Most people who like to hike and bike have to get into their car and drive to the trails. But if you live in Belmont, the trails could be as close as stepping outside of your front door. There are 10 miles of hiking trails within the city of Belmont Open Space Area. The Hallmark neighborhood in Belmont is one of those neighborhoods where you can put on your hiking boots and walk from your home to the trails. Start at the entrance of Hallmark Drive and take the trail that leads to Water Dog Lake.  Hikers and bicyclists are welcome and yes you can bring your dog. The Hallmark area has so much to offer besides hiking trails. Wide streets make this a neighborhood where parking is no problem. Most properties have lots larger than 5000sq ft  and some have one level floor plans. Currently there are 4 homes available. Prices range from $ 1,189,000 to $ 1,550,000. Fox Elementary School is just down the street and Hwy 92 and 280 are close by.

Map courtesy of the City of Belmont website

Listing your property right now requires attention to every detail. Not only does your home have to look clean and inviting, but your pricing has to reflect the actual market value. Even a couple of months ago, we considered comparable properties as far back as 6 months a good gage. Looking at sold properties in the same area gave us a good idea about trends and market pricing. To determine where the market is now, requires one to look at pending sales more than sold properties and you have to be familiar with the neighborhood to tune in to today’s market.  Pricing your home correctly is key or you will be trying to catch the market and that means price reductions down the road.

Let’s say you bought your 4 bedrooms/ 2 bath home in Burlingame in 1995 for $545,000. Based on the tax collectors estimated property value of $ 645,000 in 2007, your property tax probably costs you about $7000/year. The kids have left home and you are thinking of getting a smaller place with no steps. With proposition 60 in place if you are 55 or older, you are able to take your property tax with you one time in San Mateo County (other counties cooperate). Your new home has to be purchased for equal or lesser value. Imagine you can sell your home for $ 1.7 Mio and are looking at a nice one level 3 bedrooms/2bath house in San Carlos for $1.2 Mio. The property tax for a house of this value would normally cost you about $13,000/year but since you are bringing your tax base with you, $ 7,000 is all you are paying.

For more information on proposition 60 go to:

http://www.smcare.org/

Homeowners who are facing a short sale or a foreclosure received a little bit of good news last week. A new bill passed in the house of congress, would no longer tax mortgage debt that is forgiven by the lender. In the past the rule was that if your bank agreed to a short sale and the property sold at a loss, the IRS still considered the difference as taxable income. This is a sad time for sellers who have no other options but for buyers this provides opportunities that we have not seen over the last couple of years. For example: The asking price on a two bedroom home in one of San Mateo’s nicer neighborhoods was just reduced from $ 749,000 to $ $627,000 last week. There is no better time to buy but now!