There was an interesting article in the Trib today about the impact of the Internet on the real estate industry. The person interviewed is CEO of a company based in San Luis Obispo that develops real estate products. The article is here.

Some homes are put on the market with a price range, rather than a single price. When we were replacing our MLS system for the area, one Central Coast broker wanted to make sure the MLS supported "value range pricing". USA Today had a good article describing what it is a few days ago. Click to read the article.

Central Coast MLS Statistics for Residential Homes - November 2005

New Listings - 687
Price Changes - 684
Back on Market - 213
Contingent - 86
Pending - 491
Expired - 331 (I'm adding expired listings to the monthly summary)

Look in the archive for stats from other months.

MLS Search #1 is working again!

My MLS Search #1 is currently down. I apologize for this. Luckily I have MLS Search #2 that you can use. I contacted the vendor for MLS Search #1 and they appear to be gone for the holidays with no support staff on duty. I'm in the process of evaluating a map-based MLS search which will replace MLS Search #1 anyways. Again, sorry if you've tried MLS Search #1 this weekend and got the Line 667 error.

A 2300 sq ft 3 bedroom home in Arroyo Grande Oak Park Estates came on the market for $895,000. It's on 1.3 fenced acres and has a barn. This is one of the larger lots in Oak Park Estates and sounds like a good price.

Here's an article in today's USA Today about the market changing from a Seller's market to a Buyer's market. See article here

The San Luis Obispo City Council approved 264 homes near the corner of Broad and Orcutt. There will be a mixture of one bedroom condos and 3 bedroom homes. Work is expected to begin in the first half of 2006.

Newspaper circulation continues to decline

Down an average of almost 3% from March-Sept this year. The San Francisco Chronicle was down 16%

Read the article here.

I caught a bit of Dave C's talk show on KVEC today and there was a guy on stating his opinion that SLO housing prices will exceed Los Angeles in the upcoming years. His reason is because of the # of retirees over the next 15 years. As the babyboomers retire, they'll want to come to a place with less traffic, clean air, and a good quality of life. Yep...that's the Central Coast all right! It actually makes a lot of sense. We're already seeing the school population starting to decrease around the county which means fewer families are coming and staying in SLO. If you're looking to retire in the area in the next 10-15 years, you might want to look how you can invest in the area now!

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) prepared some reports from around the country to show that the facts don't support the possibility of a housing bubble burst. You can download their findings here.

Hotel/Motel Online Booking

At the bottom of my home page, there is a link to a hotel/motel reservation service. I've used it a few times already for my own personal travel and I haven't had any problems. It also doesn't add an extra online booking charge like other online hotel reservation sites do.

Check it out!

In the past 24 hours, there have been 60 price changes on available properties!

Is it the time of year, just coincidence, or is something else happening with the local real estate market???

A new $12 Million health, math, and science building was recently opened at the North County Cuesta College campus. There are now over 2,500 students enrolled at the North County campus (there's a total of 11,000 enrolled at Cuesta College). Two more buildings are expected to go out for bid in July.

The new luxury condo complex being built next to The Cliffs in Shell Beach is getting closer to completion. In January, they will auction off 14 of the total 69 condos. The remaining 55 will be rent out like a hotel.

Room rates will range from $285 to $2000 a night! WOW!!! I can't wait to see the unit that goes for $2000 a night on the Central Coast.

A new vaction home law has been approved for Cambria and Cayucos. Now new vacation rentals must not be within 200 feet of an existing one.

If you haven't heard of Google Earth before, you can download it here-
Google Earth

You then put in an address and you'll "fly" to the location using some pretty cool satellite images.

New sewer ordinance in Nipomo

For some homes in Nipomo, they must now hook to the city sewer system if they are within 50 feet of existing sewer lines. The change would need to happen upon transfer of title. If you are buying a home in Nipomo, make sure to check to see if it's one of the homes needing the change.

Central Coast MLS Statistics for October 2005 (Residential-Single Family)

New Listings - 892
Pending - 585
Back on Market - 204
Price Changes -789
Contingent - 80

This is from todays Police Blotter in The Coast News:

"Pismo Beach- A realtor trying to sell a property on the 400 block of Oceanview reported that a neighbor was threatening everybody that came to view the house."

Did they like their neighbor so much they didn't want them to sell and move???

I wonder what effect that neighbor is going to have on the sell price.

SloCountyHomes.com is one of the busiest websites in SLO County!

According to Alexa.com's traffic rankings, not only is SloCountyHomes.com the most visited Central Coast real estate site but one of the most visited Central Coast-related websites.

Here are the Alexa traffic rankings as of today for some area websites (lower number is better):

23,331 - CalPoly.edu
32,560 - SanLuisObispo.com (the Trib)
122,567 - HearstCastle.com
128,092 - SloCountyHomes.com !!!
189,233 - MadonnaInn.com
235,769 - SloJobs.com
338,200 - LocalLinks.com (another one of my sites!)
347,452 - VirtualSlo.com
383,341 - NewTimes-slo.com
433,215 - ClassicCalifornia.com (Pismo Beach Chamber vistors site)
529,746 - KSBY.com
589,378 - PasoRoblesChamber.com
632,371 - VisitSlo.com (SLO Chamber)
1,970,050 - CayucosByTheSea.com
2,217,032 - mclinktocks.com
2,502,793 - TimesPressRecorder.com (South County newspaper)
3,691,586 - 920kvec.com
4,102,395 - SloSymphony.com

Most local real estate websites traffic rank is in the 2,000,000 - 5,000,000 range. I have never seen a site ranked higher than 5 million. I think Alexa stops at 5 million and will just say "No Data" for these websites traffic ranking rather than putting in a value.

To check the traffic ranking of a website, go to www.Alexa.com Click on Traffic Ranking at the top, then enter the website address.

Overheated housing market is cooling

Article in today's USA Today:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2005-11-01-real-estate-usat_x.htm

New Salad Restaurant in Grover Beach!

Salad Safari just opened on Grand in the same center as McDonald's. My daughter and I went there tonite and we were both impressed. You can choose a salad from the menu or pick the lettuce and 6 items and they make it for you. The area needs a place like this! Give them a try. Tell them Keith sent you :)