Today the Dawn Thomas Team has information about an opportunity to purchase an amazing home that may or may not ever be put on the public market: in Atherton! “Masterfully renovated throughout, this grand estate is designed and scaled in perfect symmetry with French elegance and charm in a European style.”

Price Available Upon Request

“Spanning three levels, many of the rooms open to a balcony or terrace providing a seamless connection to the outdoors, where the grounds are equally impressive. A pool that stands as a work of art, a fenced tennis court, and playground provide everything needed for resort living while a fully equipped pool house doubles as secluded quarters for guests. With its sought-after central Atherton address and seclusion from the road, this timeless masterpiece is truly a treasure on the San Francisco Peninsula.

• Extensively remodeled in 2001 Three levels with approximately 14,000 sq. ft., all serviced by elevator
• Main house features 6 bedrooms, 7 full baths, and 3 half-baths
• Pool house with kitchen and 1 full bath
• Six fireplaces, each with antique French mantelpiece
• Extensive use of mahogany paneling and millwork
• Hand-carved solid walnut cabinetry throughout
• Hand-scraped walnut or marble floors
• Sommelier-worthy wine cellar, gym and spa bath, and garage museum for up to 14 cars
• Grecian inspired pool, separate spa, tennis court, and playground
•  Formal grounds of approximately 1.3 acres with parterre rose garden, koi pond, and redwood groves”

If this property interests you, please contact us today. Even off market homes are selling very quickly and with multiple offers, so prompt and decisive action is an absolute must.

Contact us today if you would like information on other off market listings that The Dawn Thomas Team is aware of.

*INFORMATION & IMAGE COURTESY OF Gary Campi WITH Campi Properties

This blog is courtesy of The Dawn Thomas Team who is an award-winning Real Estate Agent team at Intero Real Estate Services in Los Altos 650-701-7822. We help nice people with selling and buying homes from Palo Alto to West San Jose!

The misinformation doesn’t just extend to potential homebuyers but also to current homeowners. With so many different bits of information, different rates, and ever changing laws it’s hard to keep a perfect handle on what is happening, financially, with homeownership. However, it is vitally important to the rest of the country and the Real Estate recovery; people being uninformed and not understanding their financial situation is part of what got us into the crisis back in 2010. 

This blog is courtesy of The Dawn Thomas Team who is an award-winning Real Estate Agent team at Intero Real Estate Services in Los Altos 650-701-7822. We help nice people with selling and buying homes from Palo Alto to West San Jose!

The Dawn Thomas Team likes to bring you activities around the Silicon Valley and this week we have: the San Jose Color Run! Come out on May 18th, 2013 to Guadalupe River Park!

“The Color Run™, also known as the Happiest 5k on the Planet, is a unique paint race that celebrates healthiness, happiness, individuality, and giving back to the community.

Less about your 10-minute-mile and more about having the time of your life, The Color Run is a five-kilometer, un-timed race in which thousands of participants are doused from head to toe in different colorsat each kilometer. The fun continues at the finish line with a gigantic “Color Festival,” using more colored powder to create happiness and lasting memories, not to mention millions of vivid color combinations. Trust us, this is the best post-5k party on the planet!

With only two rules, the idea is easy to follow:

1. Wear white at the starting line
2. Finish plastered in color”

Click HERE for more information

This blog is courtesy of The Dawn Thomas Team who is an award-winning Real Estate Agent team at Intero Real Estate Services in Los Altos 650-701-7822. We help nice people with selling and buying homes from Palo Alto to West San Jose!

The Dawn Thomas Team is constantly trying to keep our clients and the inquiring public up to date on the goings-on of the Real Estate Market. These days there is so much information coming out daily that it’s hard to keep it all straight and not miss important articles. We’ve recently written about sellers, buyers, taxes and loans-all of these things are important factors in the Real Estate Market-a very integral arm of our current economic climate. So today we give you two articles–and a bit of advice– that we think are important for you, our clients and the public, to know. Read on!

CALIFORNIA HOME PRICES SOAR IN APRIL
Source: The Californian

Fueled by high demand and tight inventory, California home sales and prices both experienced strong increases in April, with the median price surpassing the $400,000-mark for the first time in five years, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (C.A.R.) reported.

Making sense of the story

• The statewide median price of an existing, single-family detached home climbed 6.3 percent from March’s revised median price of $378,960 to $402,760 in April, signaling the first time since April 2008 that the statewide median price has exceeded the $400,000 mark (and was the highest since then).
• Sales in April were up 1.3 percent from a revised 417,880 in March but down 3.7 percent from a revised 439,770 in April 2012. The statewide sales figure represents what would be the total number of homes sold during 2013 if sales maintained the April pace throughout the year. It is adjusted to account for seasonal factors that typically influence home sales.
• The available supply of homes for sale was essentially unchanged from March, but was down markedly from a year ago. The April Unsold Inventory Index for existing, single-family detached homes was 2.8 months in April, down from 2.9 months in March, and down from 4.2 months in April 2012. The index indicates the number of months needed to sell the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate. A six- to seven-month supply is considered normal.
• Increased market competition has significantly driven down the time on market compared with a year ago. Homes sold more quickly in April, with the median number of days it took to sell a single-family home decreasing to 27.9 days in April, down from 29.4 days in March and down from a revised 48 days for the same period a year ago

Read the full story

HOUSING AFFORDABILITY FALLS ACROSS STATE
Source: Daily News

During the first quarter, 44 percent of buyers could afford a median-priced home costing $350,490, down from 56 percent a year ago, the CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® reported. Affordability was down from 48 percent in the fourth quarter of 2012.
Read the full story

This blog is courtesy of The Dawn Thomas Team who is an award-winning Real Estate Agent team at Intero Real Estate Services in Los Altos 650-701-7822. We help nice people with selling and buying homes from Palo Alto to West San Jose!

The Presidential administration, HUD and the Tresury released the April Housing Scorecard. This information gives the US a snapshot of what is happening through out the country in terms of our Real Estate recovery. Obviously every place is different but here in the Silicon Valley we’re especially seeing our numbers go up significantly-other than inventory!-with sales and average home prices. Read on for the report.

“The U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury released the April edition of the Obama Administration’s Housing Scorecard – a comprehensive report on the nation’s housing market. The latest data show important progress across many key indicators—as home values continue to rise and home sales remained strong in April—although officials caution that the overall recovery remains fragile.

“The Obama Administration’s efforts to speed the housing recovery are showing continued progress as the April scorecard indicators highlight ongoing improvements throughout the housing market,” said HUD Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Affairs Kurt Usowski. “The annual increase in home prices is the highest in nearly seven years and sales of existing and new homes are both up over 10 percent from one year ago. But with so many households still struggling to make ends meet, we have important work ahead.”

“The Administration’s programs have improved outcomes for homeowners by setting new standards for mortgage assistance and putting into place unprecedented consumer protections,” said Treasury Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability Tim Massad. “HAMP continues to offer struggling families meaningful relief to avoid foreclosure and strengthen local communities.”

The April Housing Scorecard features key data on the health of the housing market and the impact of the Administration’s foreclosure prevention programs, including:

• Nearly 1.6 million homeowner assistance actions have taken place through the Making Home Affordable Program, including more than 1.1 million permanent modifications through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), while the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has offered more than 1.7 million loss mitigation and early delinquency interventions.
• As of March, more than 1.1 million homeowners have received a permanent modification through the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), saving approximately $546 on their mortgage payments each month, and an estimated $19.1 billion to date.”

Click HERE to read complete report

This blog is courtesy of The Dawn Thomas Team who is an award-winning Real Estate Agent team at Intero Real Estate Services in Los Altos 650-701-7822. We help nice people with selling and buying homes from Palo Alto to West San Jose!

The Dawn Thomas Team likes to bring you activities around the Silicon Valley and this week we have: the 2013 Maker’s Faire in San Mateo! Come and bring your imagination while you peruse all the innovations made by others! This weekend, May 18 and 19 10am-6pm.

“Maker Faire Bay Area 2013 is a two-day showcase of creativity and cool technology that celebrates the maker mindset. It’s inspiring and exciting for attendees of all ages! With an incredible variety of attractions, exhibits, talks, demonstrations, and performances bridging science, technology, arts and crafts–most of them hands-on and all of them engaging–there is something for everyone. You’ll be amazed by the ingenuity and creativity of the maker projects that abound and fun you will have!”

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION!

*image courtesy of yelp events

This blog is courtesy of The Dawn Thomas Team who is an award-winning Real Estate Agent team at Intero Real Estate Services in Los Altos 650-701-7822. We help nice people with selling and buying homes from Palo Alto to West San Jose!

Today we bring you a fascinating article from Inman news asking: are we currently in a housing bubble? And if we are, is it about to burst? So many people, Sellers, Buyers and the Real Estate industry are all conscious of what another ‘burst bubble’ would do and no one wants that but especially the federal government. So we have to ask, do you think we’re in another bubble?

“Though recent leaps in home prices may stoke fears of another bubble, the housing market is definitely not in one, listing site Trulia said in introducing “Trulia’s Bubble Watch.”

Bubble Watch assesses the market’s susceptibility to bubble conditions by comparing today’s home prices with historical prices, incomes and rents.

“Incomes determine how much people can pay for housing, and price increases aren’t sustainable if they push prices too high relative to incomes,” Trulia chief economist Jed Kolko wrote in a blog post. “Rents reflect how much people value housing even if they won’t benefit from price appreciation (as renters don’t, but owners do); the price-to-rent ratio is like the price-earnings (P/E) ratio for stocks.”

Trulia’s Chief Economist Jed Kolko explains why he doesn’t think recent home price increases indicate we’re in a bubble market.

Crunching those metrics, Trulia concluded that national home prices are actually 7 percent undervalued in the second quarter of 2013. In contrast, at the height of the bubble in the first quarter of 2006, home prices were overvalued by as much as 39 percent, before they plummeted to 15 percent undervalued in the fourth quarter of 2011, Kolko said.

Strict underwriting standards and relatively low home construction also argue that the market is not in a bubble, Kolko said.

Nonetheless, some market observers find it hard to dismiss suspicions of possible market distortion, amid home price gains that are nearly as high as those recorded at the peak of the housing bubble.

Trulia’s analysis showed prices are overvalued in nine of the 100 markets analyzed. The nine markets Trulia sees as overvalued were the California metros of Orange County (overvalued by 9 percent), Los Angeles (5 percent), San Jose (3 percent) and San Francisco (2 percent); the Texas metros of Austin (7 percent), San Antonio (5 percent) and Houston (2 percent); Portland, Ore. (1 percent); and Honolulu (0.01 percent).

Reports of inventory shortages and desperate buyers from some real estate agents — the sort that characterized the boom years — doesn’t help allay those suspicions either. In an acknowledgement of those fears, Kolko noted that if the rate of current price gains continued for several years, home values could become inflated.

But there are three reasons why that probably won’t happen, he said:

• Inventory will expand on the back of increased home construction and more home sellers putting their homes on the market;
• mortgage rates should increase as the economy improves and
• the Federal Reserve reels in its stimulus efforts; and investor demand should drop off as home affordability diminishes.”

- See more at Inman News -

This blog is courtesy of The Dawn Thomas Team who is an award-winning Real Estate Agent team at Intero Real Estate Services in Los Altos 650-701-7822. We help nice people with selling and buying homes from Palo Alto to West San Jose!

Today the Dawn Thomas Team has information about an opportunity to purchase an amazing home that may or may not ever be put on the public market: in Mountain View! This home is located in the highly coveted Cuernavaca development-don’t miss this rare opportunity!

“One of the developements most sought after floor plans, providing nearly 2,500 sqaure feet of dramatic living space which includes:

• Formal living/dining room
• Separate family room with fireplace
• Large, beautifully remodeled kitchen with huge center island
• Awesome master suite with both a fireplace and private balcony
• 2.5 bathrooms, including a downstairs powder room
• 2 car attached garage
• Great cul-de-sac location
• Beautifully landscaped back yard that feels like your own ‘Secret Garden’ “

If this property interests you, please contact us today. Even off market homes are selling very quickly and with multiple offers, so prompt and decisive action is an absolute must.

Contact us today if you would like information on other off market listings that The Dawn Thomas Team is aware of.

*INFORMATION & IMAGE COURTESY OF Toni Corbett WITH Alain Pinel Realtors

This blog is courtesy of The Dawn Thomas Team who is an award-winning Real Estate Agent team at Intero Real Estate Services in Los Altos 650-701-7822. We help nice people with selling and buying homes from Palo Alto to West San Jose!

Are you still confused about the tax that went into effect on January 1 2013 for Health Care Reform? Are you worried about selling your home or your investment property in the Silicon Valley because of all the money you’ll be paying because of this new tax? You’re not alone. Below, that exact question was put to Tara Nelson, real estate expert in Northern California and she breaks down the implications on your home sale. If you’ve been waiting to sell your home based on this tax but are wanting more information contact The Dawn Thomas Team today. *remember to always speak with your tax expert on matters of tax*

“Q: When does the tax for “Obamacare” when selling a house go into effect? How will it be calculated?

A: First things first: Always, when considering any real estate move, from buying to selling, refinancing or even planning to rent for a number of years, get your own tax professional on the horn, loop them into your plans, and get their advice.

I say this upfront because I commonly see people worry and fret about tax issues that are not likely to ever be an issue for them, and vice versa: people wandering right into tax dramas they could have avoided if they’d gotten professional advice upfront.

And this “Obamacare” home sale tax issue is no different. Many who are worried about it needn’t be at all. Many who are unaware of the tax should be mindful of it.

Unfortunately, the mechanics of this tax have been conflated with the conversation about whether or not it should have been imposed. The tax is real for this moment, though, so it behooves us to explore and understand how it works.

1. Threshold No. 1: adjusted gross income. On Jan. 1 of this year, a new set of taxes to fund the health care program known as “Obamacare” went into effect. One of these taxes is a 3.8 percent tax on investment income, applicable only to singles with adjusted gross incomes greater than $200,000 and couples with adjusted gross incomes greater than $250,000. So, this is the first threshold for which people should be mindful of this new tax: For the 95 percent of Americans who make less than this threshold, the tax doesn’t apply.

2. Threshold No. 2: Capital gains exceed the exclusion. On your primary residence, the tax code currently allows homeowners to realize $250,000 (singles) or $500,000 (married couples) in capital gains, or profits, on the sale of their home before taxing them. Keep in mind that this amount refers to profits above and beyond the purchase price and investments that have been made in the home during the time it was owned.

When a primary residence is being sold, the “Obamacare” tax applies only in situations where (a) the adjusted gross income falls into the high-income bracket stated above, and (b) the capital gains being realized on the home sale exceed the $250,000/$500,000 guideline.

On today’s market, very few people fall into this income range and are experiencing this level of profit on the sale of their home.

That said, the larger impact of this tax is on investment and second-home owners who decide to sell. The capital gains exclusion guideline does not appear to apply for investment properties (including commercial real estate) and second or third homes, though taxpayers owning these sorts of properties still must meet the high-income guideline to incur this new tax.

3. Calculating this tax is relatively simple — and revealing: If you do happen to be one of the chosen few to whom this new tax applies, the way the tax is calculated will depend on whether you are selling your personal residence or not. If you are selling your personal residence, the tax is 3.8 percent of your taxable capital gains. So, you are going to be taxed only on the amount above the $250,000/$500,000 exclusion.

If you are selling an investment property or a second or third home, again, assuming your income exceeds the $200,000 limit for singles and the $250,000 limit for marrieds, the 3.8 percent tax is applied to your investment profits, not the total proceeds of sale.

And that brings up one more implication for investment and vacation-home owners: It is possible that this 3.8 percent tax will now apply to your investment property income throughout the year, so long as you fall into the high-income category. This is just one more reason to connect with your tax professional and determine whether you should realistically expect to be impacted by this new tax.

That said, let’s put this all in perspective. The independent Tax Policy Center actually ran the math and projected that only 0.2 percent of homes that bring in cash income between $100,000 and $200,000 will actually pay any extra tax under this law, and the grand total of what they will pay is, on average, $235, considering all their sources of investment and nonwage income, not just home sale income.”

Tara-Nicholle Nelson is a real estate broker, attorney, and the author of two critically acclaimed books on real estate.

This blog is courtesy of The Dawn Thomas Team who is an award-winning Real Estate Agent team at Intero Real Estate Services in Los Altos 650-701-7822. We help nice people with selling and buying homes from Palo Alto to West San Jose!

We have another great article from Gino Blefari, the Founder and President of Intero Real Estate. This one is entitled, Defaults Down and Flipping Returns. Now that the housing market is starting to see a steady growth-yes still in a recovery, which translates to home prices still being low in some high demand areas-is the dreaded ‘Four Letter Word’ of Real Estate back? 

“Here are two fun things to ponder this week:

Mortgage defaults are down – way down. First-time delinquent home loans fell to 0.84% of the 50.2 million mortgages in March, according to LPS.

It was monumental because it was the first month defaults fell below 1% since 2007, when the first defaults of the financial crisis reared their heads.

First-time delinquents are defined as loans that went from performing to at least 60 days delinquent when the report was created.

The days of problem loans aren’t fully behind us – there will be some amount of that in the market for a while. But the days of massive waves of these loans are safely tucked in the background, for now it seems.

Flip: Real estate’s four-letter word

Flipping made a media comeback this past week when RealtyTrac released a report highlighting the top 25 markets for flipping homes in 2012. The markets reflect those cities in which flipping produced the highest rate of return for flippers, i.e., gross profit.

Phoenix had the highest number of flips in 2012 with 10,589 property flips. Inland Empire, CA, Las Vegas, Miami, Denver and Detroit also topped the list by volume of flips.

The top five markets in terms of dollar amount profit in 2012 were San Jose ($103,241), San Diego ($85,714), San Francisco ($80,306), Las Vegas ($70,746), and Ventura County, CA ($70,426).

While flipping may conjure up bad memories of its TV glory days when everyone from waiters to hairdressers was a self-proclaimed real estate investment guru, it’s not a bad thing.

Flipping implies property improvements and increasing values – two important factors in pushing a healthy, widespread recovery.

Something tells me it’ll be less circus-like this time around. More seasoned investors and levelheaded borrowers. More lending restrictions. Less snap decisions and debt digging.

Lessons learned indeed. But it’s something to keep an eye on. If we start to see insane rampant flipping by real estate hobbyists again, we may need to step back and reboot.”

This blog is courtesy of The Dawn Thomas Team who is an award-winning Real Estate Agent team at Intero Real Estate Services in Los Altos 650-701-7822. We help nice people with selling and buying homes from Palo Alto to West San Jose!