Silicon Valley Housing Blog by Steve Leung

Traffic in the Bay Area is predictably unpredictable. Fortunately, 511.org provides real-time traffic updates that are accessible over the web or from your phone by dialing 5-1-1. There is also a test site where you can customize your driving time updates for up to four trips. 511.org...

CNNMoney.com published an article that gives you tips on 5 small home improvement projects that you can do yourself before your house goes on sale.  They rate the projects by skill level required, how much it costs, and how much you'd have to pay a professional to do it. They note that because it...

Local station CBS5.com reports that existing home sales dropped sharply in 2006 across the country.  2005 was the peak of this recent real estate boom and during that year a whopping 40% of all home sales were to investors or people buying vacation homes, according to David Lereah, chief economic...

Okay, this is a blog about Silicon Valley but New Orleans is a city dear to my heart because I grew up there.  And even 17 months after Hurricane Katrina, they're still trying to rebuild infrastructure.CNN.com's article Struggling New Orleans Schools Are Having Trouble Finding Teachers details on...

That's the headline from the Silicon Valley Business Journal.  The San Jose Mercury News states it more plainly as "More Californians fall behind on their mortgages." Impact on Silicon ValleySo what's the impact here in Silicon Valley?  "None right now.  Literally none," according to John Karevol...

Choosing the right school for your children is such an important decision that it may help determine where you decide to live. It's not a simple choice, but with the right resources, you can be confident in your decision.   Standardized Test Scores. The California Department of Education measures...

I'm not an MLS apologist.  I believe that information wants to be free and that agents should be good interpreters of information and not gatekeepers, but we're coming to a point where listing real estate is going to get much worse before it gets better.While Zillow.com made the big splash in all...

In Part 1, we talked about the financial half of deciding how much house you can afford.  But how happy you are after buying the house depends on how well you balance the financial of your decision with the psychological ones. Is More Really Better?Hugh Chou writes an excellent article, "How Much...

Getting a mortgage and buying a house involves around 300 sheets of paper.  And many people are intimidated by the monumental stack of formerly living trees or the terms they don't know printed on them.  But with only a few key concepts, you can usually protect yourself from getting very ripped-o...

Your FICO score is the number makes-or-breaks your ability to buy a house and determines whether you get the best rates or get charged enormous fees. You can directly affect the strength of your credit and, in turn, how much your dream house really costs you. When applying for a mortgage, your cr...