Is Steve Jobs so much of a factor that his absence could further derail the economy and possibly even our local real estate market? Certainly Steve Jobs taking a leave of absence until the end of June is not good news for Apple, and not necessarily good news for morale around these parts, but there must be a chain of command capable of taking over the reigns during this time? For chrissakes we just switched to a Mac!
Direct from the San Francisco Business Times Online:
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has told employees that he will be taking medical leave until June.
“During the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought,” Jobs wrote in a message to employees on Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well,” Jobs said.
“In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June,” the message continued.
Jobs said Apple COO Tim Cook will handle Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) day-to-day operations, but that Jobs would continue to take part in “major strategic decisions.”
Jobs had skipped his traditional gig as keynote speaker at the Macworld expo in San Francisco last week. Just before the show, he revealed that he has a hormone deficiency that has caused him to lose weight. He had had a bout with pancreatic cancer in 2004 that was treated with surgery.
Godspeed for a healthy recovery!
Steve Jobs, meanwhile, will be putting his feet up today as he begins a leave of absence until June on health grounds. The Apple boss sent an e-mail to staff last night, explaining: “During the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought… to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.”
Wow.
Even worse is that “do no evil” Google if finally succumbing to the market realities and beginning to quietly shutter staff and projects, and this most certainly means that they aren’t going to be hiring as obliviously as they have in the past.
One thing that is clear is that there is still a lot of pent up demand for homes and there is the occasional sale when a home dips below recent market comps. I wish I had more time to post topical threads, but the recent sale on Green Street is one of my favorite recent examples of the current market. There is also 1951 Webster in LPH that just went into contract –a nice small SFH on prob the best LPH block that listed for $1.97 and probably will close at closer to $1.85 and under $800psf. But manare these major exceptions to what is (or rather is not) happening. Very few sales. And each sale IS setting a new lower water mark.
It’s hard to ignore the reality that our market got way out of control in terms of price / affordability. It really sucks cause I’d personally love to own a home in SF and I WOULD pay a premium to live here; but it just doesn’t make financial sense to buy into these declining prices. I just doen’t see anything that is going to cause the slide to stop.
Glad sites like this exist that keep me tuned into the markert.
As for Jobs’ health impacting the market — you can blame him if it makes you feel better :-), but he or his company had nothing to do with the rise / bubble in SF and it has no bearing on its decline. Real estate has a mind of its own that is collectively influenced by the mass.