Chuck Barberini Real Estate

  Check Out This Weeks Newsletter An NBC News analysis explores how housing affordability—especially in the toughest housing markets—gave former president Donald Trump an edge in the 2024 presidential election.  Vice President Kamala Harris may have been the first (and only) of the two main candidates to address housing during the presidential debate in September, but ultimately her proposals to make housing more affordable to more people weren’t enough to sway voters in battleground states, particularly those where housing affordability is at its lowest.  That’s what the NBC data shows, with counties moving sharply to the right, indicating widespread hope that Trump’s housing policies will do more for them than four more years of the Biden/Harris solution.  This is not an endorsement of the election results. It’s an acknowledgment of what the numbers are telling us about voter behavior in markets where fewer residents can afford to buy a home.  Prospective buyers in these counties use

“Just Thinking” Its November and its Fall and its Day Light Savings Time and it is the Holiday Season, it’s that time of year. Personally, I am not a fan of Day Light Savings Time (DST) especially in Fall, which is when it comes off, I think, it is still confusing to me. Spring forward, fall back, DST starts in the Spring and ends in the Fall. There is a 3-hour time difference between us and Hawaii, but not all of the time because Hawaii doesn’t do DST, so when is it 2 hours and when is it 3 hours. What is the real time anyway, is it what we have going on now, or what is going on in the spring, or is it somewhere in the middle.  When we were younger DST started in October, usually before Halloween, which was great for trick or treating and for getting out of football practice early. But I hated having to leave the house in the dark and get home in the dark and this was happening right at the time when the weather starts to change to cold, let’s just say I’m not a fan. It seems that the

  The Fannie Mae Home Purchase Sentiment Index® (HPSI) recorded a notable increase of 0.7 points in October 2024, bringing it to 74.6—its highest level since February 2022. This boost comes alongside a 9.7-point increase year-over-year, signaling a significant recovery from the all-time low experienced just two years ago. Mark Palim, Fannie Mae Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, emphasized the broader trend, stating: “While we have seen significant improvement in overall housing sentiment over the past two years, consumers’ perception of homebuying conditions remains strained, with only 20% believing it a ‘good time’ to buy a home, primarily due to high home prices.”  Mark Palim  - Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, Fannie Mae Key HPSI Highlights for October 2024 Good/Bad Time to Buy Consumer sentiment regarding homebuying showed gradual improvement. The share of respondents who believe it’s a good time to buy rose to 20%, a 1-percentage point month-over-month increase.

     “Just Thinking” There I was last night, working on my newsletter and struggling to come up with a topic for this week’s “Just Thinking”, when there was a knock at the door, followed by another and another. It’s Halloween, Superheroes, Villains, Ghouls, Ghosts and Goblins knocking at the door for this year’s treat. Our number of visitors is way down when compared to our old neighborhood, where traffic jams of cars, vans and buses dropping of their excited bounty hunter starting at dusk and culminated with teens in hoodies and masks carrying 7/11 plastic bags traveling in packs, knocking loudly and begrudgingly mumbling out “Trick or Treat”. This was typically followed by a turning out of the porch light and blowing out the candles in the jack-o-lanterns. What a great time to get into character as Charles Dicken’s Ghost of Halloweens past, thoughts of a simpler time when Dad would take us the 2 streets on either direction to get our buckets filled by neighbors and friends that were

  Almost half of all renter households in the U.S. are rent-burdened—meaning the cost of renting swallows up more than 30% of their income.  That’s according to a new analysis of the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 American Community Survey (ACS) by Zillow and StreetEasy.  Gen Z renters (ages 18-25) are the most affected, with three in five spending over 30% of their household income on housing costs. In some metros, like San Diego, Los Angeles, and Sacramento, that share is even higher, with nearly three-quarters of Gen Zers struggling to pay rent.  The situation for Gen Z renters is similar but slightly better than what Millennial renters faced in 2012, when 60.2% nationwide spent over 30% of their income on housing. Among young adults, the rent burden peaked at 62% in 2011 before steadily declining to 55% in 2019.  Fast forward to the COVID pandemic, and surging rental demand, paired with decades of undersupply, drove up rents nationwide.  The experience of struggling to pay rent on an en

  “Just Thinking” I was speaking with a new client the other day who grew up on the peninsula and now lives near me in the East Bay. I let her know that I was born and raised in San Francisco, we talked about “The City” and she told me how much she enjoyed visiting it with her family as a young girl then she told me that she hadn’t been there in a couple of years and that the last couple times that she visited she was disillusioned by its current condition. I told her how much I enjoyed growing up there and how proud I was to be from San Francisco. I also told her that I always intended to move back to “The City” once the boys were grown and on their own, but because of how much it has changed, I no longer desire to move back. San Francisco has become a completely different city in the last 25 years. I don’t want to sound like the typical old guy, “get off my lawn” or “back in my day”, but it seems to me that the difference between previous generations discussing how much “The City” ha