Fremont Real Estate and Beyond

The City of Fremont would like to share the following information regarding two new housing programs funded by the Alameda County Measure A1 Housing Bond. The AC Boost Program provides financial assistance to middle-income working households to purchase a home in Alameda County. The program offers shared equity loans of up to $150,000 to first-time homebuyers who live, work, or have been displaced from Alameda County. For more information, view the  AC Boost Flyer . The Renew Alameda County (Renew AC) Program helps homeowners make renovations necessary to stay, grow, and thrive in their homes. Renew AC provides 1% interest loans from $15,000 to $150,000 to qualified homeowners. For more information, including how to qualify, visit  Renew Alameda County Flyer .

During their March 5 meeting, the Hayward City Council unanimously approved an emergency that requires landlords to show a "just cause" for evicting a tenant.  The requirement applies to all rental housing in Hayward including single-family homes and condominiums. According to a press release issued by the City of Hayward, landlords must notify their current tenants of the new policy no later than April 5 and must notify all future tenants, as well. A complete list of "just causes" for eviction are available here .  For more information please contact Jennifer Ott, Deputy City Manager at: Jennifer.Ott@hayward-ca.gov

FEMA announced late Friday that it will once again renew flood insurance policies, which were halted during the partial federal government shutdown.  This has affected ~40,000 home sale transactions nationwide.  More info here-- https://rismedia.com/2018/12/31/nar-helps-secure-fema-reversal-shutdown/

Costar, the commercial real estate data behemoth that owns Loopnet and Apartments.com recently purchased Cozy.co, the landlord management system.  It will be interesting to see how they connect their current holdings with Cozy to make the purchase and management of properties more streamlined. More info here-- https://cozy.co/blog/great-news-cozy-joins-costar/

As a Realtor, it's difficult to watch this.  I have a fiduciary duty to my clients to help them buy and sell homes, not give legal advice on how to interpret a loophole in a law.

The Hayward City Council is considering tenant protections including mandatory landlord-tenant mediation. But tenant advocates may want more. The Council is holding a work session on Tuesday, Mar. 27 at 7:00 p.m. at Hayward City Hall to review tenant protection options.  Those options include the mediation program and an immediate moratorium on rent increases.   If you are a Hayward resident, own or manage property in Hayward, or represent clients in Hayward, please attend this meeting.

I received this from the Fremont Police and wanted to share with everyone. https://local.nixle.com/alert/6404263/?sub_id=406327 In April, 2017, Fremont Police received information from a Fremont landlord involving an ongoing fraudulent home rental scheme conducted by two brothers dating back to 2015. At least five (5) property owners fell victim to these serial renters, suffered a significant financial loss and damage to their homes as a result. The investigation revealed Mohammed QADIR (30) and his brother, Habibullah QADIR (42), engaged in intentional fraudulent and deceptive practices to obtain at least five residential property leases in Fremont. Once the properties were rented to them, they failed to pay rent and forced the landlords to evict them while they remained in the properties rent-free, for months at a time. In summary, Mohammed QADIR, acting alone or collaborating with Habibullah QADIR, sought to obtain leases for single-family houses in high-end neighborhoods in Fre...

MLSListings, the MLS for the South Bay released their assessment of single family homes in their territory.  As mentioned for the condos and townhouses, the inventory has also significantly declined in Santa Clara County.  

MLSListings, the MLS for the South Bay came out with the assessment of their territory, which has lined up with what I've been seeing on the road.  32% drop in inventory year over year in Santa Clara county is quite shocking!

I mentioned earlier about the new rental ordinance that will be in effect in Union City starting May 10th.  The City administrator sent out this update--  The  Ordinance  regulates most residential rental units in the City and: 1.        Requires landlords to provide a specific reason for terminating a lease; 2.        Prohibits landlords from engaging in specific harassment activities;  and 3.        Requires landlords to notify tenants of their rights under the Ordinance in  all  of the following situations:   o     Within 60 days  of the Ordinance effective date ( May 10, 2017 ) o     When entering into a new lease or rental agreement; o     When renewing a lease or rental agreement;  and o     When issuing a notice of termination Additional information on the...

Per the City's Housing & Community Development Coordinator-- On April 11, 2017, the Union City City Council approved an Ordinance that will add Chapter 5.50 “Residential Landlord and Tenant Relations” to the City’s municipal code. The Residential Landlord and Tenant Relations Ordinance goes into effect on May 10, 2017. The Ordinance regulates most residential rental units in the City and requires: · Landlords to provide a specific reason for terminating a lease; · Prohibits landlords from engage in specific harassment activity; and · Requires that landlords notify tenants of their rights under the Ordinance Additionally, the City Council has also voted in favor of a creating a rent mediation ordinance. The rent mediation ordinance will also regulate most residential rental units in the City and will provide a non-binding mediation process for significant rent increases. The City Council is expected to review a draft ordinance in May/June 2017. Additional...

It's been great running Cheung Homes, but I've decided to join forces with Movoto Real Estate to help expand their in-house brokerage.  I'll still be running this blog to provide info on the local market, but if you need to contact me, my email will be now be jcheung@movoto.com. Same exceptional service and quick response, but now with more support behind me to help even more people.

Starting next year, Fannie and Freddie will not be able to retain any capital.  This was part of the terms of their bailout package in 2008.  Why is this important? It means starting next year taxpayers will probably have to foot the bill if they incur any losses.  It's important to remember that Fannie and Freddie back about 40 percent of the nation’s home loans. There are a few lawmakers and private industry titans getting together to brainstorm on how to deal with this.   More info here-- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-28/fannie-freddie-fix-is-focus-of-senators-push-across-party-lines

In an effort to improve listing accuracy for consumers, Zillow/Trulia have decided to end manual listing inputs and pull directly from MLSs.  This will start May 1 this month.  Zillow/Trulia have been known to have zombie listings where agents forget to delete/mark sold the manual listings on the site and the home continue to show "for sale," which can mislead the consumer.

MLSListings just released their November Townhome and Condo Data

MLSListings just posted their November data for the South Bay