I'm an old timer as cars and gas go. Leaded gas was part of my youth and cheap gas seemed like our limitless heritage. I aged my way through VW bugs and vans, bullet nose Studebakers, Chevy trucks, Cutlass Supremes, Falcon Sprint convertibles, Datsuns to Nissans, Hondas to Acuras, and 25 cent gas
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01/12/2010
Slow to Nothing My son and I were running an hour ahead of schedule early morning on a 1,000 mile road trip with a scheduled stop at Granny's for lunch in Riverside. We decided to kill the hous and grab breakfast off Interstate 10 between Blythe and Indio to investigate a diner we read about on Y
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01/12/2010
People grow succulents and cacti everywhere, but there's nothing like a native habitat to bring out the best in plants. Cacti in Tucson tend to be vigorously healthy with correspondingly healthy spines. This specimen seems fully prepared to ward off attackers in any direction. Each spine is part
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01/10/2010
I'm in lovely Tucson, Arizona for a wedding this weekend and the first thing that strikes me is the prevalence of native landscaping. Not everyone is water smart here, but by and large the residential neighborhoods acknowledge water-short Arizona by sticking with native plants and skipping the la
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01/10/2010
Sometimes the only way to be awesome is to be old. This oak tree in Healdsburg's Dry Creek Valley has been standing sentinel over this valley for the native Miwoks, the Spaniards, the upstart Bear Flag Republic's founders and today's Hispanic farm workers and wine-filled tourists. It doesn't j
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01/06/2010
This is the holiday bump in all it's glory. I imagine real estate everywhere is a bit seasonal, but looking at inventory and sales numbers over a multi-year span in Sonoma County looks like a classic sine wave. Starting in February, the drop off shown here will reverse itself and build back up t
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01/04/2010
When buyers from out of the area ask about where they should look for Sonoma County homes for sale they often ask about relative prices and affordability. Like most parts of the United States, there are neighborhoods within our main cities that offer different sizes, ages, and types of homes. The
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01/03/2010
Stocks are a winter favorite of mine. They sneer at the frost and smell as cinammony sweet when the blooms are old and tired as they do when they are fresh. I wrote about taking time to smell the flowers a while back. If you are interested in one simple action in the New Year to help you slow do
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01/03/2010
Sonoma County's major cities show a wide mix of owner sales, bank-owned home sales, and short sales in 2009. Topping the volume list for the umpteenth time is Santa Rosa, by far the largest city in Sonoma County. The accompanying chart shows that about half the market in Santa Rosa was for tradit
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01/01/2010
Underlying all the REO activity I wrote about in my post about the Windsor REO market is the foreclosure process. Many homes in foreclosure are sold as "short sales" during the time between the Notice of Default and the Sonoma County courthouse steps auction. Still, houses do go on the auction bl
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01/01/2010
