Blog
Real Estate Prices Stable But Inventories Likely Growing
Last month, we reported that the number of single-family homes being put up for sale in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties was returning to ‘normal’ levels after shrinking by about 25% due to the interest rate hikes in mid-2022. We also not...
Fair Plan Insurance Is Under Stress & Everyone Must Pay
Keep in mind that the FAIR Plan is not a government program, but rather a shared market where licensed insurers are required by law to contribute to a risk pool. Insurers contribute based on their market share in California. This allows the FAI...
IRS Might Increase State & Local Tax Deductions
The SALT (State and Local Tax) deduction allows taxpayers to deduct their payments for state and local taxes, such as income, property, and sales taxes when filing their federal taxes. This benefit is especially valuable for residents of high t...
California AB 942: Possible Changes To Existing Solar Contracts Coming?
California is considering passing Assembly Bill 942, which would change how homeowners with rooftop solar systems are compensated for the excess electricity they send back to the grid. Specifically, the bill would modify Net Energy Metering (NE...
New ‘Defensible Space’ Rules Coming
In 2023, California implemented new defensible space rules for homes in high fire risk areas. The state has recently added some stricter regulations in these high fire hazard severity regions, including a 5-foot "ember-resistant zone" around ho...
More Sellers, Fewer Buyers, Home Prices Stable… So far!
Sorry, but this will be a boring newsletter strictly about real estate, no jokes or funny stories this time. In the past, we mainly wrote about the real estate market in San Mateo County, but going forward, we are merging the data for both c...
What Happened To Home Insurance?
WHAT HAPPENED TO INSURANCE RATES? If you haven’t been hiding under a rock (or living in an underground bunker), you probably know that finding affordable home insurance in California is becoming as tricky as finding a safe parking spot in Sa...
What Happened With Real Estate Commissions?
So, recently, we’ve been hit with a surprisingly large number of questions about the new real estate commissions rules. It’s kind of like the plot to a bad spy movie with confidential information being exchanged between secret agents, but h...