Cliff's Notes…on Real Estate

Redwood City, CA:  Calif. median home price: February 2010: $279,840 (Source: C.A.R.)
Calif. highest median home price by C.A.R. region February 2010: Santa Barbara So. Coast $795,000(Source: C.A.R.)
Calif. lowest median home price by C.A.R. region February 2010: High Desert $122,580 (Source: C.A.R.)
Calif. First-time Buyer Affordability Index - Fourth Quarter 2009: 64 percent (Source: C.A.R.)
Mortgage rates – week ending 3/18/10 30-yr. fixed: 4.96 Fees/points: 0.7% 15-yr. fixed: 4.33% Fees/points: 0.6% 1-yr. adjustable: 4.12% Fees/points: 0.6% (Source: Freddie Mac)

Tags: CAR fast facts, houses

Redwood City, CA: Redwood City’s deficit is currently at $3,600,000 and is expected to go up higher for the next few years.  The funds needed to pay this deficit are coming from an $18.7 million dollar City reserve fund.

 Are City workers overtime costs the culprit?  City payroll this year increased $1,500,000 or 2.7% compared to the Nation’s inflation rate of –0.4%.  To be fair to the City of Redwood City they have cut back on overtime costs from FY ‘08 to FY ’09 by just a tad over 1.5%

 It seem the big brew ha ha is over two City fire fighters, Patrick Cunningham (4^th highest paid City employee), and David Thielmann who both were paid over $100,000 in overtime pay above and beyond their average base pay of $106,646.  Fire captain Adrian Stuart Anderson earned over $60,000 in overtime pay above his base pay of $128,425.  No one is claiming fraud or being away at a “crap feast” like in San Francisco a couple of decades ago.  However, it appears these few fire fighters were on the job…ready to go.  IMHO, I hope they bought real estate with the extra money.

 Here are some other Redwood City employees’ salaries:

City Manager – Peter Ingram – $238,919

City Attorney – Stan Yamanmoto – $229,289

Police Chief – Louis Cobarruviaz – $213,874

Captains – $196,752 base

Sergeants – $153,837 base

Senior Building Inspector – Jerry Schell – $101,125

Senior Accountants:         Cecilia Lucas – $100,979

                                                   Rajesh Servak – $99,190

H.R. Representative – Ray Yvette Williams – $100,497

City Secretary – $64,013

City Custodian – $52,454

Maintenance worker – Steve Coleman – $68,388 base $32,809 OT – (he is the guy you see out there unclogging your sewer and fixing your water leaks.)

Landscapers – $62,804

Arborists -        Maria D’Agostino – $74,421

                              Jesus Angel – $95,796 base $21,635 OT

What do you think?   With our city working in a deficit, yet having enough funds in our reserve account to offset it, do we need to watch our nickels and dimes closer? Your comments are always encouraged.

Tags: Cliff Keith and Team, government, Redwood City, san mateo county, US economy

“What The Past Tell Us”.

Redwood City, CA:  Current history demonstrates how a “Super Power” like USA can fall.  You don’t have to look any further than 1985 when Mikail Gorbachev came to power of the USSR.  Gorbachev campaigned on the platform “reenergize of the socialist empire”.  You know what happen 7 years later…the wall came down and so did the USSR as we had know it.

Like the USSR, American needs to “remember, without a strong economy, a nation’s international standing, standard of living, national security, and even domestic tranquility will suffer over time. It would be a good thing to learn from the Russians on this one.

One great thing about Americans is we are resilient! If we return to the principals and the values that made us a great nation we will be fine. We need to become once again…strong, smart, and flexible enough to keep our predominance in the world.

Americans need to accept and subscribe to the two notions stated by Thomas Jefferson.  We need to support our government programs that really address our core aims as stated in the Preamble of our Constitution. These core aims help and are good for us. Secondly,  we need to get rid of government programs that are ineffectual and/or contrary to our national goals!  By doing so we will be allowed to allocate resources, (people, money, time), to targeted programs that will better serve all Americans.

Americans needs to be realist about how we spend our money. Can we afford this program or not?  Can we sustain it over a long period of time?  Some programs may be great in theory; however, if you can’t answer yes to the 2 aforementioned questions then the program should be shelved until which time a double yes can be answered.

Once again, as Thomas Jefferson said, “It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debt as it goes.”  It’s time now for Washington to start making touch choices and showing some tough love towards our economy!

There have been many countries throughout their history who have survived great obstacles and turmoil. Just look at Germany and Japan post WWII.  More recently look at China and how it has gotten past its “stagnation, foreign interference, and social experimentation to reclaim their place on the global stage today”.

“No republic in history has shown more resiliency and adaptability than the United States of America.” We have the know-how and the strength to maintain a great standing in the World. What it will take though is behavioral modification on the part of Washington and Americans.  We all need to wake up and smell the roses! Currently, our American rose stinks economically. And we need to all agree it stinks and we collectively need to do something about it.  We need to move in a direction to implement the necessary step to make our American rose’s aroma to once again be admired, respected and remembered by all.  Wouldn’t that smell nice?

Here is something you may want to look at and help yourself become part of the solution.  Federal Financial Irresponsibility Index:

Tags: Comeback America, David M. Walker, national debt, Redwood City, san mateo county, US economy

Well folks, it looks like at the end of the month, March 31, 2010, the Federal Reserve is going to stop buying mortgages backed securities. This translates to you and me: higher interest rates. If they inch up over 1% hold on tight because we could be headed towards the steepest roller coaster ride yet.

On the other hand if that happens look for the government to step in and start buying again. It will show them that they need to spend more than the 1.25 Trillion Dollars that they have already spent. BTW that’s yours and my money they are spending.

Problem is some damage will be done that could have been diverted if we start doing some smart things. You know things like transparency of lenders along with accountability to include halting those heafy bonuses they give each other. Let’s fix the process first guys and gals uh?

Recommendation: Buy your home or refinance your mortgages TODAY!

TIPS on buying a home: http://www.WoodsideRealEstate.com Please log in and click the the buyers’ button.

Tags: banking, cliff keith, finances, government, national debt

The two riches men in the world were recently announced. The top slot went to a guy in Mexico, he just squeaked out the guy in the State of Washington.

If you combined their net worth’s it would total just over 106 Billion Dollars!

There are currently approximately 6 Billion people on the planet earth.

That means those two guys could give everyone on the planet 1/4 of a million dollars and still have over one-half of their wealth.

Is the system out of whack or what? This doesn’t make logical sense to me. Is there ever enough for them?

Tell me what you think…

Tags: common sense, money, riches men in the world