houses for sale in San Mateo.

Then I wondered if housing inventory has been on a downward slide or if inventory is low because it’s the beginning of the year and everyone is out getting their taxes done.

December 114 – Seeing the pattern?  Inventory has been going down consistently since June and is at a record-level low for the past year to date.
November 154
October 170
September 173
August 197
July 205
June  209
May 206
April 185
March 165
February 164

What happens when inventory is low?

It depends.  Of course.   My guess is that we’re going to see a little bump in activity.  We’re heading into one of the biggest selling seasons of the year – of every year – Spring.  Inventory is down.  Buyers just got their taxes done and have seen how much they’re losing by not owning a home.  We’re having some kind of crazy weather thing going on where there’s no rain to keep people buttoned into their houses.

Got an open house?

So if you’re thinking of selling, I’m looking for a house to hold open.

Search all Shoreview, San Mateo homes with this link

A total of 95 homes sold in 2011 in the Shoreview neighborhood of San Mateo.   Prices ranged from 1235 Terminal selling for $260,000, after 181 days on the market to 1729 Dolan which was listed for $780,00 and sold for $765,000 after 20 days on the market.

Sales Price Information

The average sales price for the year was $472,020.

On average, Shoreview homes sold for 98% of their asking price.

On average, it took 71 days for a home to sell.

Picture info:  I was over at Harborside to take some pictures and walked along the path looking over to Shoreview by the Fish Market.  It was a cloudy day so the picture isn’t as nice as I was hoping but I’ll get over there again soon.

San Mateo School Assignments

School assignments are based on their current address. In order to determine which school your child will attend in the San Mateo-Foster City School District, you can click on the school lookup form link below, input your street number and street name information and select a city from the pulldown menu.

The School Lookup Tool provides a preliminary neighborhood school assignment based on the address provided. However, actual enrollment is based on space availability at the school site. Please contact the school to confirm the assignment!

The History

The history of San Mateo’s flood zones are a bit of a “who’s on first” story line; a back and forth between San Mateo government and FEMA.

The Assessment

In 2009, the residents within the flood zones agreed to a self-assessment to raise the funds needed for the repairs.

The Repairs

Those repairs were started earlier in 2011 and were mostly complete by December.  The Foster City Patch reports that the work is complete and that the City has submitted the paperwork to FEMA to have the maps redrawn to exclude certain areas from the flood zones.  That rezoning will allow about 6,000 residents to stop paying for flood insurance which can cost upwards of $100 per month.

The City of San Mateo website currently says, “The Levee Project is nearing completion.”   And that, “Once the work has been certified by FEMA, a revised flood map will be issued and approximatley 4,000 homes (North of Highway 92 and South of San Mateo Creek) will be removed and 2,000 homes (South of Highway 92) will be precluded from the Special Flood Hazard Area.  City officials are working diligently with FEMA to have the levee work certified and to issue a revised map.”

There are only “punch list” items left at the four project sites:

• Detroit Drive Floodwall
• Seal Slough Floodwall
• San Mateo Creek Floodwall (adjacent to Ryder Park)
• East End Levee

This may matter to you now:  “…some residents may be eligible for a reduced insurance premium. Property owners who procured insurance after 10/19/2001 and are currently paying for a “High Risk Policy” would potentially be eligible for a ”Standard Rated Policy.”

Where we are now

FEMA will have to certify that the levees meet the standards; which – according to the City – will take several months.  Once that certification is received, FEMA will prepare a preliminary map and issue a final determination to the City, which is expected this Spring.   Six months after that final determination the map will become finalized – that’s expected to happen late this year.

In the meantime, keep paying your flood insurance.