Tele-com Valley - Sonoma County
Positive Thinking
Press Democract News--Business Section
Apr.2001
ONLINE SALES up 42% despite dot-com woes
NEW YORK -
Dead and dying dot-coms may litter the business landscape, but the reality is
that e-commerce continues to grow. Online sales in February totaled $3.358 billion, up 42 percent from $2.357 billion a year
ago, according to the National Retail Federation and Forrester Research Inc.
Some community prices are steeply higher
than a year ago, while sales activity has dropped by almost 7-per cent for the year and 10-per cent the 1st quarter of 2001.
Other areas that have decreased since January have however increased to higher than the same time 2000. Where once there were
multiple offers, now there may be one. This is a crucial time when Sellers need the expertise of a Real Estate Professional
who works with the local market every day to keep them informed and keeps them protected with legal requirements. CALL ME,
I can help you sell your house and help find your next home.
TELECOM VALLEY veteran, Hawley, sets sights
on launching another startup, but declines to elaborate on focus of company. He will tap technical workers from Telecom Valley.
The giants of Telecom Valley may be downsizing as the high-tech economy slows, but telecom startups are continuing to pop
up in Sonoma County. This is good news for Real Estate prices.
Sources Aug-2001
Although unit sales in Marin have been decreasing for awhile, prices still
kept rising. That stopped in May! After falling by double-digits from February through June, home sales rebounded
in July 2001. There were 227 homes sold July 2001 compared to 204 sold July 2000. That was the largest number of
homes sold in any month since August 2000. August sales for the
past two years have been better than July sales. After August, the long slide into the winter doldrums begins with the market
bottoming out in January and February. The median home price is at $680,000,
while the average home price reached $874,308.
Sources July 3, 2001
Sales of million-dollar homes dropped during the first five months of this
year in California, the result of buyer reticence in high-end markets. The decline reverses a five-year increase in sales
of prestige homes. A total of 3,668 California homes were sold for a million dollars or more during the January to May
period. That was down 16.3 percent from 4,384 for the same period last year. The decline was steepest in the nine-county Bay
Area, down 20.7 percent from 2,044 to 1,621. Santa Clara County alone saw a 38.4 percent decline from 829 to 511. In Southern
California sales declined 10.3 percent from 2,029 to 1,821.
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May-2002
For the first time in memory, Honolulu is NOT the highest-priced
metro area in the country. Know which area is? You guessed it: San Francisco! And Marin is the highest-priced
county in the country. A dubious distinction.
Perspective:
We live in an time of measures, numbers and statistics.
For instance, the September 2001 jobless rate, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, reached 4.5 percent, up from 3.9
percent a year earlier. But did you also know that while 7 million people were unemployed, 135.2 million had jobs? "ONE
HUNDRED and THIRTY FIVE .... MILLION"
(National Press Jan. 2002)
National economies move up and down, so recessions are normal --
we had them in 1973, 1980, and 1991. But even with the slowdown caused by 9-11 attacks, we still have a $10 trillion
economy. For some buyers delayed purchases make sense, but, the issue is not what other people are doing, it's
the question of what's best for you. Consider your needs.
HOME CONSTRUCTION - March
2001
Builders took out 333 permits in for residential construction in Sonoma County,
almost doubling March 2000, per the Construction Industry Research Board.
The fourth quarter 2000 median price at
$470,230. was nearly two percent lower than January 2001, but almost 28 percent higher than the fourth quarter 1999 figure.
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