Anja Kerstens - Signature Homes and Estates

Thanks to the efforts of a few "brave" ladies the Social Committee of Eagle Ridge has been resurrected with the full support from the Board of Directors of Eagle Ridge Homeowners' Association. They are planning their next event on March 13th and encourage all homeowners and their guests to sign up for the "Homeowners Casino Night" at the Eagle Ridge Golf Clubhouse.

The event takes place between 7:00 pm and 11:00 pm on Friday March 13th. This wonderful evening will include dinner, games such as craps, roulette, blackjack, and poker hosted by a professional casino group, a no-host bar and dancing to the music of DJ C.J. Wallace. The cost is $45.00 per person thanks to a pledge of the Eagle Ridge Homeowners Association.

The Social Committee is also working on other events in the coming months such as the October Fest and the New Years Party.

•1. How many properties do you have for sale in your MLS? As of today we our current inventory is 642 single family homes.

•2. How does that figure compare with last year's and the year before? In the same period last year we had 724 single family homes in inventory.

•3. What is the sales activity per month on single family homes, condos, multi-family, land and commercial? 64 Single family homes closed, 6 common interest development sales, 1 Multi-family, 1 Residential lots & land, 0 commercial lots & land.

•4. What is the absorption rate for all of the above? The absorption rate for single family homes is about 10 months indicating that we are in a buyer's market. That is higher than the 6 month tipping point.

•5. How does that compare with last year and the year before? In January 2008: 21 Single family homes closed, 2 common interest development, 3 Multi-family, 0 Residential lots & land, 0 commercial lots & land. January 2007: 62 Single family homes closed, 5 common interest development sales, 0 Multi-family, 7 Residential lots & land. The absorption rate in January 08 for single family homes was 35 months and in the same period in 2007 was 7 months.

•6. How do January's sales figures compare with January of last year? How does that compare with November and December of last year? Single family homes: January 2008: 21, December 2008: 81, November 2008: 70: October 2008: 76, September 2008: 89.

•7. What is the best selling product in your market? Single Family homes. What is the worst selling product? Commercial lots and land.

•8. How much of your market is foreclosure related? Rough estimate is 55.6% (REO and Short Sale). How many foreclosures have occurred in your market in January and February? Foreclosure rate and short sale rate increased.

•9. What are your observations on local financing? We are in a high value market and financing seems to not be a problem.

•10. What are your observations on local appraisals? There are no problems appraising homes. Appraisals are coming in at market value. To be frank most homes have seen 1 or more price drops while on the market.

•11. What is the best advice you would give a Buyer in your market? It is a buyers' market. Inventory is down, sales are up and now is the time to purchase before prices start to increase due to the reduction of inventory.

•12. What is the best advice you would give a Seller in your market? Price your home in the bottom of the actives and at the top of the solds if you want to sell your home within a reasonable amount of time.

Does the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 benefit the housing market?

It seems that we are bombarded by bad news day in and day out. You open the newspapers and stare at articles about the plummeting property values (Gilroy is at about 31.8%) and the bleak unemployment numbers (at a 25 year high as of January 2009). However, there is also some good news.

Home sales rebound in January and inventory levels are down. After a stronger month of home sales in November we saw that number drop slightly in December and increase again in January. Nationwide home sales jumped 6.5% in December. Home sales in Gilroy rose by 11.6% in January compared to December. Current inventory dropped 4.6% last month compared to a nationwide inventory drop of 18% due to improved affordability; the most favorable levels in 39 years. However, the medium sales price of a home in Gilroy dropped from $387,500 to $350,000. It is always difficult to predict when we hit "rock bottom" in home sale prices and according to Lawrence Yun, chief economist, we can expect home sales to stay soft in the first quarter and slowly rise later this year. The jump of pending home sales nationwide of 6.3% is very promising but does not indicate a rebound of the housing slump. Expect the 30-year mortgage rates to hover around 5% this year. The average 30-year mortgage rate saw another increase from 5.20 to 5.3 percent. The 10-year Treasury bond rate is expected to increase from 2.5 to 3.1 by the end of 2009. Most 30-year mortgage loans will be paid off or refinanced within 10 years and the long term mortgage interest rates are closely related to those of the 10-year Treasury bonds. Traditionally 10-year Treasury bond are good indicators as to what the mortgage rates will do, however, in this economy, the yield might increase without affecting the mortgage rates. And lastly, Congress is considering approving the $7,500 home buyer tax credit into a non repayable incentive. Stay tuned for more updates on the housing market here in Gilroy.

The board of directors of the Eagle Ridge Community will have their last meeting tonight, November 19th at 6:00 pm in the HOA clubhouse. They usually meet once a month except during the holiday season. The next meeting will be held on January 29th, 2009 at the Association clubhouse. All homeowners are invited to attend and those who come out are always treated to cookies and drinks. Homeowners are encourage to bring their ideas, issues and/or concerns to the attention of the board during the beginning and the end of a meeting. Tonight's topics on the agenda are the installation of the speed humps on three locations on Club Drive to reduce the speed in the community, the landscape/maintenance report and updates, landscape installation approvals, and financial overview of the HOA. As mentioned before the budget for next year doesn't increase the hoa dues for the majority of the association. The speed humps were ready to be installed earlier this month but unfortunately they didn't fit in the locations. Eagle Ridge has several committees who work hard to make this the beautiful community it is. We have a park committee who is in charge of all the parks in the community; a family/social committee who organizes several community events throughout the year such as the Easter Egg hunt, the Fourth Of July parade and potluck and the Halloween party; the technology committee works hard to connect the homeowners through our website (http://erhoa.com/) and keep them informed on all activities and news in the community; the welcome committee welcomes all new residents with flowers and a welcome kit; the safety committee works hard to keep to community safer with a vehicle badge system and speed reduction efforts such to name a few; and finally the landscape and maintenance committee which has worked hard these last 4 years under the direction of the chairperson Ms. Graham, to improve the quality of our communities appearance. They are responsible for the beautification of the entrance to the community, upgrades to Club Drive and Muirfield and even our community off Miller Ave. (we fondly call it our "South Knoll" since it is located on top of a hill overlooking the valley) has bbenefited from their efforts with landscaped areas. Shapell (http://www.shapell.com/) who developed the "South Knoll" also added a park overlook with views of the entire valley.