Oakland Real Estate Blog 
New Oakland Development by Signature Properties
Friday, April 12th, 2013 at 12:49pm. 667 Views, 0 Comments.
You may have heard about Oakland's newest Development which will be one of the biggest in the City! On Wednesday Governor Jerry Brown announced this project at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing. Signature properties has partenered with a Chinese Investment firm called Zarsion Holdings, to develop approximately 65 acres South of Jack London Square along the Oakland Estuary. It will transform the area into a Waterfront neighborhood with: 3100 homes, 200,000 square feet of retail space, 30 acres of Park space and a Marina with 200 boat slips.
This is a very positive sign for the health of our real estate market, which has gotten extremely hot in recent months. The project is also expected to bring about 10,000 jobs to Oakland, and take eight to fifteen years to…
Another Oakland Real Estate Bubble?
Monday, March 18th, 2013 at 2:36pm. 772 Views, 0 Comments.
Well, if you have been in the market for purchasing a home or watching the news much lately you have probably heard stories about how crazy the real estate market in Oakland and other part of the Bay area is right now. Everywhere across the East Bay, multiple offers are pretty much the norm and we are seeing some cases where there are as many as 35 or more offers on a property! Homes are routinely selling for 100k or more over the asking price, and cash buyers are making offers with no contingencies at all.
This is definitely reminiscent of the 2003-2006 Market we saw which led to the so called "Mortgage Meltdown" and near collapse of the economy. The question is...could it really happen all over again? Of course no one knows for sure, but we do know…
Real Estate Finance: Big Changes to FHA Mortgage Insurance
Monday, February 25th, 2013 at 1:38pm. 6879 Views, 2 Comments.
I have written several blog posts over the past few years about the changes that the Federal Housing Administration have in store for FHA financing..but the most recent development may have the biggest impact of any of the recent changes. Currently, on any loan that is made with less than a 20% down payment the lender will require PMI or Private Mortgage Insurance. With FHA, there is an up front fee and then a monthly payment that goes directly to the PMI company. This protects the lender in the event that the borrower does not repay the loan. The current structure allows for the PMI payment to go away after the borrower has reached 80% loan to value (20% equity) in the home. At this point, the lenders feel the risk of default is low enough for them to…
Selling Oakland Real Estate: The Sellers Market
Monday, January 28th, 2013 at 2:00pm. 1381 Views, 0 Comments.
For several years starting around 2007, the real estate market in Oakland and in other parts of the Country could be described as a "buyers market". When inventory is high, it drives demand down because the supply is high. All the short sales and foreclosures that flooded the market from 2007-2-10 or so created an oversupply of homes, with not enough buyers who were ready, willing and able to purchase. This is partially what lead to the dramatically declining values that we saw in Oakland and eslewhere. If you were a normal seller who wasn't underwater or facing foreclosure and you wanted to sell your home, you were faced with having to price your home to compete with all the short sales and foreclosures that were on the market. This is why homes in…
Oakland Real Estate: Thinking of a Short Sale?
Thursday, January 17th, 2013 at 2:46pm. 618 Views, 0 Comments.
One of the more significant risks of short selling your real estate is that it could have potential tax consequences. Fortunately soon after the market began to go down in the mid 2000's and it was evident that short sales would be around for some time, legislators passed legislation that allowed short sellers of real estate to have the taxes that would normally be assessed on the debt that they were being forgiven to be waived.
Think about it this way: Let's say you want to short sell your house in Oakland and you paid $600k for it and it is now worth $400k. The balance on your mortgage is still $550k since you've only lived in the house a few years. When you sell the house for $400k, the difference in the amount owed and the amount of the sale is…
Oakland Homeowners: The Mortgage Interest Deduction May Go Away
Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 at 1:27pm. 9816 Views, 0 Comments.
If you own a home in Oakland or anywhere else in the Country for that matter, you may or may not know that part of the negotiations around the "fiscal cliff" involve the mortgage interest deduction for homeowners. Some want to eliminate it all together, some want to cap it at a certain amount and some want to leave it in place as it is. The interest that is paid on a mortgage is quite significant, and the fact that it can currently be deducted is one of the major benefits of owning a home.
Any reduction in the ability for home owners to deduct mortgage interest could be harmful to the housing market...which is why the National Association of Realtors is currently lobbying in Washington to have the mortgage interest deduction preserved. Although our…
Oakland Mayor Hosts Housing Resource and Foreclosure Prevention Clinic
Wednesday, October 24th, 2012 at 1:52pm. 4656 Views, 0 Comments.
Oakland's Mayor Jean Quan and Assembly member Sandre Swanson are hosting an event aimed at helping homeowners keep their homes by preventing foreclosure. There will be representatives from some of the Nation's largest lenders along with housing counselors to consult homeowners who are in trouble. Attendees are encouraged to bring financial documentation such as W-2's, Tax returns, pay check stubs, list of monthly expenses and a harship letter explaining your situation and why you need help. Similiar events have been very successful at helping people keep their homes.
The date of the event is Monday, Nov. 12 from 9:30-3:30 at the Oakland Marriott Convention Center. I would encourage anyone who is behind on mortgage payments or underwater on their real…
FHA Guidelines For Condos Soon to Change
Thursday, September 20th, 2012 at 2:16pm. 1444 Views, 0 Comments.
For the past several years, the only way to purchase the majority of condos and townhomes in Oakland or surrounding cities has been with conventional financing. This is because a few years ago the FHA (Federal Housing Administration) adjusted it's guidelines for condo developments which made it pretty much impossible to for 90% of the condos and townhomes on the market to be financed with FHA.
Because FHA loans are insured by the government, there are more strict guidelines for the developments to adhere to..which means there will be less units available that can be financed. Luckily, the FHA recently announced that some changes are coming to the guidelines, which will allow many more developments to become approved for Fha financing. This is a welcome…
Tenants' Rights in Oakland
Wednesday, September 19th, 2012 at 11:58am. 594 Views, 0 Comments.
When considering purchasing real estate that is tenant occupied, it's important to make sure you are aware of the laws and ordinances of the City the property is located in. For example, in Oakland we have rent control as well as Measure EE (otherwise know as The Just Cause Eviction Ordinance). This ordinance makes it more difficult to evict tenants, requiring the landlord to have "Just Cause". Unlike most surrounding cities..you cannot legally evict a tenant for the purpose of selling a property. You have to leave the tenant in place and the new owner may or may not be able to evict them if the owner chooses to reside in one of the units (or reside in the home if it's single family).
There are many people who are interested in purchasing investment…
Oakland's Laurel District Fair
Thursday, August 30th, 2012 at 11:08pm. 1071 Views, 0 Comments.
Oakland's Laurel District Fair was a few weeks ago, and being that it only took up the area between 35th ave and 38th ave along Macarthur blvd...I would say the turnout was great. Good food, drinks (inlcuding some amazing Sangria provided by World Grounds Cafe on Macarthur) and entertainment including the Samba dancers you see here. I'm really glad to see this type of event happening..for many years it seemed that these types of events were restricted to the Rockridge and Temescal districts for the most part. Obviously there are many good things happening in Oakland, and the Laurel Festival is a testament to that. I especially like it when I run into folks who are from out of town, and they are blown away by Oakland..mainly because they never took the…