Archive for July 17th, 2009

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Upscale Market : Slow Crash, Slow Burn

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.

Even America's wealthiest are changing their ways, dining on dollar menus.

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Fun With Yachts

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

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

The Oculus is a concept yacht

300 feet of completely tricked out interiors

300 feet of completely tricked out interiors (and exteriors)

To tour the Oculus Yacht, click HERE.  Well worth it!!

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A Close Look At The District 6 Condo Market

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...

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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