Mmmmmmmmm....strawberries are here!

I just picked up some baskets at the 13th Street strawberry stand in Oceano. Incredible! Looks like strawberry/banana smoothies at the Byrd household tonite. If you aren't aware of this strawberry stand, it's worth the trip. From Grand Ave, take 13th Street South for about a mile. It's a the corner of 13th and Highland. You can't miss it, all you need to do is look for the strawberry field. They have the BEST tasting strawberries I've found, and at great prices.

You also may be familiar with Surf City Squeeze which is in a lot of shopping malls. I really like their smoothies and it turns out you can buy the mix. I purchased a bunch of it and use it to make smoothies. Yummy!

There's a new reality TV show debuting next month called "Bought and Sold". It's supposed to show the real estate industry from an agent's perspective by following 12 Realtors from the East Coast. It's on the HGTV network and starts Sunday April 29th at 10 PM.

Earlier this evening, my kids starting yelling "Dad, your name is on TV". I went into the room and there was an advertisement playing for another Central Coast real estate website. It was showing the output of a Google search and sure enough, right at the top of the screen was "Keith Byrd's San Luis Obispo Real Estate Blog". I'll have to thank them for the free advertisement!

Ryan's Mortgage Blog:
Branching off the sub-prime talk...I wanted to go over what kind of documents lenders require when you receive a mortgage based on full-documentation. Lenders obviously prefer full documentation over little or none, especially after all of the recent foreclosures and sub-prime problems. Look at it this way...if you were going to lend a stranger money wouldn't you want to know their employment and financial history first? Lenders offer better rates for people who can provide full documentation (safer gamble for them). Before I write a list of items lenders ask for, I wanted to make sure you realize this is just a "common" list used by most lenders. Every scenario is different and some loans require more documents from the borrower than others. Example... if you declare income from a rental property, a copy of the current rental contract may be required. Also note that everyone on the loan (borrower/co-borrower aka co-signer) usually has to provide all the documents, not just one person. Here is the list of documents usually required for Full-Documentation loans:

- 2 most recent years tax returns
- 2 most current pay stubs from all jobs
- 2 most current bank statements w/ account #
- 2 most current statements from assets (IRA, Stocks, etc..)
- Proof of additional income (rental contracts, social security, disability, etc..)
- Credit Report with list of all debts (usually provided by broker)
- Copies/Proof of any other debt not on credit report

If you do not have any credit history, you may need to offer the lender copies of rental payment receipts or checks, utilities and other recurring debt to show payment history.

Having all these items with you when you visit a lender/broker will help speed up the process.

If you have any mortgage related questions feel free to call me at 805-540-0866, or email me at my personal address: RyanBaker500@gmail.com.

Because of the subprime lendor issues we're seeing now, you'll want to talk to a mortgage broker BEFORE you start looking at homes. More and more Realtors are requiring a prequalification letter before they will take their time to show a home. This is justified as a Realtor only gets compensated for their time if they represent a client on a successful transaction. Some people don't understand that a Realtor doesn't get paid a salary. Also, if you don't plan on using a particular Realtor to represent you with buying or selling a home, please don't ask them to do work for you. I'm sure not many people are willing to work for free and that includes Realtors!

If you make a request to view a home, please make sure you have a prequalification letter from a mortgage broker or bank. I'll soon be adding a form you can fill out to get a qualified if you already don't have one.

This Paso Robles property went on the market less than 2 weeks ago and had a contingent offer the very next day. Well, if you missed it the first time now is your chance as it's back on the market as of today.

It's a 49 acre parcel with 23 of them are a vineyard with 13 acres of Zinfandel and 8 acres of Merlot. Listed at $2.25M.

See the listing here

I'll admit that my knowledge about the Los Osos sewer situation is what I read in newspapers and websites. Saying that, it appears the path we are headed is that the County taxpayers are going to need to pay a good portion of the bill for the sewer because the delays have caused the costs to exceed what Los Osos'ians can afford.

I know that a lot of County residents won't be too happy to have to pay because Los Osos was unable to resolve their own problem (given 30 years). Sure seems like there has got to be a better solution. Here's my idea....

The County should look to building a workforce housing development near Los Osos that would use the yet-to-be-built sewer system. Get the public agencies in the County (police, fire, school districts, etc.) together and figure out what the housing requirements are to attract and retain good employees. Build a 300-500 unit development using the latest technologies for a "green" community. Make this a showcase for other cities to learn from.

To help with the costs, solicit corporate involvement with the project. Get a phone company to lay fiber optics throughout and Cisco to develop a "connected community". Bring in GE for their smart home energy management technologies. Add solar and wind power elements too if feasible. Also, get Cal Poly involved. I'm amazed that we have one of the nations top Universities in our backyard and I see very little leverage of the brainpower of tomorrow to help with our area. Poly is also good at raising money so make this project a showcase for them. Make this something the Governor gets behind too.

If tourism is our area's bread and butter, this will also have great potential to highlight the area. What a PR story about a community and businesses getting together to solve both an environmental problem (the septic tanks polluting the bay) and workforce housing problem. Build a learning center at the "green village" where people can come learn all that was done. Increase in tourism will help offset some of the costs.

As a County taxpayer, I'd be more open to funding a sewer project that could handle both Los Osos and a green village. Heck, if this is done right we may get some State agencies to help out with funding too that wouldn't have happened because of the history of events to-date.

New Home Sales Slowest in 6 years

Read article here

I did a check on how we were doing so far this month. As of today, we've had 483 Pending Sales and 677 New Listings. We'll see how the last few days of March shape up but the numbers are looking like the Central Coast real estate market is rebounding from the February numbers. The difference between Pending and New Listings isn't too huge so inventory doesn't appear to be increasing at the rates we saw last year at this time.

I'll update all the statistics after the first of the month.

I have a hotel/motel reservation system at the bottom of my home page that I've used over a dozen times now and have had zero problems. It does not add on an extra fee that other online reservation systems do (sometimes called a "convenience fee" or "online booking fee"). Check it out!

Online reservations here

Beware of KCOY "Real Deals"

KCOY has a coupon offering where you can get restaurant meals for usually 1/2 the price. I ordered one last summer for a new restaurant in Pismo Beach and they sent me one of those cards with the amount programmed into it. It was a nice way to try out the restaurant. A recently saw an advertisement for a new deal they were offering for a new Mexican restaurant in Pismo Beach. I thought again that this was a great way of trying out the restaurant with my family. But, what I received this time was multiple certficates with one huge restriction "only one certificate per table per visit". So, I'm stuck to having to visit the restaurant EIGHT seperate times to use the certficates.

KCOY fails to tell you about any restrictions there are on these "Real Deals" when you order them through their website so beware. This particular deal is no better than the coupons I get in the mail that give you $10 off two entrees. Actually it's worse since they lock you into having to visit the restaurant multiple times just to get your money back since you have to pay for the coupons.

Things are heating up in the ole' real estate industry.

Prudential Real Estate told Zillow and Trulia they were not welcome to exhibit or attend Prudential's annual convention in San Diego this week. They told Trulia 20 minutes before the exhibition was to open to "leave". Seems like the online world is scaring some of the big named brokerages who are used to doing things the old way.

I pretty much have recovered from trying the Microsoft Vista upgrade. I reformatted my computer, reinstalled Windows XP and all my other programs. One program I've had the most problems reinstalling is one that I use to do analysis of the MLS database but I resolved the installation problem with the vendor today, so I'm back in business!

The first report I just ran was to see how many Listing Agents were finding the Buyer and "double-ending" the transaction (represented both the Buyer and Seller). Out of the 422 single family homes sold on the Central Coast since January 1st, only 60 were represented by the same agent which is 14%. That means 86% of homes were sold by another Realtor.

The reason I wanted to see this percentage is the increasing practice by Listing Agents to not market complete information about a listing. This includes suppressing the street address when potential Buyers are searching listings on Realtor.com and sites like SloCountyHomes.com. Another example is empty flyer boxes.

Some Listing Agents believe that if they don't include all the information, the potential Buyer will call them. Not only do they have a chance of "double-ending" the transaction and getting ALL the commission, but the belief is that if they get a potential Buyer to call them they can try to sell them another home if they don't like (or qualify for) their listing. I've blogged before about how I would not want the same Realtor representing both sides in a high-dollar business transaction. I would want someone working 100% for me, not 50%! I would discuss this with the Listing Agent before you sign the contract and write in what you are comfortable with in the agreement.

One major problem with the "don't give them all the info" thinking is that the Listing Agent's contact info isn't displayed on sites like SloCountyHomes.com (and all other Realtor sites too). So, either the potential Buyer will call another Realtor who most probably isn't familiar with the other agent's listing or they won't call anyone and cross that home off their list. Either way, it's not a plus for the homeowner who is trying to sell their home.

Empty flyer boxes are another matter. When I see an empty flyer box, the first thing I think is that the home may be off the market. According to the California Association of REALTORS, yard signs was the #3 way that Buyers found their homes (another Realtor and the Internet were #1 and #2). I think empty flyer boxes is really about laziness or counting every penny and not wanting to spend money on reprinting flyers and refilling the box. It's amazing to me that an agent who makes $10,000 in commissions will work to spend as little as possible on marketing a listing. If you're Listing Agent has left the flyer box empty for days and you can't get them to refill it, I'd take a screwdriver and remove it from the yard sign.

With 86% of homes being sold by other Realtors other than the Listing Agent, do you want your home marketed to the 86%?? If so, don't let Listing Agents use your home as a way to make them more money. Make sure they market YOUR home the best possible way!

Fast Facts from the California Association of REALTORS (CAR)

Calif. median home price - January 07: $559,640 (Source: C.A.R.)

Calif. highest median home price by C.A.R. region January 07: Santa Barbara So. Coast $1,150,000 (Source: C.A.R.)

Calif. lowest median home price by C.A.R. region January 07: High Desert $317,380 (Source: C.A.R.)

Calif. First-time Buyer Affordability Index - Fourth Quarter 06: 25 percent (Source: C.A.R.)

Mortgage rates - week ending 3/15:
30-yr. fixed: 6.14%; Fees/points: 0.4%
15-yr. fixed: 5.88%; Fees/points: 0.4%
1-yr. adjustable: 5.42%; Fees/points: 0.7%(Source: Freddie Mac)

Ryan's Mortgage Blog:
I know I wrote about subprime mortgages about a month ago, but it has really affected more people than I anticipated, so I thought I would shed more light on the subject. I wanted to let you know how it may affect you.

A subprime mortgage is a term used to describe an elevated risk loan. These loans are made to borrowers who have bad credit, have shown problems making payments on-time, or have limited money for down payment. In the past these loans were hard to find and uncommon, but over the last 3 - 5 years they became more and more popular. Last year it was estimated that 20% of mortgages were subprime (the numbers are mixed depending who you talk to because people's definition of subprime is different). One of my old financial text books states that only 4.5% of mortgages in 1994 were subprime. This is a huge difference. We are taking hundreds of billions of dollars here.

Lenders were making money off these loans by raising the rates on the loans compared to conforming loans. As you can see from watching any financial news channel, the subprime market is taking a huge hit. Many companies have gone out of business or losing money daily because of foreclosed homes. These "risky" borrowers weren't such a good gamble after all.

So how does this affect you? Well, it could in many ways, especially if you are buying or selling Real Estate. When the market was hot not too long ago, people were able to buy and sell homes using subprime lenders. This allowed for a greater number of approved clients, which meant a greater number of people who could "afford" to buy a home. Now many of these options aren't available because borrower requirements have gotten much stricter lately because of all these foreclosures. This means that if you are selling a home you may have fewer candidates who can afford (find a loan) to buy your home. On the other side of things, if you are a buyer with "subprime" credit your options are limited. So obviously this is another problem for the already hurting housing market.

The stock market is also affected by this since some of the companies/banks in the market have invested in these subprime mortgages over the years and are paying for it now. The consumer buying habits may decrease also, which can slightly affect some companies (it is a stretch). Homeowners have been known to refinance their house and take cash out (using equity) so they could buy things they couldn't afford with their cash on hand. These rates were much better than using a credit card. Now, some of these same people may not be approved to refinance at the great deal they were before, or maybe not at all. I think you can see where I am going with this.

Right now rates are still good for "A" paper mortgages and you can still find a loan if you are subprime but be prepared for a lot of requirements, worse rates, or maybe having to find a co-signer.
If you have any mortgage related questions please call me at 805-540-0866, or email me at my personal address of RyanBaker500@gmail.com.

I ran new Just Sold Reports for the last 17 days. I also ran a Sold Report for Lots/Land for all properties since January 1, 2007. You can find the Just Sold Reports here.

The latest issue of "Where to Retire" magazine has an article of cities within a Wine Country. San Luis Obispo is one of the cities they spotlight.

I don't know if the city of San Luis Obispo would be my #1 Central Coast city to retire in. I guess it's what you are looking for in a city that counts. If you like the energy of a college town, then this is the place to be. When the Poly Canyon Village opens up, Cal Poly will raise their attendance by a few thousand. I think that will make the student population over 50% of the population of SLO.

But that's what is great about the Central Coast. So many different cities to choose from!

According to the California Association of Realtors's Internet Versus Traditional Buyer survey, 88 percent of home buyers rate pictures and slide shows as “extremely important” or “very important” in the home-viewing process.

My old Cal Poly roommate came to visit from Colorado so I took a couple days off for some non-stop fun! From ATV'ing on the dunes to disc golf at Sinsheimer Park in SLO, we did a lot. Only disappointing part was dinner at McLintock's Saloon in downtown SLO on Friday night. The tri-tip that was supposed to be seasoned with black pepper was just burnt and tasted awful. It seems like I only go to McLintocks when someone from out of town visits but next time I think I'll take them somewhere else.

On Saturday we went up to Santa Cruz. The Tubes happened to be playing at the Catalyst on Saturday night so we went there. Great show!

I spent Sunday visiting another college buddy who lives in Boulder Creek. Plenty of Open Houses going on in Boulder Creek these days...

The traffic on my website has really picked up this month. I just ran my web statistics program for the first 15 days of March and these are the Top 20 Countries who are visiting SloCountyHomes.com. I didn't think this many people knew about our little treasure here on the Central Coast!

	Country	Visitors
1	United States	27,960
2	Spain	804
3	Italy	386
4	France	371
5	Mexico	337
6	Netherlands	282
7	Germany	265
8	United Kingdom	258
9	Sweden	225
10	Canada	223
11	Argentina	203
12	Venezuela	153
13	Brazil	137
14	China	132
15	Poland	121
16	Unknown	112
17	Colombia	103
18	Slovenia	94
19	Chile	84
20	Peru	62

Time range: 2/28/2007 20:32:15 - 3/15/2007 22:34:31

Also, on the web browser front...Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7.x use has increased a lot recently. Probably due to the new Windows Operating System release. Here's the top 4 browsers being used by SloCountyHomes.com visitors this month, in case you're interested.

	Browser	Visitors	% of Total Visitors
1	Internet Explorer 6.x	9,657	47.46%
2	Internet Explorer 7.x	4,457	21.90%
3	Firefox	2,126	10.45%
4	Safari	534	2.62%

Here is an example of photos used to market a listing. This is a currently available property. I have omitted the Listing Agent's name from the following display.

Click to see listing photos

Make sure the photos used to market your home are a good representation of your home!

I have examples of "Before" and "After" Photos here.

Ryan's Mortgage Blog:
I was asked about a Reverse Mortgage the other day so I thought I would share this with you guys. These programs can be very difficult to understand because there are so many details. The process can be so puzzling, federal regulators usually require people to receive a professional one-on-one counseling session before you can be approved for a reverse mortgage.

I will try to give you a brief overview so you'll understand what it is going on when you see an ad or person offering a mortgage where the lender pays you, instead of you paying them. Let me start by saying reverse mortgages are only good for a very, very small percentage of homeowners. Actually, they are heavily regulated so only a certain demographic of people qualifies for them. These mortgages are for people who are at least 62 years old, and it must be their primary residence. There are other small specifications, but those are the main ones.

Basically the lender starts to "buy" the house from you in form of a lump sum, a monthly advance, or a line of credit, all while you continue to live in your home. I use buy loosely because they are not actually buying the home, they are buying (lending from) the equity built up in the home. Once the borrower moves, sells, refinances, or dies, the loan must be paid off. In the case of death, the lender does not take title to the home, but the heirs are required to pay the loan. The debt is usually paid by selling the home or refinancing the property. So if you wanted to leave the house to the kids for their future, you better think twice on this one.

This mortgage is set-up to help older, retired adults pay unforeseen expenses, medical bills, debts, etc...especially if their retirement has run out. Reverse mortgages use up all the equity in the home, so you or your heirs are left with a hefty mortgage when all is said and done. It is a rising-debt loan. The interest is added to the principal loan balance each month, and the amount you owe increases over time as the interest compounds.
I only recommend this type of mortgage if you have exhausted all other sources of income. This is a decision that involves you and your heirs so I greatly suggest you consult with your family first as well as an attorney and financial advisor. If you have any mortgage related questions feel free to call me at 805-540-0866 or email me at Ryan@GoMetroLoan.com. Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great St. Patty's Day!!

Here's a photo I took on Monday while enjoying the weather. It's the Goodyear Blimp over Arroyo Grande! It was headed towards Corbett Canyon. Click on thumbnail for larger photo.

Another "not so rosy" outlook on the housing market from CNN/Money. This article talks about lenders becoming more cautious which reduces the amount of available buyers. Note the last paragraph where the guy says that coastal California should hold up OK.

I just don't seem to have luck with my cable provider, Charter Communications. I've had billing problems with them in the past and their customer service was just awful. Now I find that they have added another charge to my bill for something called "Charter Total View". These are channels in 100's that they call the Family Tier. I didn't order these but that doesn't matter to Charter I guess, they just activate them and bill you. I've used online chat to them to find out what it was but I have to call in to cancel something I never ordered (which I'm not looking forward to having to do).

So...if you have Charter, make sure you look at your bill carefully each month to make sure you aren't "surprised".

p.s. I have their Internet service too and have had little problems with it (knock on wood).

WOW! Was the weather this weekend great or what?? I walked my dog on Pismo Beach last night after 9 PM and wore a short sleeved shirt. You can't get much better than a weekend like this. No wonder people want to move here!

Home prices: Don't expect quick rebound
Home prices might not seem like they've dropped by much, but history, economists and forecasts suggest recovery is years away.

Read the article here

Daylight Savings Time (Spring Back) is this weekend (3 weeks earlier than previous years). Make sure you check your computer. Microsoft has a patch you can download that will update the system clock and Outlook. You can access the update here.

Also, change your smoke detector batteries too, especially if you didn't do it last fall!

The San Luis Obispo NewTimes has released this years "Best Of" Readers Poll. The ballot has 163 questions and you must answer at least 50% (that's 82!). Unfortunately, some of the questions are just too out there for me to have an answer. For example, "Best Brain Freeze", "Best Hangover Food", "Best Place to Break Up", "Best Place to Drink Like Homer Simpson", "Best Place to Drink like Frank Sinatra", "Best Place to Drink Like Paris Hilton", "Best Place to Drink Like Jimmy Buffet", "Best Place to Sip Coffee While Writing Your Manifesto", "Best Place to Buy Someone Stuff They Don't Need". "Best Place to Buy a Coffee-stained Copy of Catcher in the Rye", "Best Place to Get Some Bling", "Best Business Pet", "Best Place to Steal Wi-fi", "Best Place to Turn Your Body into a Canvas of Self-Expression", and "Best Place to Swing at Balls While Wearing Plaid".

Since my wife and I don't go bar-hopping anymore, have tattoos, received lasik surgery, need to steal wi-fi connections, or are savvy on the local Arts scene, the amount of questions that I could answer fall below the 50% requirement. I could make up stuff on some of it or just get a phone book to find names of businesses to get to the 50% but what good is that for a Readers "Best Of".

On the ballot there is also: "Best Local Blog", "Best Local Website", and "Best Real Estate Company". Now those I could answer :)

Sorry Newtimes, you use to have a good Readers Poll. I can't see how this years Poll is going to to do anything other than give you an opportunity to sell advertising for the 163 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers. The Poll has officially "Jumped the Shark", IMO.

You can fill out the ballot online this year too. http://www.newtimesslo.com. Unfortunately, it asks you to register first and then is supposed to send you a confirmation email. I registered and received no confirmation so I couldn't even get to the ballot.

Ryan’s Mortgage Blog:
Just to give you an idea of where rates are at I compared rates our office offered a month ago versus what we offered this morning on a conforming loan. Keep in mind every scenario is different but these figures are based on the exact same loan:
30 days ago
3 Year ARM 5.625%
5 Year ARM 5.875%
7 Year ARM 5.875%
30 Year Fixed 6.125%

Today
3 Year ARM 5.375%
5 Year ARM 5.625%
7 Year ARM 5.625%
30 Year Fixed 5.875%

Below is a mortgage rate trend survey taken by 250 experts on March 5, 2007, supplied by Mortgage-X. I wouldn’t read too into this since things change and these are just opinions, and as you can tell they do not all agree. What I take from it is that these people think the rates are going to stay the same, with no significant changes anytime soon. I won’t post this chart again until I see a noteworthy change, which may or may not be a sign of upcoming rate changes, but it will be neat to see if these “experts” opinions have any correlation with the actual rates.

Over the next 30 days:
rates will rise significantly: 0.0%
rates will rise slightly: 27.6%
rates will remain unchanged: 44.8%
rates will decline slightly: 27.6%
rates will decline significantly: 0.0%

Over the next 90 days:
rates will rise significantly: 3.4%
rates will rise slightly: 20.7%
rates will remain unchanged: 41.4%
rates will decline slightly: 34.5%
rates will decline significantly: 0.0%

If you have any mortgage related questions, feel free to contact me, my number is 805-540-0866 and my email is Ryan@GoMetroLoan.com

With St.Patrick's day coming up, I had a craving for a McDonald's Sharock Shake the other night. Unfortunately, I didn't find one. When I asked, they said they weren't getting them this year. I thought that was odd and did some Internet searches. I was amazed to find shamrock shake sites. It appears that some areas haven't had them for 10 years. This site, www.shamrockshake.com has people asking where they are and others posting where they are at.

Not sure why McDonald's would restrict the availability of these....

It wasn't that long ago when it was a rare to have a home listed over 1 Million. Here's a recent listing that went on the market at $3,395,000. It's in Edna Valley.

I did some price comparisons with some software/electronics between Costco and Best Buy. Thought I'd share these in case you are looking for any of these:

Turbotax Fed&State - $36.99(costco), $44.99 (best buy)
Turbotax Premier - $59.99 (costco), $74.99 (best buy)

Microsoft Office Student/Teacher - $124.79 (costco), $149.99 (best buy)
MS Office Standard upgrade - $198.88 (costco), $239.99 (best buy)
MS Office Pro upgrade - $271.22 (costco), $329.99 (best buy)

IPOD Nano - 2GB - $142.99 (costco), $149.99 (Best Buy)
IPOD - 80G - $339.99 (costco), $349 (Best Buy -on sale)

A notice was sent out to Realtors that Paso Robles will be enforcing their sign ordinance. This is not a surprise as there are getting to be a lot of real estate signs being installed in areas other than at the home for sale. Plus, with the Days on Market increasing, some of these signs are there for 6+ months.

Most (all?) cities allow a sign to be placed on the property and temporary (Open House) signs on weekends. Signs placed on private property or public right of way at intersections or other places aren't allowed but cities don't usually enforce their sign ordinace unless someone complains.

I updated the Just Listed reports for 2/8/07 - 3/3/07. View them here.

The Inventory Reports for the individual cities have been updated.

See the reports here

A total eclipse of the moon will take place this Saturday night. It will be at 2:44 in the morning.

Here's an article about a real estate brokerage that did a no-no by enticing agents to use a particular title company without disclosing it to their clients.

Title Companies charge different prices. As a Buyer, you are the one that is paying for Title Insurance so you should be the one that determines what Title Company you want to use. Some Agents will put "must use (name) at (xyz Title Company)" in the agent remarks on the MLS listing. I doubt these agents are getting a "kickback" from the Title Company or that would be a violation of the RESPA act and both the agent and Title Company would be in big trouble. Some agents have preferences of what escrow officers they like to work with, which is ok, but no agent can say "if you don't use (name at Title Company xyz), I won't sell you this house". I doubt the homeowner would be too supportive of that either.

You can get quotes from Title companies to see their escrow charges will be. If you find one that is hundreds of dollars cheaper but an agent wants to use someone else, ask for the reason. If the reason isn't worth hundreds of dollars to you, ask the agent to pay the difference.

I checked out that new show "Are you smarter than a 5th Grader" that I had Tivo'ed. I paused the ending credits so I could read them and it said the kids were given a workbook. I can't remember the exact words but it discloses that these kids were given the questions and answers. Too bad they make it seem like the kids are coming up with the answers by themselves and do those "we'll tell you if the kids answer is right...after the break". I've already lost interest in watching it.

I updated the MLS stats chart and the inventory summary counts for individual cities here. While January reversed the downward trend in Pending Sales, February was disappointing as the Pendings dropped again. And while the Pendings slowed, New Listings didn't as we saw the delta between Pendings and New Listings grow. As a result, inventory levels increased in most cities. If you look at the inventory chart, Paso Robles, Arroyo Grande, and Nipomo saw the largest jumps in inventory since last month while Grover Beach and Morro Bay had the largest inventory drops.

I still need to update the inventory details by price range for the individual cities.

Announcing a New Type of Listing Service

"How I Would Sell My Home Knowing What I Know Now About the Central Coast Real Estate Industry" - by Keith Byrd

Check out my new offering here!

Central Coast MLS Statistics - Residential - February 2007

New Listings - 751
Back on Market - 205
Price Changes - 737
Contingents - 39
Pendings - 410
Solds - 268
Expired - 253
Inactives - 239