The San Jose Way

An article in the local San Jose Mercury News newspaper brought to light an obscure provision in bankruptcy law that is getting more and more attention because of today's mortgage crisis. Would you think it possible that a second mortgage can be eliminated alltogether with no recourse or foreclos...

The national property search and information web site Realtor.com just reported that in April 2011, San ose was the 8th fastest-moving real estate market in the entire country. In California, only San Francisco, Oakland and Bakersfield (seriously?) were higher in the list. Here's the full list: D...

Freddie Mac, one of the government sponsored entities (GSE's) with a hand in the U.S. mortgage market, has produced an excellent five video series answering key myths regarding foreclosure. The videos are short (90 to 120 seconds) and packed with straight-up answers. These are must-watch videos ...

The home-building industry continues to struggle through the worst downturn on record. February reports showed that new-home construction in the U.S. fell to a level of about 250,000 homes for all of 2011, which would be the fewest built since recording keeping began in 1963. Obviously, this is r...

A recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle reports on a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study showing that adding solar panels can raise the resale value of a home by several thousand dollars. The study looked at the sales of around 2,000 existing homes with solar panels in California ...

Not if I have anything to say about it! The FBI reported a jump of 71% in mortgage relief fraud investigations from 2008-2009, and expects this number to have grown in 2010. That's why it's my duty to educate homeowners in my community on the cautions they need to take, and what the government ha...

Many homeowners who are unable to purchase a new home because they can't qualify for a new loan  due to stricter guidelines or perhaps because their current mortgage is underwater may want to consider remodeling instead. If that's you, consider upgrading/enhancing areas of your present home to ma...

The April 2011 edition of my Santa Clara County Real Estate Market Trends Report covering San Jose and surrounding communities is now available.  This report covers the state of the real estate market thru March 2011, and is a wealth of practical and statistical information about the current stat...

If you live in a condo, you know your unit is vulnerable to things that happen in the surrounding units. If water overflows in the bathtub in the unit above, it's coming through the ceiling into yours. A fire happens in the kitchen next door, there could be fire, smoke and/or water damage to your...

The California Association of REALTORS is once again sponsoring a bill in the California legislature to extend anti-deficiency protections to cover refinanced mortgages. California already has so-called "single action" laws protecting former homeowners from deficiency judgements by lenders who fo...