Good morning Friends, The FED just hiked rates another 75 basis points, so coming up here we may see a bit more slowing with regards to buying demand in our local real estate market. The 30 yr fixed mortgage is hovering in the low 7’s this AM, and I think its important to note that higher rates do just as much to keep would-be primary home sellers in their homes, due to inability to pick up a similar...

Good morning Friends! Last weekend was the Carmel Meet the Makers Art & Wine Walk. We headed downtown with some friends and hopped around to see all the local art galleries that we seemingly forget about sometimes! Carmel has such a cool and vibrant art scene for a small village, from paintings to sculptures, to modern art to photography galleries. There were quite a few local wineries represented,...

Dear Friends, We are officially in the Fall selling season. Car Week came and went 2 weeks ago, with scores of people overrunning the Peninsula and bringing lots of eyes and retail sales to the community. We saw an uptick of sales that was mostly unrelated to visiting car enthusiasts, and instead almost entirely related to sidelined demand waiting for new inventory. We did pick up a few new buyers, but...

Dear Friends and Family, This week is Car Week, AKA Concours! Most of you have been to this event before, some even multiple times. I began attending the show with my parents in the 80's when I was just a couple of years old. At that time, it was all about the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, which sits out on the 18th fairway and green of the Lodge. Everyone wore their Sunday best,...

Dear Friends and Colleagues, As we move into the second half of the year, we look back on what has been a turbulent and unprecedented ride – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, geopolitical and national unrest, inflation not seen in decades, an equities market on steroids dipping quickly into bear market territory, and finally, the strongest real estate market in human history experiencing slowing demand...

Good morning my Friends, As we get into Summer, I'm happy to say local demand remains, albeit at a lower velocity than before- but still at a higher rate than normal. Several properties in the high end, and super high end, have gone into contract over the past week or less; our team was responsible for one of these, and a couple of others were properties that have been sitting for quite awhile. One...

Good morning my Friends, A few thoughts I have from what I’m seeing on the ground here- our multiple offer listings have gone to about half or 1/3 as many offers over about 45-60 days. This appeared to coincide with the heavy prime rate increases- I see folks averaging around mid 4's to 5 for jumbo 30 yr fix mortgages right now, which will be more like 5 to mid 5's now after today's rate hike- the FED...

I thought for this month I would delve for a moment into the state of the markets and where I think the closest pressure points are.

We’ve just finished redoing our branding and style guide with the incredible help of Jeff Ratto.

Hi Everyone, We hope you are all staying safe. Real estate is still moving here and prices seem to be holding for the most part. For sure, less new listings; but we are seeing a fair amount of new escrows proportionate to those new listings. Here is a quick update from our main Peninsula office for you all: No one will be able to fully predict the effect the coronavirus pandemic will have...