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San Diego Water Rates will increase 2% Weds

Posted on July 31, 2018 | Leave a comment

Water rates in San Diego will increase just over 2 percent on Wednesday, part of a five-step incremental spike over four years that will amount to a compounded rate hike of 35 percent.

The rate increase comes one week after an audit found 2,750 individual water bills last year were incorrect and had to be readjusted because of errors by meter readers.

For average customers living in single-family homes and using about 1,200 cubic feet of water per month, the 2.16 percent increase will equate to approximately $3.75 more per every-other-month water bill.

This week’s increase had been anticipated to be 5 percent when the City Council approved the series of hikes back in 2015, but city officials said in a news release they opted instead for 2.16 percent.

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Selling Home – upgrades that may pay off

Posted on July 30, 2018 | Leave a comment

“San Diego is a very competitive market, and buyers are paying special attention to any potential upgrades they think the home needs,” says Carlos Gutierrez, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage La Jolla. “If the kitchen hasn’t been updated in a while, potential buyers will start subtracting from the list price of the home, and that could really impact a seller’s bottom line. By making the upgrades before putting the home on the market, you can add a lot of value and possibly get buyers in a bidding war.”

Here are some of the tips Gutierrez recommends for kitchens:

• Buyers are looking for light and bright in a kitchen. Make sure you have fresh paint in a neutral color.

• Changing out cabinet fronts or even the hardware makes a big impact for little money.

• Make sure the grout is clean and doesn’t need to be redone.

• Lighting is often overlooked by sellers, but not by buyers. Adding LED lighting, recessed lights or nice pendant lights will make a big impact.

• If you can’t afford new appliances, make sure your current appliances are clean.

Each of these upgrades can be achieved without a lengthy, expensive full remodel, you’ll note. “Small changes like these can bring you up to 5 percent when you sell,” Gutierrez adds. If you have a larger budget, “new appliances are always a great option because buyers notice them right away,” the agent says.

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US housing market looks headed for its worst slowdown in years

Posted on July 26, 2018 | Leave a comment

The U.S. housing market — particularly in cutthroat areas like Seattle, Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas — appears to be headed for the broadest slowdown in years. Buyers are getting squeezed by rising mortgage rates and by prices climbing about twice as fast as incomes, and there’s only so far they can stretch.

“This could be the very beginning of a turning point,” said Robert Shiller, a Nobel Prize-winning economist who is famed for warning of the dot-com and housing bubbles, in an interview. He stressed that he isn’t ready to make that call yet.

Existing-home sales dropped in June for a third straight month. Purchases of new homes are at their slowest pace in eight months. Inventory, which plunged for years, has begun to grow again as buyers move to the sidelines, sapping the fuel for surging home values. Prices for existing homes climbed 6.4 percent in May, the smallest year-over-year gain since early 2017, and have gained the least over three months since 2012, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Disclaimer: for information and entertainment purposes only

San Diego Water Rates will increase 2% Weds

Selling Home – upgrades that may pay off

US housing market looks headed for its worst slowdown in years

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