When is it a Bedroom?

In the Realtor community, the definition of a bedroom was always: a room with a closet. My nearly 40 years of selling homes and using this meaning was recently corrected in an article by John Schneider, in his "All About Homes" column. Schneider is a licensed contractor, and he cited the Universal Building Code as saying that a bedroom is one used primarily for sleeping, and complying to several health and safety requirements. These include natural light and ventilation, an installed source of heat, electrical outlets, and a way to escape in case of fire or other emergency. Because of the potential for fire and the possible spread of gas fumes, there can be no door or window leading to the garage from a bedroom. (This is interesting, because there are local homes built by AHG that have this setup.)
There are other, more detailed requirements in the code, but nowhere in the list is the necessity for the bedroom to have a closet. We learn something every day!

Sunnyvale in Top 10 "Rich Cities"

Money Magazine's annual report on mid-sized cities is out again. In this year's Best Places to Live study, Sunnyvale placed number 7 in the "Rich and Single" category, with an annual median household income of $110,226 and a 30 percent single rate. Newport Beach came out #1 in this group, but there were several other local areas in the top 10: Mountain View, Milpitas and Santa Clara...with San Jose not far behind in the #15 spot. With all the single engineers around, these figures are not too surprising.
I also checked out their list of priciest homes, and Palo Alto came out highest in the country. Sunnyvale and Mountain View were also in the top 25.
Well, at least I'm single. I'll work a little harder at the "rich" part.

Some Thoughts on the Market

This afternoon I talked to a neighbor about the real estate market and the changing dynamics of our townhouse community. The buyers here are mostly young families attracted by the ideal location, beautiful landscaping, and good schools, and the majority of sellers have been seniors who are no longer able to handle two-story living (or even independent living at all.)
Later in the day, I read an online article that went into the economic side of this equation. Many of us in the Baby Boom Generation had much of our paper wealth erased when the stock market crashed in 2008, and retirement dates were delayed. But now, with the slightly rocky rebound in both the stock and real estate markets, we are starting to regain our confidence. In the next couple of years, we should see more seniors selling, and either relocating, or buying smaller, more manageable places to live.

House Logic

Jeff Bell, the president of the Silicon Valley Association of Realtors and a friend in my office, wrote an article that appeared in today's Mercury News. It was mostly about the advantages of owning a home, and the current all-time lows in interest rates for buyers, but he also mentioned an exciting website for new and long-time homeowners...HouseLogic.com. I had a chance to explore the site this morning, and it includes everything from an article on how to request a property tax reduction, to a whole section of do-it-yourself tips. Check it out!

The World Cup and Real Estate

We presented the offers on the townhouse listing on Wednesday night, and we are in contract. My clients are from Holland and they are almost more excited about being in the World Cup finals than in selling their house!
Their son Olaf sat in on the presentation, wearing an orange soccer jersey, and his birthday party yesterday had a soccer theme and a cake frosted in bright orange. If they beat Spain on Sunday, this will be their first championship since 1974.

It Pays to Work on a Holiday

Despite the loss of the first time buyers' credit, and the threat of "shadow inventory," (a sudden dump of foreclosed homes on the market) we continue to see low inventories and strong sales in the Sunnyvale/Cupertino markets.
I held open houses over the Holiday Weekend at my three bedroom townhouse listing in Sunset Oaks, and they were extremely busy. I had hoped that since there were fewer properties being held open on the 3rd and 4th of July, mine would attract a good turnout, and I was right.
This contemporary model was featured in a virtual tour, and the signs and advertising also brought in potential buyers.
Now we expect at least four offers tomorrow.