Davis, CA

Google just launched street views for the greater Sacramento area. If you haven't seen Street Views, it basically allows someone to view the area like one would in their car. Most of the San Francisco Bay Area has been available for some time but it is brand new to this area.

What this means to home buyers is they can "drive" around neighborhoods on their computers before going to see them physically. I think this will be especially useful when someone is relocating to the area and they are trying to get a sense of different neighborhoods.

Visit: http://maps.google.com and click on street view to get started. Click anywhere there is a blue line to get a 360 view from the street.

Now when you are exploring Davis CA Real Estate or Homes in Sacramento you have even more data available to jump start your home search.

On Tomorrows "Today" show on NBC (Wednesday, May 28th), Davis, California will be featured as one of the five friendliest cities in the United Sates. It was so named in a recent book by NBC contributor Barbara Cook entitled "Nextville: Amazing Places to Live the Rest of Your Life".

Davis has been known as a bicycle friendly town and has received national, and international attention for it's progressive housing developments. In the late 1970's and early 80's, First Lady Rosalynn Carter, Prince Charles and French President François Mitterrand visited the Village Homes development in west Davis. President Carter later mentioned the environmental strides of Davis in an Oval Office speech.

I review the other unique qualities about Davis in my list The Top Ten Reasons to Live in Davis. It looks like I might have to add #11 to my list....... "One of the Friendliest Cities in the US".

My best friend and I used to compare notes when the API scores came out each year. I live in Davis and she lives in Rocklin. Although the schools up that direction have always been good, they don't touch Davis. The Davis Enterprise included a nice article, Davis test scores top in region in yesterday's paper (5/21/08). The article reported that all Davis schools had API scores above 800 on the API which puts them in the category of "high performing schools." Three of the elementary schools (Willett, Pioneer, and Patwin) had scores above 900.

As the chart below shows, there are other area high schools which are also performing quite well, but Davis schools have an advantage. They are in Davis. DAVIS ROCKS!! For more information on local school performance and other useful information, try www.greatschools.com.

<form enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded" action="/cgi-bin/msl_confirm/ca/" method="get" accept-charset="UNKNOWN"> </form> School name Distance School type GreatSchools Ratings Parent Reviews API Avg. class size Muir Charter School 8.7 charter 2 957 --- West Campus 4.6 public 9 880 30 Davis Senior High School 14.3 public 9 854 27 Folsom High School 18.6 public 10 844 34 Oak Ridge High School 23.6 public 9 841 32 Leonardo Davinci High School 14.3 public 8 838 28 Rocklin High School 20.3 public 9 832 30 Granite Bay High School 18.1 public 8 826 32 Natomas Charter #19 5.2 charter 7 823 29 Whitney High School 20.6 public 8 810 30

Lori Prizmich, Realtor

The Lori Prizmich Team

www.LoriPrizmichHomes.com

530 845 3325 (direct)

Quickly look for open houses in Woodland and Davis or anywhere in the greater Sacramento Region. This Davis Open House Guide lists all the brokers open homes, not just one office. Visiting open houses can be a good way to get neighborhood information in the early stages of buying a home. However open homes only represent a portion of what is currently for sale in any one area. Visit my website to search all Davis homes for sale.

Real Estate market activity has increaeed in Davis in the past 60 days. My buyer business has exploded and other agents I speak with say that their business is up also. Even the Home Inspection team I usually use tells me his company is fully booked and has been for a few weeks.

The biggest increase in business seems to come from out of town buyers, specifically the parents of students attending the University of California at Davis. Many more parents these days are savvy about the financial advantages of buying a home in Davis for their son or daughter to live in while attending college.

Each spring the University has it's annual Picnic Day (one of the Top Ten Reasons to Live in Davis). It is a giant open house at the University with festivities and a parade. Students typically invite their parents to town to join them and tour the school. This is often the point at which out of town parents get interested in Davis real estate and a potential investment. One such buyer was a family that had just learned that their son had been accepted to Medical school here, so they know that the home would be owned for at least five more years.

Many of these parents are from California. In the last couple of weeks I have shown homes to, and sold homes to, parents from San Jose, Mill Valley, and El Monte. They typically want a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home. The plan is to put their son or daughter in the master bedroom and then rent out the other two bedrooms to the students friends. Their child acts as the property manager, and the parents can relax knowing that their rental home investment is being cared for and the tenants are well known. These parents are usually buying in the $350,000 to $425,00 range. Most are looking for a move-in ready home, but there have been a few that are willing to do some fix-up over the summer before the students return in the fall.

A Typical Davis Student Rental Home

The biggest up tick in business in March and April has been in the $500,000 and under range. We have even seen multiple offers on some homes. If priced aggressively, homes have been getting multiple offers and selling above asking price. The sales increase in March and April will be reflected in the closings done in May.

I am just giving you my anecdotal thoughts on the Davis market. In my next post, I will provide the statistics for sales in April and May, which I'm sure will show that my own experiences are true for the whole market.