Archive for July, 2009
July 31, 2009
Lets find out, shall we? Since the 1st half of ’09 is officially over and recorded, we crunched some numbers and then compared it to the same period for ’08. What we found leads us to some very general statements about year over year price declines in San Francisco. We say “very general” because we’re looking at the City as a whole. Different neighborhoods of course behave in different ways. Matter of fact, each individual property behaves in a unique fashion. In any case, here is what we found:
Single family home prices have come down 18% and condo prices have come down 15% since this time last year.
Here is the spreadsheet:
——————————————————————————————————————————————
| SFH |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Avg SP |
Med SP |
Avg PPSF |
|
|
| 1st Half 09 |
$958,995 |
$718,000 |
$578 |
|
|
| 1st Half 08 |
$1,217,186 |
$865,000 |
$697 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Change |
-21.21% |
-16.99% |
-17.02% |
-18.41% |
Avg Using 3 Methods |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Condos |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Avg SP |
Med SP |
Avg PPSF |
|
|
| 1st Half 09 |
$779,023 |
$669,500 |
$646 |
|
|
| 1st Half 08 |
$921,474 |
$800,000 |
$741 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Change |
-15.46% |
-16.31% |
-12.80% |
-14.86% |
Avg Using 3 Methods |
——————————————————————————————————————————————
The numbers here are pretty compelling. Any way you slice it, whether you’re looking at medians, averages, or price per square foot, prices are down and local real estate is on sale. The difference one year makes is quite substantial. The market has changed so quickly that many are still scratching their heads wondering what happened and what’s to come.
There's a sale going on... 15-18% off! (Image courtesy of zimbio.com)
Click HERE to view more articles that analyze SF’s market as a whole.
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Posted in Macro-Level Info, Nerdy RE Analysis | Tagged price declines, san francisco housing trends, san francisco property value trends, san francisco real estate | 5 Comments »
July 30, 2009
As luck would have it, we just finished posting our “Top 5 Listings that Have Sold in 2009″ article and BAM, 2510 Jackson Street sells. The bank-owned Pacific Heights mansion sports 9 bedrooms, 6.75 baths, over 10,000 square feet, and a 4-car garage. Built in 1885, the mansion had been on the market for 428 days before meeting its new owner.
The home was originally listed on 4/8/08 for $14,900,000 and ended up selling for $11,500,000 after a couple of price reductions during the past year.
Pics:
2510 Jackson Street sets the new record in '09 (so far)
For more pics, continue reading –>
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Posted in Countdowns & Rankings, Pacific Heights, Taking You Inside | Tagged 2510 jackson street, amazing homes, luxury homes, mansion, Pacific Heights, san francisco real estate | Leave a Comment »
July 30, 2009
Just a friendly reminder if you really want the $8,000 first time home-buyer tax credit but have been dragging your feet lately… it might be time to ramp things up again. The deadline for the tax credit is November 30th. That means you’ll need to have closed on your home by then if you want the incentive. With normal escrow periods taking 30-45 days, you’ll need to be “in contract” by mid-October (and that’s going to be cutting it close). Those applying for FHA financing or purchasing a short sale should build in even more time, perhaps a 60-90 day cushion before November 30th.
And don’t be surprised to see log jams at lending institutions and title companies around November 30th, which could add complications for those trying to squeeze in. Good luck!
You snooze, you lose (regardless of how cute you are)
For more buyer tips, click HERE.
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Posted in Home Buying, Tips | Tagged 8000 tax credit, first time homebuyer, home buying tips, san francisco real estate, tax credit expiration | 2 Comments »
July 30, 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. Each week, we’ll be sharing info about pocket listings that we know of (most of them anyway- some have to remain completely confidential).
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 about a particular listing 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 | Tagged not on mls, Pocket Listings, private listings, san francisco real estate | Leave a Comment »
July 28, 2009
Closing costs? Yikes. Complicated subject. That is, until now. One of our all-time favorite real estate related websites is www.closing.com and it provides answers to the most detailed of closing cost scenarios. Here’s how it works:
- You tell Closing.com the address of the property you’re looking to buy or sell and the property type (condo, single family, etc).
- Plug in the purchase (or sale) price, down payment, interest rate, and whether you intend to occupy this property or rent it out.
Plug in some basic info...
That’s it. Closing.com will spit back a monthly payment estimate, and it knows the tax rate for the zip you entered. Next, it will lead you to some title insurance and home warranty providers. Select (or shop) policies to arrive at the final screen, your Estimated Closing Costs Report. Handsomely laid out, this report will detail Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in Tips, Home Buying, Neat Stuff & Gadgets, Home Selling | Tagged san francisco real estate, closing costs, how to calculate closing costs, closing.com, home buying tips, home selling tips | Leave a Comment »
July 28, 2009
Greetings and welcome to another edition of Tuesday Tour Show-Stoppers! It was a light week out there for new, striking listings. But that’s par for the course during July and August. There will be a rush of new inventory in early September, but that’s still a few weeks out. In any case, we were able to tour 17 homes today and came back with a couple of keepers. Before we hand out our 4 and 5 star awards, let’s take a look at the winner of “View of the Week”.
733 Sanchez wins view of the week
733 Sanchez narrowly beat out 195 Beacon for View of the Week. Priced at $1,450,000, it seemed like quite a good deal for the location, size of yard, view, open layout, curb appeal, and its 3BR/3BA floorplan. A luxe master suite upstairs and 3 sunny decks complete the package. We’ll have our eyes on this one.
Time to hand out some stars, and keep in mind we are not judging prices. We are simply highlighting what we believe to be quality real estate in quality locations. 4-stars = Great and 5-stars = Superb. Click the bold address on any property for more details.
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Posted in Show-Stoppers | Tagged 733 sanchez, amazing homes, nice homes for sale, san francisco homes, san francisco real estate | 5 Comments »
July 27, 2009
Ready for the Top 5 Listings that have sold this year? We figured it would be a good time. The luxury market, although battered and bruised, has loosened up a little since March. Take the $4 million + price bracket, for example. In the first quarter there were only 5 sales of homes in this range. Since then, there have been 16 sales of $4 million or more city-wide.
Sales on the uber-high end tend to have undisclosed sales prices. That’s why we can’t call this the “Top 5 Sales in 2009″, but rather, the “Top 5 Listings That Have Sold in 2009″. When we search the MLS, the sales price will be the same as the listing price, with an asterisk beside it. It’ll say something like: List Price $5,000,000. Sales Price $5,000,000*.
So what does that mean? Why are people hiding their sales prices in MLS? I’m sure there are a number of reasons, the obvious one being to protect one’s privacy when it comes to wealth. Although the sales prices are undisclosed in the MLS, you can often find them at Property Shark or by going to City Hall and perusing their files. Out of the 21 sales over $4 million this year, 13 of them have “undisclosed sales prices”.
Interestingly (but perhaps not surprisingly), all of the homes on our list are in Pacific Heights or Presidio Heights, and all are single family homes (not condos or co-ops). They are all within a few blocks of one another. Here’s a map:
The top sales in SF are just blocks from one another.
All right, enough with the how-to’s and why’s, lets hammer this thing out. Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in Countdowns & Rankings, Pacific Heights, Presidio Heights, Public Listings | Tagged luxury homes, luxury market san francisco, most expensive homes, Pacific Heights, Presidio Heights, san francisco, san francisco real estate | Leave a Comment »
July 26, 2009
Fresh back from a jaunt to Seattle for some much needed R&R, we’re here with our Quarterly Report. A lot of scenes unfolded in Q2. Below is the scoop:
Click HERE for a convenient 1-page PDF document you can print and take with you.
The first half of '09 is over. What wisdom has shone through? (photo courtesy of travel.internetindia.com)
The first half of 2009 is officially history and we have some general observations about the real estate market. Three dramas are currently playing themselves out which can be discerned by dividing the market into three segments; the high end (luxury market), the middle, and the low end.
The luxury market held out longer than any other segment during the downturn, but has now made up for lost time and is experiencing drastic price reductions. It has not yet stabilized, and it could be some time before it hits bottom. The availability of reasonable jumbo loans has played significantly into the fate of the luxury market, making it tough for things to improve. In San Francisco, the luxury market includes homes priced at $2M+.
The low end of the market has shown the most activity in 2009, and it is safe to say that it seems to be stabilizing. It was the first to react to the downturn, and will be the first to stabilize. Homes in San Francisco priced below $750,000 generally fit into this segment.
The middle market is a mixed bag of tricks. There is a gradient of decreasing stabilization as you move from the $750,000 price point up to $2M.
Overall, sales activity in Q2 has picked up quite significantly from a dismal Q1, but is still down year over year. City-wide, prices are down year over year anywhere from 10% to 35%, depending on the neighborhood. Neighborhoods with high foreclosure rates (those south of I-280) have been hit harder than those in the northern parts of the City. Inventory levels also play a major factor in how specific neighborhoods are holding up. Those with a glut of inventory fell harder than those with tight inventory.
Stemming from these observations, we have some of advice that you may find helpful. Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in Home Buying, Home Selling, Quarterly Reports, Tips | Tagged q2 2009, quarterly report, real estate trends san francisco, san francisco, san francisco real estate | 5 Comments »
July 22, 2009
A new service now exists for people trying to sell their homes but A) don’t have any furniture in their homes, and B) want to save big bucks on staging.
What’s this service called and how is it done? It’s called “Virtually Staging Properties“, and it’s done by placing 3D renderings of furniture, accents, and other odds and ends on top of real property photos. Here, have a look:
Empty Dining Room - Before
Empty Dining Room - After
So what are people saying about Virtually Staging Properties? Reactions range from Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in Home Selling, News, Tips | Tagged 3d renderings in real estate advertising, home seller tips, real estate marketing, san francisco, san francisco real estate, selling homes, virtual staging, virtually staging properties | 1 Comment »
July 22, 2009
What… did you think we were talking about PBR, the beer? So sorry to disappoint. We were actually referring to the FHA beating their Personal Best Record. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) backed nearly 186,000 loans in June 2009, the most ever during its 75 years of existence. To clear any confusion, the FHA doesn’t actually make loans. They Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in News | Tagged fha, FHA loans, government backed loans, pabst blue ribbon, san francisco, san francisco real estate | Leave a Comment »
July 22, 2009
Greetings beloved readers! We’ve been very busy doing a little blog “housekeeping” here recently and have rolled out some neat features. Here is the breakdown:
New features? Exxxxcellent.
As usual, there are many ways to subscribe to our articles up top. To subscribe to InsideSFRealEstate and have info pushed to you whenever it’s hot off the press, click any of the links and follow directions.
There is a link to “Follow Us on a Real Time Map”, which we’ve left untouched. This is a cool techno-gadget that takes GPS info from my BlackBerry and updates a Google Map in near real time. You may wonder if I mind having my privacy invaded. I assure you Read the rest of this entry ?
Posted in About Our Blog, Announcements | Tagged inside san francisco real estate, inside sf real estate, insidesfre, insidesfrealestate, new features, san francisco | 2 Comments »
July 20, 2009
We’ve been hearing a lot lately about seemingly irresistible prices at some San Francisco (and Bay Area) developments. We won’t call them out by name, but we will offer up a bit of advice to those who are easily lured by ridiculously attractive pricing.
While it’s true that your purchase price is a very important part of acquiring real estate, it isn’t everything. Who cares how cheaply you scooped up a property… if you can’t sell it 5, 10, or 15 years from now because it isn’t appealing to the market, your “investment” serves you no good. Desirability is the name of the game. You’re better off investing in a home that people will find absolutely irresistible when you’re the seller, rather than thinking strictly in terms of price and discounts.
It’s true, even in today’s down market, you may end up competing for those special homes. But you’re buying a little extra insurance that when you one day become the seller, you’ll have a liquid asset that others will be crawling over each other to buy. And as a seller, there’s no better position to find yourself in.
So while you may run across those “builder closeouts”, “slashed prices”, and “everything must go” sales, keep in mind that there is a reason those properties are having to resort to such aggressive sales tactics. It’s because no one wants them! And the only card the seller has left to play is to drastically reduce the price, lure someone in, and sell them an illiquid piece of crap. Beware when you see these words in real estate advertising. If you’re going to be lured by anything, be lured by quality homes in quality locations. Good luck out there.
Watch out for the pricing lure. It looks yummy but it'll kill ya.
For more home-buyer tips, click HERE.
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Posted in Home Buying, Tips | Tagged baiting buyers, builder closeout, home pricing, liquid investment, san francisco, san francisco real estate | Leave a Comment »
July 17, 2009
We’ve written about it time and time again, but the high end of the real estate market is feeling the pinch of the downturn and will likely take a long time to stabilize. Here’s an article from USA Today citing some causes for the slowdown in the upscale residential market, and how this has impacted real estate, retailers, and the overall economy.
The high end seemed to show resilience when everything else was crashing and burning around it. But now we’re seeing that it is not immune, it just held out longer. And it won’t correct quite as fast as the low end… which is showing signs of stabilization right now.
Take a look at the full article HERE.
Even America's wealthiest are changing their ways, dining on dollar menus.
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Posted in News | Tagged luxury market trends, market stabilization, san francisco, san francisco real estate, upscale market | Leave a Comment »
July 17, 2009
According to CBS5, the Attessa, a yacht belonging to billionaire Dennis Washington is now docked in Sausalito. At 225 feet, it’s absolutely magnificent and America’s 14th largest yacht. But it got us thinking… how much are these things and how can we get one?
The Attessa, complete with 7-person helicopter
There’s no doubt that we’re going to have to strike it VERY big to own one of these bad boys, but it’s definitely something fun to dream (and visualize) about. Imagine boarding with a bunch of friends and heading down to Roatan, Honduras or anywhere else your heart may fancy. All your stuff on board, your state of the art “mobile home” serves as your own personal 5-star hotel in any location you decide to visit. What a life, right?
Naturally, we started researching other yachts and came across this concept boat that had us drooling over the possibilities. Check it out:
The Oculus is a concept yacht
300 feet of completely tricked out interiors (and exteriors)
To tour the Oculus Yacht, click HERE. Well worth it!!
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Posted in News | Tagged attessa, boats, lavish lifestyles, oculus, sausalito, yachts | Leave a Comment »
July 17, 2009
We recently built some spreadsheets for a client who is looking to purchase a condo in Alamo Square, and as part of our due diligence, ran some trending analysis for them. Alamo Square is a tiny neighborhood with few sales, so finding trends in the area is a tough assignment. We had to think through adjacent areas that exhibit similar traits, both from a residential and commercial standpoint. We determined that Hayes Valley, NOPA, and Lower Pacific Heights were similar enough (and also located in MLS District “6″) to lump together with Alamo Square and see what the overall trends were.
Cue the "Full House" intro...
So that’s what we did… we looked at median sales prices for condos in these ‘hoods dating back to 1995. We wanted to include 2009, so we capped each year at July 15th, controlling for seasonal fluctuations. We also inflation-adjust the medians, so we could see market movement isolated from the changing value of the dollar.
The last step was to look at the same trends for San Francisco’s condo market as a whole, and place the two lines on a graph to see how similar (or dissimilar) they were. What resulted was pretty interesting, and you can see the charts by continuing to read –>
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Posted in Alamo Square, Hayes Valley, Lower Pacific Heights, Micro-Level Info, Neighborhood Info, Nerdy RE Analysis, North Panhandle | Tagged 2009, Alamo Square, Hayes Valley, lower pacific heights, median trends, nopa, san francisco, san francisco real estate, trends | Leave a Comment »
