Business & Real Estate

You may have heard people reference a “buyer’s market” or a “seller’s market.” Is this a real thing? In a word, yes.

Seller’s market

In a seller’s market, increasing demand for homes drives up prices. Here are some of the drivers of demand:

Death and taxes are the two inevitable yet constant factors in our lives. On that comforting note, let us talk about the less depressing of the two – taxes. There, don’t you feel better about taxes already? Even if you don’t, tax season is upon us, and it pays, financially and stress-level-wise, to be prepared.

Following are some topics for this tax season that you should be considering and discussing with your qualified tax professional.

Courtesy of Jim Smith
Public House and Pizzeria owner Lars Smith holds the pizza that won him first place in the United States Pizza Team’s competition in Cleveland in November. The victory enabled Smith to participate in the World Pizza Championship in Parma, Italy, set to take place next week. Smith and the rest of the U.S. team will compete against pizza makers from around the world in 55 categories.

Los Altos’ State of Mind Public House and Pizzeria owner Lars Smith is perfecting his recipes before he jets off to Parma, Italy, to compete in the World Pizza Championship, according to his father, Jim.

After winning first place at the United States Pizza Team’s competition in Cleveland in November, Smith qualified to compete alongside 18 other members of the U.S. team for the world title in Parma. The event is scheduled Thursday through April 11.

Living in Silicon Valley can make us feel like we are constantly driving in the fast lane, with little time to slow down and enjoy life. Between work and life demands, and tending to daily routine chores that take up most of our time, we all feel the pain of time poverty.

An idea is born

The frustrations of time management and a growing desire to delegate routine chores without having to hire a full-time assistant led Michael Duran, a physician and single dad, to found Crowdservice.

Town Crier File Photo
As new development envelopes The Milk Pail Market, the Mountain View mainstay is set to close this spring.

The new movie theater, offices, apartments and retail that rose in gleaming stories around The Milk Pail Market didn’t bring it down. But after surviving years of construction disruption and uncertainty from its quirky perch on the edge of the massive Village at San Antonio Center redevelopment, The Milk Pail now faces a more certain closure.

The Rasmussen family, which has operated the market since 1974, announced last week plans to permanently shutter the business later this spring.

Courtesy of Katya Janes
Cooks Junction owner Linda Janes, center, and daughters Katya and Ilona are scheduled to host open houses at the Main Street shop Friday and Saturday to commemorate 35 years in business. “As her daughters ... we are proud of her small business first and foremost because it exists,” Katya said of her mother. “It exists because she did something incredibly brave; she chose to follow an idea, a dream, and got it on her own.”

Linda Janes, a woman once described in the Town Crier as a “prominent downtown Los Altos merchant,” and her daughters are spending this week celebrating 35 years in the cookware sales business. They invite local residents to come “toast and party” at their shop, Cooks Junction, noon to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Cooks Junction, located at 261 Main St., stocks approximately 5,000 kitchen items, ranging from classic silver pots and pans from Cuisinart to colorful fruit palm peelers from Chef’n. The store still sells the same food processor (albeit a different model) listed in its grand opening ad from 1984. Although Cooks Junction closed for two months in 2001 to undergo renovation, Janes’ business has survived multiple rounds of retail rotation in downtown Los Altos. She was not totally left unshaken, however, as she had to close her fine-china store, Janus, in 2009.