We’re sitting by the phone today, waiting for newly minted Facebook zillionaires to call. Here’s a look at the 10 most expensive homes for sale in the Shasta MLS today. #10 1892 Crestmont Redding 96002 $1.895M

We’d heard this at the Shasta MLS. Here’s an article seeming to confirm it. Right now, Freddie and Fannie clerks hand out REO homes to individual brokerages to sell, in a classic unpublished no-bid contract. Under this idea, they will instead sell the homes to investors in a pool to be used only as rentals, n

Here’s a look at a really interesting home, built on what we in the Northstate would call a Butte. It’s a singular setting, and the unique postmodern circular house rises to the occasion. The brief video starts after a short commercial. Wow, only $750K? Let us know if you’d like to buy it.

This graph illustrates the trajectory of Shasta County’s median home prices for the last decade. I plotted the data from David Benda’s recent article in the Record Searchlight about the 15% increase in home sales

This is a follow up to yesterday’s post about David Benda’s recent article in the Record Searchlight about our local housing sales. I pulled this data from the Shasta MLS and put it in graphic form to illustrate the trends.

“Home sales jump in December, reaching highest level in four years Highest levels in 4 years point to market rebound” Well, we hope that’s true. It’s a hopeful article about our local

Nobody local seems to want to build tiny homes anymore. The reason is purely economic. Housing is primarily valued on square footage, all else aside. Yet, years ago in Redding, small homes were quite common. How much space do you really need? Here’s a really interesting blog about tiny homes and their owners. A tho

We suspect this blog gets read by other Realtors too, so this may be of interest to you guys. This week is Inman Connect. Here’s Erin with Chris Smith, Chief Evangelist for Agent Reboot and Inman News. Chris is a much admired figure in our business. Really dynamic to listen to and watch.

So if you can read this, maybe this isn’t of interest at all. But if you know any Spanish speaking homebuyers, the California Association of Realtors has set up a website for home search in Spanish. It’s at: [www.sucasa.net] You can always translate a webpage

Here’s an over-the-top home with an equally outrageous marketing video. Ready for a rockstar. Crank up the volume. We love doing real estate videos. See our 662 Joaquin video from a few days ago, which is generating good traffic. It can’t compare to this produc

There has been noticeable sharp drop in the number of local homes for sale around here. We have more buyers than homes to buy. In an ordinary marketplace, the laws of supply and demand would force prices higher, but this is housing in 2012. Housing supply and financing availability is set by the government. Fannie Mae, F

Yesterday we listed 662 Joaquin Ave Redding CA 96002 for sale. Its a classic Redding ’60s ranch style home that was quite upscale for the times. It’s had some updating, but retains its mid-century hipster vibe. We shot a tour video, and it does a good job of showing it off. We like to make fun of the big-hair

Some 14 families are projected to get assistance from a $700,000 grant awarded to Shasta Lake City for basically “buying down” the mortgage to make it more affordable. Buyers will need a downpayment of 3% to buy, but the a

Here’s an update on the California statewide housing market from and economist for the California Association of Realtors. Remember, all real estate is local, so stay tuned here for the latest local trend information, like our prior post.

Inventory is down, sales are relatively steady. Demand for homes under $150K is very strong. Below, the numbers behind the graph. Sales off just a bit from last month, but inventory is trending lower.

Feeling squeezed? According to the latest Case Shiller index,

Thankfullness is over, apparently. The normally thin Monday paper today bulges with Notices of Trustee Sale (NOTS). A bit shocking to find 2 pages of them un

Here’s a brief video about October home sales results statewide from the California Association of Realtors Economist Leslie Appleton Young.

Ran into this interesting interactive map of population migration using IRS data via Forbes and IBM. Click on the link to open the map. Then click on the county you wish to see, and a graphic representation of the migration appears. The web is a wonderful storehouse of graphical info.

Here’s a brief video showing how homes in default are auctioned on the courthouse steps in Redding California. This video came about because a home our client had in a Short Sale was suddenly scheduled to be auctioned here before our client could purchase. Nobody at the bank would agree to delay the auction while t

That might even work here. Don’t hold your breath however.

A few days back we posted about this upcoming government owned luxury home near the Tierra Oaks Golf community. There was good interest in it, and we promised to let you know when it had a price. Here it is p

Here’s a link to a cool slideshow from the LA Times of a contemporary designed small home that looks terrific. I really like how well thought out it is in use of space and light. And of course it would have to be carefully planned. That’s smaller living space than many garages alone in car-centric suburban Re

I’m in the camp that thinks retiring without a mortgage is the best plan. But there are a number of considerations that may make that choice the wrong one for your personal circumstances. Here’s a NYT article that outlines some important factors to consider. Good stuff. Renters, do remember that rents can go

Here’s a nice REO home in the Tierra Oaks neighborhood. It’s said to be a 2550 sqft 4/3 on 3 acres. It once listed as high as $526K. We recall it as failed short sale from a while back. Now it’s a Fannie Mae asset, and while it is as yet un-priced, it should be listed shortly. Give us a call if you have

Incredibly, somebody in a bubble thinks a bonus is a good idea, no joke. Together, federally seized Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have so far cost $169 billion in taxpayer rescue dollars in support since their

We attended the 41st Annual American Association of University Women (Redding AAUW) Home tour, a benefit for Local Scholarships and Educational Fellowships. The Redding branch of the AAUW has a

Local housing inventory for sale is down. From our perspective on the ground, we’re seeing an increase in serious buyers. In addition to regular homebuyers, real estate investors seem back in the game. This is quite different than the dynamic we’ve experienced over the last couple years. October was a slow mo

The UN estimates the human population will reach and exceed 7 billion today. “U.N. forecasts suggest the world population could hit a peak of 10.1 billion by 2100.” I imagine they’re going to need housing, so bonus for me. Here’s the Halloween scary part though, “it was just over two centuri

We are sometimes asked if we’ve seen the real estate market “bottom.” Our crystal ball is cloudy, but for years now we have felt safe predicting that we will bounce along the ostensible bottom for some time. This revealing chart from the California Association of Realtors bears that out.

“Renters are the next Mortgage Crisis.” That’s the premise of this thoughtful article in Forbes. The recent bad press over homeowners

“Forget stocks. Don’t bet on gold. After four years of plunging home prices, the most attractive asset class in America is housing.” So says a slide from a recent presentation by Leslie Appleton-Young, Chief Economist for the California Association of Realtors. Sounds plausible. Below is her summary of the Cali

Here’s our newest listing. This large home sits on an oak shaded .79 acre parcel in southwest Redding. It has a nice pool and a spa. The main house is a 2335 sqft 3/2, but has a large addition not counted in the footage. That&#

This idea took me off guard at first. Sell off our real estate to foreigners, in return for a visa in the U.S? On reflection, what could be more American, or more purely capitalist? In the name of reducing pressure from the housing crisis, we again demonstrate that in America, everything is for sale. At least for half a

“Stunning private ranch estate on 717.36 acres! Over 5644 sq. ft. in the main home and another 3800+ sq. ft. in the TWO guest homes. 5 bedrooms, 5 baths in the main hous

“Our desire for independence has made us dependent. On automobiles. On cheap energy. On transfer payments between governments. On debt. Our expectation of plenty, and our expectation to pay only a portion of the full cost of growth, has led to a scarcity of resources. Our approach to land use now constrains

This interesting listing turned up in the MLS yesterday. We like the address: shot gun. In contrast to the last post about

Houzz is the most innovative design portfolio we’ve ever seen. Erin and I went to a conference and heard a presentation by the founder. This site is brilliant. You can click around and look at amazing photography of the most intriguing home design t

The S&P Case Shiller index shows a record breaking 4+% home price drop for the year. It’s all over the news. Think of it this way. Homes are on sale! That’s just as simplistic as thinking of this “news” as purely negative. Dig only a little deeper in the composite index, and you f

Home buyers often learn about the neighbors only after moving in. Here’s a Colorado man who thinks you ought to know more about him as neighbor before you buy. Hard to argue the logic of it, but I’m sure the seller wishes it weren’t so. Around here in Shasta County, the neighbor’s yard often speak

Check out the video. It’s near Mt Shasta. Superlatives fail, so rather than describe it, we’d prefer to show it and sell it. Call (530) 244 7603. Just $4.6M.

We haven’t looked at market trends in a while. It seems sales were up a bit in August. As always, you may see different figures posted elsewhere. Our methodology is to use Realtor data of housing sold in the g

David Benda at the Record Searchlight wrote a short PR piece about our new brokerage. Thanks David, and thanks RS. It looks good in print too. It occurs to me reading my own bio that I’ve been a subscriber to the printed Rec

Erin and I have founded our own local real estate brokerage, The Address Realty. We’ve had many successful years at the local Coldwell Banker brokerage, but we have our own ideas about how to operate, and we are eager to put them to work. We anxiously took the plunge two we

It’s not polite to gloat. But those of you easterners who claim to fear earthquakes have less reason to feel secure today. Then too, this brief video displays yet another anxiety raising natural hazard factor that we don’t have to worry about in Redding. Fascinating and scary all at once. Hello Irene!

The Record Searchlight had a great article today about local people investing in foreclosures. Where would you go to see local foreclosure homes for sale listed all in one p

Today we feature good news and bad news. The bad news is stocks are being hammered today. So what’s the good news? Redding area real estate prices are a bargain. Rates are lower than they have been in years. And th

For us, much of this year has been filled with working for first time homebuyers who did the math. Low prices coupled with extremely low mortgage rates equals an unbeatable value. And it was better to buy than rent in 74% of the top 50 cities surveyed by Tr

HUD has published a new map based website that shows all the local government owned homes for sale from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and HUD. All in one place. It seems to have some bugs today, but it has great promise. We applaud the effort to make it easier for the buyer to locate government owned homes for sale. As always

Here’s a terrific deal on a place to live with great privacy. It’s located in the Quail Ridge Ranches development, off a paved road. Behind the gate, and out of sight, up the long gravel driveway, is the 1995 model manufactu