Looking for a home near Cayucos...but out in the country? A newly built 3500 sq foot home on 42 fenced acres just came on the market. Seven minutes from town. Asking $2.85 million. See more details here.

The inventory of the number of new homes available for sale has risen 20% since last January. Full article here.

Looks like the promise of water someday still has value. A 3500 sq foot lot came on the market in Cambria within the Marine Terrace subdivision. It has water meter position #555. Asking price is $315,000.

A 18,000 square foot parcel in downtown Pismo Beach beach just came on the market. There are 10 pier-and-post rental units currently on the property but the value being presented is in the land and a plan to build 20 condos on it. Asking $4 Million.

A 16-unit complex in Grover Beach just removed a contingent offer and it's back active on the market. The complex went on the market in December and soon had the contigent offer on it. It has 16 2-bedroom townhomes in North Grover Beach. Projected annual income of $211,000. It's listed at $2,750,000. If you're looking for an investment, you might want to check this complex out.

I added some more mls map search choices to make it easier to search neighborhoods, multi-family properties, and million dollar homes. I also added Zillow to the page which is another Online Home Valuation Tool.

Here's the page which you can use no matter what area you are searching on.

http://www.slocountyhomes.com/san_luis_obispo_real_estate.htm

If you have any comments on this page or find anything that doesn't work, drop me a note here if you don't mind. Thx.

I wanted to give an update about my home value reports as I've emailed a lot of you that have tried but couldn't find your property and told you to check here for updates.

The problem with data from the SLO County Assessor's office still isn't fixed. Unfortunately, the vendor that supplies me this service is severely lacking in customer service so I'm in the dark on when this problem is supposed to be resolved. Home valuations for properties outside of SLO County do work though.

I hope my next post about this subject is good news.

Americans are buying homes that are bigger and contain more luxury features than ever. By some accounts, the million-dollar-plus home is now the strongest segment of many housing markets. (Read the rest of the article here)

I received an email from an agent offering free nights at a hotel plus a 3% commission (rare around here these days) if I sold his listing in Santa Maria. The real estate market must be changing since I haven't received one of these type of emails for a long time.

If you have teenager or preteens, make sure you read this article about myspace.com. I know of problems at one of our local Junior High schools because of myspace.

I have three teenage daughters. I only allow my two younger girls to have a private myspace.com page. This means that no one can access their site unless they are put on the approved list. I also have my own myspace.com page and have access to their sites so I can monitor them. I've been on the Internet too long to know you have to keep a watch on what your kids are doing on the net. There are too many creepy people out there that can hide behind a keyboard and monitor.

Wow. A still under construction 5,000 sq foot home in Cabrillo Estates of Los Osos price was just raised $400,000 to $4.3 Million. It's been on the market for 60 days. Not sure why such a big price increase if it wasn't selling at $3.9 Million. Usually after 60 days you try lowering the price to hopefully bring a Buyer.

I found a link to webpage about a shopping center in the Bay Area that has been demolished and being rebuilt with mixed use properties. There is a live webcam for the construction project. While there isn't much to see yet, the web camera is pretty interesting. You can take control of the camera and zoom in on the Denny's across the street and see people eating. Ok, so it's a little Big Brother-ish but fun to play with. Here's the web cam.

A Kohl's department store is starting construction in Southern Santa Maria near Broadway and McCoy. The Monster.com job board postings I found say that it will be open in October.

False alarm about my Home Value service being fixed. My vendor says there is a problem with the data file from the San Luis Obispo county assessor causing lots of properties to not be found. When they fix it, I'll post back to the blog. You should be able to get home values for cities outside of SLO County though.

I saw this new company at a Realtor show in San Francisco and was impressed with the way a listing can be presented. Lots better than the typical virtual tour with those 360 degree photos that rarely look good, IMO. It's called a Virtual Floor Plan and here is one I did for one of my homes.

My automated home valuation is working again. I ran some test addresses and the system didn't find all of the properties though. I'd be interested in hearing from you if you are having problems getting the neighborhood home solds report. I'm paying enough for it so it should be working!!! You can send me an email or just fill out my contact form here.

The Home Value page is here.

Pro bikers will be riding through the Central Coast next week on a 600 mile tour.

Next Thursday, stage 4 starts in Monterey and ends in San Luis Obispo. Stage 5 starts from SLO on Friday. Most of downtown SLO streets will be closed on Thursday for a festival from 11 to 4. It sounds like the riders will be coming in around 4 since they plan to close Chorro Street (all the way up to Highland) from 3-4 pm. On Friday, the cyclists leave Mission Plaza at 10 AM and there will be some road closures until around 1 PM. Here's the website for the tour.

I think ESPN is going to be televising it so if you want a chance to be seen on tv, you might want to head downtown either Thursday afternoon when they arrive or Friday morning when they leave!

Two properties with asking prices of $3.2 Million came on the market today.

One is an 86 acre property with ocean views in Nipomo came on the market today. It has 30 level acres with home, guest home, and barns.

The other is 130 acre vineyard property in San Miguel.

For all you American Idol fans, Carrie Underwood is going to be at the Mid State Fair this year. I believe her show is scheduled for August 2nd. Other entertainers announced here.

Can you believe the weather the past few days. Absolutely GORGEOUS!

Here's a photo I took today of the sunset in Morro Bay. Hope it takes you there! You can click it and it will display a larger photo for you.

It appears my automated home value service is down. I did a test submission and it timed out on me without sending me a Sold report. I've contacted the vendor's support department. I'll post when it's running again. Sorry for any inconvenience.

I received a few emails today asking if a commercial airing on KSBY was mine. They say it's like my Bucky Buthman parody real estate website that I've had up for a few years. I hope to see the commercial when I'm watching the olympics. Someone said the guy on the commercial even looks like Bucky!

Cypress Ridge II - a no go

The folks at Cypress Ridge are wanting to expand with 140+ more homes and another 9-hole golf course. When they went to get lots rezoned they didn't hear the answer they wanted. Concerns with the impact on the Mesa, water shortages, and traffic were the reasons given for the no-go vote.

Here are some fast facts from the California Association of Realtors (CAR):


Calif. median home price - Dec. 05: $548,430 (Source: C.A.R.)

Calif. affordability index - Nov. 05: 14 percent (Source: C.A.R.)

Calif. highest median home price by C.A.R. region Dec. 05:Santa Barbara So. Coast $1,300,000 (Source: C.A.R.)

Calif. lowest median home price by C.A.R. region Dec. 05:High Desert $320,490 (Source: C.A.R.)

Mortgage rates - week ending 2/2:
30-yr. fixed: 6.23%; Fees/points: 0.5%
15-yr. fixed: 5.81%; Fees/points: 0.5%
1-yr. adjustable: 5.33%; Fees/points: 0.7% (Source: Freddie Mac)

Central Coast MLS Statistics - January 2006
Residential

New Listings - 795
Price changes - 586
Contingent - 66
Back on Market - 236
Pending - 460
Solds - 323

Congratulations to John Madden, Cal Poly's first alumnus to be voted into the NFL Hall of Fame!

New Times cover page article creates quite a stir

The latest issue of New Times has an article about Meth use. While it starts off with an interview with a meth addict, it then details how to make Meth yourself. Not only does it give the ingredients, it tells you what store to get them at and what they cost. It advises you to tell a certain store that you're making homemade soap in order to get one chemical. It also gives tips on how not to get caught by suggesting to tape up your doors and windows so the neighbors won't smell your meth lab. Then it describes in 3 or 4 bullet points how great the drug will make you feel and how much money you can make by producing it yourself, before it lists the negatives about addiction and health risks.

The Tribune has yet to make any comment on this article but the local TV news has. The reports on KSBY the past two days tell of people removing all the New Times issues from the news stands. New Times read a statement saying that the recipe was available on the Internet as part of their justification in printing the cover page article.

My wife teaches at a local Community School for at-risk kids. On Friday, a student was reading this issue of New Times at school. Most of these kids don't have Internet access so the argument that because the info was on the Internet it's ok to print seems weak to me.

Hopefully, what good that will come out of this will be increased awareness of Meth use around SLO County rather than more addicts trying to bake home-cooked Meth themselves in our neighborhoods.

Cell phones not on Do Not Call List

It looks like cell phones aren't going to be targets for telemarketers as I posted yesterday.

Here's the information from the Federal Trade Commission.

Thanks Leigh for sending me the link!

$Million+ Homes

I really like this new MLS Map Search technology. Here's an easy way to see the 128 available One Million+ homes on the Central Coast.

http://www.slocountyhomes.com/million_dollar_properties.htm

Do Not Call List for Cell Phones

At the end of this month, telemarketers will be getting cell phone numbers. If you haven't registered your cell phone number on the Do Not Call List, now is the time to do it.

1-888-382-1222

Or you can register one or more numbers at:

https://www.donotcall.gov/

I eat out all the time so thought I'd pass along some of my favorite restaurants right now:

- Burrito Loco, Arroyo Grande (by Starbucks in the Walmart shopping center)
- Chile Peppers, San Luis Obispo (get the mole enchiladas! It's off of Broad, near the intersection of South Street)
- Pepe Delgado's, San Luis Obispo (a favorite since my Poly-days)
- Salad Safari, Grover Beach (great salads and sandwiches, near the McDonald's on Grand)
- Woodstocks Pizza, San Luis Obispo (another one of my favorites for 25 years now)
- Sushi Kokku, San Luis Obispo (in the Madonna Plaza, near TCBY yogurt. We go for the teriyaki bowls. The employees are always smiling too!).
- The Thai restaurant in the Village of Arroyo Grande (off of Traffic Way. Can't remember the name of it off hand. Thai Classic in downtown SLO isn't too bad either).

What I'm waiting for...a good chinese restaurant (not Panda Express!) and a good indian restaurant.

I need to make a trip to Morro Bay to go to Taco Temple again. I've been there a few times and had mixed feelings but I think you just need to know what to order. I would go to Thai in Los Osos but with all the stuff happening in Los Osos these days with the sewer and ground water pollution, I think I'll be passing on Los Osos restaurants until they get a sewer (I'll be well past the senior citizen discount when that happens).