Carolyn Gjerde-Tu's Blog: Davis Real Estate

 

The ability to view all open homes in Davis is now available on my website.  There has been a push to move away from print advertising and publish open houses in places where more buyers are going to see them - online. 

Discover Davis Homes now has an open house page where all open houses, regardless of listing office are listed.  This information is updated daily but please be aware that because open houses are typically only held on the weekends, there may not be any information listed in the middle of the week. 

Open houses are popular in Davis and many buyers visit repeatedly until they find the right house.  Visiting open houses is also one way for homeowners to stay in touch with the market.  Be sure to stop by the page often when you are…

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I've been asked by several people if my site, Discover Davis Homes is a custom Real Estate Webmasters site - it's not.  I don't think it even looks close to a custom site but I have been asked by more than one person.   It is a template site with quite a few modifications. 

I am happy with this site - it is hyperlocal-meaning it is focused right now on basically one area, Davis, CA -although I'm trying to expand it out to include more of the Sacramento region.

In no particular order here is a list of most of the modifications - the majority done after the site went live in September 2007.

1. Custom snippets - foreclosures, shortsales, price range adjuster, keyword snippet.

2. Updated to a wide format

3. Upgraded to CMS2 and recently added the control…

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The City of Davis is in the early stages of considering a green building ordinance in which would require homes and buildings to comply to a certain standard at the point of sale. The City, Natural Resources Commission and the Planning Commission are only exploring this issue at this time, but are investigating different methods and measures to reduce the total greenhouse emissions in Davis to levels found in 1990.

First, I and all the Real Estate Agents I know are strongly for improving air quality and environmental standards in Davis but there is strong opposition in the real estate community for these types of changes to be mandated at the time of sale.

According to Gregory Mahoney, Assistant Building Official for the City of Davis, there are…

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Guest speakers for today's Davis MLS meeting were Bill Miller, Vice President of MetroList and Dave Howe, Regional MLS Coordinator.  Davis agents who aren't attending the Friday meetings are missing out on some good speakers.

Dave and Bill spoke about changes coming to MetroList, CalMLS and handheld technology.

MetroList has been working hard for the past couple of years to form alliances with other surrounding area MLS's. Within the next month, the remainder of the San Francisco Bay Area will be incorporated into the combined, Quattro database.  This means that Real Estate Agents can access data from Mendocino County to the north and west, to parts of Merced County to the south and east. It will include all of the data for the entire San Francisco Bay…

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Downtown Davis on Halloween

Davis #1 College Town in California.

It is official, Davis has made the top spot among college towns in California.  According to Paul Shigley, author of the California Planning and Development Report, ideal college towns have a high integration between town and campus.  Other California cities that made the list included, Chico, Berkeley and San Luis Obispo.

The report states, "without the University of California, Davis would be just another valley town amid the tomato fields. But it’s impossible to imagine Davis without the university because it defines the town."  

Why Davis made the top of the list:

• Proximity to downtown.  UC Davis, unlike many west coast colleges is located next to the downtown. Downtown…

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One question that buyers are asking  is real estate in Davis a good investment.  Here is  the year to year percentage change for Davis Residential Average Sales Price for the past 20 years.

Year                 Average Sales Price                  Percent change

1987                   $128,000                          
1988                   $154,300                           +21%
1989                   $192,200                           +25%
1990                   $234,700                           +22%
1991                   $246,600                           + 5%
1992                   $243,200                           -  2%
1993                   $205,200                           -16%
1994                  …

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Frustrated buyers often ask why Davis is so expensive.

 

First off, how expensive is Davis real estate?  The average sales price in July, 2007 was $653,000.  Neighboring Woodland had an average sales price of $385,000 and Dixon’s average sales price was $432,000.

 

 

Here are five reasons why it is so expensive to buy a house in Davis:

 

 

Very little growth.  The citizens of Davis passed Measure J in 2000, requiring any new development be approved by a majority vote by a city-wide ballot measure.  This has meant that there is very little competition between resale homes and custom homes.

 

The city is home to the University of California at Davis.  This is a college town with a world class research university.  The…

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