The San Jose Downtown Residents Association (SJDRA) will be holding its Spring Quarterly meeting this Thursday night with the main issue on the agenda being emergency preparedness. Come find out how to be prepared in the event of an earthquake, fire, or other similar emergency. In addition, representatives from the San Jose Police Department (SJPD) will be on hand to discuss and answer questions regarding downtown policing issues.

Also on the agenda for this Thursday’s Spring Quarterly meeting will be the proposed changes to the SJDRA bylaws. The proposed changes can be found on the SJDRA website under the “Downloads” section. The SJDRA Spring Quarterly meeting will be held this Thursday, April 16, from 7:00pm to 8:30pm at the San Jose Athletic Club.

Bonus: Everyone who attends the SJDRA meeting this Thursday evening will receive a complimentary 5-day pass to the San Jose Athletic Club. In addition, club owner Gene Campbell will be providing a tour of the facility starting at 6:30pm.

San Jose Downtown Residents Association (SJDRA) Spring Quarterly Meeting
Thursday, April 16, 2009
7:00pm - 8:30pm
San Jose Athletic Club
196 N. 3rd Street
Downtown San Jose

For additional information about the Spring Quarterly meeting or the SJDRA, visit the SJDRA website or email sjdra@yahoo.com.

The San Jose City Council is set to discuss a strategy to attract major league baseball to San Jose at tonight’s evening City Council meeting. With the A’s pulling out of efforts to move to Fremont, San Jose is now in prime position to draw owner Lew Wolff and the A’s to downtown San Jose. For the most part, San Jose already owns the land necessary to build a big league ballpark just south of HP Pavilion and adjacent to the Diridon Station (stops for both CalTrain and VTA Light Rail). There are plenty of parties taking action to see where the A’s end up including owner Lew Wolff meeting with Oakland officials to see if its feasible to stay there, Major League Baseball forming a commission to study other whether alternative East Bay locations exist, and the San Francisco Giants purchasing a 25% stake in their minor league affiliate San Jose Giants, presumably to make a claim to their territorial rights to Santa Clara County. But we also have the San Jose City Council taking the pro-active steps necesarry to make a pitch to both Lew Wolff and Major League Baseball to draw them here to downtown San Jose.

In addition, Baseball San Jose, a community group supporting the efforts to attract the A’s to San Jose will be gathering at Billy Berk’s for a pre-City Council meeting rally at 5:30 pm. Join Baseball San Jose at Billy Berk’s or let your voice be heard at the City Council meeting.

Pre-City Council Meeting Support Rally
Tuesday, April 7 at 5:30 pm
Billy Berk’s
99 S. First Street
Downtown San Jose

City Council Meeting re A’s Baseball in San Jose
Tuesday, April 7 at 7:00 pm
San Jose City Hall, Council Chambers
200 E. Santa Clara Street
Downtown City Hall

Have we hit the bottom of the real estate market yet? Let me check my magical crystal ball . . . I’m not sure if the bottom has hit just yet but all signs seem to indicate that market activity has picked up. This is definitely a good sign for recovery. Over the past few weekends, there is noticably more foot traffic at open houses and new developments such as Axis, The 88, One East Julian, and City Heights. This means that more buyers are out there looking and in due time, hopefully getting off the proverbial fence, and purchasing.

In a recent Business Week article, Proshant Gopal found one of the fastest selling zip codes in the country here in San Jose. In fact, eight of the ten zip codes with the most improved home sales were found in California. Many of the zip codes that are now selling were some of the hardest hit by the foreclosure landslide. But banks are now getting more aggressive with their REO inventory and listing properties low enough to attract multiple offers in many cases.

New construction developments are also dropping prices to attract buyers looking to take advantage of the up to $18,000 in tax credits from the State of Califonrnia (up to $10,000 tax credit for new home purchase) and the Federal government (up to $8,000 tax credit for first time home buyers). At The 88, prices have dropped up to $81,000 on select units in a developer special.

With these low prices, historically low interest rates, and tax credits, now is a great time to buy. Maybe these are signs of a rebound in the real estate market . . .