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As you know this year, Easter is this Sunday. Why is it so early this year? Easter always comes on the Sunday after the first, or Paschal, full moon following the first day of spring.

Spring arrives on Thursday and the moon will be full on Friday, the earliest Paschal moon since 1913. And that means Easter, the Christian holiday marking the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is this Sunday. It won't come this early again for another 220 or so years. By the way, it turns out my “Irish Luck” story I posted on St. Patrick’s Day is not true, at least according to snopes.com. Oh well, it was a great story and we can now attribute it to some Irish blarney.  Sacramento real estate The wonderful weather we have been enjoying the past few weeks appears to have… Read Full Post

Irish Luck. His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There mired to his waist in muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman’s sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved. “I want to repay you,” said the nobleman. “You saved my son’s life.” “No, I cannot accept payment for what I did,” the Scottish farmer replied waving off the offer. At that… Read Full Post

From the Sacramento Bee – March 14, 2008

The Sacramento-area housing market is still declining, but a surge of buying by investors in February helped spark the first major slowdown in Sacramento County's long slide since 2005, DataQuick Information Systems reported Thursday. Some highlights: • Sacramento County showed a February median sales price of $257,000. That was down 27.7 percent from a year ago. But it was up from $253,000 in January. The median price is the point at which half sell for more and half sell for less. • Placer County reported a 30.7 percent drop in sales of new and existing homes in February compared with the same time in 2007. Its $364,000 median sales price was down 15.3 percent from February 2007. But it was up from $360,500 in… Read Full Post

Well, if I didn’t have it before, the extra daylight at the end of the day has certainly brought on a bit of Spring Fever in me as well as the Sacramento real estate market. At MagnumOne Realty we have all been busy which reminds me we really need to find another agent who believes in building relationships with service and exceeding client expectations. 

Based on our antidotal information the activity level in real estate market all over the Sacramento area has dramatically increased in the past few weeks. I have been working with a number of clients who are looking to buy, including an investor who believes the time is right to pick up a rental property. In addition we have had two new listings in the past week, both short sales in Sacramento and one is… Read Full Post

Don’t forget, Daylight Saving Time officially begins this year on Sunday, March 9th at 2:00 AM but for most of us it means we set the clocks forward when we go to bed on Saturday night. This year DST will run through November 2nd.

Some interesting notes about Daylight Saving Time:

We don’t actually save any daylight. Turning the clock forward an hour, effectively moves an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening.

The official spelling is Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight Savings Time although it is the more common term and is found in dictionaries.

Can bars serve alcohol for an extra hour in November? The official answer is that bars that the bars do not stop serving liquor at 2:00 a.m., but actually at 1:59 a.m. So, they have already stopped…

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I have spent the better part of a month showing homes to a nice young couple with a baby. It has been difficult because he wants to stay on a strict budget and she doesn’t want to live where the homes with the features they MUST have are located. During our last trip out, just as conversation, I mentioned this cute little house I have listed as a short sale and said it was too bad it didn’t meet any of their requirements. They were looking at newer homes; my listing was built in 1948. They had to have three bedrooms; my listing has two and a room that is a large closet. They had to have at least a two car garage, my listing has a carport.

I could end the post now because you know exactly where I am going. Yes, she went to my website and looked at a few of… Read Full Post

Check this one out! Located in Fruitridge area on 53rd Street, this property has two homes on a large lot! Although both structures are small they are very cute and have a tremendous amount of potential. The main house is a 2 bedroom, one bathroom, 683 square feet with lots of hidden charm while the studio cottage is 240 square feet. Yes, as with many short sales in Sacramento, this one needs some work to bring it up to the neighborhood which is in the process of a very positive revitalization. Many of the homes, including the ones on both sides of the subject house have been renovated.

The seller purchased this property at the height of the real estate market with plans to complete the renovation and bring the house up to its full potential. With the… Read Full Post

If you have been a long time reader of my blog you may well remember I used to spend a fair amount of print writing about the monthly statistical reports. I can’t remember when was the last time I posted something to my blog or wrote an article on the monthly results. I suspect there are several reasons, including the media spotlight on real estate and the “downturn,” “crisis” or “meltdown” stories in the Sac Bee and other outlets almost daily. Other blogs, especially the bubble blogs like Sacramento Land(ing) focus almost every post on the market and do a good job keeping readers informed of the latest reports about the Sacramento area real estate market.

But today I would like to call your attention to the continued decline in the median prices in our… Read Full Post