Great Labor Day party at Jane Favre’s on Sunday up in Walnut Creek.

The highlight of the day was Still Rockin, a not quite over-the-hill bunch of localsthat decided to dust off their equipment a few months ago and start jammin together.

While the band rocked through their collection of oldie but goldies, about fifty friends enjoyed the pool, the perfect Walnut Creek weather, and plenty of food and drink.

From left to right Anthony Macie on guitar hiding Milke Politzer behind him, Jerolyn Politzer on drums, Dennis Viers on base and Craig Harper on guitar.

Holly and Greg Beck, the Balloonman, provided balloons to help guide the party-goers up the hill.

Several of the children attending rarely left the pool and who could blame them with the perfect party weather.

Thank you Jane, for the perfect party to end the perfect summer!

Walt Disney Elementary School

San Ramon Valley Unified School District
3250 Pine Valley Road, San Ramon, California 94583

Robin Miller, Office Manager - Pat Bisaccia, Office Assistant - 7:30-4:00       (925) 479-3900

Principal – Sandy King

Grades: K-5

Type: Public

Enrollment: 488

Average class size 28

Contra Costa County

Phone: (925) 829-1330

Fax: (925) 829-8957

California Standards Test for Grade 3 = 85% math - 62% English language arts

California Academic Test for Grade 3 = 80% math - 70% reading

All teachers fully credentialed. Average years teaching = 19

Walt Disney Elementary School showed outstanding improvement, 33 (921) points over the previous year in the Academic Performance Index Growth Report according to data released in August 2006 by the California Department of Education.

Information on Walt Disney Elementary School in San Ramon, California. This is a great school. It is well maintained and in a great neighborhood. You can see from the maps that the only traffic is from Pine Valley Road at the front of the school complex. While Pine Valley is a busy neighborhood street, there are orange cones out front during school hours and as far as I know there have never been any accidents involving student pedestrians.

There is a well-kept park with playing fields to the west of the complex and an enclosed play area for younger children within the main complex walls.

SRV Unified School District

Daily Bell Schedule

The front of Walt Disney Elementary School taken from across Pine Valley Road. (street appears curved due to stitching of photos)

View of Walt Disney Park and playing fields from corner nearest school.

Walt Disney Park with Del Mar Drive, San Ramon to my back.

San Ramon, CA street map showing location of Walt Disney Elementary School and it's orientation to Pine Valley Road.

Aerial view of school

The Harper Team has intimate knowledge of San Ramon, CA and the neighboring communities of Danville, Dublin and Pleasanton, California. We are glad to provide assistance to those seeking more information on our communities.

We provide daily and weekly updates on real estate market trends for our communities. Click on a word in our Tag Cloud to search our database. 

San Ramon – Dublin – Pleasanton – Danville, CA

The Associated Press reports - The worst of the housing slump might be over, although some pain is likely to linger, an adviser to President Bush suggested Tuesday. In terms of the crumbling housing market, "most of the action has already played out," Edward Lazear, chairman of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers, told reporters.

Rex Nutting from Market Watch gives us the recent national stats:

• Construction on new homes rebounded in November, rising 6.7% after a whopping 14% drop in October, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Starts fell 8.1% in the West to the lowest level in five years.
• Building permits, considered a leading indicator of the economy and of the housing market, fell 3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.506 million, the 10th straight decline in permits, from October's 1.553 million pace.
• Building permits are down 31.3% in the past year and are down 14.1% in the first 11 months of 2006 compared with the same period in 2005.

When asked to rate the importance of factors that might affect their decision to purchase a specific home, 80 percent said price was the most significant factor. Other considerations included:

• Potential for the new home to appreciate in value, 71 percent
• The prospect of selling their current home at a fair price, 70 percent
• The level of mortgage interest rates, 69 percent
• Personal life changes 60 percent

From Inman News

Doug Duncan, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association, expects the 30-year mortgage rate to hover around 6.5 percent for the remainder of the year, but climb to 6.8 percent by the end of 2008. Duncan is "optimistic about a rebound" in the housing market next year, citing still-low long-term interest rates, robust capital expenditures, and rising equity prices, among other factors.

Meanwhile, the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® expects existing-home sales to slip to just above 6.4 million in 2007 from an estimated 6.47 million this year. But a pullback in construction will spark an 8.7-percent decline in new-home sales to 975,000 from 1.07 million over the same time span.

The President has signed into law a bill making mortgage insurance premiums tax-deductible.

• Mortgage insurance premiums will be 100% deductible for households whose adjusted gross income is $100,000 or less.
• The law is effective for the 2007 tax year on purchase and refinance loans closed on or after Jan. 1, 2007.

Every week we update the local real estate market stats for the communities of San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton, CA.

The Harper Team monitors over 50 Real Estate and News Feeds daily to bring you information pertinent to the San Ramon Valley & TriValley real estate market including the communities of Danville, San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton. We welcome suggestions.

Search our blog articles via the Tag Cloud - just click on a word that interests you.

I keep seeing example after example in the MLS expired listings for San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton that are following the market down and the seller in this California market is losing big bucks that they did not have to.

The MLS history looks like this:

• Property listed at top dollar price
• 60 days later - price reduced to top dollar price for current market
• 45 – 60 days later – price reduced to top dollar price for current market

Are we beginning to see a pattern here?

If the price had been set somewhere between the 60-day & 100-day price, the escrow would be closed in eight out of ten cases and the owners would be on to the next phase of life with more money in their pocket than they are going to get now.

Instead, many sellers are going to do one of three things:

• Continue the pattern
• Pull the home from the market and wait for better times (6 months? 12 months?)
• Keep the price fixed at what they must get and play revolving Realtors

As professional Realtors, we do not serve the best interests of our clients if we do not understand our market, keep abreast of the trends, and have the hard talk with them when taking a listing in a transitional market moving down.

Setting the right price to move the property and maximize the return for the seller takes skill, experience and knowledge. Setting the price often involves overcoming the gap between the utility value of the house and the market value of the house. The utility value is the value placed by the owner that reflects their emotional investment in the property and how the property suits their needs.

Getting the price right is one of the biggest headaches and hassles for someone going the FSBO route – For Sale by Owner. Using Zillow, tax records and the prices of homes sold three months ago most often result in mis-pricing a property.

I feel sad for all of these sellers I see in San Ramon, Dublin & Pleasanton following the market down. They are losing so much money unnecessarily and I can only think that part of the problem is their agent lacks the experience needed to price it right or the backbone to have the needed reality check with the seller.

The market is not going to change dramatically in the near future unless it is forced dramatically downward by unforeseen events. It is transitioning to reflect a realistic and needed correction to the manic bid-up of two years ago.

Our advice to sellers – reality is always better than wishful thinking.

The Harper Team monitors over 50 Real Estate and News Feeds daily to bring you information pertinent to the San Ramon Valley & TriValley real estate market including the communities of Danville, San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton. We welcome suggestions.

Search our blog articles via the Tag Cloud - just click on a word that interests you.

San Ramon - Dublin - Pleasanton

For Sale by Owner Guidance 

Here is a great blog post for FSBO’s (For Sale by Owner) - 5 Things to Remember With A FSBO Online

The Harper Team has a special report to help anyone interested in going the FSBO route. People ask us why we would help FSBO's. Three big reasons:

• It helps keep the market healthy and a healthy real estate market benefits everyone.
• Sellers usually turn into buyers. It cost nothing for a buyer to use an agent.
• Goodwill is priceless and you never know how "what goes around will come around."

We have an incredible blend of talents, skills and experience that reinforce our optimism and confidence. We are in a people business first and property second.

The Harper Team monitors over 50 Real Estate and News Feeds daily to bring you information pertinent to the San Ramon Valley & TriValley real estate market including the communities of Danville, San Ramon, Dublin and Pleasanton. We welcome suggestions.

Search our blog articles via the Tag Cloud - just click on a word that interests you.