Meredith Martin's (streetsofm) Blog

The U.S. government has pushed hard to make homeowners out of one-third of Americans who still rent their homes. It introduced and later extended a tax credit for first-time home buyers, and has kept federal interest rates at their lowest levels since the 1940s. Market conditions are such that no...

September 2007 ~ September 2009 4,073 ~ Properties for Sale ~ 3,226 (20% less)447 ~ Under Contract ~ 648 (45% more)447 ~ Sold ~ 492 (10% more)$761,000 ~ Median Sales Price ~ $641,000 (16% less)38 ~ Days on Market ~ 53Which means even though there's less inventory to choose from (contrary to popu...

If you've ever wanted to know anything about HOA rules and regulations - what's legal and what isn't - I highly recommend subscribing to Davis-Sterling's newsletter. They are a law firm that specialize in the often gray area of Condominium HomeOwners Associations in California. Their weekly newsl...

Courtesy of Julian Hebron, a local mortgage banker (aka direct lender, which are handy guys to have on-call in this lending climate) and all around guy-in-the-know, here is an update on rates, and the direct impacts to the housing market from the newly signed 'Stimulus Plan'.                     ...

How Much Have San Francisco Home Values Declined Since their Peak?Below is an analysis of San Francisco neighborhoods comparing dollar per square foot ($/sq.ft.) at what is estimated to be the most recent peak value, to what the $/sq.ft. was for sales occurring Oct 15th, 2008 - January 30th 2009....

The 2007 Cost vs. Value Report establishes cost-to-construct benchmarks for a set of common remodeling projects, then estimates how much of that investment will be recouped at resale in the current market.  It's a must read for those needing more space, like many of my clients with growing famili...