San Jose Mercury News reporter Sue McAllister talked to SILVAR members about the challenges of writing about the current real estate market. McAllister, who has been with the Mercury News since 1999, is the go-to writer for the newspaper’s real estate section.

“This is the most interesting 12 to 18-month period in Silicon Valley real estate that I’ve ever covered. It has been really challenging to accurately cover this market.”

When it comes to finding stories to print about real estate, McAllister looks for stories that are timely and affect a great number of people,also they are original. “I get a lot of my best stories from my readers,” McAllister said. “I absolutely welcome those kinds of calls from all of you.”

With the number of stories about foreclosures and declining prices, McAllister has heard many complaints that her headlines are too scary or misleading. However, she encourages people to read the whole story before jumping to conclusions.

McAllister has received a lot of criticism from general readers and the Realtor population, and shared that it is nearly impossible to make everyone happy. An agent asked her why she wrote only negative news. She said: “I really do try to not paint the market with too wide a brush, I have to tell the both sides of the story” she said.

The circulation of the newspaper has gone down in the last two years. In light of this change, However,if we include both print and online media , the number of people reached in 2007 is actually 1.223 million which has gone up.

The Whole Food Market Cupertino at the new Stevens Creek location is almost one year! Today Friday, August 22nd through Sunday, 24th 1 year Anniversary Party! Free!

Music starts at 5:00 p.m. on Friday and 12:00 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday. This is a free event!

Join the Whole foods market on this Friday, Saturday and Sunday for musical entertainment, grilling stations, lots of vendor demonstrations, kid activities including a watermelon eating contest, tons of back to school specials and a very special cake cutting at 12 noon on Saturday.

Whole Foods Market has been serving Cupertino for over 12 years now but we are just reaching the 1-year Anniversary of our beautiful new location!

I specialized love the variety of food. It is so fresh and delicious. They have a lot variety deli, food ready to go. I purchased the food by pound. It is pretty good, because you can pick and choose what cooked food you like. The bakery department is JUST beautiful. The cahiers are friendly also. One hot summer day I went there I saw quiet a few people just slept at the lounge of the whole food market. I guess we like the Whole food Market so much so the day time we slept there. The CEO of the whole Foods market blogs also.

I look at its web page and found out the core value of them. The core value of the whole foods market is :

“Selling the Highest Quality Natural and Organic Products Available Passion For Food We appreciate and celebrate the difference natural and organic products can make in the quality of one’s life. Quality Standards We have high standards and our goal is to sell the highest quality products we possibly can.”

If you change the food to real estate it will become like this: Selling the highest Quality real estate services available Passion for real estate. We appreciate and celebrate the difference real estate services can make in the quality of one’s life. Quality Standards we have high standards and our goal is to sell the highest quality real estate service we possibly can.

The photo is credit from the web page of //www.wholefoodsmarket.com/

July 26th to July 27 9 AM to 3 PM the Goodwill of Silicon Valley and Electronoic recyclers International are hosting a FREE Electronic E-Waste Event today and tomorrow. The E-waste contain hazardous lead and mercury, and these toxic substances eventually leak and contaminate landfills. It is illegal to dispose of e-waste in the trash.

The location will be the following two locations:

Almaden Goodwill Mountain View Goodwill

3069 Almaden Expressway SJ, CA 408 265-5692 855 E. El Camino Real MountainView, CA 650-969-3382

If you need more information please contact 1866-861-4883

         Today I was invited by Catherine Chen from the State Farm Insurance office of Cupertino to the “Hats off to you!” community luncheon from the Quota Cupertino. Ms Trudi Wallace presented the 200 years of hats, caps, bonnets and more.  She collected those hats since age of four and has about a collection of 700 hats. Some of those hats are more than 200 years old. The presentation is informative and fun to see. Sarah Perez, Quota 12th District Governor in the black hat with turkey feathers that tied under the chin.  I also took one of someone modeling a cream-colored hat with flowers. A sheriff deputy modeled the bobby hat. The Islam fez was modeled by Cupertino City Councilman Orrin Mahoney. CUSD Superintendent Phil Quon modeled a sort of civil-war. I also like the large one she wears with feathers makes me feel like we are walking into the life of two hundred years ago. Mary-Ann Wallace was very kind to provide 6 photos of different hat.  Guests are welcome to wear hats. The food is catered by Outback restaurant , one of the