Email Elizabeth
Elizabeth Weintraub
Sacramento Housing Market Trends November 2017
Sacramento Housing Market Trends November 2017
The Sacramento housing market trends November 2017 shows the underlying story in Sacramento real estate. You have to dig around a little bit to find this chart, but this shows the last 15 months of average square-foot prices in Sacramento County. Over the past year, those prices have increased 11.4%. People are quick to jump on bubble theories, but that’s only because they don’t really understand what happened when the market crashed. They equate rising prices to the market crash, and that would be an untrue and unfair assessment.
Home prices were on the way down when the crash occurred. It was the financing free-for-all, lack of qualifications and the fast and loose Wall Street shenanigans that led to the crash. Today, most people either pay cash or are scrutinized under a microscope, plus they enjoy healthy equity positions obtained by large down payments.
Elizabeth Weintraub’s Prediction for the Future of Sacramento Real Estate
You wanna know what I think? Get ready, it’s not pretty. Here goes. Eventually, most home buyers will get priced out of the marketplace and we will return to a nation of renters. It’s already happening in many areas of the country. I’m also seeing apartment buildings going up in Elk Grove, for example, where single-family homes were originally planned.
People who call themselves a homeowner could become an oddity. Sadly, with the way things are moving, only the elite may own a home in the future. The housing market trends point to this data. In the chart below, you can see the overview of the Sacramento real estate market for November 2017. We are entering our seasonal dip in the number of available homes for sale and closed sales. This dip will probably continue through December as well, although, the month of December will probably be one of my personal best for the year.
My Elizabeth Weintraub Team this year will most likely break all records. We consistently rank in the top 10 in Sacramento. If I were thinking about buying a home right now, I’d be all over this inventory, trying to buy whatever I could. Because next year you might be priced out of the market. I don’t make up the housing market trends; I just report what I see. So, don’t yell at me about it. I didn’t do it.
Sacramento County Housing Market Trends for the past 15 months.
Photos of High Tide and Honus at Kukio Beach
Kukio Beach paddleboards available for rent.
Wednesday is not so busy this time of year that Sacramento Realtor and part-time Kona resident Elizabeth Weintraub can’t find time to visit Kukio Beach. I checked the tide charts, and high tide was around 12:30 PM. Ordinarily, I would prefer low tide because there are more interesting things to see at low tide, but I was hosed given the fact low tide happens twice a day. Neither of those times worked with my schedule.
Located just 30 minutes from Kona, I picked Kukio Beach, a hair south of the Four Seasons Hualalai because I had never been there. My husband and I stayed in an oceanfront cabana about 6 years ago, but I never realized a public beach was located within walking proximity. We never walked there because why would we? We had a beautiful beach right at Four Seasons. Plus, we would have had to pull our big fats butt out of the covered chairs we were forced to rent to walk there. Too easy to stay put. Lazy bums.
Although, it’s difficult to believe it was only 6 years ago that we fought to get a reservation at the Four Seasons. They don’t give reservations to just anybody around the holidays. You have to be on a special list and wait. Then, after you are confirmed, which is like 3 months before you need to buy airline tickets and all the prices have escalated, you sigh and say well, next year should be easier.
After trying many of the other resorts, OK, I decided we should buy a house in Hawaii and not deal with this crap anymore.
Even so, high winds, crashing surf, still led to a delightful day at Kukio Beach. You get free parking if you visit the public beach. Just pull up at the guard station and ask for a free pass to the beach. Take a left, and you’re at Kukio Beach. You will find restrooms available, too. Half hour from my house to Kukio Beach: white sands, shade, picnic table, and paddleboard rentals.
Surprisingly, I discovered an empty beach when I arrived. Not complaining. Walking up the path toward Four Seasons, the waves smacked me a few times, and the wind tried to push me off the path. Blowing sand stung my legs. I braved on. I was on a mission. A mission for lunch. I tell you this, the weather was not like this 6 years ago at this time of year. If I was a paying resident at Four Seasons, and those beachfront cabanas can run you $1,500 a night, I would be royally pissed due to the weather.
But seriously, how upset can you get? The waitstaff will tell you: Oh, it’s winter, it’s always like this. NO, it is not always like this. It was pretty horrible. But definitely worth the trip. After nourishment, I bought new sunglasses. Four Seasons carries a large assortment. Then, I strolled back down the jogging path, which is where I found the family of honus resting on the beach.
Uh, oh, I just discovered you have to be very CAREFUL with auto correct because instead of honus, my computer typed homos. I should complain to Apple because that’s just not an acceptable term. People have all sorts of definitions to describe sexual orientation. Gay, bisexual, lesbian, transgender, and I guess there is a term about undecided or decline to state. But homos, really? Honus means turtles in Hawaiian.
In Hawaii, the green turtles are protected and you cannot be within 15 feet of them. Especially when they are nesting. You need to leave them alone. They are protected.
Well, enough of my blabbering, I hope you enjoy the photographs of my visit to Kukio Beach and the Four Seasons.
Jogging path from Kukio Beach to Hualalai Resort Four Seasons.
Overview of Kukio Beach from the jogging path.
One of several pools at Four Seasons Hualalai in strong winds.
Duo sashimi at Beachtree Restaurant at Four Seasons.
Strong winds and crashing surf at Beachtree Restaurant at Four Seasons.
Family of honus rest on the lava rocks at Kukio Beach.
Enlarged photo of honu 15-foot distance at Kukio Beach.
Hawaiian Stilt and Golden Plover at pond by Kukio Beach.
Elizabeth Weintraub selfie at picnic table at Kukio Beach.
Review of Tutu’s Plants, Gardens and Nursery in Kailua-Kona
Barbara Bolton at Tutu’s Plants in Kailua-Kona trims a desert rose.
One of the fascinating things about life is meeting a new person I immediately admire and aspire to be, like Barbara Bolton at her nursery in Kailua-Kona. This woman is still going strong at whatever age she is, and I did not ask her when she was born. She’s older than me at 65, I’ll tell you that. Probably stronger than me, too.
She started this nursery in Kailua-Kona about 10 years ago. It’s still a work in progress, even after all of these years. I just lucked out when I found the nursery online in some obscure place. When I called, a guy answered the phone, I probably reached their home phone. He said you better speak to Barbara. She invited me down the following day. Because it’s a home-based operation, I figured it was only polite to call ahead of time.
Barbara asked: can you give me about 15 minutes to rest? She just came back from some event and had to take it easy for a little bit. This is not a nursery where you walk through rows of potted plants and make your selection. This nursery in Kailua-Kona is far up a long driveway and most plants are growing. Barbara just digs up your selection.
Although she refers to the gardens as a work in progress; it’s a masterful plan of design. So many steps, secret paths and clusters of flowers, vegetables, fruits; it’s hard to see where the property line ends. At one end, there is a lava wall about 30 feet high. Everything pretty much, except the soap ginger, was blooming. I thought I was after soap ginger, but as Barbara says, all ginger is invasive but soap ginger turns ugly when it stops blooming.
My good fortune also introduced me to two of her little dogs. One of them is blind, which caused me to freak out backing out down the driveway. Always love to meet dogs! They both followed me for the pets. The surprising thing was she only charged me $5.00 for 3 five-feet tall red ginger plants. That didn’t seem fair. I offered her twenty dollars and she insisted on going inside to make change. OK, fine, take the five bucks. That’s the kind of person she is. This is her passion. I understand passion. My passion is Sacramento real estate.
As I was about to leave, she showed me desert rose (adenium obesum). It’s a type of succulent that sort of grows like a bonsai. It has a fat trunk like an elephant plant. The stem is thick and knobby. It reaches 3 to 4 feet in height and produces vibrant pink flowers. As with most beautiful things in the world, often there is a drawback. The plant can kill you. So, just don’t eat it. Don’t plant it around pets or children.
Although Barbara mentioned how once she dug her fingernail into the stem, and later in the day stuck her fingernail into her mouth to remove a particle stuck in her teeth. People do that when they’re alone or they think nobody’s looking you know. Especially when you get older, there is little more annoying than a shred of spinach stuck between teeth. Ask any old geezer.
Immediately, after scraping her tooth, she tasted the putrid taste of the desert rose. It was awful. She spit and spit and spit. She asked, “Why would anybody eat that?” Good question. So, I feel OK about planting desert rose in my yard. There are a few places where the sprinklers don’t hit. Like many succulents, they don’t need a lot of fussing or water. But I can’t take any back to Sacramento because our winters would kill them.
Meeting Barbara and walking through her nursery in Kailua-Kona was such an Aloha moment. This is how a person should choose plants. It’s very organic and natural. You feel part of the ‘Aina. Barbara is delightful, knowledgeable and charming. If you’re ever in Kona, even if you don’t need any plants, you should go by and visit.
She calls her nursery Tutu’s Plants because tutu is a nickname in Hawaiian for grandparents. Grand + plants = Tutu’s Plants. If you’re driving up Hualalai from Queen’s Highway, it’s about .8 miles on the Mauka. You’ll see a small sign for Tutu’s Nursery and the driveway is to the left of that. I know because I followed GPS by mistake into a gated community, met the mail carrier and she gave me better directions. You gotta love Hawaii.
Tips for Working With Non-English Speaking Buyers in Sacramento
Communication is more difficult working with non-English speaking buyers in Sacramento real estate.
Working with non-English speaking buyers in Sacramento real estate is more common than you might think. It’s no secret that our lower affordable prices and close proximity to the Bay Area draws to Sacramento many foreign buyers from San Francisco.
One of the recurring hurdles we need to cross is to develop trust. Which is difficult when you can’t really communicate. I mean, how do you tell a buyer, hey, we Sacramento Realtors are in many ways like those from the Midwest, honest almost to a fault, accommodating, desiring to assist and help. We are not slippery-slope big city sharks.
In one escrow that just blew up yesterday, the buyers relied mostly on a family member to interpret, and she thought she knew everything. You know the type. Can’t share any information because they mistrust the agent and they have all the answers. The know-it-alls find dozens of things to complain about, even when nothing is wrong. The answer is really to spend extra time with non-English speaking buyers in Sacramento, especially the know-it-alls. To be patient, kind, understanding, even when they attack your integrity.
It’s really hard for many people to trust anybody. It’s even harder for many people to trust real estate agents. I find it’s easier to communicate in writing with ESL or non-English speakers. Like my Español, where I’ve got lo siento down pat, it’s easier for me to read and write in Spanish than to speak it. I can make a request in Spanish but I do not understand the reply. I sold several homes last year representing sellers who did not speak a lick of English. I never even met the sellers. I did, however, spend a lot of time writing emails that explained how things work.
It was a lot more work on my end. I could not treat these sellers like regular sellers who understand English yet they still don’t get it. I had to break down every single step, explain every action. But in the end, they adored me. Not everybody is like that, though.
Take a buyer from the Bay Area who called yesterday. We were ready to show him a home in Elk Grove last night, but the listing stated all offers would be presented at 8 AM today. That meant if he wanted to buy it, the buyer would need to write an offer immediately. That news was offensive and foreign to the guy. It made him angry, agitated. He accused us of making it up, of working against him.
From where he stood, he was right to harbor that viewpoint. In retrospect, it might have been more clear to say the home was unavailable. But just because there are communication challenges with non-English speaking buyers in Sacramento real estate doesn’t mean we can’t offer patience, kindness and understanding. And let me tell you, Google translation is also a big help. Under these circumstances, it just takes more time to develop trust and a fiduciary relationship.
And yes, sometimes there are situations when it’s best to refer the buyer to an agent who speaks their native tongue.
Astonishing Way to Get Rid of Calluses on Feet
You cannot get rid of calluses on feet in California at a nail salon.
For most of my life, I’ve been trying to get rid of calluses on feet. The astonishing thing is it has only been the last 5 years or so that the condition of my aging feet have hardened to the point it looks like they have died. I mean, hey, I’m only 65. My feet should not resemble a person who is dead.
Yet outta nowhere, calluses on my feet have mushroomed to epic proportions. When I noticed my feet were turning into the Sahara Desert, I freaked out. Immediately made an appointment with my dermatologist to address the situation. Squeamish people may as well stop reading.
My feet had developed crusts the depth of Mauna Loa. Not only on the heel but the crusts traveled north along the sides of my feet, especially the outer edges and to the left of my big toes. Thick, ugly crusts. Ick. My dermatologist said, sorry, it’s due to aging. She suggested Eucerin dry skin lotion.
Now, seriously, I get a professional pedicure once a month in Land Park. They soak, scrub, exfoliate in an effort to get rid of calluses on feet. Yet it persists. I was accepting my fate as just another aging issue with scorn and some bitterness.
Until I went to Hot Nails in Kailua-Kona to see my favorite manicurist, Elaine. As she worked on my nails, my eyes glanced up to her menu of services board. Hmmm, Hot Nails offers a service to get rid of calluses for $10. Figuring it couldn’t hurt to give it a whirl, I asked her to tack on that extra service to my pedicure.
Imagine my surprise when she whipped out some sort of razor thing and attached a couple of blades to it. She went to work flicking bits of dried skin off in quick swipes. Holy crap. My feet looked like a 35-year-old. All the calluses were gone. This is a great way to get rid of calluses on feet.
I had no idea. When I shared with Elaine that nobody in California offers a way to get rid of calluses, she said it’s against the law for salon professionals to offer this service. Alrighty then. I suppose there are inept people, like any profession, but Elaine seemed to know what she was doing. It’s a skill she has acquired from a lot of practice. Unlike a doctor who may know anatomy better but little practical experience.
So there’s your answer. If you want to get rid of calluses on your feet and you live in California, just go to Hawaii! Sure, you could go to your own doctor for this procedure in California, but I would not trust my doctor to do it. She doesn’t do it as a common practice. I’m more comfortable with a technician who shaves calluses on a regular basis.
After all, it’s kinda like Sacramento real estate. The more transactions an agent closes, the better an agent becomes. I close a couple of sales a week on average. Would you rather have this Sacramento Realtor sell your home or some other guy who closes 2 or 3 a year? There is a difference, and a license doesn’t change things when it comes to experience.
