Many cities have enacted ordinances to protect various trees within their city. A long-time Palo Alto homeowner recently achieved a court ruling forcing his neighbor to remove Coast Redwood Trees whose roots were damaging his house. The legal actions were made more difficult by a real estate agent who indemnified the buyer of the house in order to get the house sold.A short summary by the long-time owner: In 2021, I sued my neighbor, with a one-sided result in my favor. I claimed for damage under state law #3479, and my neighbor’s ONLY defense was: “I was complying with PA’s tree ordinance”. The PA ordinance will not win against superseding state law. The 7-page opinion of the state judge never even mentioned the PA ordinance because it’s irrelevant against state law. But I still was forced to sue and pay my (winning) legal fees. My neighbor chose foolishly to go…
Bubb Park is located behind Bubb School. Bubb Park is larger than the typical neighborhood park. It has a picnic area large enough for small groups and it has restrooms.Bubb Park has two different areas with playground equipment for children. There are lawn areas for relaxing but the athletic fields are not open to the public when school is in session 7:30 am to 4:00 pm. View more pictures of Bubb Park.
Another beautiful day brought another lunch at a delightful park. Nearby Wyandotte Park in Mountain View is one of the city's newer parks. This park has playgrounds for children, a small artificial stream with water when a button is pushed, scattered tables and benches, shady areas, lawn (too small for team sports), and art sculptures. To see more pictures or to learn about other parks, visit my Mountain View parks web page.
Although JLee Realty does not handle rental properties for clients, we watch what is happening in it to better understand Mountain View real estate. On Sept 17, 2023, the San Jose Mercury News published an article titled “Bay Area rents see biggest drop in 27 months“. The article presents the ease of finding a one-bedroom apartment near Lake Merritt. The article cites ApartmentList.com as a source for the trends they cite, including a 3.1% year-over-year decline for the San Jose/Sunnyvale/Santa Clara metro area.The housing rental market has weakened, but the headline could create a misleading impression. The sky is not falling for the rental market. Look at the graph below created by Zumper.com.The peak rental price for a 2-bedroom apartment was reached in Aug-Sept of 2022. The “biggest drop” is being calculated from a price peak and isn’t a good choice for judging long-term trends. I’m looking at two-bedroom rental…
We wanted to have a lunch break, so we grabbed some food to-go and went to the nearby Klein Park in Mountain View. We had a relaxing lunch in a peaceful park.Klein Park is a medium-sized neighborhood park with picnic tables, a half-court basketball, a children's playground, and grass areas that are not flat. It is unsuitable for baseball, soccer, or other team sports, but it is great for a relaxing visit, playing frisbee, or taking your kids outside.To see more pictures or to learn about other parks, visit my Mountain View parks web page.
Our passion for Mountain View real estate both enabled us and lead us to support local public education. We were pleased to help the Mountain View Education Foundation through a matching donation pledge. Please help Tk-8 students in the Mountain View Whishman School District by visiting the MVEF website: mvef.org and making a donation.
A 1031 exchange is used to defer taxes on the sale of your investment property when your proceeds are invested in a new investment property. Although you probably consider a house you bought with the intention of flipping to be an investment, it is not considered by the IRS to be a property that was bought for investment purposes and thus does not allow it to be used in a 1031 exchange.Tax professionals recommend keeping an investment property obtained in a 1031 exchange for two years as a rental property. Some professionals will say that one year plus one day is sufficient for the 1031 exchange to avoid an IRS challenge.In 2008 the IRS issued a safe harbor rule saying it would not challenge the 1031 exchange because of the sale of your replacement property if:You rent the dwelling unit to another person at a fair rental price for 14…