Here are the latest numbers:
The median home price in California as of April 06 is… Drum roll! $562,380 according to C.A.R. and the highest median home price by C.A.R. region as of April 06 was Santa Barbara So. Coast $1,250,000. The lowest median home price by C.A.R. region as of April 06 is in the High Desert $334,860 (Source: C.A.R.)
Mortgage rates – week ending 6/15:
30-yr. fixed: 6.63%; Fees/points: 0.5%
15-yr. fixed: 6.25%; Fees/points: 0.6%
1-yr. adjustable: 5.6
I was sick last week and it put me behind on many things, including news, what I wanted to write about and more. One good thing is that I can use that time to see what I want to change in my blog.
I want to see more Long Beach related news. After the heat of the election, nothing much is happening except for the quagmire of the airport EIR. In short, the airport needs upgrading but how much? Three EIRs were proposed and most found resistance from locals but how much do these groups reflect and how much do we really know what is going on? All I would to see for Long Beach is not lose its unique touch, its unique face and airport.
On another note, the real estate news is all over the place. One thing is for sure, things are changing and it isn’t sitting comfortably with many companies. There has been a lot of talk about flat fee brokers. I think its great and we need many services to answer the many people’s needs. One thing still prevails though, you pay what you get for, do the homework. Some people have the time, energy and mind frame to do a lot of the foot work an agent will do. They might find flat fee brokers interesting. For those who want to be covered, they will have to pay more. It’s like buying a quality car versus a cheap car. You pay for what you get.
I read an article about how Michael Shin, the founder of National Home Buyers Assistance started a business model that offers a way for people with bad credit to buy a home. He acquires the house, rents it at a mark-up of 10-12% with an option to purchase. In order to make the higher than usual rent attractive, he rebates half of the rent back if they buy the house.
The idea is very attractive for people with poor credits and first-time buyers. I think this could spell the beginning of something new. What makes our country great is its capacity to change and innovate to meet a growing market demand. Right now in Southern California, first-time buyers are pretty much shut out of buying a house and at best they will get a one bedroom condo downtown for a few years until they build enough equity to step up to a home. Too many times I see first time buyers interested in buying but unable to afford the $3000 to 4000 and onwards mortgage payment per month for a median price home. This shuts off not only an important market but a demographic from a city.
I am sure in due time, more alternatives like that will occur and more people will be able to access their dream homes.
If you are thinking about switching to a Mac or have already done so, here are ten reasons Mike Wendland gives you to still be happy after 4 years of living with a Mac.
I agree with everything he says and wanted to point out how easy it is for me to use my wireless function under Mac compared to how quirky and long it takes on my wife’s Windows XP machine. Also how well integrated Mac apps, something Microsoft still hasn’t mastered. And there are the spam, virus and trojan horse problems or should I say lack of so far. None in four years!
I use to be stressed under Windows about backing up, having my antivirus updated and checking my firewall to make sure it was working properly. How many times either one of them just stopped working without as much as a sign. The only time I get stressed now is when I go back on a Windows machine.
This is beyond a war of ideals and emotionally gut wrenching loving one system or another, it just works. Period.
Please go and read CNN Money’s column on the 50 most important people who matter now. I was pleasantly surprised to see someone finally gets who is number 1. Maybe big corporations can finally get a clue.
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/peoplewhomatter/index.html
One thing being stuck in bed 3 days does is leave plenty of time to think and reflect. I tried keeping up with the news while I indulged in watching Star Trek episodes. Some people laugh when I talk about Star Trek but remember some ivy league universities students watch it and discuss the topic next day. It raises a lot of interesting philosophical points if you go past Hollywood’s childish schemes of revenge and violence.
Next the news was as usual, gloom and hope. That’s all I seem to read in the specialized real estate press, some say they see it cooling off while others see the light at the end of the tunnel. One thing is for sure, buyers are pickier than ever and sellers haven’t fully realized that.
This me take time away from my day to day concerns and see how rapped up we get over our lives. How much of it is really ours and how much of it is taken from what society pushes into our lives? On the international side of things, it’s still the same. We are trying to help others while trying to figure out where to start helping ourselves. And this attitude transcends almost every person, society and companies. Rarely do we courageously tackle the source of the problem. Case in point? Microsoft and their incorrigible security challenged operating system, modern medicine treats symptoms, rarely goes to the cause and if it does even rarer does it resolve it, politicians love to identify to ideologies but rarely go after the root of the core problems we face, and us, every day people making this whole insane system go round. No, I don’t have a high fever either.
So what’s to do? I guess keep on doing what we do best, adapt, change, understand the only constant in our known universe is change. In a society where we are more interested in our image than our our nature, I do see something happening, a certain saturation point where people don’t trust brand names anymore, politics, governments, local electives, themselves, and more. I read more articles making fun of our big two parties and their politicians, a healthy thing to do I believe. There is an awakening of sorts and it might still be in its infancy but it is reaching far more people, more social layers and cultures because we are in dire need of some changes.
A few years ago, corporate greed tried to get our cell numbers open to telemarketers but was turned down. I remember being in the middle of a business meeting when my cell phone rang and I was told about stays in a Las Vegas hotel.
I haven’t double checked the information below but securing your cell phone number is not a bad idea anyway. I have used that registry for many years and it has drastically cut down on telemarketers and unwanted calls, except for those hideous politicians campaign recordings.
Thank you FCC for looking out for sonsumers and thank you cell phone companies for making more money on your customer’s backs.
As of July 15,2006, all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sale calls. Some of you, depending on your services will have to pay for these calls and they will eat into your minutes. To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone:
888-382-1222. or go to https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx
It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your time.
It blocks your number for five (5) years. IF you call… it has to be from the phone you want to register. And if you feel your local and state representative should hear about how, as a consumer feel about this, let them know.
Please pass it on.
Second day of being stuck in bed makes me realize a few things, there are only so much Star Trek and L Word you can watch, I should have a few articles prepared for days like these and why can we localize where it feels bad in our body but rarely where it feels good?
And so goes my day with a head that feels it is caught in wet cotton and an aching body where every joints feel like they are 95 years old.
Obviously no real post today as I sletp from 6am to 3:30pm. Being sick in bed in Southern California is a lttle unreal. Bird are singing outside, it’s hot and sunny and you have NO desire to go outside…
One IT journalist I love to read is Robert X. Cringely who writes a few a propos columns, one of my favorite being hosted at www.pbs.org and called i, cringely. Robert has a keen observation quality and easily points out what might not be obvious at first.
In his last column, he speaks of Microsoft and Net Neutrality. I will focus a little on Microsoft first as I agree with all his points.
So Bill Gates is stepping down? Well it’s about time. It’s true, a lot of people love to bash Microsoft. It’s a sport of sorts. Pro Microsofties cry foul and the debate goes on. One thing still remains, Microsoft has the worse image in the IT industry in terms of brand recognition due to poor security track. Why? Because Microsoft always gave security an after thought when building its operating system and only started to address until too late when the mess got too big to rewrite that precious but outdated operating system. Robert points out what most of us have been saying for a long, long time. Microsoft never invented, sometimes innovated but mostly cheated, stole, bought and lied. Now they are at a tipping point with extremely low public image, faced with a tough choice, they need to reinvent themselves. And that is the problem.
l One thing I hear is that Bill Gates was a programmer. OK, guys seriously, everyone has programmed a thing or two in Basic, Basic A and maybe Fortran or Pascal in school in the 80′s. That is a given and it doesn’t make anyone a programmer. I did it too and I am far from being one. Second, Microsoft pretty much stole all their programs one way or another. If they couldn’t outright steal a company’s program, they would buy it out and if they couldn’t do that, they would do the same with another company’s lesser product and compete with deep pocket marketing ads against the original product they couldn’t steal, buy or wrestle away. Think WordPerfect and Word. Microsoft never wrote Word, nor Excel, nor etc. Bill Gates was never a techy, he was a lucky business man at the right place, at the right time and up against a full of itself IBM who couldn’t see the threat in him.
Microsoft is at a point where there isn’t much to buy off anymore and their market relevance is seriously challenged today. They need to do the impossible, think, invent and act on it. They need to do something they have never done before, understand the market and think outside the box. Want examples? When did Microsoft finally embrace the importance of the Internet? When did Microsoft finally acknowledge the importance of security? Do a little research and you will find famous references to Bill Gates in the mid-90′s saying the Internet thingy is a fad with no future. Security was an added consideration after years of having built an operating system with no security in mind. Why? Windows was designed poorly from the beginning as a stand alone machine.
Microsoft faces a very tough challenge ahead. It needs to rebuild itself, give itself morals, which it never had. It needs to have serious management quality it never had in the 80′s and built upon. It needs to die and be reborn again…
Tomorrow I’ll look at Net Neutrality.