A fixture in Dublin business and political circles for nearly 40 years, chamber executive Nancy Feeley is retiring this month.
Her leadership of the chamber dates to 1974, well before the city incorporated in 1981. She has seen the community more than double in population and what a retail-based business community greatly expand and diversify on the east side. Through it all, Nancy has been at the helm of the chamberjust the third person to hold that position.
She will retired at the end of this month, moving on to more grandparenting, travel and more golf. She finished her chamber golf career Monday, staging the organization's annual tournament that was held in brutal heat on the Dublin Ranch Golf Club. The course has precious few trees and virtually no shade once you leave the clubhouse.
Incidentally, Castlewood Country Club also hosted a pair of tournaments on Monday in the 100-plus degree heat, but golfers there could seek the shade of its magnificent oak trees on both courses.
It was the hottest day Nancy remembered for the chamber event, which has seen its share of varied weather. One year, it was postponed when rare thunderstorms complete with lightening made it too dangerous to playa rare occurrence in this part of California. Then there was the year at Crow Canyon Country Club when torrential showers flooded some cart pathsthe tee prize that year, fittingly, was an umbrella.
The chamber board already has replaced her with Jim Telfer who started this week with duty at the golf tournament. Telfer previously retired as chamber exec and non-profit leader. His last position was running leadership programs in the Silicon Valleyhe brings more than 30 years of non-profit management experience to Dublin.
Bay-East Realtor Association public affairs director David Stark says the data is clearthe average Pleasanton home has recovered the value it lost when real estate crashed in 2008 and 2009.
The median price (half of sales above, half below) is now $851,000above where it was at its prior height in 2007. The challenge is very limited inventoryvery few new homes have been built in Pleasanton over the last few years and there has been no incentive for the typical move-up buyer. The inventory shortage is best demonstrated with the average time on markettypically it's about 28 days in Pleasanton-currently it is half of that.
His analysis also showed that all-cash buyers are but a small factor (single-digit percentages in most of the valley) in the real estate market today.
Asked to gaze in his crystal ball about what could happen in the future, Dave cited the standard real estate axiomlocation, location, location. The location he was talking about was the Fed in Washington D.C. and when Chairwoman Janet Yellen might allow the record low interest rates to rise. rise.