Family Trusts and the Title Process

 Family Trusts and the Title Process

It stands to reason, when it comes to estate planning, that a growing number of homeowners establish a living trust instead of relying on a will. That’s because, when properly prepared, a revocable living trust can save the family the time and cost of probate when the homeowner dies.

 
It can also save on estate taxes and protect inheritances for children and grandchildren while allowing the trustees, typically the owners of the trust, to retain control of their assets during their lifetime.

To understand more about revocable and irrevocable Living Trusts, read on, with this article from Barbara Pronin, provided here by our own Kelly Vincelette from Cornerstone Title.

Note:  Barbara Pronin is an award-winning writer based in Orange County, Calif. A former news editor with more than 30 years of experience in journalism and corporate communications, she has specialized in real estate topics for over a decade.

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Francis

Silicon Valley real estate
Trends: Local prices and graphs.
How much is your home worth?

For sale now:   Impeccable 3B. 2Ba in Sharon Heights, Menlo Park

                               Remodeled - 2 balconies - inside utilities

                                         $1.288 million    -     3-D Model

                        

Real Estate Forecast Anyone? The Real Estate Markets Expected to Grow The Most in the Next Year

Home prices were up by "a lot" this past year, and according to forecasters, and the Real Estate Project Porch.com website, next year is going to be even more so an up year.  

According to the Redfin website, more than 60% of buyers were putting offers on houses sight unseen and the number of homes being bought without an inspection nearly doubled compared to the previous year.  [NOT a good idea, according to me].  The message was clear: buyers knew the real estate market was hot, and they did everything they could to get homes under contract and close the sale.

This article by Adriana Lopez lists the projected increase in prices in several smaller and larger metropolitan areas.  Prices are slated to continue their way up!

As an example, Santa Cruz is projected to go up in price by 28.9% next year, and San Jose by 24.5%

Sacramento is supposed to go up about 18%, and Las Vegas about 23%.

Article by Adriana Lopez, dated Aug.19,2021.

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Francis

Silicon Valley real estate
Trends: Local prices and graphs.
How much is your home worth?

Price Seasonality - Los Altos vs Santa Clara County

 Seasonality of median prices for single family homes shows well in those two graphs, one for the County as a whole, the other for the specific city of Los Altos.

A value for a month usually corresponds statistically to the sales price of the previous month's transactions.  For instance a value for January would typically correspond to the aggregate sales started in December.

Click on any graph to see it larger.

Of course, as all statistics, one has to take them with a grain of salt.  Some large single sales can skew the figures quite a bit, and the smaller the sample is, the less they are meaningful.

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Francis

Silicon Valley real estate
Trends: Local prices and graphs.
How much is your home worth?

Closed sale:  766 University Ave, Palo Alto - 2 B. 2 Ba     -   $1.375 million.

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California: Consumer Sentiment - August 2021

Good time to buy is at 18%, up 1 percentage point from last month and down 15 percentage points from last year, while good time to sell is at 72%, up 2 percentage points from last month and up 18 percentage points from last year. 

Source:  CAR.org

Like my updates? Subscribe to my Blog! Thank you for reading,

Francis

Silicon Valley real estate
Trends: Local prices and graphs.
How much is your home worth?

Closed sale:  766 University Ave, Palo Alto - 2 B. 2 Ba     -   $1.375 million.

Check out the 3-D model!

Palo Alto moving forward with short-term housing project for homeless near Baylands

 Palo Alto moving forward with short-term housing project for homeless near Baylands

The site is modeled on a similar transitional housing project in Mountain View.

PALO ALTO — A new project to quickly house the city’s homeless residents is edging closer to reality after the city council agreed to explore a non-profit developer’s plan to build a temporary housing complex near the Baylands.

Mountain View-based non-profit temporary housing developer LifeMoves wants to use over an acre of the 14.4-acre site to build up to a 180-room complex with on-site nurses, community classrooms, and communal dining and restroom areas to get people off the city’s streets.

to read the whole article, go to this link.

article by Aldo toledo, of the Mercury News.

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Francis

Silicon Valley real estate
Trends: Local prices and graphs.
How much is your home worth?

Pending - soon closing:  766 University Ave, Palo Alto - 2 B. 2 Ba     -   $1.449 million.

Check out the 3-D model!

Impressive Figures - Bay Area Real Estate

Whoa, these are impressive figures for what has happened to the real estate market in the San Francisco Bay Area in the past 2-3 years.

First graph: Single Family Residences, from 1/1/2019 to today:

 
Second graph:  Common Interest Developement, same period:

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Francis

Silicon Valley real estate
Trends: Local prices and graphs.
How much is your home worth?

Currently on the market:  766 University Ave, Palo Alto - 2 B. 2 Ba     -   $1.449 million.

Check out the 3-D model!

Are Bay Area Rents Bouncing Back?

Article by the Mercury News, written by Louis Hansen.

Rental prices went down quite a bit in the past two years.  What is the status right now?  Louis Hansen from the SJ Merc gives his perspective:

The steep discounts in Bay Area rents triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic may be dwindling with the health crisis.

As California made reopening plans over the last three months, average prices for one-bedroom apartments climbed throughout the region, up 2.9% in San Jose, 3.6% in Oakland and 5.3% in San Francisco, according to listing site Zumper.

But rents are still below pre-pandemic levels, suggesting a slow return of renters back to cities and offices. Record high home prices may also have kept more families in apartments — or out of town — rather than buying single-family homes.

The creep up in rent signals a turn toward pre-pandemic conditions, but the Bay Area has been slower to rebound than other major cities, including New York, Boston and Washington, D.C.

Full article here.

Like my updates? Subscribe to my Blog! Thank you for reading,

Francis

Silicon Valley real estate
Trends: Local prices and graphs.
How much is your home worth?

Currently on the market:  766 University Ave, Palo Alto - 2 B. 2 Ba     -   $1.449 million.

Check out the 3-D model!

Current Housing Sentiment in California

 Here is the current Housing Sentiment in California:

If you like my updates, subscribe to my Blog! Thank you for reading,

Francis

Silicon Valley real estate
Trends: Local prices and graphs.
How much is your home worth?

Currently on the market:  766 University Ave, Palo Alto - 2 B. 2 Ba     -   $1.449 million.

Check out the 3-D model!