From the Editors of Inside SF Real Estate, we would like to wish a very warm and joyous Thanksgiving to you and yours. We’ll be enjoying a couple of (much needed) days off with family, friends, and football. When we come back next week, we’ve got some big things in store for the blog, including a new type of analysis where we’ll be looking at appreciation rate data in SF’s different neighborhoods using a Case-Shiller style methodology, in addition to all the things we’ve been doing thus far.
A survey was recently conducted by the Human Capital Institute in which 2,500 employees and entrepreneurs were asked what cities they would love to relocate to, and which ones they would hate to relocate to. San Francisco ranked #3 in the “love to relocate to” survey, and did not make an appearance on the “hate to relocate to” survey. We can’t argue there. The article, published online at BusinessWeek.com, is available HERE. We found it quite interesting, as we do with anything that talks about why people do what they do. The results?
Respondents would love to relocate to:
New York
San Diego
San Francisco
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Seattle
Denver
Phoenix
Chicago
Boston
Respondents would hate to relocate to:
New York
Detroit
Los Angeles
New Orleans
Chicago
Washington, D.C.
Las Vegas
Cleveland
Dallas
Miami
San Francisco Ranks #3 in List of Cities Where People Would Like to Relocate
“Comp” is industry shorthand for the word “comparable”. What is a comparable, and what makes a good one? That’s what this article is all about.
“Comps… huh?!?”
Real estate agents and appraisers use comparables to determine the value of a home. Actually, there are three different methods used in determining the value of a home, but the approach that utilizes comparables is the one that holds the most weight. The whole idea behind figuring out the value of a home (we’ll call it the “subject property”) is to compare it to other homes that have sold nearby.
A “comparable” is a sale that is A) competitive with the subject property, B) took place on the open market, and C) Read the rest of this entry ?
Forbes recently published an article based on a survey conducted by ULI (the Urban Land Institute). The survey asked 700 industry professionals which cities would likely make speedy recoveries from the real estate downturn. Both commercial and residential real estate were taken into account. What they found was that American cities large on the international scene topped out the list. The lineup?
We hope you’re enjoying our series, “Getting Granular.“ After all, real estate trends on the neighborhood level are what’s important to most homeowners and people considering buying. We’ve been surprised at some of the results in our analyses, and this installment is no exception.
Looking at median sales prices in SoMa (South of Market), we expected to see a decline. SoMa is a funny neighborhood. First off, it is pretty massive (by SF standards). Second, it is divided into East SoMa (which is a bit nicer), and West SoMa (which is a bit grittier). Third, it is a neighborhood in transition. There are many other reasons why SoMa is a unique neighborhood, but we’ll keep it to those three for now.
Are prices in SoMa headed south?
Lofts and condos are king in SoMa. The neighborhood may not appear like much to outsiders who drive the streets, but if they only knew what was behind some of those façades, they’d see that the ‘hood has some truly spectacular properties.
Because SoMa is largely in transition, and we’re in a down economy, we expected to see a bit of stagnation and possibly a decline in median values. Improvement of transitional areas tends to ride the coat tails of a growing economy — and we all know that’s not going on right now. So what did we find? Read the rest of this entry ?
Welcome to “The Scale”. We’ll be taking a look at inventory absorption in different micro-markets around the City, and from the data, determine whether each neighborhood is a buyer’s market, a seller’s market, or in balance.
What type of market is it? It's time to judge.
How do we do this? The first thing we do is find out how many active listings there are in a particular neighborhood. Then we find out how many homes are selling on a monthly basis in that same neighborhood. We divide the active listings by how many homes sell in a typical month, and this tells us how many months of inventory exist in that neighborhood.
What does “months of inventory” mean? This means that if new listings were to cease coming on the market immediately, it would take this many months for all of the existing inventory (or active listings) to sell off. For example, if we find out that Nob Hill has 47 active listings, and an average of 10 sales take place during a typical month, this would mean that there are 4.7 months of Nob Hill inventory sitting out there. Thus, if no new listings hit the market in Nob Hill, it would take 4.7 months for that inventory to absorb (sell).
How many months of inventory are in your neighborhood?
Corona Heights is a beautiful part of town, located just above Market and 17th. Views abound and some of the narrow, winding streets make you feel like you’re in Europe.
What kind of single family home does your dollar buy in Corona Heights? We ran numbers for the present year and found the low, median, and high sales. Here’s the run-down:
The low sale so far this year was this charming 1 bedroom, 1 bath home located at 30 Levant Street. The list price was $799,000 and it went under contract in just 3 days, closing on October 10 for $850,000.
“Taking You Inside” is our version of MTV’s “Cribs“. We had the pleasure of touring 3960 20th Street a few days ago. This beautiful 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath Craftsman sits high on Liberty Hill, just steps from Mission Dolores Park. The home came on the market on October 9 at $2.295M. The price was dropped yesterday (November 18) to $1.995M. We’ve toured a lot of homes and can definitely say, this one’s pretty sweet. Here’s the spot and a look inside.
What the heck is a pocket listing? A pocket listing is a home that is not being advertised to the general public through the MLS or a listing that will come on the market in the future but right now is still a secret. Many homes in San Francisco sell while off the open market, so pocket listing culture is a big deal. Every week, we’ll be sharing info about pocket listings that we know about. Information on pocket listings is sparse and secretive, so pardon us if we seem short on details for the purposes of our blog. If you are interested in learning more, you can click HERE to contact us. Without further adieu, here are this week’s pocket listings:
There’s only one neighborhood that truly looks down on the Financial District, and that is Nob Hill. Fancy balls, galas, crystal chandeliers, and velvet ropes spring to mind. The area boasts some of the most incredible views of San Francisco and has the high-priced property to go along with them.
Looking up California Street, which climbs Nob Hill (Courtesy of Bill Storage photo)
We researched median sales prices in Nob Hill. The area is largely comprised of condos, co-ops, and TICs. Therefore, single family homes were left out of the analysis. What did we find? Read the rest of this entry ?
A new Telegraph Hill building is being constructed at 567 Vallejo. The agents have a website up HERE with info about the project. The property is not in the MLS at this time. We snapped a couple of pictures and posted them below. According to the website and a few tips:
The building is called “Il Palazzo Di Petroni”
The building will have a total of five condo units for sale; four luxury units plus a penthouse
Two homes will have 2 bedrooms, 2.5 baths
Two homes will have 3 bedrooms, 3 baths
Penthouse will be a 3 bedroom, 3 bath unit with 3 spacious walk-out decks
City views from the homes, storage, parking, elevator
A week ago we reported on the project being built at 2121 and 2123 Leavenworth Street (scroll down for that story). This weekend, we noticed that the tarp is now off, so we grabbed a pic of the exterior for you.
2121 / 2123 Leavenworth bares all - Click to enlarge
Some of you may have thought I was crazy when I wrote about listing prices and how they mean nothing. I know… it’s an extreme stance to take. But I’m all about seeing what the market is doing (ie: looking at SOLD prices), and not so concerned with what the market is hoping it can do (ie: looking at LISTING prices). That’s why I stand where I do on the issue.
I’ve been known to take an extreme stance on certain topics
My background in real estate appraisal is probably to blame. In appraisal, we look back at the market, viewing what happened — not forward, looking at what could happen. Appraisers are taught that the only way to reliably see what is going on is to study market action, and market action is determined by closed sales. Not listing prices, contingents, or pendings. Closed sales.
Let’s illustrate the danger of depending on the validity of a listing price by looking at a real life example in Haight Ashbury. 513 Clayton came on the market on May 25th for $1,195,000. This charming 3/1 condo has an excellent Read the rest of this entry ?
We were walking down the 1300 block of Pacific the other day and saw a bulldozer ripping an old building to shreds. Demolition of the site is just about complete, and excavation is beginning. What we know thus far is that a residential building will be built, with a time-line to completion of 1.5 years (so around spring/summer 2010). We’ll be keeping our eyes on what develops, and of course sharing the information with you.
Excavation on 1300 Block of Pacific - Click to Enlarge
