http://article.homebydesign.com/pages/article/HBD_APR_12_04/272342/index.html

FREE COMPOST

On Saturday, May 5th at 1:00 pm, Recology South Valley will be giving away compost at Morgan Hill Community Park in the parking lot across from the tennis courts. Compost giveaway is limited to 1/2 cubic yard per Morgan Hill resident only, no commercial customers. Limited supply, first come first served.

Your Garden will love it!

New Weekly Article - Join the Coupon Craze || Home By Design Weekly Article

New Weekly Article - Join the Coupon Craze || Home By Design Weekly Article

Active and Pending Listings on April 9, 2012

Listings in Morgan Hill as of April 9, 2012 @ 1:00pm

Active Available Homes 100
Pending Sale Homes  130

Active Available Condo/Townhouse  11
Pending Sale Condo/Townhouse  21

Listings in Gilroy as of April 9, 2012 @ 1:00pm

Active Available Homes  76
Pending Sale Homes  205

Active Available Condo/Townhouse  1
Pending Condo/Townhouse  14

Listings in San Martin as of April 9, 2012 @ 1:00pm

Active Available Homes  18
Pending Sale Homes 18

Mortgage delinquencies decline

By Les Christie@CNNMoney

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The mortgage meltdown that began five years ago appears to be reversing course as the percentage of loans that fell into delinquency slowly returned to normal rates and fewer loans fell into foreclosure.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, 7.58% of mortgage borrowers were late on their loan payments during the last three months of 2011, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. That was down 0.67 percentage points from 12 months earlier and 2.5 percentage points from the peak set in the first quarter of 2010.

"That's a pretty substantial decline," said Mike Fratantoni, the MBA's Vice President for Single-Family Research and Policy. "We're about halfway back from the peak."
The improved mortgage performance reflected continued improvements on the jobs front and in the broader economy, according to Jay Brinkmann, chief economist at the MBA.

Active and Pending Listings on March 16, 2012
for Morgan Hill, Gilroy and San Martin

Morgan Hill

Active Listings 109       Pending Sale Listings 115


Gilroy

Active Listings 93        Pending Sale Listings 214


San Martin

Active Listings 15        Pending Sale Listings 18

Wee

Weekly Housing Market Report Silicon Valley

Realtors are continuing to sell more than they are listing in most price ranges. Inventories are at the historic lows of 2004-2005 levels and the market continues to heat up! Multiple offers in double digits on many new listings are becoming more common with overbids of 10 to 15% above list price!

Good Headlines in the Business Section of the SJ Mercury News today “Home sales up across the bay” which will help get even more buyers to jump in.

Have a Great Weekend,

Tracey

"Brittle pipe called biggest gas risk to public." San Francisco Chronicle

Ruptures on the DuPont pipe, made out of a plastic called Aldyl-A, were responsible for explosions in Cupertino and the Sacramento suburb of Roseville (Placer County) within a month's time in 2011. Pacific Gas and Electric Co., whose lines were involved in both blasts, said late last year that it would remove more than 1,200 miles of the pipe from its system. The pipes are found in distribution networks that deliver natural gas directly into people's homes and businesses. They are smaller than transmission lines such as the PG&E pipe that exploded in San Bruno in 2010, killing eight people, but they are capable of causing major damage - as evidenced by December 2008 blast in Rancho Cordova (Sacramento County) that killed a homeowner. The Aug. 31 blast in Cupertino destroyed a condominium, and the Roseville explosion less than a month later resulted in the shutdown of a major intersection for more than 12 hours. No one was hurt in either incident. A task force that the Public Utilities Commission formed after the San Bruno disaster said Wednesday that Aldyl-A pipe was among 17 major hazards connected with the state's natural-gas delivery system that require immediate action. It said in a statement that it would investigate whether other utilities in California besides PG&E were taking steps to identify and deal with the risk from the plastic pipe, which federal officials first recommended be removed in 2002. Aldyl-A pipe is especially failure prone when it is pressed against rocks or has been pinched off. DuPont issued warnings to utilities about the failure risk from its pre-1973 Aldyl-A starting in 1982. A month after the Cupertino explosion, however, state regulators downplayed the risk from the pipe. At a gas-safety workshop in September, Sunil Shori, a gas engineer with the commission, said Aldyl-A leakage rates were "not drastically different" from other types of plastic lines, although he acknowledged that the material was "not as tough" as later plastics and was prone to sudden rips from cracking. The next day, Sept. 27, the Roseville pipeline exploded. The utilities commission is investigating both failures. The commission's task force said it would seek details about how widely Aldyl-A is used throughout the state. PG&E and other utilities nationwide have been reporting Aldyl-A failure rates to an industry-run data-tracking system, which is not required to share its findings with state regulators. Assemblyman Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, who has been critical of the commission since the San Bruno blast, called its recognition of risks from Aldyl-A "a day late and a dollar short." Hill is sponsoring legislation that would require state regulators to act on gas-safety recommendations by the National Transportation Safety Board, which issued a 1998 warning about plastic pipe similar to Aldyl-A. "It's about time they recognize something that was known about 14 years ago and was first identified in 1982 when DuPont said it was a problem," Hill said. "For all this time, they didn't do anything about it." Other risks identified by the commission's task force include gas-transmission lines that were exempted from strength testing in 1970, accidental pipeline puncturing by third parties, utilities' ignorance of the quality of their pipes, inadequate pipeline leak surveys, lax regulation and utility mismanagement. Jaxon Van Derbeken is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.comThis article appeared on page C - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

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Weekly Coldwell Banker Update
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Coldwell Banker Real Estate survey: Sellers more flexible

Agents say kitchens, open floor plans among priorities for buyers

A Coldwell Banker Real Estate survey of more than 600 of the company's real estate agents across the U.S. shows that, according to a slight majority of the agents polled (51 percent), home sellers are more willing to lower their asking prices to increase the chance of a sale than they were last year.
Home sellers are also more willing to reconfigure their homes to facilitate a sale this year than they were last year, according to 45 percent of the survey respondents. The survey was conducted from Jan. 24 to Feb. 7.
A vast majority of home sellers (94 percent) are streamlining their homes' contents and doing cosmetic repairs and minor updates like painting, according to the agents surveyed. Fifty-nine percent say sellers are staging their homes with outside decorations and furniture to make them more appealing.
Coming as no surprise, finished basements and rec rooms are not on top of homebuyers' minds when searching for a home -- only 1 percent of the agents surveyed thought those features were the highest priorities for buyers.
Nice kitchens and open floor plans, however, are priorities for some buyers -- 33 percent of surveyed agents reported that nice kitchens were the most important home-selling feature, while 14 percent of respondents felt open floor plans were a priority.
Babies, jobs and marriages represent 70 percent, 69 percent and 59 percent of the respondents' opinions, respectively, of the life events driving homebuyers' decisions to purchase homes.

Surprise! Housing is affordable thanks to low rates and low prices

-       Housing affordability conditions have reached the highest level since recordkeeping began in 1970, according to the National Association of Realtors®. NAR’s Housing Affordability Index rose to a record high 206.1 in January, based on the relationship between median home price, median family income and average mortgage interest rate. The higher the index, the greater the household purchasing power. NAR President Moe Veissi said this latest data underscores buyer opportunities in today’s market. “This is the first time the housing affordability index has broken the two hundred mark, meaning the typical family has roughly double the income needed to purchase a median-priced home,” he said. “For buyers who can qualify for a mortgage, now is a very good time to become a homeowner. Housing inventory levels have declined to a point where conditions are becoming much more balanced in much of the country,” Veissi said. “If access to credit improves, we could see a much more meaningful increase in home sales and broader stabilization in home prices with modest gains in areas with stronger job growth.”

BIG RETAIL CENTER PLANNED FOR SOUTH SAN JOSE TO INCLUDE A TARGET.

Target is expected to be the primary anchor for a new shopping center that will rise near the Kaiser hospital in South San Jose.

The new retail complex, dubbed Village Oaks, will total 320,000 square feet. Besides Target, a major supermarket is expected to be one of the anchors. A health club, restaurants, banking and other retail are expected to make up much of the remainder of the tenants.

After stalling during the recession, the center's launch is being bolstered by a rebounding local economy. Principal developer Hunter Storm Properties has teamed up with realty finance and investment firm Pacific Coast Capital Partners.

The developers and Terranomics wouldn't identify the anchors that have agreed to move to the center, which will occupy a portion of the former IBM disk drive factory site.

However, marketing materials for the complex and a residential development that will be constructed nearby both identify Target as its primary anchor.

H-2-Oh no!

Water is the number one cause of damage in all homes, especially older ones. Look for missing or damaged roof shingles, rotted or loose trim boards, and disconnected or plugged-up gutters and downspouts.

Problems with gutters and downspouts are the biggest cause of water damage - they must be cleaned and checked regularly. If you're looking to buy an older home, check the condition of the gutters and downspouts - they're big clue to finding hidden water problems elsewhere in the house.

As the ground around a home settles naturally, it can slope in toward the house and begin directing water at the foundation wall. Modern waterproofing systems can delay the subsequent damage for a while, but older homes don't have sophisticated waterproofing systems - if they have any at all. Many very old homes have porous stone foundations that have no ability to repel ground water.

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SFJanArticle

SFJanArticle