Real Estate Darwinism

In March of this year, over 200 San Mateo County residents met at Canada College to talk about the high cost of housing in our county.  They were selected by random telephone calls.  This month is your chance to sound off and voice your thoughts, concerns and comments about this issue if you live in San Mateo County.  And,  someone will be listening!

Elected officials throughout San Mateo County will be listening to your comments and and you can make them without leaving the comforts of your home, right in front of your computer.  All youll have to do is log on to a special web site and sound  off.

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If you live in the 94404 zip code, FEMA may change your insurance coverage.  Why?  They are preparing new flood maps and because Foster City shares the zip code with a small part of San Mateo, Foster City residents may soon be required to carry flood insurance.  The shaded area on the current FEMA flood map shows the areas of San Mateo that are within the flood zone. Any new additions to the map will run south of highway 92 and both east and west of 101.

Heres the deal.  If you go and buy flood insurance now, before FEMA makes the designation, the insurance is relatively cheap.  A Preferred policy for a single family home in Foster City costs about $350 per year.  This is for $250,000 of coverage for your house and $100,000 for contents.  But only if you do it before FEMA pulls the trigger and prints the map.

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Ive been showing short sales listings lately.  I have a client who thinks theyre the way to go.  A good deal.  Bottom fishing.  Guess what?  They may not be all you think they are.  You may find that youll end up paying past due taxes. If Home Owner Association dues are past due the association can place a lien against the property and all liens have to be cleared in order to have a clear title for a purchase.  Kching, Kching, Kching.

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The front page of the San Francisco Chronicle today features a story about the Hayward Fault. the earthquake fault expected to rumble next, and cause catastrophic damage to the Bay Area.  Foster City residents, take precautions to save your house before an earthquake because once it comes, it is too late.  Everyone knows about the San Andreas Fault.  It runs down most of California coming onto land in Daly City and exiting land in the Sea of Cortez in Baja, California.  The Hayward Fault runs parallel to the San Francisco Bay and sits under the hills where there are multiple schools, hospitals, houses, the University of California and Hayward State University.  It may be shorter, but it is now being considered much more dangerous to all of us living here.  The damage anticipated could be larger than Katrina.  They're talking economic loss of up to $165 Billion.

This is major and will impact the world. The San Francisco Bay Area is home to bio-tech, high tech, major corporations, universities and multiple other kinds of businesses.  What makes this so scary is that most of us do not have insurance for earthquakes.  It's just too

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If you live in Hillsborough or Foster City you have disappeared!  You no longer exist.  At least as far as the United States Postal Service is concerned.  Yup.  You no longer exist.  Poof you're gone.  Last week the USPS consolidated zip codes and eliminated any and all cities or towns that share a zip code with a second city.  The "owner" of the zip, such as Burlingame in the case of Hillsborough, or San Mateo in the case of Foster City is now the name of your community. 

This has been going on for a while and you are aware of it if you live in one of these two cities.  You order something

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