A recent claim that San Mateo Townhouse prices were dropping was surprising because the townhouse cited as an example was a 4-bedroom unit. Studio and 1-bedroom condos do have low demand, but…
San Mateo New Townhouse Prices
A recent claim that San Mateo Townhouse prices were dropping was surprising because the townhouse cited as an example was a 4-bedroom unit. Studio and 1-bedroom condos do have low demand, but “family-sized” townhouses have generally had balanced demand with almost flat prices since 2019. From 2011 until about 2020, townhouse appreciation matched that of single-family houses. The townhouse was part of the new Pulte Homes “Heights” development, which has three collections. The 4-bedroom unit was part of the “Elevate” collection, which features rooftop decks and is the most expensive. Townhouse Price History The specific townhouse cited as an example has a price history: 2020/01/17 Listed $2,774,990 or $1,082/sqft 2025/09/28 Reduced $2,724,990 or…
House Prices Near SF vs. San Mateo House Prices
House prices in cities near San Francisco have been appreciating more slowly than in San Mateo. San Mateo house price appreciation is barely higher than that of San Mateo County. House Price Appreciation If house price trends in San Mateo County are carefully examined, 2018 appears to have been a turning point for house prices. The short-term spikes in 2018 and in early 2022 are very noticeable, but the trend from late 2018 to 2026 is flatter than that from 2012 to 2018. In early 2022, house prices fell further from their 1st-quarter 2022 peak for cities near San Francisco than for San Mateo. Age Of Houses Sold If the age of the houses sold in a city such as San Bruno, located close to SF, is compared to San Mateo, there is a significant difference beginning in mid 2019. The faint red…
Mortgage Deductions For New Home Buyers vs Prop 13 For Old Buyers
Proposition 13 in California is blamed by prospective home buyers as being one of the reasons buying a house is so expensive. “Long-time homeowners aren’t paying their fair share.” What we rarely see is that income tax deductions for mortgage interest favor new home buyers. Taxes never make anything cheaper unless a tax “refund” is given for taxes that weren’t paid. Long-time homeowners will typically have much lower mortgages and thus much less opportunity, if any, to deduct their mortgage from their income taxes. Long-time homeowners bought their home at a lower price and thus a lower mortgage, and have also paid off a significant portion, possibly all, of their mortgage. With time, standard deductions grow and the mortgage interest decreases, the value of the mortgage deduction can…
Real Estate Agent Commission
A big change was made to real estate sales in 2024. Now, a real estate agent has to get a written agreement with a potential buyer before they can tour a home with them. Much of the rationale for this change centered on the fact that home sellers typically paid a commission to the real estate agent who represented the buyer. Claims were made that sellers should not be forced to pay for the buyers’ agent and that buyers should pay for their own agent. In Silicon Valley, real estate commissions have been negotiable for many years. The default practice has been that the sellers pay all commissions, and the total commission is approximately split between the sellers’ agent and the buyers’ agent. A benefit is that the buyer does not have to come up with cash to pay a…
Can Protected Trees Be Removed
Cities enact their own tree protection ordinances, which are specific to that city. A long-time Palo Alto resident recently posted about his protected tree removal attempts to force his neighbor to remove Coast Redwood Trees whose roots were damaging his foundation. We reached out and talked to him for several hours. One of the points that came up was that the city department in charge of managing protected trees apparently enacted regulations to appease the local tree preservation group Canopy. After two years of court cases and numerous discussions, the owner of the damaged house was left with the understanding that the city expanded its protection to other tree types and sizes to appease Canopy, reducing the organization’s opposition to the removal of specific trees. Even if you…
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