Archive for March, 2009
March 31, 2009
Then what would you say if I told you there was no dwelling to go with it? That’s right. There are two parcels for sale right now that are roughly $1,000 per square foot just for the land. Any guesses as to where they are located? Nob Hill and Pacific Heights. Both come with approved construction plans.
We’re wishing we had a little spare change to get into a long-term play at 770 Powell. It’s approved for 9 luxury condo units with 11 parking spaces and will be called “The Bentley”. Penthouse units will feature over 4,000 square feet each. The lot itself, which is priced at $6,000,000, is around 6,100 square feet or .14 acres. This equates to a price per square foot for the land of $983.61 (keep in mind this includes fully approved plans). As of this morning, it has been on the market for 44 days.
The Bentley
The spot
For info on the other pricey lot, continue reading –>
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Posted in Neighborhood Info, Nob Hill, Pacific Heights, Public Listings, Tips | Tagged 2157 green, 770 powell, for sale, land, lots, nob hill, Pacific Heights, price per square foot, san francisco, san francisco real estate, the bentley | Leave a Comment »
March 31, 2009
Four properties in Districts 7 and 8 have recently been added to our “Snatched Up” list. They all hit the market and were under contract in just a couple weeks, spending more time being advertised than Ed Jew has left as a free man. The purpose of our “Snatched Up” articles is to show what types of properties the market is demonstrating an affinity towards. Much can be learned from examining homes that go under contract quickly, particularly in a slower market. We hope you find it helpful, either as a buyer, seller, investor, or owner, and we’ll be covering more districts soon.
Can I get a parking space with that?
To view the list, continue reading –>
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Posted in Snatched Up, Tips | Tagged district 7, district 8, fast sale, homes that sell quickly, in contract, san francisco, san francisco real estate, Snatched Up | Leave a Comment »
March 30, 2009
Looking for single family homes in District 5 that can give you some bang for your buck? Check out these six listings that each register under $500 per square foot.
- 21 Grand View Avenue tops them all, asking just $381/square foot
- 38 Lyon comes in second at $385/square foot
- 4252 22nd Street is listed at $415/square foot (needs work)
- 469 Clipper is asking $416/square foot (needs work)
- 2301 Diamond is asking $450/square foot
- and 3628 22nd Street is listed for $479/square foot
Currently, active listings go all the way up to $1,250/square foot in District 5, averaging $715. There are 99 single family homes for sale at this time in the District. Most of these bargain homes need work or are extra large… but hey, numbers are numbers.
Get in on the left side of the price per square foot bell curve with these 6 houses.
Click the hyperlinked address for pictures and listing details –>
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Posted in Countdowns & Rankings, Public Listings, Tips | Tagged deals, district 5, dollar per square foot, eureka valley, Glen Park, Haight Ashbury, Noe Valley, san francisco, san francisco real estate, single family homes | Leave a Comment »
March 27, 2009
The Sunset and Richmond Districts are two of the largest neighborhoods in the entire City. Both are comprised of “Inner”, “Central”, and “Outer” sections. They occupy the western side of the City and are separated by Golden Gate Park. Out of pure curiosity, we wanted to see how trends in the two areas have differed over the years.
Time to put up dem dukes
Because both areas are large, we have a luxurious number of data points (sales) from which we derived median home values. Single family homes are prominent in both neighborhoods, so all other property types were left out. Median value readings were taken in the two areas (combining inner, central, and outer into one reading) and plotted on a chart to see how each one has performed over time. In order to isolate market performance, we’ve inflation adjusted the medians to control for the changing value of the dollar.
What did we find?
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Posted in Getting Granular, Micro-Level Info, Neighborhood Info, Nerdy RE Analysis, Richmond District, Sunset District | Tagged median value trends, richmond, sales prices, san francisco, san francisco real estate, single family homes, sunset, Tips | Leave a Comment »
March 26, 2009
The ranch-style home. It’s an American icon in many parts of the country. The ranch is boxy, boring, and bland… that is, until we spotted this beaut in Healdsburg. The 3 bedroom, 2 bath home shows what a little imagination can do to a simple architectural style and layout. It shows incredibly well, and we’re taking ample notes on the decor and presentation. Turning a box into a gem is not an easy task, so this one struck us as particularly noteworthy. In real estate, creativity is king. Enjoy the field trip to Healdsburg!
Click HERE for website. Address: 460 Hidden Acres Road, Healdsburg, CA 95448. Asking price is $1,995,000.
How can this home possibly be exciting? You're about to find out!
Bright space, planked ceiling, stylish fireplace, double doors, and warm colors make this boxy room inviting.
For more pictures, continue reading –>
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Posted in Field Trips, Public Listings, Tips | Tagged 460 hidden acres road, architecture, creativity, design, healdsburg, ranch, real estate | Leave a Comment »
March 25, 2009
What 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 ado, here are this week’s pocket listings:
- Out of our pocket and over to you
To see this week’s pocket listings, continue reading –>
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Posted in Pocket Listings, Tips | Tagged not on mls, off market listings, Pocket Listings, private listings, san francisco, san francisco real estate | Leave a Comment »
March 25, 2009
I guess I spelled ‘tush’ right. Who knows. In any case, an amazing loft hit the market in SOMA a few days ago and we’re here to push some real estate porn. Located at 1097 Howard (aka “HowWeird”), this 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath loft is the poster child for why San Franciscans prefer uniqueness in their homes as opposed to cookie-cutter, boring, Big-Mac-ified housing.
Asking $2.3 mil and sporting over 4,200 square feet of glass, concrete, and catwalks, this pricey pad is peerless (not to be confused with NFL player Peerless Price). Two car parking, 18 foot ceilings, motorized screens to section off rooms, and a roof deck compliment this corner-unit loft that is the artsy result of combining three units into one.
But hey, words can only do so much. Here are some pics for your enjoyment:
1097 Howard - The Historic Lighthouse Lofts
Do YOUR little dance on this catwalk
Noiyce...
For more pics of this pad, continue reading –>
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Posted in Neighborhood Info, Public Listings, SoMa | Tagged 1097 howard, amazing homes, artistic homes, catwalk, lighthouse lofts, loft, san francisco, san francisco real estate, soma, south of market | Leave a Comment »
March 23, 2009
This morning we queried the MLS for a snapshot of our local marketplace in order to understand absorption. Property types in the query include single family homes, condos, TICs, lofts, co-ops, 2-4 unit buildings, 5+ unit buildings, and lots/acreage. It does not include new developments who leave their data out of the MLS. Here is the rundown:
- 518 properties have sold in San Francisco since January 1, 2009.
- There are currently 2,038 properties for sale in the MLS.
- 625 properties are currently in contract.
- That leaves 3.26 months of inventory* out there. Anything less than 6 months of inventory is considered a stable market.
*When we refer to “months of inventory”, it means that if new listings stopped hitting the market immediately, it would take X amount of time for the current inventory to completely sell off. This is also known as an “absorption rate” and it tells us how quickly demand is eating up supply. It is calculated by dividing the number of properties currently for sale by how many properties are currently in contract.
How quickly is demand eating supply?
Now that we have the big view, lets break things down further into property types. For example, what absorption rates are we looking at with single family homes, condos, or TICs? Here are the results:
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Posted in Macro-Level Info, Nerdy RE Analysis | Tagged absorption rates, demand, months of inventory, san francisco, san francisco real estate, supply | 3 Comments »
March 23, 2009
It’s another glorious day (albeit a cold one) to be alive so we figured we’d kick off the week with a funny story from a friend and client.
Everything in real estate is negotiable, right? Of course it is. People buying homes request all sorts of things. Artwork, mirrors, furniture, lamps… you know, things that can really complement a home. This weekend, our friends told us a funny story about a situation where a buyer put an offer on a home and the piece of personal property they wrote into the contract was the seller’s bedspread. Ewwwww… really? A bedspread? The same bedspread that they huddle up under every night, dog perched at the foot of the bed? The same one that junior was conceived under? The same one the cat peed on that time? The same one they drag across the floor to the den to watch TV bundled up on the couch while eating? What next, are you going to go through their underwear drawer and pick out their favorite boxers? Well… if it means they can sell their home, I suppose they should be able to part with it.
Out of all the personal property tales, this is one worth repeating. Heard any doozies yourself lately? Leave a comment! Thanks to C&T for this story.
Deal's off unless we score that amazing bedspread!
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Posted in The Shallot & Other Humor | Tagged bedspread, comforter, concessions, personal property in a sale, quilt, san francisco, san francisco real estate | Leave a Comment »
March 20, 2009
As you know, the pace of change occurring in our country’s economic/financial system has been monumental during the past 6 months. In analyzing real estate trends, it’s nice to be able to look at the most recent data to gain insight on how these huge forces impact values locally. The challenge is having enough data to see a trend and allowing enough time for the forces at play to affect prices (there is undoubtedly a lag).
We looked at median values for Condos/Co-ops/TICs/Lofts in the Inner Mission. In order to incorporate recent economic forces, we compared the past six months performance to that of years past. Beginning on September 21, 2008 and running through March 20, 2009, we calculated the median value for the neighborhood and then compared the results to the same time period going back 11 years.
It's time to "analyze this"...
Could we have limited our results to less than 6 months? Actually yes, we wanted to. Three months history would be more reliable. However the challenge was that there were not enough sales (data points) to create a reliable trend. We see the magic number of sales to create a reliable median value trend to be somewhere around 25.
Could we have gone back more than 11 years? We did, but we found that the early years had very little data (less than 20 sales during this time frame per year) and thus they were left out. And of course pre-1995, MLS has no recorded sales as it was not the glorious database it is today… it was a huge periodical publication.
What we’re left with in this particular study is a 6-month analysis going back 11 years. Here are the results for the Inner Mission: Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in Getting Granular, Inner Mission, Micro-Level Info, Neighborhood Info, Nerdy RE Analysis | Tagged condos, district 9c, inflation, Inner Mission, lofts, median sales prices, san francisco, san francisco real estate, tics, Tips, trends | Leave a Comment »
March 19, 2009
If you’ve ever wanted to live on the water’s edge, breathe in the wonderful smell of salt air, and meditate to the sounds of sea gulls, all you have to do in the Bay Area is get sent to prison. Ever since Alcatraz played host to America’s bad guys, the Bay Area has had a thing for giving up its best waterfront properties to non-deserving outlaws. Oh, the irony.
San Quentin in Marin County, which is located on a prime peninsula, is now under the microscope (again) for being demolished and developed. Think condos, shops, and ferry boats… all where cons used to get gassed. The land value? An estimated $2 billion. But don’t take it from us. HERE is the article, straight from the Wall Street Journal.
San Quentin sits on a beautiful parcel.
Screenshot from Google Maps (click to enlarge). And check out the Ad at the bottom. Priceless!
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Posted in News | Tagged alcatraz, marin county, prison, proposed development, san francisco, san francisco real estate, san quentin | Leave a Comment »
March 19, 2009
It’s time for Tuesday Tour Show-Stoppers again! Yesterday was quite busy as we toured over 30 properties around the City, most of which were new listings. We’ve hand-picked our top choices from the day and posted them below.
13 homes WOWed us this week
Our favorite new listing that came out this week? That would be the amazing 145-147 Alpine Terrace, offered at $4,250,000. Definitely worth a stop in if you haven’t seen it. Continue reading to see a list of all our picks from this week’s tour.
If this is your first time reading “Tuesday Tour Show-Stoppers”, click HERE to see what in the world we’re talking about.
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Posted in Public Listings, Show-Stoppers, Tips | Tagged brokers tour, favorite listings, homes for sale, san francisco, san francisco real estate, tuesday tour | Leave a Comment »
March 18, 2009
What 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 ado, here are this week’s pocket listings:
- Out of our pocket and over to you
To see this week’s pocket listings, continue reading –>
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Posted in Pocket Listings, Tips | Tagged not on mls, off market listings, Pocket Listings, private listings, san francisco, san francisco real estate | Leave a Comment »
March 17, 2009
Bernal Heights is a fantastic neighborhood. It has an eclectic mix of homes, flavors, and views. Spend some time there and you’ll find that Bernal grows on you more and more. Single family homes make up the bulk of Bernal’s inventory. They run the gamut from small and affordable to artsy, luxurious, and even risqué. That’s why we’ve taken the opportunity to do a floor, median, and ceiling comparison for the ‘hood.
We tracked the minimum sale, median sale, and maximum sale over a 14 year period (dating back to 1995). 2008 was the last full year of data we have, so the analysis stops there. We considered including an incomplete 2009, but there have only been 7 sales thus far… not very telling as how the year will shape up. This is the first analysis we’ve done on our blog of this sort, so we’re still pondering the things that can be learned from this information. Here is the chart and some initial thoughts:
Floor to ceiling in Bernal Heights (click to enlarge)
Posted in Bernal Heights, Getting Granular, Micro-Level Info, Neighborhood Info, Nerdy RE Analysis | Tagged 306 mullen avenue, Bernal Heights, high sale, low sale, median sales price, san francisco, san francisco real estate, Tips, trends | 5 Comments »
