You asked for it!

Earlier this week, I tweeted about 56 classrooms adopted so far this school year through the Alameda Education Foundation's Adopt-A-Classroom program, that's $28,000 in teachers hands for direct classroom support! I received a response from Medablog asking if I would blog about the program, so here you go!

The Adopt-A-Classroom program was originally developed by a  Bank of Alameda committee headed up by Steve Andrews. Their idea was simple, set up a program where local businesses can make contributions directly to the classroom to support our local students, teachers and schools. One issue arose; can the donations be tax deductible? The committee contacted AEF to see if they would be interested in partnering with the project, and thus the Adopt-A-Classroom program was born!

So exactly what is the Adopt-A-Classroom program and how does it work. Few realize almost all teachers spend their own money on classroom supplies. Per the AEF website - According to the National Education Association “Status of the American Public School Teacher 2001 survey”, the national average that teachers spend each year on supplies for their classroom is $443 with teachers in the West averaging $539 annually. (http://www.nea.org/home/2233.htm page 64 of PDF).  The program was designed to provide financial relief to teachers while allowing them the freedom to purchase exactly what was needed in the classroom without waiting (and hoping) for district approval.

To adopt a classroom donors complete an Alameda Education Adopt-A-Classroom Information and Application form and forward with a $500.00 check to PO Box 1363, Alameda CA 94501. The donors may select the teacher, program and/or school they would like to adopt when completing the form. Often parents and grandparents will select the classrooms their children attend. However, many local residents and business people leave the selection to AEF. When this occurs, adoptions are distributed to classrooms based on a random selection ranked by need. This allows teachers throughout the district to benefit from this very valuable grant program.

As President of AEF, one of the greatest pleasures I had was visiting the classroom and distributing grants to teachers. Quite often the teacher had no idea their classroom had been selected, so when the principal and I would walk in, we were often greeted with a look of confusion even concern. By the time we were finished the looks were usually more along the lines of joy and shock. Some teachers would become so overwhelmed by the gesture they would be unable to hold back the tears. Of course, equally as fun was watching the student reactions. Typically the younger students would shout out things like 'Yay, more books" whereas "Pizza Party" was the call of action from many middle and high school classes. So I should add, each teacher is required to complete a form advising the Foundation how the funds were used within the classroom, needless to say, Pizza and Ice Cream parties are not allowed, sorry kids!!

One final note of importance; donations to this program are not charged an administrative fee allowing 100% of the funds to go directly to the classroom. There is a great deal of work required to organize presentations including scheduling time with the schools, preparing and framing classroom certificates and processing the check and related paperwork including donor thank you. If you would like to support this program but the $500 contribution for the direct adoption is not in your budget, please consider making a general donation to the Foundation. This will help support the cost it takes to keep this program strong!

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Okay, how about a little real estate information! As you may recall, I summarized my review of this summer's real estate market on October 18. We'd had a stable but relatively slow market with sales volume down approximately 28%. Well, I'm not sure I can explain it, but over the past few weeks we've seen our market make a bit of a move. In the past two weeks the number of homes pending - currently in contract with an accepted offer - increased twenty percent!

Digging into the details a bit, seventy percent of the properties pending are detached homes, fifteen percent other residential properties and the final fifteen percent residential income and commercial. After removing the two commercial properties, the average list price is approximately $570,000, $600,000 if you look at detached homes alone.

Of course list price is not sales price so we'll need to wait for a few more weeks to see if the average sales price remains stable. My hunch is buyers finally decided to take advantage of the low rates available to them, but we'll need to see how things work themselves out.

If you're thinking about buying in the next 6 -9 months, my colleague, Justine Francis, and I will be holding a seminar "Why Would You Buy Now", Please join us Saturday, November 20 at 9: 30 am at the High Street Station and find out why this may just be the perfect time to buy a home! Refreshments will be provided and you may win the door prize! Stay tuned for more details!!

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If you're looking for a little Halloween fun, head over to Rooster's Roadhouse Saturday night at 7:30. For a mere $10.00 fee you can celebrate to the tunes of Old Coal, Spill the Wine and West of High. Band earnings will be contributed to Alameda SOS Show up in costume and you'll receive an adult Halloween treat!

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Finally, there are many key races to be determined Tuesday. As most of you know, I've spent the last six years actively working on behalf of our schools, teachers and students.  Maintaining quality education and providing the necessary financial support for our schools is my top priority. As such, I have publicly endorsed Mike McMahon and Margie Sherratt for School Board and Tracy Jensen for City Council and would like to take this last opportunity to ask you to consider these highly qualified candidates for office.


That's it for now!  Hope you have a safe and spooky Halloween!!

Patience, Persistence and a little Pinor Noir ....

This week marked the closing of a deal a loooooooooooooooooong time in the making. My listing on Barnhill Marina is now SOLD! When I first sat down with my Seller, over two years ago, I told her these homes will sell within 1 week or it will take a year or more. Well, I guess if nothing else, I have the satisfaction of being right!

Okay first of all, yes you read that right; the home had been listed for more than 2 years before it sold. This lends to the question, “Why in the world would I be sharing this information with anyone, much less on my blog???"  Simple, I'm actually quite proud of the process and the results. You see when I made the statement about how long it would take to sell, I was being quite sincere. Floating homes are a specialized property. In the best of markets, the actual buyer pool for these homes is quite limited. Needless to say, the last few years would clearly not be defined as one of the best markets!

Now that's not to say there aren't a lot people interested in seeing these homes. I wouldn't be exaggerating to say I probably handled 250-300 inquiries on this home. First you go through the routine - buyers need to put at least 20% down; interest rates are 6% variable, 7.5% fixed; monthly berthing fees start at $450; homeowners are responsible for insurance and utilities; rentals are not allowed and finally, yes it really is a home floating in the water. That usually removes the first time home buyers, investors and the curious. For those still interested, you get to set an appointment for a showing. The marina requires the listing agent to attend all showings, so I probably visited the home about 100 times. Fortunately I love visiting the marina, but it is very time consuming, especially when you consider showings take about 45 minutes on average.

Now it goes without saying, when the buyer - now owner - walked through the door and immediately knew this was her house, I was thrilled! Not only because I knew I'd be updating my listing from active to pending, but because I knew she would really enjoy the home and marina living, and the deal would close!

So why am I proud of all this? Because throughout the two plus years this home was listed, I kept my client informed about the market, recommended price changes reflective of the times, kept her realistically optimistic without building false hope and when I told her I just put a buyer into a floating home that was on the market less than a week, she congratulated me and told me I was a due for an easy deal! That's when you know you've done a good job!!!!

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Buy Your Tickets Now!!!!  

Friday, November 12th, The Sun Kings and DJ Peter Fletcher are sponsoring a fabulous night for the Alameda Education Foundation; All Together Now! Doors will open at 6pm at Antiques By the Bay. Good food, good fun, good friends, GREAT CAUSE. There will be dancing in the aisles and I dare you to last the night without singing along to those classic Beatles songs incredibly performed by The Sun Kings. Tickets are $40.00 and proceeds will support Music, Arts and Drama in our schools. You can buy tickets online by clicking the link above or e-mail or call me, I've got tickets burning a hole in my pocket!!

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Tomorrow I head off to Ashland with a friend that's put up with me for almost 40 years!! We're visiting my folks and better be watching the game that gets the Giants in the World Series!!!  Have a great weekend!

A Summers View of the Forest from the Trees

Well, the traditional selling months have come and gone for Alameda real estate, and it's left most of us scratching our heads. There were properties we believed would sell in a heartbeat that stuck around all summer long while others were flying off the market receiving multiple offers for reasons we just couldn't figure out. I would often joke that the best tool in my REALTOR tool box this summer seemed to be my Crazy-8 ball!!


In order to try to make rhyme or reason out of the market, I decided to compare Summer 09 and 10 using several key indicators - number of homes sold, number of homes available, average price per square foot and average months of inventory on the market -broken down by type of property - Single Family Residence, Townhouse and Condo -and by location - All Alameda, Main Island (94501) and Bay Farm/Harbor Bay (94502). Once compiled, the data was averaged and compared. I found the results turned out quite interesting. Hold onto your hats, there's lots of statistics to wade though!

The 30,000 foot view….. It came as no surprise to find we had a slow moving market this summer. The number of properties sold dropped by 28% while the properties available for sale increased by 29%. The result; the number of months of inventory on the market almost doubled. Although movement lagged, the average price per square foot actually increased slightly - 1% compared to last year. So the question arises, if prices have stabilized why have sales slowed? Especially when you consider interest rates are the lowest we've seen in decades.

There are several reasons heavily discussed in the media supporting why the market was slow this summer. Buyers are still wondering if we've hit the bottom, the overall fear of a double-dip recession and the assumption that banks are not lending. However, we have an additional concern in Alameda; “What will become of our schools next year?” Believe me, a week does not go by without hearing buyers state "We're waiting until the spring when we know about the schools." A survey taken by the National Association of Realtors found 27% of home buyers listed school quality and 21% listed proximity to schools as deciding factors in their home purchase. Interesting enough given we saw a 28% decline in sales volume over last year! Of course there is something we can do to remove this concern, pass a parcel tax this spring. Please visit and bookmark Alameda SOS Save Our Schools to stay informed ... but I digress...

Down to the forest level….. The decrease in sales volume was about the same for the 94501 area as compared to 94502, however the remaining indicators reflect the main island seemed to adjust to this new market faster. Though higher in 2010, the increase in available properties and months of inventory on the market on the main island were markedly less, about 1/3 the increase as seen on Bay Farm. In addition, 94501 saw a 4% increase in price per square foot whereas Bay Farm experienced a slight decline - 3%. So why would homes take longer to sell in Bay Farm and a sell at a lower price? I believe the real culprit is short sales These sales typically take longer to sell and sell below market. Currently 24% of properties on the market in Bay Farm/Harbor Bay are short sales, compared to 10% on the main island. This is definitely high enough to skew the summers results.

Now for a few of the trees…… Condo's (predominantly in 94501) represent about 15% of our market and continue to be the toughest market in Alameda. It experienced a 52% decline in sales volume, and a 241% increase in months of inventory on the market, still there was an increase in price per square foot of 3%. Townhouses make up another 15% (predominantly in 94502) of the market and fared a bit better in sales volume, declining 24% overall, but lost 7% in the price per square foot indicator.

Of course single family residences represent the majority of the transactions occurring in Alameda with the greatest number falling on the main island. Of all the property types, these seemed to fare best this summer. We experienced a 22% decrease in sales volume of single family homes, about the same throughout the island, with properties available only increasing by 9%. In addition, price per square foot increased 4% (6% increase in 94501; 4% decrease in 94502).

What is interesting to me is though the market felt like it was all over the board, the numbers reflect buyers were still apprehensive to pull the trigger, but when they did, values remained stable and Alameda continued to be a desirable market.

So there's my call for the forest and the trees of Alameda! If you're interested in getting an even closer look at the market, please contact me and I'll be happy to provide detailed information for your neighborhood of interest!

Information obtained from Trendgraphix Fact and Trends; deemed reliable but not verified.

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Alameda has many challenges ahead; protecting quality education in difficult economic times, balancing the development of Alameda Point with the effect of growth on our city and maintaining a strong fire and police department to keep our streets safe. In a few weeks we'll be electing a new Mayor, 2-3 City Council Members and 2 School Board members. Please be sure and vote November 2nd, your vote WILL make a difference!!

There's a reason they call them PERSONAL computers!!

My computer was about 2 years old, and given the way I drag it around, it was holding up fairly well. I'd noticed it was freezing up a bit, and the power cord was a bit troublesome (my puppy confused it with a chew toy) but overall I figured I had another year before I'd need to break down and a get a new machine.


Then it happened ... I was telling a great story, which required a good deal of animation - no, I can't talk without using my hands - and whack, I managed to smack my wedding ring into my computer screen! The good news is, diamonds always win! The bad news is, in a matter of moments, the little spot on my screen began to grow. Several hairline cracks swirled out from the center making what began as a lovely spiral design around the screen.

After I got over the initial shock I thought, no problem, I can work with this it's not like I can't see the screen. Well that pipe dream lasted a few more moments until the lovely hairline cracks started to bleed black, blue and an occasional red ink-like substance inside the screen. Still, my Scottish blood coursing through my veins, I convinced myself all would be fine. It's not like the whole screen was blacked out. It just looked, as a good friend said, like I had a tarantula smashed across my screen.

What I discovered in the weeks - yes weeks - that followed was if we can't use our computers in the same way we always have, we start finding reasons to limit the way we use them. I had figured out if I shrank my windows and move them to the lower left-hand corner of my screen, I could still read e-mail, check out websites and conduct business relatively well. Yes it was a hassle, but I could do it. Then I found myself using my blackberry for e-mail and web searches (ugh) even though my computer was sitting right next to me. Then I was asking my daughter for her computer or using my husband's when he wasn't working. Of course none of this really worked well, because all MY files, things I wanted easy access to and used all the time weren't available.

I no longer had a Personal Computer, I had a machine I could use if I had no other choice. Not the best way to run a business!! So I bit the bullet headed to Best Buy and bought the cheapest decent machine I could find. Fortunately, all this did happen as students were heading back to school so I was able to get a really good deal on a Gateway, but I still didn't have a Personal Computer. The real fun was about to begin; loading software and files, re-establishing wireless connections and setting up e-mail options, getting used to the new keyboard set-up and changes related to System 7.

It's taken about a week and a half, but I realized today I once again have my very own personal computer and suddenly I was ready to get back to my blog. That's when the light bulb went off! It wasn't that I didn't have anything to say (God forbid!!) or I was lofty enough to have writers block, I simply couldn't face blogging without the right tools! Shame on me, lesson learned, sometimes being cheap is very costly!!

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Stay tuned, next week I'll be analyzing what really happened in the Alameda market this summer. What areas were hot, what areas were not. Was it the house, the price or the location that made a difference in the sale of a home. Or was this truly a schizophrenic summer with no rhyme or reason? We'll see....