Food for Thought: Road Trip Podcasts

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Heading out of town to beat the heat this weekend? The good folks at Mashable put together this list of podcasts to pass the time while you’re getting to where you’re going.

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Pearl You

Pearl is a stylish woman with creative inclinations. She has great eyes for property and a nose for opportunity. She excels at creative marketing and project management, and she can negotiate with the best. She understands that real estate is really about finding the lifestyle of your dreams. It’s human nature, and it drives Pearl’s work every day.

Geek's Number Talk: Market Opening Up

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Open house activity can provide a glimpse at what the real estate market will look like weeks and months into the future. A recent spike in open houses after a slow Spring coupled with increased consumer confidence in the wake of record-low 30-year mortgage interest rates means we can expect an uptick in demand throughout the summer months.

Open Houses per Week June 2021.png

If you’re interested in how the market is moving in your neighborhood, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’d love to talk with you about it!

Chic vs. Geek: What do buyers want?

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We’re still getting used to the “new normal”, and it’s shifting the way buyers are looking at homes, too. So what are the most popular features in a post-COVID world?

CHIC (PEARL)

It shouldn’t be surprising that home offices and big backyards are in high demand. With more employers shifting to hybrid or work-from-home models, a quiet space to Zoom or crush that deadline is becoming more valuable. And being stuck at home is a lot more tolerable when you have a spacious backyard to spread out.

GEEK (KEVIN)

The biggest selling point for a lot of buyers is family space — and not just for socializing. We all know that personal space is just as important, especially when you’ve heard the same family stories a couple hundred times. And with crimes of opportunity on the rise, a secure front porch is becoming another hot item on the COVID market.

Want more tips? Contact us!

Market Update: Pending home sales on the rise!

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According to the National Association of REALTORS®, pending home sales increased 8% in May over April and are up 13.1% from just one year ago. And a Pending Home Sales Index of 114.7 was the highest reading for May since 2005! NAR’s newsroom has all the details.

Geek's Number Talk: Where are all the people going?

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You may have heard that the Bay Area is experiencing a population decline for the first time in what seems like decades of consistent growth. According to early Census data, our regional population shrunk by 0.6% in 2020, and we’re down 0.8% from the peak of just two years ago.

As you can see, the biggest dip was right here in Santa Clara County, which dropped more than 15,000 residents last year alone. It’s no secret that the rising costs of housing are driving a population shift out of the Bay Area. But it’s yet to be seen how long this trend will hold.