JN Real Estate Valuation Services

Seasons

Posted on February 19, 2016 by JN Real Estate Appraisal & Valuation Services

I’m wearing dark clothes today.

The weekly photo challenge from Jen Hooks asked for a representation of a season or a season of life. If you look at my post from earlier this week you will see a good representation of seasons here in Northern California where I live. Summer, fall and winter/spring (the last two merge into one with spring flowers appearing during February and March (winter months for an original East Coaster like me)).

My dark clothes, however, struck a chord with my mood as I wondered if I am in the fall or winter of my life? Does it matter? Not really. Each day has four separate seasons. So my simple admonition: don’t linger on what season of life you are in… just enjoy it. Tomorrow I’ll wear bright clothes!

The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins? Edgar Allan Poe (thanks BrainyQuotes)

Posted in Images | Tagged California, Colma, Cypress Lawn Cemetery, D7000, death, Fall, graphics, Image, images, life, Nikon, Photography, Postaday, seasons, seasons of life, Weekly Challenge, Weekly Photo Challenge, Weekly Photo Challenge: Seasons, winter | 3 Comments

Life Imitates Art

Posted on February 17, 2016 by JN Real Estate Appraisal & Valuation Services

Coming a little late to the game today I’m combining art and work. Cheri Lucas Rowlands challenged the WordPress community to focus on life imitating art for the weekly photo challenge.

In my work I sometimes find art in statistics (or at least in a graph of prices or employment or some other sort of data. So, for your viewing pleasure, see the year-end 2015 San Francisco Bay Area median home price trend data here. You can also catch a glimpse of the labor force and employment trends here. Your notice all three curves are flattening or bending down… not a good sign.

I’ve also included my spin on the photo challenge with three seasonal views of the same lonely tree in the Los Vaqueros Watershed near Brentwood, CA.

Posted in Images, SF Bay Area Employment Trends, SF Bay Area Housing Trends | Tagged Weekly Challenge, Weekly Photo Challenge, #postaday, postaday, image, images, graphics, photography, Nikon, D7000, Weekly Photo Challenge: Life Imitates Art, economics, bay area housing trends, bay ar | 4 Comments

Photo Challenge: Time

Posted on February 5, 2016 by JN Real Estate Appraisal & Valuation Services

My high school Latin teacher would walk around the room during a test and whisper “tempus fugit” to remind us that time is fleeing or time flies. Time: it’s the one thing you can’t get more of. Life is motion. Planet Earth spins and revolves and time whizzes by. As my Aunt Sue always likes to remind me… “Joseph… if you rest, you rust.” And as Satchel Paige would say, “Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.” Time… don’t dare to slow down… it’ll pass you by!

Union Station, Chicago, IL

See Lignum Draco’s Weekly Photo Challenge Here

Posted in SF Bay Area Employment Trends | Tagged Chicago, D7000, feet, graphics, Image, images, motion, Nikon, Photography, Postaday, Time, Union Station, Weekly Challenge, Weekly Photo Challenge, Weekly Photo Challenge: Time | 3 Comments

Photo Challenge: Vibrant

Posted on January 29, 2016 by JN Real Estate Appraisal & Valuation Services

It’s a gloomy day outside. Winter in California is the rainy season and, so far, it’s been a normal rainy/gloomy winter. Jen H. challenged the WordPress community to get vibrant! Here are a few winter samples of vibrant from the left coast of the good old US of A.

Even vibrant colors can run a little in winter!

Living colorful in San Francisco.

Even fall/winter colors can be vivid!

Blue skies and bright sunshine help.

Even on a gray day a splash of sunshine can brighten the moment with a vivid “boom” of crashing surf.

Posted in SF Bay Area Employment Trends | 2 Comments

Weekly Photo Challenge: Alphabet

Posted on January 15, 2016 by JN Real Estate Appraisal & Valuation Services

Another Friday another photo challenge… Michelle Weber laid down the gauntlet and said “Alphabet.” So I said:

Give me an F!

Rated E for Everyone!

All pirates know X marks the spot!

One for the King!

Can baseball season be far behind?

Posted in Images | Tagged Weekly Challenge, Weekly Photo Challenge, #postaday, postaday, image, images, graphics, photography, Nikon, D7000, Olympus, California, San Francisco Bay Area, San Francisco, letter, letters, Weekly P | 7 Comments

Weekly Photo Challenge: Weight(less)

Posted on January 8, 2016 by JN Real Estate Appraisal & Valuation Services

Another week gone by but this one is different! Welcome to the first week of 2016. It’s the week where you keep writing 2015 as the date. The week where you most frequently practice crossing out and initialing your mistakes! 🙂 It’s the week you have the most difficult time overcoming the urge to sleep in after a lazy year-end holiday. It’s the week that goes by so fast it’s like a fastball in weightlessness. Now that’s an interesting question! How fast is my fastball in weightless conditions? Any help?

So, a few photos from late last year taken at the epicenter of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, Mussel Rock Park in Daly City (just south of San Francisco). Ideas I have of weightless… the crazy paraglider taking off over the edge a 150-foot cliff, tiny seeds waiting to blow away with the wind, and the moon – hanging weightlessly over Pedro Point in Pacifica, California (taken from Skyline College in San Bruno, California). See Ben Huberman‘s Weekly Photo Challenge Here.

Have a beautiful weekend!

Paraglider over Mussel Rock, Daly City, CA

Going to Seed, Mussel Rock Park, Daly City, CA

Moon Over Pedro Point, Pacifica, CA

Posted in Images | Tagged California, Coastside, D7000, Daly City, graphics, Image, images, Landscape, moon, Mussel Rock, Mussel Rock Park, Nikon, Northern California, Pacifica, paraglider, paragliding, Photography, Postaday, San Francisco, San Francisco Bay Area, seed, seeds, Weekly Photo Challenge: Weight(less), Weight(less) | 1 Comment

Sunsets of a Different Color

Posted on December 31, 2015 by JN Real Estate Appraisal & Valuation Services

Our 365^th sunset for 2015 approaches and oh what a year it has been. Just pulled down median home price data for the San Francisco Bay Area from CoreLogic. See November 2015 prices here.

The San Francisco Bay Area median home price continues to trend upward but it’s mostly a sideways upward if that’s possible. We are still below the all-time high of 2007 and employment trends don’t suggest we will be busting out a meaningful new high soon. While the core high-tech markets remain strong, the outlying counties are showing slippage which is right in line with weaker employment. The year-end is always a little tough to use as a barometer so, as I’ve said before, it will be an interesting first quarter in 2016.

Best Wishes for a Happy, Healthy, Prosperous and a SF Giants World Series Championship 2016! 🙂

Same Sunset of a Different Color, Pacifica, CA

Posted in SF Bay Area Housing Trends | Tagged image, images, graphics, photography, Nikon, D7000, California, San Francisco Bay Area, economics, median home price, median home prices | 2 Comments

San Francisco Bay Area Jobs in Winter Freeze

Posted on December 29, 2015 by JN Real Estate Appraisal & Valuation Services

November 2015 employment figures from the California Employment Development Department (EDD) paint a winter scene with jobs stuck in the frozen ground like boundary marker poles on the ski slopes at Lake Tahoe this year. (See Nov. 2015 summary here along with 6 mo. trends) Employment has leveled off and the labor force shrank on a month-over-month basis leaving the unemployment rate at 4%… but does it mean anything? Multiple counties have flat or declining employment and the total labor force has stalled, as well. The low unemployment rate is no longer a good thing if it means that people are leaving the Bay Area. Really… who wants to pay $3,500 for a one-bedroom apartment?

Sea Foam and Winter Surf, Ocean Beach, San Francisco, CA

Posted in SF Bay Area Employment Trends | Tagged image, images, graphics, photography, Nikon, D7000, California, San Francisco Bay Area, economics, employment trends, unemployment | Leave a comment

Photo Challenge: Now

Posted on December 24, 2015 by JN Real Estate Appraisal & Valuation Services

It’s the day before Christmas and not a camera was stirring… although earlier this week I did a selfie. It was in response to another photo challenge on another website. The idea was a headshot. I thought of Edward Weston’s capture of Christel Gang in 1927. The photo is in a book I’m re-reading on Mr. Weston, an early pioneer in the art of photography. My selfie snap in the style of Mr. Weston follows. It’s me in the now. See Jen H‘s weekly Photo Challenge here.

Happy Holidaze!

Posted in Images | Tagged "Edward Weston", D7000, Image, images, Nikon, now, Photo Challenge, Photo Challenge: Now, Photography, portrait | 1 Comment

Photo Challenge: Gathering

Posted on December 18, 2015 by JN Real Estate Appraisal & Valuation Services

Winter in Northern California. It’s been a normal winter so far here in NorCal. That means we find rain in the rain gauge instead of dust. As I sit at my desk and look out my window I see clouds gathering… a gathering storm that will help to fill the aquifers and reservoirs. Here are some snaps focused on clouds gathering for a past storm or two. Don’t you love how clouds sometimes look like they would make the world’s best pillow?

See this week’s Photo Challenge from Krista.