About Alameda County, CA

If you haven't seen the 2007 movie "Once," and you really love a romantic story coupled with an unbelievable soundtrack, you might want to do yourself a favor and rent the DVD. Notwithstanding the fact it won an Oscar in 2008 for Best Original Song, the movie has an almost documentary feel to it, yet it's the music that pulls you in tight and doesn't let go.

Because of this movie, my husband and I have been wishing we could see the then-unknown stars, Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard and the classic-trained Czech pianist Marketa Irglova, perform in person. We hit the jackpot yesterday by scoring tickets to the Paramount Oakland Theatre to see The Swell Season, a band formed by these two remarkable musicians.

We hopped on the Capitol Corrider train out of Sacramento Friday afternoon, which dropped us but a few blocks from The Waterfront Hotel in Oakland at Jack London Square. The Paramount is about 18 blocks up Broadway from there.

Even though the show didn't really get started until about 8:30 and ran until after 11 PM, I managed to stay awake, way past my bedtime, because it was so riveting. You should see Glen play guitar. He's like a madman on steroids. He strums lightening-bug fast. So fast you'd think his guitar would catch on fire. He can put Pete Townsend to shame.

I know a thing or two about Pete Townsend. I grew up in the 1960s. When I was 12 and entering 7th grade, I begged my parents for a piano. I used to go across the street to teach myself how to play my neighbor's basement piano. I taught myself to play Christmas carols by writing the notes on the keys in magic marker. Instead of a piano, though, my parents bought me a guitar and sent me to take lessons. I was told that until I could play a song 6 times in a row without making a mistake, I had not mastered the tune.

Grasshopper.

So much for Red River Valley and Old Black Joe. That was enough to make me want to tear out my hair. I wanted to play the Beatles.

Glen's vocal range is amazing. The music is raw, emotionally charged, sweet and bittersweet, raging, rip-roaring passionate and brutally honest. Mar, who truly must have fallen from the heavens, lends the duo balance and clarity through the voice of an angel. The sound of The Swell Season is absolute perfection, on par with the reflection of mountain tops mirrored in the still water of an Alpine lake.

Here's a link to Falling Slowly and another to a free MP3 of Low Rising. Glen and Mar are simply magical. There are no other words to describe these guys. They have a new album out, Strict Joy. I encourage you to buy it. And if you have a chance to catch their North American tour, I promise you, you won't regret it.

But I don't recommend that you ever stay at The Waterfront Hotel at Jack London Square. Not if you want to sleep at night. The train goes by, the horn sounds and you'll wake up. Plus, there are no honor bars in the rooms nor bathtubs, and you have to walk outside to go around the hotel to reach its restaurant, Miss Pearl's. But that was a small price to pay to see The Swell Season in person.

Photos: Elizabeth Weintraub

I've been working from home for the past 2 years and feel like I've really stagnated. I thought it was going to be so ideal to be home and take care of my family while I'm at it. But it turns out, it's so distracting and loney. the funny thing too is that it seems when family and friends know you work from home, they seem to think it's ok to talk on the phone for a long time without any regard for the time they are taking away from my money making hours.

I also have an excuse to watch my favorite noon time show "Wowowee" since I like to cook at lunch time for dinner. That way, I'm all done at noon and that's when I decide to hit the shower. Isn't that disgusting? That's why any appointments I make are usually in the afternoon or evening.

Then 3pm rolls around and of course the kids start rolling in and turn on the TV full blast. It's so distracting. I finally had a door put in to my Living room/Home office. That was expensive since I had to have one of those decorator ones that's made of glass and some design, really nice.

Anyway, after all these years at home, I decided I needed a change so I took the plunge. I interviewed with several different companies and I think I found a winner! I am happy that I met and befriended DebbieZetner of Diversified Mortgage Group at the local realtor meeting. She was doing a fund raiser for "Save Pleasanton schools" and I offered to help. I gave her my card but didn't hear from her for at least 2 months. When she called me to join them, I had no idea. When I met with the owner, Rick Lewis, I could tell this guy is a motivator. He goes through business plans, goal planning and all kinds of stuff with all his LO's. They have kick off meetings and have a very nice office to boot. He seems to have a very well run office. I know like 5 agents there already. I wish I knew about this company way back.

I have a feeling they are going to really help me build up my potential to even more than I thought I even had. I think it makes a huge difference where you work and who you work for. What do you think?

I could not stop smiling after viewing this video!  Take a look and it will definately make you smile!!

Best Regards,

Nahid

Since August there's been a tangible sense that the market was getting stronger, and not just in the immediate Berkeley area. Buyers who had the financial means to buy decided, finally, to get off the fence. Properties that had been sitting for some time went into contract as a result. We also began to see significantly more all-cash sales, and in higher price ranges. Two of the properties for which I had buyers recently had competition from all-cash buyers at the $1.0 - 1.4M range.

So far this year only one of my buyers has been fortunate enough to get their desired property without competition. For most buyers we're still writing three or four offers before getting into contract, and those are also the number of offers we usually face as competition. Whereas before three offers could take a property more than $100K over list, within the past month we saw cash offers being accepted at or just over list, trumping offers at substantially higher prices, but with greater risk.

Other key features of our East Bay market: inventory has been low all year, about half of "normal." This year in Berkeley, the number of properties sold per month went from a low of 15 in January, to a high of 53 in April. Each sale represents an opportunity for two agents to be involved in a transaction. Through October, there have been a total of 345 sales this year, representing 690 sides, providing roughly one transaction per member of the Berkeley Association of REALTORS®!

We've seen few distressed properties so far, but expect to see more by the middle of next year. Properties stay on the market about a month on average, significantly less time than in other markets.

Here are the numbers for BERKELEY for the month of October, 2009:

Median Sales Price: $731K

Median List Price : $715K (Berkeley is rare in having a higher med. sales $)

#homes for sale: 157 #homes sold: 34 Avg.Days on market: 24

That's my snapshot of our current diverse market behavior in Berkeley, CA. I'm going to ask Santa for some more houses to list!