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You already know that what the Federal Reserve does with interest rates has a huge impact on the housing market.   I’m Russ Boyd and what you might not know is that the Fed influences housing prices in another significant way—through its purchasing of mortgage-backed securities (MBS)—and now the question is that when the Fed stops buying those securities in the near future, how will it affect the housing market?
Some background will help explain what is going on. Let’s start with a definition. An MBS is a group of mortgage loans that are pooled together and sold as a bond.

Part of a Pool

It is easy to understand how MBS come about and how they work. When you go to a bank or mortgage broker to borrow money to purchase a home, the home is collateral, and your mortgage—the promise you’ll pay principal and interest each month—is the anticipated cash flow the lender receives from you.
That bank or broker then sells your loan to an entity that aggregates your loan with a bunch of other loans into a big “pool” of various types of loans with various maturity dates (fixed, adjustable rate, one-year, 30-year, good credit, bad credit, etc.) The aggregator then issues these pooled mortgages as bonds, the MBS, which promise investors an attractive stream of interest payments.
Who are these aggregators?
They are government sponsored entities (GSEs). One large group is the Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLB), a private corporation made up of 8,100 member banks. All of the member banks must own stock in FHLB in order to participate in its loan program.  Other GSEs, which have become household names are Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae
To recap,  an MBS is a pool of home loans sold as a bond. And we know who issues them: government sponsored enterprises such as Freddie and Fannie, etc. So, how does this help us understand where real estate prices are going?

Easier to Get a Home Loan

Well, most banks have neither enough money, nor any desire, to hold a large number of home loans for an extended period of time. Absent a place for the banks to sell them, as many of us found out over the last year, it then becomes difficult for us to get a new loan. Thus, the MBS market is currently providing us all with an important means of loan supply, albeit indirectly via our bankers and mortgage brokers. The easier it is for banks to sell our loans to MBS aggregators, the easier it is for us to get a home loan. The more difficult it is, the harder (and more costly) it is for us to get a mortgage.
When the entire financial system found itself on shaky ground the housing market was affected big time. Anticipating a big increase in homeowners defaulting on their mortgages, investors no longer wanted to own their existing MBS, let alone buy newly issued MBS.
With no buyers for those securities, the GSEs couldn’t sell them or issue more. As a result, the supply of mortgage loans all but came to a screaming halt.
To the rescue came the Fed. Last November, as part of its efforts to get the economy moving again, the Fed announced it would buy $500 billion in mortgage-backed securities. In March of this year it raised its target to $1.25 trillion, and it has followed through on its pledge.  These purchases have undoubtedly provided much needed liquidity to the MBS market and helped keep the long-term mortgage rates at historic lows.

Behind the Higher Rates

O.K., let’s get back to the original question: What’s next? Well, just as it has been with interest rates, the Fed has been transparent about its intentions toward MBS. It has said it will stop buying MBS once it fulfills its commitment of buying those $1.25 trillion worth of bonds. It will complete that purchase sometime during the first quarter of next year.
That means that, sometime within the next five months, the Fed will be withdrawing a prop under the housing market.
What remains to be seen is how other investors react as the Fed slows—and then eliminates—its purchase program.
My expectation: As the Fed pulls out, private investors will demand a higher interest rate for such securities—to compensate for their concern people will continue to default on their mortgages—and thus long-term mortgage rates will rise. The real question is how fast and how high.
The real estate and mortgage markets are more complex than ever.  I encourage all interested buyers, sellers and homeowners to work with an agent that they can trust, an agent that values their business and an agent that has the skills and experience to provide counsel and guidance in this complex market.



If you are in the San Francisco Bay Area, I invite you to start at our Resource Center, www.AboutBayAreaHomes.com. There you will find links for active home listings, including bank owned and short sales, home loans, market activity reports, home seller strategies, staging and decorating,  a suite of 19 calculators, plus my book, “Let’s Make a Deal, The insiders Guide to Buying and Selling Real Estate” and more.  Of course I am always available to discuss your real estate or mortgage related questions or concerns, just call, text or email me for a prompt response.

X55V742XWCRD Russ Boyd and his team professionally assist buyers, sellers and homeowners in the Peninsula Communities of the San Francisco Bay Area. They serve clients in San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Licensed as a Real

Real Estate and Mortgage Market Updates and Commentary Videos by Russ Boyd are uploaded to Youtube, MetaCafe, Veoh, Vimeo and Yahoo Video by

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While sometimes it feels natural to focus on life’s challenges and difficulties, I’m grateful that the Thanksgiving Holiday is upon us.  For me, Thanksgiving is a true reminder about all that I have to be thankful for. From my family to yours I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving.

As it turns out, I’m thankful for all the first time home buyers who, according to a report released by the National Association of Realtors, have represented 47% of buyers this year.  This surpasses the previous high record of first time purchasers set back in 1991. This can best be illustrated in data show in these graphs just released by Zillow.com.

The first graph is the San Francisco Metro Area and includes San Mateo, San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa Counties.

The second graph is Santa Clara Metro Area comprising Santa Clara and San Benito Counties.

It’s clear that the housing recovery for the bay area began at the beginning of 2009 and continues to progress.   It’s also clear that first time buyers are critical to housing and a general economic recovery.

Why? Because they absorb excess inventory created by the high number of financially stressed homeowners and resulting foreclosures.  The research confirms that the current high level of first time buyers compares to the recession in 1991, where the same dynamic played out as first time home buyers started the chain reaction that led the nation out of recession.   The combination of tax incentives, record high affordability, low interest rates and pent up buyer demand has led to a high level of sales which began earlier this year.  Economists would also credit the FED with suppressing any immediate rise in interest rates affecting home mortgages while the economy is still so fragile.

The survey reflected that the median age of a first time home buyer is 30. First time buyers are being realistic about the long term nature of their investment by planning to live in their homes for at least ten years.  Nationwide, 78% of the homes purchased were single family homes.

Of all the first time buyers, 96% choose a fixed rate mortgage.  61% of first time buyers used their savings as a down payment while 22% received down payment assistance as a gift from family.  This tells us that saving for a down payment is back in vogue.

And no surprise here, a staggering 84% of first time home buyers are using the Internet to find their new home.

Reflecting the complexities of the market, 85% of successful home sellers used a Real Estate Professional to sell their home.  The actual number of homes sold without buyer or seller representation was a record low according the most recent survey only 6%.

If you have an interest in Bay Area homes you will find what you are looking for at our website, www.AboutBayAreaHomes.com.

There you will find links for home search, listings for bank owned and short sales, home loans, market activity reports, home seller strategies, staging and decorating, my book “Let’s Make a Deal, The Insiders Guide to Buying and Selling Real Estate” and more.  Of course I am always available to discuss your real estate or mortgage questions or concerns, just call, text or email me for a prompt response.

Russ Boyd and his team professionally assist buyers, sellers and homeowners in the Peninsula Communities of the San Francisco Bay Area. They serve clients in San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Licensed as a Real Estate Broker by the California Department of Real Estate, 01264240.

n September I posted a blog and video about two sales.  That story focused on the loans involved in the separate sales. Today I would like to share a new story about two listings, one now pending, the other home remains unnecessarily unsold. Why one is unsold and the other sold illustrates the complex marketplace buyers and sellers are facing today.

You see, this home was a pending sale after 11 days on the market and the seller had five offers to choose from.

While this neighboring home has been on the market close to 180 days and has two price reductions totaling $40,000 and still remains unsold.

Remember, it’s not the seller, or the agent but the market that sets the selling price.  There is a big difference between pricing your home to sell vs. pricing to have it for sale.  

Russ Boyd and his team professionally assist buyers, sellers and homeowners in the Peninsula Communities of the San Francisco Bay Area. They serve clients in San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Licensed as a Real Estate Broker by the California Department of Real Estate, 01264240.

Real Estate and Mortgage Market Updates and Commentary Videos by Russ Boyd are uploaded to Youtube, MetaCafe, Veoh, Vimeo and Yahoo Video by

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As reported by the National Association of Realtors®, the Pending Home Sales Index posted its 8th consecutive monthly gain in September nationwide.

The index now stands 21% higher than it did one year ago and Pending Home Sales are now at their highest levels since December 2006.
A Pending Home Sale is a home under contract to sell, but not yet closed. 
The following Pending Home Sales Reports are taken from our October Market Metric Reports available at www.bayareamarketmetric.com. 

These graphs cover a two years period and as you can see below, San Mateo County and Santa Clara County Pending Home Sales are at their highest point in the past two years. 




As seen in these graphs, Alameda and Contra Costa Counties are reporting a steady number of Pending Sales at an elevated level when compared to two years ago. 




When the Pending Home Sales Index rises, it tells us that market activity has picked up.  October’s data confirms what we’ve been noticing since February — the Buyers Market is coming to an end.
With more homes under contract in the marketplace, homebuyers typically face one or more of the following:
   1. Competitive, multiple-offer situations
   2. Reduced purchase price leverage over sellers
   3. Fewer seller concessions
Therefore, if you’re planning to buy a home in the next several months, know that the 8-month increase in Pending Sales has lead to an increase in closed sales which in turn results in higher home prices and reduced  affordability.
Further evidence can be seen in this recent Case-Schiller Report.

If you intend to buy while rates are low and affordability factors are still favoring buyers, you should be actively working with an agent now.  If you are thinking of selling but have been holding off until the market was showing clear signs of improvement now would be the time to talk with your agent about preparing to list your home. If you have an interest in Bay Area Homes you will find what you are looking for at www.AboutBayAreaHomes.com.  Quick Links is visible when the page opens.

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Russ Boyd and his team professionally assist buyers, sellers and homeowners in the Peninsula Communities of the San Francisco Bay Area. They serve clients in San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Licensed as a Real Estate Broker by the California Department of Real Estate, 01264240.

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If you are still trying to decide whether to buy your first home, the convergence of affordable prices, motivated sellers, low rates and tax credits almost seem as rare as a celestial alignment of the sun, moon and stars and it just may be signaling that the time is right for you. In my life experience I have rarely seen such a blending of opportunity for home buyers. Here are just a few indications of how the market may be properly aligned for you right now:

1.The lowest interest rates in 50 years

You’ve heard it before and its well worth repeating. Interest rates are near all-time lows, hovering in the low to mid-5 percent range. In the late 70’s there were cars lined up at gas stations and interest rates were in the 9’s and heading to 10 percent. During the 1980s downturn they jumped as high as 21 percent. In the early 1990s they reached 12 percent.

If you’re waiting for prices to fall even more you may want to think again. The government is running huge deficits and selling Treasury bills is how the debt is covered.

While these sales have gone well so far, investors may begin to feel skittish about purchasing government securities. It will only be a matter of time before the fed will have to increase the interest rates in order to convince investors to continue to purchase Treasury Bills. With Fed rate increases comes increases of home mortgage rates as well.

2. What if prices fall further?

A concern for most first-time buyers is: “Will prices drop even further?” Let’s put this in perspective, an interest-rate increase of one percent on a $500,000 loan will cost you approximately $110,000 more in interest over the life of the loan.

A two-percent interest-rate increase, which some experts believe is possible in the next two years or so, will increase the interest cost approximately $230,000 over the life of a 30-year loan.

If you believe prices will go down, the question is by how much. It would take another 25 to 50 percent drop in values to run the risk of waiting.

While anything is possible, there is every indication that we are at or near the bottom. In some bay area markets the median price has increased over the past several months.

And it’s not just the bay area….sales are up, inventory is down and median prices are increasing in a wide variety of places.

Many of the hardest-hit areas are experiencing a comeback in sales –mostly driven by depressed prices and an abundance of distressed properties. The recovery is still in the early stages, however, there are concrete signs that the market is bottoming or may be starting to improve.

Excess inventory must be sold off prior to the market stabilizing in terms of price.

Once the excess inventory disappears, there will be more competition for a limited amount of supply. We see that happening locally now. This is how the next upturn in the market will begin. Multiple offers on first-time-buyer properties are a very positive sign for market improvement.

3. It’s cheaper for me to rent!

As a renter, your rent payments are paying off your landlord’s mortgage, not your own. As a home owner, even if your house doesn’t increase in value, each month you make a payment. By paying down the balance you accumulate wealth.

This is the equivalent of putting money in the bank each month. In contrast, renters lose additional wealth as their rental payments increase over time.

Subject to tax law, homeowners receive a tax advantage by being able to deduct mortgage loan interest and property taxes. This is not available to renters.

A homeowner with a fixed-rate loan has locked in his or her mortgage amount for the next 30 years. If there is inflation, the homeowner pays off the loan with inflated dollars. Rents, in contrast, rise to keep pace with inflation. Who do you want to be in control of your housing expense, you or your landlord?

The longer you put off the decision to buy a home you may be leaving money on the table in two different ways. First, if interest rates increase, you will end up paying more over the term of their loan. Second, by waiting to take action, you will accumulate less wealth and experience less appreciation.

Plus, the longer you wait to start paying down a mortgage, the later the date will be that you retire that debt.

There’s one other key issue to consider when it comes to getting off the fence and buying that first home — the $8,000 tax credit. As of now the tax credit is set to expire on November 30, 2009.

While there is always the possibility that it may be extended, by delaying action, you miss possible buying opportunities plus the cost of higher prices and rates. All of that will add up to way more than $8000.00.

4. Timing

You must have heard the expression “buy low and sell high,” right? It might even be your mantra.

As with any investment, it is ideal to purchase when prices are low rather than at their peak. However, if you are waiting to purchase a home because you believe that there will be better opportunities in the future you may be your opportunity of home ownership at risk. The time to “buy low” is right now.

Already there is a realization that prices may already be at their lowest point, and there is no question that buyers have jumped in and started buying. With dropping inventory the best deals will be the first target.

If you are a buyer or a seller, be sure you are represented by the very best agent, an agent that welcomes you as a client and values your business.

An agent that is qualified to help you navigate successfully through the process.

For sellers, we provide home preparation and marketing services second to none. Just call or email me and we’ll design a plan specific too your needs.

Bay Area Market Activity Reports for the bay area are at www.bayareamarketmetrics.com.

If you want to find that perfect home you can search for all bay area homes for sale at www.alllbayareahomesforsale.com.Or, if you are just interested in short sales and bank owned, search www.bayareabankowned.com.

No registration required, no obligation for reports or any information.

Be informed about real estate with your complimentary copy of my book, Let’s Make a Deal, the Insiders Guide to Buying and Selling Real Estate. Send me an email and I’ll forward a link to you for the pdf version.

Visit www.ourteampiks.com to view our growing selection of slide shows, videos (some funny, some motivational, some thought provoking) and story’s that make there way to us from people all over the world. We would like to share them with you!

Russ Boyd and his team professionally assist buyers, sellers and homeowners in the Peninsula Communities of the San Francisco Bay Area. They have served clients in San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Licensed as a Real Estate Broker by the California Department of Real Estate, 01264240.

Real Estate and Mortgage Market Updates and Commentary Videos by Russ Boyd are uploaded to Youtube, MetaCafe, Veoh, Vimeo and Yahoo Video by Tube Mogul .

Watch video below.

As you might imagine, interesting stories abound in the real estate and mortgage business today. The Tale of Two Sales illustrate the challenges buyers and sellers are facing today.

With today’s tight lending standards, it wouldn’t be a shocker to hear about a loan being turned down by one of the “big four” direct lenders that are still standing, until you hear “the rest of the story,” as Paul Harvey used to say.

The property being purchased appraised without a problem, and the buyer had qualified with formal loan approval. They signed all of their loan documents in escrow, brought in their down payment, and the closing was scheduled for the following day. All was going according to plan, until the lender called the day prior to close to announce they are not going to fund the loan.

What’s that? That’s right, not going to fund the loan!!!!

Seems a copy of the termite report landed in the hands of the underwriter at the last minute (literally), and the bank refused to fund. Now claiming the loan is “un-sellable” to Fannie Mae since there is “Section 1” work to the tune of $6,000.

At this point you need to know that the buyer had a $600,000 down payment on a $1,000,000 home purchase, asking only for a $400,000 loan. That’s 60% down to a well qualified buyer for a home that appraised for the purchase price of $1million.

Seems that no one cared that the contract did not call for the seller to make any repairs, the buyer was accepting the property “As-Is”.

Shouldn’t someone be asking- is this still a good loan? Let’s see, $600,000 down with $6,000 worth of work on a lending program that has a minimum down payment requirement of 20%. Common sense anyone???

Let’s face it folks, the truth is, banks really aren’t the lender anymore, and the government is, since the majority of today’s loan’s are either purchased or insured by Uncle Sam via FNMA or FreddieMac (FHLMC.) Another way to think of it is taxpayers now own Fannie Mae through Uncle Sam’s bailout. So we taxpayers turned down a $400,000 investment secured by a $1,000,000 property over $6,000 in termite repairs from a well qualified buyer.

As part owner of Fannie Mae, I want that investment and others like it in my portfolio! – Hello, Fannie Mae, are you listening?

Ah, but remember, this is the Tale of Two Loans….Not to worry, we the taxpayer made up for it later in the day by purchasing a different loan. A $410,000 FHA loan (FHA is taxpayer supported and owned as well) funded for a different buyer Intero represented secured by a $425,000 property with the buyer putting 3.5% down. Don’t get nervousness now, no termites in this house. Seems that whoever is watching our investment portfolio is fine with rejecting an ivestment with 60% equity but ok with highly leveraged investments.

And yes, true stories from the files here at Intero.

Now here’s the irony.

Bank owned properties (REO’s) make up a third to almost half of the properties for sale in many markets across the country. It is a “buyers beware” purchase. Banks demand that buyers sign a complicated “as-is” addendum drawn up by their attorney. Yet today, the bank denied a perfectly good loan because the buyer was buying the property “as-is.”

Ah, but here is the “rest of the story?” There is a happy ending. The buyer did close escrow and get to move in. The buyer ended up paying all cash for property. So, at the end of the day, two buyers and two sellers were able to move on…just another day in our corner of the world….

If you want to find that perfect home you can search for all bay area homes for sale at www.alllbayareahomesforsale.com. Or, if you are just interested in short sales and bank owned, search www.bayareabankowned.com.

No registration required, no obligation for reports or any information.

Be informed about real estate with your complimentary copy of my book, Let’s Make a Deal, the Insiders Guide to Buying and Selling Real Estate. Send me an email and I’ll send you a link to a pdf version.

Visit www.ourteampiks.com to view our growing selection of slide shows, videos (some funny, some motivational, some thought provoking) and story’s that make there way to us from people all over the world. We would like to share them with you!

Russ Boyd and his team professionally assist buyers, sellers and homeowners in the Peninsula Communities of the San Francisco Bay Area. They have served clients in San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Licensed as a Real Estate Broker by the California Department of Real Estate, 01264240.

Real Estate and Mortgage Market Updates and Commentary Videos by Russ Boyd are uploaded to Youtube, MetaCafe, Veoh, Vimeo and Yahoo Video by Tube Mogul .

See video below

The August Bay Area Metrics Reports for bay area counties are available on line at www.bayareamarketmetrics.com. All across the Bay Area, Pending Home Sales rise and housing inventory continues to shrink. What does a buyer or seller do in a low inventory market? Answers below…

As active buyers and investors have realized for months, prices are at point that makes sense for them to act and act they have. Much of what is left seems to be priced to high for condition and location. Buyers are becoming frustrated with submitting offers on multiple homes only to find multiple offers being submitted and theirs not making the cut.

The bottom line is that buyers can no longer expect to low-ball offers to get much traction with well maintained homes in desirable locations.

Even though foreclosures that come on the market invariably are in need of significant repairs, they still hold opportunity for buyers willing to make improvements before they can move in or begin receiving rental income. Just like well informed home sellers, banks now understand that the best strategy is to price foreclosed homes at the low end of market value and let the bidding process bring the highest and best price. But, for the family that needs a home in move-in condition, the market can be challenging, especially for relocating buyers that need to make a quick purchase.

Our advice for home buyers is they must; (1) make a commitment of time and effort, (2) get their financing lined up, this means pre-approved, (3) find a great agent who welcomes their business and they start looking for the right home (4) They make an offer that fits the circumstances (this may be more or less than the asking price), (5) and they move forward with make sense continencies and move through the contingency period in a timely manner. There are opportunities, however, to successfully compete in this market, buyers have to be committed to moving at the “speed of opportunity”.

For interested sellers still skeptical about getting a good price for their home our advice is simple; start by going to open houses in your neighborhood and neighborhoods nearby that have homes that would compete with yours. We think you will find that buyer traffic is higher than expected. If that’s the case and you decide to move forward, be willing to make the commitment necessary to put your home in top marketing condition. You do this by finding a great agent who welcomes your business and is willing to assess your home and your help you understand the current market conditions and best strategy for selling you home. You have something others want, so work with an agent that can help you make the most of the opportunity.

As I mentioned in a recent blog post, whether you are a prospective buyer or a seller you have the choice to “Move at the Speed of Opportunity or Watch from the Sidelines”

August 2009 Bay Area Market Activity Reports for the bay area are at www.bayareamarketmetrics.com.

If you want to find that perfect home you can search for all bay area homes for sale at www.alllbayareahomesforsale.com. Or, if you are just interested in short sales and bank owned, search www.bayareabankowned.com.

No registration required, no obligation for reports or any information.

Be informed about real estate with your complimentary copy of my book, Let’s Make a Deal, the Insiders Guide to Buying and Selling Real Estate. Send mean email and I’ll send you a link to a pdf version.

Visit www.ourteampiks.com to view our growing selection of slide shows, videos (some funny, some motivational, some thought provoking) and story’s that make there way to us from people all over the world. We would like to share them with you!

RussBoyd and his team professionally assist buyers, sellers and homeowners in the Peninsula Communities of the San Francisco Bay Area. They haveserved clients in San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Licensed as a Real Estate Broker by theCalifornia Department of Real Estate, 01264240.

• 
  Real Estate and Mortgage Market Updates and Commentary Videos by Russ Boyd are uploaded to Youtube, MetaCafe, Veoh, Vimeo and Yahoo Video by

Watch video here or below

As I’ve been reporting for months there is continuing evidence that the housing market has bottomed in most major markets. One of the most closely watched reports isthe Standard and Poors Case Schiller Report….The April 2009 report headline was U.S. Home Prices Declines Moderating . For the May report the headline was Recovery Signs in Housing Market Stir Some Hope and for June the headline reads Index Shows an Improvement in Home Prices . The bottom line is that eighteen of the 20 cities tracked by Standard &Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index showed improvement in June, up from eight in May, four in April and only one in March.

Further confirmation that the market is recovering came in the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s house price index, which was also released Tuesday. It rose 0.5 percent in June after a revised increase of 0.6 percent in May.

The news comes on the heels of the NationalAssociation of Realtors® report on July sales volume, which showed a 5 percent rise above the pace in July 2008. It was the first year-over-year gain since the market peaked in November 2005.

And it that wasn’t enough, new-home sales unexpectedly spiked 9.6% in July following a 9.1% rise in June. Weiss Research analyst Mike Larson said sales were “hotter” than expected. “This is clear evidence the dramatic cut in housing starts, plus increasing consumer confidence and the targeted tax credit for first-time buyers is restoring stability to the new home market,” he said. The federal government’s $8,000 federal tax credit expires later this year. The National Association of Home Builders and other trade groups are lobbying to have it extended.

As I’ve been reporting for months now, the same pattern has been developing in the Bay Area since January 2009. You can see eight reports for each Bay Area County in our Bay Area Market Metrics Report available at www.bayareamarketmetrics.com.

Only time will tell.

The next couple of months will be critical in determining if we’re on a true upswing. Generally, the market seesa nice burst of activity in the early Fall, prior to the Holiday Season, and December 1st marks the end of eligibility for the Homebuyer Tax Credit. Those events will likely have a surge of buyers flowing into the market.

But from where we sit, we hope that time will have good things to say.

As I mentioned in a recent blog post, everyone has the choice to “Move at the Speed of Opportunity or Watch from the Sidelines”

Search for all bay area homes for sale at www.AllBayareaHomesForSale.com. Or if you are just interested in short sales and bank owned properties, search www.AllBayAreaBankOwned.com.

We invite you to view our growing collection of short videos, slide shows and links at www.ourteampiks.com.
For a complimentary copy of my book, Let’s Make a Deal, The Insiders Guide to Buying and Selling Real Estate, send an email to Russ@BayAreaTeam.com

Russ Boyd and his team professionally assist buyers, sellers and homeowners in the Peninsula Communities of the San Francisco Bay Area. They have served clients in San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Licensed as a Real Estate Broker bythe California Department of Real Estate, 01264240.

• 
  Real Estate and Mortgage Market Updates and Commentary Videos by Russ Boyd are uploaded to Youtube, MetaCafe, Veoh, Vimeo and Yahoo Video by

• Watch video here or below

  So called “experts” are forever telling real estate and mortgage brokers to have visitiors to their websites “register” or provide contact information. Now here’s my question to you, “Why would you (or me for that matter) submit your personal information to a real estate or mortgage website (someone you have never met) in order to “view” homes for sale listings or apply of a loan, especially when all this information is available to the public in the first place AND with no registration”?

• Did you know that all Multiple Listing Services (MLS) must have what is called IDX? IDX (Internet Data Exchange) is the ability (more like a necessity) of all real estate brokers to display the entire “public” side of all properties listing in that MLS system on their company websites. This includes every listing, not just a particular broker’s listings; it includes every listing in the entire MLS. By the way, the term public includes the typical information you would find on a flyer, or public handout. This information does not include information such as; alarm codes, times when the owner will or won’t be home, etc. for obvious reasons.

  
  

  This is the source of lisitng data that is available on our website, www.AllBayAreaHomesForSale.com.
  

  While I love the wonderful advances in technology we have available to us today, I simply won’t register on a website to search for information that is avialalble on other websites without registration. This Blog does not require your personal information nor do any of our websites.

• I won’t visit sites that require cookies, or demand my personal information before I have even decided that I would like to do business with a company or person. I prefer to research the company first and find out things like; do they have the product or service I want? How long have they been in business? What kind of reputation do they enjoy? Do they have the expertise to handle my business/questions? What is their privacy policy? What is their policy regarding spam? Is their contact information (other than e-mail) easy to locate, or do they bury it on their site?

  We don’t like spam, and we really don’t like being pressured and we don’t think you do either. We pride ourselves in providing up to date real estate and mortgage related information and being available to respond to our clients questions or needs by phone, text or email. We do everything we can do everything we can to respond immediately! Joan and I even carry “data capable” phones so I don’t have to be in front of a computer every minute of the day. Our policy is simple, we refuse to do anything “to” a client that we don’t want done to us.
  

  Bay Area Market Activity Reports for the bay area are at www.bayareamarketmetrics.com.

  If you want to find that perfect home you can search for all bay area homes for sale at www.alllbayareahomesforsale.com. Or, if you are just interested in short sales and bank owned, search www.bayareabankowned.com.

  No registration required, no obligation for reports or any information.
  

  Be informed about real estate with your complimentary copy of my book, Let’s Make a Deal, the Insiders Guide to Buying and Selling Real Estate. Send me an email and I’ll send you a link to a pdf version.

  Visit www.ourteampiks.com to view our growing selection of slide shows, videos (some funny, some motivational, some thought provoking) and story’s that make there way to us from people all over the world. We would like to share them with you!

  Russ Boyd and his team professionally assist buyers, sellers and homeowners in the Peninsula Communities of the San Francisco Bay Area. They have served clients in San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Licensed as a Real Estate Broker by the California Department of Real Estate, 01264240.

Real Estate and Mortgage Market Updates and Commentary Videos by Russ Boyd are uploaded to Youtube, MetaCafe, Veoh, Vimeo and Yahoo Video by Tube Mogul .

See video below

You’ve probably heard the old saying “You Snooze, You Lose!” I’m told that the line came from the character known as George Owens on the 80’s sit com, “Mr. Belvedere.”

I think the words spoken by “George Owens” say a lot about where some “homebuyers” are relative to this market. Hopefully that’s not you.

Some people are sitting on the sidelines…taking a wait and see attitude, waiting for the market to “change,” hoping that some of the perceived risk will be reduced by more stable credit and mortgage markets, and wishing that just one more piece of positive news would filter out of the media to convince them to become active and take action.

Well, guess what? It just isn’t going to happen that way. Not if you want to capture the market at the bottom, at least. Let me explain why…and how to avoid “staying sidelined,” so you are in the right position to capture current opportunities.

Imagine for a moment that you are attempting to merge onto the freeway, where traffic is moving at 65 miles per hour…. Now picture yourself coming to a stop…

Being behind somebody that stops on an on ramp waiting for the”right opportunity” can be scary, yet I imagine it’s happened to every driver at one point or another.

So, when you’re at a standstill, how hard it is to find just the right opening between the rapidly moving cars. You know how hard it is to get your car to go from zero to 65 miles an hour in a very short distance without getting hit. It’s not easy.

Now, picture yourself in this same situation… only, this time, you continue moving down the on-ramp, and, once you find the right opening to merge, you join effortlessly into the moving traffic.

Simply put – it’s hard to find an opening when you are standing still. You know this – but did you know that this principle is not just a question of physics – it’s a question of money and opportunity? And did you know that it applies to many would be homebuyers?

Movement creates opportunity. It invites new things to happen. Movement means you are ready to take action that you are responding and adapting to the changing marketplace.

As the market continues to evolve we are past the time to watch, to wonder and to wait. Now is the time to pay attention! Watch what’s happening, and look for your opportunity. Believe me the growing positive statistics, like those at our Market Activity website, www.bayareamarketmetrics.com reveal that there are plenty of buyers ready to jump at the right opportunity. Remember, if you are sitting on the sidelines, all you can do is watch.

And then there are those that “just got lucky”, right? Well here’s how people get “lucky”, they (1) they get into motion, (2) they get their financing lined up, (3) they find a great agent who welcomes their business and they start looking for the right home (4) They make an offer that fits the circumstances, (5) and THEN they “get lucky”. In other words, they are people willing to move at the “speed of opportunity”.

Remember, just like you can’t easily merge onto a highway from a dead stop… neither can you find the best home buying opportunity unless you are moving at the “speed of opportunity

If you want to move at the “speed of opportunity”, check out the market activity for the bay area at our Bay Area Market Metrics Report at www.bayareamarketmetrics.com.

If you want to find that perfect home you can search for all bay area homes for sale at www.alllbayareahomesforsale.com. Or, if you are just interested in short sales and bank owned, search www.allbayareabankowned.com.

Be informed about real estate with your complimentary copy of my book, Let’s Make a Deal, the Insiders Guide to Buying and Selling Real Estate. Send me an email and I’ll send you a link to a pdf version.

Visit www.ourteampiks.com to view our growing selection of slide shows, videos (some funny, some motivational, some thought provoking) and story’s that make there way to us from people all over the world. We would like to share them with you!

Russ Boyd and his team professionally assist buyers, sellers and homeowners in the Peninsula Communities of the San Francisco Bay Area. They have served clients in San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Licensed as a Real Estate Broker by the California Department of Real Estate, 01264240.

Real Estate and Mortgage Market Updates and Commentary Videos by Russ Boyd are uploaded to Youtube, MetaCafe, Veoh, Vimeo and Yahoo Video by Tube Mogul .

Watch video or read below

You may have heard media stories of this so called “shadow inventory” of foreclosed homes that banks are intentionally holding off the market. The storys usually include a list of “sinister” reasons for why banks would hold properties off the market. The question came to me again as I was reviewing the July Market Metrics Report for the Bay Area.

As I was considering the question I was looking at the reports, which are available at http://www.bayareamarketmetrics.com . Here is what I saw for single family homes in several bay area counties:

San Mateo County – Median price up for the seventh month in a row, the number of homes for sale down 25% from one year ago and the number of days on the market average down to its lowest point since September of 08.

Santa Clara County – Median price is up for the sixth month in a row, the number of homes for sale down 40% from one year ago and the number of days on the market average down to its lowest point since March of 09.

Alameda County SFR – The Median price is trending up since the low in March 09, the number of homes for sale down 49% from one year ago and the number of days on the market down to its lowest point in a year.

Contra Costa County – Median price is up for the sixth month in a row, the number of homes for sale are down 51% from one year ago and the number of days on the market is down to its lowest point in a year.

And what is a market fundamental? Yes, your right, supply and demand. Keep in mind that a market in balance is considered a six month supply of homes for sale. For the four counties above, the highest is San Mateo County with 2.75 month of inventory and the low is Contra Costa County with 1.75%.

To put this in perspective, the national housing inventory is 9.4 months and the State of California is 4.1 months.

Back to the question, is there a shadow inventory of foreclosed homes that banks are intentionally holding off the market waiting for the perfect moment to market them for sale? Looking at the Bay Area Market Metric reports there is every indication that what we need in the Bay Area is more inventory. Multiple offers are common and, although qualifying for a loan takes, well, qualifications, there are obviously plenty of qualified buyers wanting to buy.

You can see the July 09 Market Metrics Reports for the Bay Area at www.bayareamarektmetrics.com . Available reports include Median Price, Pending Sales, Closed Sales, New Listings, Inventory, Days on Market and more. Reports can be customized …Just send me your request to my email, russ@bayareateam.com and you will get the report within 24 hours. No registration on our website and no obligation for your customized report.

And don’t forget, you can search for all bay area homes for sale at www.alllbayareahomesforsale.com. Or if you are just interested in short sales and bank owned, search www.allbayareabankowned.com .

Be informed about real estate with your complimentary copy of my book, “Let’s Make a Deal, the Insiders Guide to Buying and Selling Real Estate.” Send me an email and I’ll send you a link to a pdf version.

Russ Boyd and his team professionally assist buyers, sellers and homeowners in the Peninsula Communities of the San Francisco Bay Area. They have served clients in San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Licensed as a Real Estate Broker by the California Department of Real Estate, 01264240.

Real Estate and Mortgage Market Updates and Commentary Videos by Russ Boyd are uploaded to Youtube, MetaCafe, Veoh, Vimeo and Yahoo Video by Tube Mogul .

Headline: 3-year descent in home prices appears to be at end

The Story-According to recent reports and forecasts by housing analysts, the three-year descent in home prices appears to be at an end. According to Standard and Poor’s/Case-Shiller Index, for the first time since early 2007, the index of 20 major cities was virtually flat, rather than down and eight cities, including San Francisco, showed price increases in May, up from four in April, and one in March.

It was the first month-over-month increase in the index in 34 months.

Headline: Low-priced foreclosures incite bidding wars

The Story-Buyers in some areas are finding that bank-owned properties are sparking bidding wars between first time buyers and investors who often pay cash and buy several properties at once.

In June, California’s Unsold Inventory Index stood at 4.1 months, compared with 7.6 months for the same time period a year ago. A 6 months supply of homes is considered a market in balance.

Headline: June existing home sales rise by 3.6 percent
The Story-Signaling a housing recovery is under way in much of the country, sales of previously occupied homes rose for the third month in a row in June.The National Association of Realtors said Thursday that home sales rose 3.6 percent last month. Home sales haven’t risen for three straight months since early 2004, during the housing boom.

Headline: New home sales rise as housing market tries a comeback

The Story-New-home sales rose last month at the fastest clip in more than eight years as buyers eagerly took advantage of bargain prices — a clear sign, economists said, that the real estate market may finally be bouncing back.

Historically low interest rates and a federal tax credit for first-time homeowners also helped push home sales to their highest level since November, the Commerce Department reported Monday.

Coming next week-Bay area housing market activity results for July will be available next week at www.bayareamarektmetrics.com.

And don’t forget, you can search for all bay area homes for sale at www.alllbayareahomesforsale.com. Or if you are just interested in short sales and bank owned, search www.allbayareabankowned.com .

View our growing collection of interesting, inspirational, beautiful and thought provoking videos, slide shows and links at www.ourteampiks.com.

Learn more about home buying and selling with your complimentary copy of my book, Let’s Make a Deal, the Insiders Guide to Buying and Selling Real Estate. Send me an email and I’ll send you the link to the PDF version.

Russ Boyd and his team professionally assist buyers, sellers and homeowners in the Peninsula Communities of the San Francisco Bay Area. They have served clients in San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Licensed as a Real Estate Broker by the California Department of Real Estate, 01264240.

Real Estate and Mortgage Market Updates and Commentary Videos by Russ Boyd are uploaded to Youtube, MetaCafe, Veoh, Vimeo and Yahoo Video by Tube Mogul .

From people all over the world comes a collection of slide shows, videos and story’s – from funny to motivational from thought provoking to beautiful-courtesy of Russ Boyd and Joan Williams….and we would like to share them with you.

You see, our internet presence continues to grow and one of the great things about the internet is that so many people share interesting things.

The way to see our growing collection is simply click www.OurTeamPiks.com .

Samples from our Antartica slideshow:

and from St. Petersurg, Russia

You will surely laugh when you see the video of a Brit negotiating for the lowest cost for tooth extraction….See the title A Guide To Negotiation at www.OurTeamPiks.com .

You can see our entire collection, which continues to grow, at our latest website address, www.OurteamPiks.com. We would like to thank all those that have shared with us and encourage each of you to share your interesting or funny media with us…….simply send me a link or a file to russ@bayareaream.com and we’ll add it to our collection.

A disclaimer, we have given credit to the author when known and while we believe that all content we are sharing is not protected by copywrite laws we do not guarantee it and will remove anything protected if notified.

We encourage you to view and share with others and we would love to have you share with us.

Russ Boyd and his team professionally assist buyers, sellers and homeowners in the Peninsula Communities of the San Francisco Bay Area. They have served clients in San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Licensed as a Real Estate Broker by the California Department of Real Estate, 01264240.

The June Market Metrics Reports, validated what we’ve been saying for a number months. The Bay Area Real Estate Market is showing consistent increases in sales activity and median prices are rising. A question that has come up several times is “what kind of market is this, a seller’s market or a buyer’s market?” We’ve become very used to categorizing the market one way of the other.

I’ve been active in the real estate and mortgage markets for 30 years and recovery’s always start at the same place, the entry level. That’s right, it takes first time buyers to get the market moving. First time buyers buy from sellers who themselves “move up” to higher priced homes. A “trickle up” effect, if you will, that eventually reaches the high-end of the market. That’s one of the reasons we see the focus on first time buyers in federal and state stimulus programs that provide tax credits to first time buyers.

The activity that is creating the upswing in sales and median prices across the bay area counties shows extremely strong activity in each market’s entry level price range. Moreover, in the first week in June the number of pending listings in some areas exceeded new listings for the first time since July of 2005. This is an indicator of a healthier supply/demand balance.

Clearly, buyers at the market’s entry level have decided that we are at or near the bottom. The $8,000 federal tax credit provides extra incentive to move. And according to a recent Gallup poll, 71% of Americans think it is now a good time to buy a home.

So if we’re on our way to recovery, then we must be moving from a “buyers” market to a “sellers”, right? Perhaps. But there’s more to the story. You see, in many areas, the majority of the sellers are banks, not people. In fact, according to DataQuick, a provider of real estate market data, 55% of California home sales in May were properties that had been foreclosed on in the prior twelve months.

The number of REO or “bank owned” listings in our market is staggering. These are properties banks have repossessed from foreclosed homeowners and must sell. When a bank-owned listing is sold, the seller, the bank, isn’t going to “move up” into their own purchase at a higher price. There’s just a bank selling a foreclosed home.

So called “short sales” have a similar effect. While the seller is a real person, the lender that agrees to take less than owed to complete the sale really controls the outcome, and very few “short sale” sellers are in a position to “move up”.

You see my point: The market is moving in a positive direction, but the climb up from the bottom is likely to be a little bumpy and take a bit longer this time.

This is great news if you’re a buyer or investor: Prices at all levels of the market remain attractive. If you’re a seller – particularly at the high end – you must continue to price aggressively and have your home in top showing condition to sell.

In the meantime, we’ll continue to look for signs the market recovery is moving upward.

If you have questions about real estate or mortgages and are in the San Francisco Bay Area I can be reached by phone at 650 325 7877 or email me at russ@bayareateam.com.

Be sure to check out the market reports available at www.bayareamarektmetrics.com . Available reports include Median Price, Pending Sales, Closed Sales, New Listings, Inventory, Days on Market and more. Reports can be customized by property type, price range, room count, square footage, zip code, city or neighborhood.

Just send me your request to my email, russ@bayareateam.com and you will get the report within 24 hours. No registration on our website and no obligation for your customized report.

And don’t forget, you can search for all bay area homes for sale at www.alllbayareahomesforsale.com. Or if you are just interested in short sales and bank owned, search www.allbayareabankowned.com .

Learn more about home buying and selling with your complimentary copy of my book, Let’s Make a Deal, the Insiders Guide to Buying and Selling Real Estate. Send me an email and I’ll send you the link to the PDF version.

Russ Boyd and his team professionally assist buyers, sellers and homeowners in the Peninsula Communities of the San Francisco Bay Area. They have served clients in San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Licensed as a Real Estate Broker by the California Department of Real Estate, 01264240.

Last November, Redwood Shores released what I consider to be the best game of that year on any format: Dead Space. Pitched halfway between Survival Horror a la Silent Hill or Resident Evil and an action shooter, it truly did defy all expectations of what a really great game should do.

For a start, it was – or is, rather – genuinely scary. Taking its cue from movies like The Thing and Event Horizon, you play a lowly engineer who is sent up to investigate what has gone wrong on a massive mining vessel. One of the most attractive aspects of the game is that you have no special abilities and no superhuman powers. This gives the game a fascinating dynamic, as most of the time you do feel as if you are under-equipped to fight the beasties that come your way. More of that in a minute.

Then there’s the fact that you don’t have guns. Instead  of an arsenal of kickass firepower, you have a tool locker with cutting lasers and grinding saws. However, this spices up the action no end. Few things are more satisfying than cutting off an alien’s limbs with a whomping plasma cutter or incinerating them with a hydrogen flamethrower.

The aliens in question aren’t quite aliens at all. Pretty soon after landing on the wrecked spacecraft, you discover that most of the crew have been infected by an unknown entity (let’s not spoil it, eh?), which turns them into deformed, festering, spitting, crazy violent “Necromorphs”. They kind of look like humans if humans had their ribs turned inside out and their skin pulled over their head.

The enemies grow increasingly more unpleasant and unsociable as the game progresses. One of the things that makes Dead Space so scary is the way in which it plays with you. When the lights fuse in a corridor and you are plunged into darkness, you pretty much expect that something nasty is going to jump out and eviscerate you. But it doesn’t happen, and the lights flicker and come back on. As make your way to the medical lab to retrieve a key or whatever, you think that you will be attacked as soon as you open the door. But it doesn’t happen. Still, you don’t relax, thinking that as soon as you pick up the key… well, that’s when you’re going to die.

But it doesn’t happen. You can guarantee that as soon as you relax, all hell will break loose. And it generally does. Dead Space has a brilliant rhythm which doesn’t follow any of the usual cliches that hamper both games and movies. Seriously, it did make me jump out of my shorts at several moments. I might even have peed myself just a little bit.

I can’t think of any other recent game, except for, say, Bioshock, which possess the same atmospherics as Dead Space. The USG Ishimura, the hulking, dying spaceship which you must rescue, is like a haunted house floating in space. In terms of graphics, the lighting, shadows and textures are gorgeous – if you can describe blood splatter patches and insane graffiti as “gorgeous”, and the enemies are varied and interesting. There’s none of your 5 faces replicated over and over again here.

I’m wittering on about this because EA are releasing Dead Space: Extraction later this year. Not so much a sequel as a spin-off, it lands on the Wii, which, after House Of The Dead and Manhunt, is increasingly becoming more of an adult console.

The original Dead Space really is that good. The plot is full of neat twists, and not the kind which make you feel cheated, and it becomes darker in tone with each of the dozen levels. The finale is satisfying, but it’s the journey there which will blow your socks off and back on again. It’s an absolute cracker, and you can probably pick it up pretty cheap at all your usual outlets.

Before the release of the original Dead Space, I did an interview with one of the managers at EA. It was abridged for publication, but here’s the full draft.

OUT OF THE VIOLENT PLANET: WELCOME TO DEAD SPACE

In space, so the slogan goes, nobody can hear you scream. Which is just as well, because the recently released Dead Space is scary as all hell. Drawing inspiration from classic Sci-Fi nightmares Alien, The Thing, Sunshine and Event Horizon, this outer space based survival horror’s reputation was preceded by an intensive viral marketing campaign: Xbox Live freeviewed an engrossing series of downloadable animated comics, and the story was further explained by the Manga DVD Downfall. In the distant future, city-sized space freighters called ‘Planetcrackers’ mine other worlds for valuable resources. One of these, the USG Ishimura, stumbles across something other than minerals lurking in the ground, and before somebody can say “Man the escape pods!” or “Watch out for that tentacle!” their craft is overrun by spiky, gooey, toothy shape-shifters called “Necromorphs”. The contents of medical journals as designed by H.R. Giger. When the Ishimura goes offline and off radar, Isaac Clarke is the poor sap who is sent up to investigate what’s happened. Abandon all hope, friend, for here be demons…

For the benefit of those readers who haven’t heard about it already, why not give us an introduction to Dead Space.

Dead Space is a third-person sci-fi survival horror game set in the distant future. You play an everyday engineer, Isaac Clarke, who has come to fix a supposedly broken comms array on the Ishimura, a famed “Planetcracker” class mining vessel the size of a small city. When Isaac arrives, he finds the crew has been transformed into grotesque and savage creatures.

Can you tell us how the idea for the game first came about?

Our Executive Producer, Glen Schofield, had a very specific idea about a gory, third person science-fiction survival-horror game, set in space. Strangely, that pretty much what we ended up with three years later, which is very odd. Usually, the game you set out to make is nothing like the game you ship. I remember the meeting where the core idea of planetcracking came about, and the idea of something being alive in one of the cracked planets. That became the core tentpole of the fiction, and we expanded the universe from there.

You guys are obviously big fans of the Horror and Sci-Fi genres.

We are all huge horror and sci-fi fans, and we’ve seen almost every imaginable movie in each genre.  So, they definitely have an influence on us, and probably subconsciously sneak into our work.  However, we set out to make our own mark in this territory, and wanted to have a story that was unique to Dead Space.

In one interview you said that you wanted to set out to “create the most terrifying game you could”. How exactly have you tried to implement that?

We rely heavily on immersion for keeping the player rooted in the moment, so that any bump or clank has maximum impact.  And we rely on unpredictability in those bumps and clanks as to what lies behind them.  Something? Nothing?  The trick lies in keeping the player uncertain, and therefore that much more afraid of every little noise. And our combat is very lethal, so you have a reason to be afraid if the noise turns out to be something. And of course, silence is just as valid a place for something to happen as well. And in service to immersion, our Inventory screen doesn’t pause the game (although the game can be paused), so you can’t get control of a fight by sneaking into your inventory and grabbing health, changing weapons or ammo. Once the fight is on, it’s on. If you’re not prepared, you’re going to die. So again, this amps up the fear of every noise and flickering shadow.

Let’s talk about the technical side of things for a few questions. One of the most striking things about Dead Space is its use of sound. From the footage that I have seen, it seems that sound will be a key way of scaring the player. Can you elaborate on that?

To throw some tech jargon at you, we used quadraphonic streamed ambience as well as a dynamic pseudo-random positional ambience system, all in 5.1 surround.  The music and ambience were designed to create mood over anything else, and to make the player feel as if they are actually “in” the scene, again in service to immersion.  We’re not trying to play memorable music themes, but to create a tense mood and creepy atmosphere. Creature vocalizations are of course a big part of the horror as well. Layered on top of the horror components are very futuristic sound effects. We use a very broad dynamic range; contrast is a key element of horror. We also produced an original orchestral score, Aleatoric in style, which is mixed at run-time based on the gameplay situation.

A second thing is the use of gravity. There is something quite eerie about seeing objects floating in space. Was that a tough effect to get right?

The simple effect of turning off gravity was relatively easy, since it has to be simulated in the first place. Making gravity change as you cross a threshold, or have multiple directions in a single level without crippling the code was quite another matter. Plus all the motions for Isaac, and his landing and camera controls. It took quite a lot of work to refine Isaac’s motion and speed to get it to feel right and to look like “space”.

It reminded me of the Metroid series in some ways: that sense of loneliness and isolation.

Yes, we are definitely going for that very isolated, alone atmosphere. That is very central to the horror experience we are trying to evoke.

Dead Space partly feels like a conventional haunted house, and partly like a futuristic spaceship. Personally, I really like Sci-Fi like Battlestar Galactica, in which technology doesn’t quite work all of the time.

We’re definitely in that same vein, if not even more so. We’re the polar opposite of Star Trek, where everything is super-refined and almost magically safe. The Planetcracker ships (which you are on throughout the game) are like city-sized oil rigs in space. They are not designed to withstand operatic space battles. They can break in a myriad catastrophic ways and are spectacularly dangerous.  We found this conceit worked to enhance the horror and tension quite a bit. Not only was the ship itself dangerous, there is always the constant threat of something going wrong at the wrong time, making things worse.

The Necromorphs look pretty horrible, and all the more groovy for it. They reminded me of the shape-shifting monster in The Thing. What are some of the more grotesque beasties that await gamers in dark corners?

Some of the necromorphs are basic Slashers, with giant talons arching over their shoulders. Others are cloning samples from the medical deck gone haywire from the infection, turning into baby-like tentacled nightmares. Others are just tentacles.  Others are pregnant with smaller swarms of enemies, waiting to burst forth if you shoot the host’s belly. Some guard doors and hallways, stuck to walls, with a barbed tentacle that can one-shot your head off. My favorites are the ones the have an explosive sack for a left arm.  And then of course we have bosses and mini-bosses, and some surprises.

How did you go about designing the Necromorphs? Did you look at other monster movies? Or medical journals?

They really came from the disturbed mind of one of our most talented team members, Ben Wanat. The look he started with was sort of internal-organs-on-the-outside, with insect and animal forms.  As we iterated, we found the most disturbing looks were those with highly relatable human elements. So the necromorph menagerie ended up as grotesque contortions of humanity, pushed as far as Ben could go, discussing it with his wife over dinner. Which was apparently rather interesting dinner conversation.

Will there be traditional Boss battles?

You will certainly get to enjoy a number of excessively unique and over-the-top huge multi-stage necromorphs. So, yes.

One of the most enticing aspects of the game is Strategic Dismemberment. What can you tell us about that?

It pretty much requires you to chop off every limb before they stop coming at you – and there’s a huge variety of states in which they can still come after you.  This is fine if just one is around, but becomes quickly panicky in a crowd. Plus, there’s restricted ammo, so if you waste shots in the body, you’ll be standing there with an empty clip being torn into pieces really fast. And of course, we mess with your head as the game progresses, and just as you get dismemberment down, new enemies appear that put a twist on it, and burst open with other enemies if you get it slightly wrong, or flat out surprise you even if you get it right. And even when you think they’re dead, maybe they’re not.  It’s a very addictive mechanic, You can even take it so far as to pick up their own body parts and throw them back at them as weapons.

The game will obviously be quite violent. Was it difficult to get
the balance between gore and psychological horror?

Not as much as you might think.  The gore is applied at a VFX and dismemberment event level, and can almost be turned up and down with a knob once it’s in place. The same is true for set dressing (more decals for blood, more body parts, etc.) So tuning “gore” is relatively easy compared to psychological horror, which involves designing an entire complex setup from geo, to lighting, to sound, to animated props, etc. So the psychological elements tended to stay in once perfected, and are more paced-out, while the gore was able to be experimented with more until “just right”.

So, as Dead Space is nearly ready to drop, do you think you have created the most terrifying game you could?

We expect to get a lot of complaints about nightmares and soiled underpants shortly after we ship, yes.

Over the past few months I have received many questions regarding loan modifications, foreclosure rescue and short sales. Today I’m going to share you with my experience when I recently visited Congresswoman Jackie Speier’s office.

After all, congressional members are elected by us and they and their staffs are paid by us, the taxpayers, and certainly lenders and banks are benefiting from the recent stimulus packages, so it made sense for me to find out what my congressional representative was doing about assisting homeowners who are experiencing financial hardships that are affecting their ability to make their mortgage payments.

And, I’m happy to report that Congresswoman Speier is being very proactive providing assistance to her constituents that are experiencing financial hardships, especially related to their homes. As a matter of fact, the staff member I met with in her San Mateo office, was not only professional and concerned, she has become quite an expert with the ins and outs of the loan modification process.

To provide assistance to homeowners in financial distress, Congresswoman Speier has partnered with San Francisco Supervisor Carmen Chu to host a workshop for homeowners experiencing financial hardship. Click to learn more about the Crisis to Recovery Resource Fair for Homeowners in Distress which takes place July 25th 2009 in San Francisco. By attending will you learn about mortgage loan modifications and how to avoid foreclosure scams and you will be able to meet with a counselors.

AND if you have a mortgage with Wells Fargo, Chase/Washington Mutual or Countrywide/ Bank of America, there will be Mortgage Modification Evaluation Specialists on hand to discuss your circumstances.

If you or someone you know is experiencing a financial hardship I recommend attending this workshop on July 25th in San Francisco.

Congresswoman Speiers 12th congressional district includes the peninsula communities of Redwood City and north plus parts of San Francisco. If you live elsewhere you can find out how to contact your congressional representative by clicking this link: Bay Area Congressional Representatives’.

If you have questions about real estate or mortgages and are in the San Francisco Bay Area I can be reached by phone at 650 325 7877 or email me at russ@bayareateam.com.

Be sure to check out the market reports available at www.bayareamarektmetrics.com . Available reports include Median Price, Pending Sales, Closed Sales, New Listings, Inventory, Days on Market and more. Reports can be customized by property type, price range, room count, square footage, zip code, city or neighborhood.

Just send me your request to my email, russ@bayareateam.com and you will get the report within 24 hours. No registration on our website and no obligation for your customized report.

And don’t forget, you can search for all bay area homes for sale at www.allbayareahomesforsale.com. Or if you are just interested in short sales and bank owned, search www.allbayareabankowned.com .

Learn more about home buying and selling with your complimentary copy of my book, Let’s Make a Deal, the Insiders Guide to Buying and Selling Real Estate. Send me an email and I’ll send you the link to the PDF version.

Russ Boyd and his team professionally assist buyers, sellers and homeowners in the Peninsula Communities of the San Francisco Bay Area. They have served clients in San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Licensed as a Real Estate Broker by the California Department of Real Estate, 01264240.

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Happy fourth of July weekend! Before I share the highlights of the home sales market for June 2009 in the San Francisco Bay Area I’d like to share some thoughts about our countries birthday.

We are going through a challenging time. This annual celebration of our countries founding is not about whether you agree or disagree about the direction our politicians are taking but our freedom and responsibility to be involved in the process. America is still one of the few places you can and should be involved by sharing your views and making them heard. You can take up any cause and you have the freedom to share it with all that will listen.

And be sure that the children in your life understand that while picnics, fireworks and hot dogs are all great fun, there are reasons why we celebrate.

Now on to the highlights and health of the home sales market in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Our exclusive Bay Area Market Metrics report is available at www.BayAreaMarketMetrics.com. Take a look at the reports for San Mateo, Santa Clara, San Francisco, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. There are eight reports for each county…all the indicators have shown positive improvement since the beginning of the year.

The market continued to show improvement in the entire bay area in June. In all counties, the median price continues to rise, the number of homes under contract and sold continues to increase and the inventory continues to shrink.

If you or someone you know is still waiting for the market to bottom, well, from my view, we are at the bottom. How much longer do you want to wait, not taking advantage of low prices, low rates and tax credits as the number of homes to choose from becomes fewer and fewer and multiple offers are become more commonplace?

At www.bayareamarektmetrics.com available reports include Median Price, Pending Sales, Closed Sales, New Listings, Inventory, Days on Market and more. Reports can be customized by property type, price range, room count, square footage, zip code, city or neighborhood. Just send me your request to my email, russ@bayareateam.com and you will receive your report within 24 hours. No registration on our website and no obligation for your customized report.

And don’t forget, you can search for all bay area homes for sale at www.AllBayareaHomesForSale.com. Or if you are just interested in short sales and bank owned, search www.AllBayAreaBankOwned.com .

Learn more with your own complimentary copy of my book, Let’s Make a Deal, the Insiders Guide to Buying and Selling Real Estate. Just send an email book@bayareateam.com and you’ll be sent the link to an online copy.

Russ Boyd and his team professionally assist buyers, sellers and homeowners in the Peninsula Communities of the San Francisco Bay Area. They have served clients in San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. Licensed as a Real Estate Broker by the California Department of Real Estate, 01264240.