San Francisco Real Estate - Residential

TRI Coldwell Banker San Francisco real estate statistics - last week in review

SFResidence is part of the TRI Coldwell Banker office at 1699 Van Ness in San Francisco which is one of the premier offices in the City and has the market share numbers to prove it. We have some of the top agents selling real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a result, our office posts some impressive numbers.

With the holidays fast approaching, we will probably not see a spike in activity until early 2008, regardless if the Fed lowers interest rates today. Experts like Sir John Templeton see things getting worse for the housing industry, but that is the US as a whole, not San Francisco which has enjoyed somewhat steady activity.

Here are the numbers for this week: 10/31/07:

• 4 new listings (average price $2,428,250 - low $649,000, high $6,750,000)
• 8 ratified sales (pending) (average price $1,733,500 - low $450,000, high $4,395,000)
• 7 closed sales (sold) (average price $1,441,429 - low $726,000, high $3,250,000)
• 1 reduced at $919,000

- Janis Stone

posted by SFResidence.com @ 11:29 AM 0 comments

San Francisco Real Estate Market Update for the week of October 21

Read what Rick Turley, President of Coldwell Banker, San Francisco/Peninsula says in his latest weekly report:

The scope of the tragedy engulfing our Southern California neighbors is staggering. Nearly 2,000 homes have been destroyed by the fires rampaging through San Diego, Orange, Riverside and Los Angeles counties, and tens of thousands of people remain displaced. Let us all take a moment to offer our heartfelt prayers and best wishes to the victims of these fires. You may have heard that our colleague Brian Buffini and his family lost their home entirely - without the opportunity to go in and retrieve any items whatsoever. And there are many more victims without the financial resources of someone like Brian who face the unbelievable burden of recovering from this. I encourage those of you who choose to assist in the aid and relief of our Southern California colleagues, friends, and family members to make a donation through the Realogy Charitable Foundation – the details are at the bottom of this week’s Weekly Market Watch.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, buyers are starting to realize that selling prices are just not going to drop precipitously from where they are now in most of the Bay Area. If a deal is to be had, now is the time to negotiate it, and it seems the negotiating has begun. Offices in all areas reported increased sales activity and buyer interest, and our more than 600 homes held open were overwhelmingly well attended. Sales activity and buyer activity is reportedly increasing in practically every area.

Read the entire report here.

- Rick Turley

* For an e-mail alert when this report is updated, send an e-mail to info@SFResidence.com with "weekly market report" in the subject line.

posted by SFResidence.com @ 7:29 AM 2 comments

Mortgage Weekly Update - Last Week in Review

Foster Weeks publishes a weekly mortgage report which is updated every Monday morning. How is this affecting the San Francisco real estate market? Read our weekly and monthly market reports.

THINGS COULD BE WORSE...much worse. While last week's news showed some weakness in housing and a few assorted economic reports, the Stock market seemed to fare pretty well with good reports recently from big bellwethers such as Apple and Microsoft. And home loan rates were stable to slightly improved for the week overall. But let's look back in time to exactly 78 years ago today, October 29th, 1929.

This day saw such crushing damage for the Stock market that it lives in history as "Black Tuesday", and is generally thought of as the day that sent the US into the Great Depression, where unemployment rates rose to a whopping 25%. Imagine one out of four of your neighbors, friends, and family members all being unemployed! So while last week's readings on housing, manufacturing and general consumer sentiment came in a bit weaker than expected - things could certainly be much worse.

And many of the soft economic reports helped confirm the market's general belief that the Fed will again cut the Fed Funds Rate at their upcoming meeting. But what will this mean for home loan rates? Read on to find out what even the media consistently seems to get wrong.

Read the entire report here.

- Foster Weeks

posted by SFResidence.com @ 7:42 AM 0 comments

Fast Facts from CAR and Freddie Mac - September 2007

Volume is down because there is nothing to sell. Inventories are low for residential housing. But the prices are holding firm. San Francisco real estate numbers may be seen for September on our website as well as a historical perspective.

- Janis Stone

Calif. median home price - September 07: $530,830 (Source: C.A.R.) (note: compared to $588,970 last month)

Calif. highest median home price by C.A.R. region September 07: Santa Barbara So. Coast $1,667,500 (Source: C.A.R.) (note: compared to $1,262,500 last month)

Calif. lowest median home price by C.A.R. region September 07: High Desert $271,940 (Source: C.A.R.) (note: compared to $287,390 last month)

Calif. First-time Buyer Affordability Index - Second Quarter 07: 24 percent (Source: C.A.R.) (note: compared to 07:25 first quarter)

Mortgage rates - week ending 10/18:

• 30-yr. fixed: 6.4%; Fees/points: 0.5% (note: compared to 6.34% and 0.5% points last report)
• 15-yr. fixed: 6.08%; Fees/points: 0.6% (note: compared to 5.98% and 0.5% points last report)
• 1-yr. adjustable: 5.76%; Fees/points: 0.6% (note: compared to 5.65% and 0.6% points last report)

- California Association of Realtors & Freddie Mac

posted by SFResidence.com @ 9:25 AM 0 comments

TRI Coldwell Banker San Francisco real estate statistics - last week in review

SFResidence is part of the TRI Coldwell Banker office at 1699 Van Ness in San Francisco which is one of the premier offices in the City and has the market share numbers to prove it. We have some of the top agents selling real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a result, our office posts some impressive numbers.

Could people be getting weary of the constant barrage of bad news? We noticed a slight improvement in our numbers this week.

Here are the numbers for this week: 10/24/07:

• 5 new listings (average price $1,311,400 - low $339,000, high $2,620,000)
• 8 ratified sales (pending) (average price $1,367,750 - low $485,000, high $2,595,000)
• 5 closed sales (sold) (average price $1,573,365 - low $770,000, high $3,450,000)
• 1 back on market at $1,295,000

- Janis Stone

posted by SFResidence.com @ 11:36 AM 0 comments

Mortgage Weekly Update - Last Week in Review

Foster Weeks publishes a weekly mortgage report which is updated every Monday morning. How is this affecting the San Francisco real estate market? Read our weekly and monthly market reports.

..for the past week the Stock market's pain has been the Bond market's gain. Last week, the Dow lost around 500 points - and as money flowed out of Stocks and into Bonds, this helped home loan rates improve by .125 - .25% over the course of the week.

But if you want to revisit some real Stock market pain, just dial back the clock twenty years from last Friday. On October 20th 1987, the Stock market suffered its very largest one day loss ever, with the Dow falling 508 points and losing 22.6% of its value overall. That's like the Dow losing over 3100 points today! And just prior to that wild meltdown, 1986 and 1987 had been banner years for the Stock market - fueled by hostile takeovers, leveraged buyouts and merger mania.

The rest of the economic news for last week was a mixed bag, including lower than expected Housing Starts and Building Permits for new construction homes, and also an overall tame read on consumer inflation via the Consumer Price Index.

Read the entire report here.

- Foster Weeks

posted by SFResidence.com @ 8:39 AM 0 comments

Focus on San Francisco Neighborhoods - Lone Mountain

Lone Mountain as described on the SFResidence neighborhood guide taken from Wikipedia:

"Lone Mountain is... the area immediately surrounding the University of San Francisco campus, to the south of Laurel Heights. It is bordered by Geary Boulevard to the north, Arguello Boulevard to the west, Masonic Avenue to the east, and Fulton Street to the south. Lone Mountain is one of San Francisco's historic hills. The neighborhood rests on the former location of the Odd Fellows Cemetery, Masonic Cemetery, and Greek Orthodox Cemetery. Graves in these cemeteries, along with most graves in San Francisco, were moved to Colma by the 1940s. Lone Mountain is also home to the Angelo J. Rossi Playground and Rossi Pool at Arguello Boulevard and Anza Street."

For more information on other neighborhoods and street maps visit our website.

- Janis Stone

Previous Neighborhoods:

Chinatown - Bernal Heights - Castro - Cole Valley - Cow Hollow - Diamond Heights - Fisherman's Warf - Golden Gate Park - Haight - Hayes Valley - Inner Richmond - Lake Street - Laurel Heights - The Marina - Nob Hill - Noe Valley - North Beach - Outer Richmond - Outer Sunset/West Portal - Pacific Heights - Potrero Hill - Russian Hill - Sacramento Street - St. Francis Wood - Sea Cliff - SoMa - Sunset - Telegraph Hill - Union Square - Western Addition

posted by SFResidence.com @ 9:08 AM 0 comments

Buying in the middle of the condo conversion process

A reader asks:

How will new buyers be affected if they are purchasing a unit in a two unit building, in the middle of the condo conversion process?

Our reply:

I am unclear what you mean by in the middle of the condo conversion process. It is a very complicated process so I would recommend asking the condo attorney who is drawing up the CC&R's for that building. They should be able to tell you if there is any risk in losing your "1 year" occupancy requirement.

- Janis Stone

posted by SFResidence.com @ 8:27 AM 0 comments

Things to do in San Francisco - Part 38 - Saints Peter and Paul Church

posted by SFResidence.com @ 9:53 AM 0 comments

TRI Coldwell Banker San Francisco real estate statistics - last week in review

SFResidence is part of the TRI Coldwell Banker office at 1699 Van Ness in San Francisco which is one of the premier offices in the City and has the market share numbers to prove it. We have some of the top agents selling real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a result, our office posts some impressive numbers.

It's apparent that when an office as high powered as ours has only 5 new listings, something is going on. Now you would think with this few listings it would mean we are having a bad market. But just the opposite is true. Prices remain strong and things are selling. We have buyers up the wazoo with nothing to show them.

The bad news just keeps coming from the media about the real estate market slump... which was pretty much created by them! Remember when the market was good and interest rates were practically zero? "The real estate bust is just around the corner." Now that things have slowed down, "It's going to last into 2009 for sure!"

Meanwhile savy buyers and sellers, the serious ones, continue to tune out the bad news and just go about their business. There has never been a better time to sell if your property is priced right.

Here are the numbers for this week: 10/17/07:

• 5 new listings (average price $1,289,200 - low $599,000, high $2,150,000)
• 6 ratified sales (pending) (average price $1,191,167 - low $699,000, high $1,850,000)
• 5 closed sales (sold) (average price $921,600 - low $478,000, high $1,350,000)

- Janis Stone

posted by SFResidence.com @ 11:21 AM 0 comments

Mortgage Weekly Update - Last Week in Review

Foster Weeks publishes a weekly mortgage report which is updated every Monday morning. How is this affecting the San Francisco real estate market? Read our weekly and monthly market reports.

...The 200-day Moving Average has historically acted as a very strong "floor of support" or "ceiling of resistance" for Bonds, meaning that Bonds generally decidedly trade above or below this line. And the current tap-dance that Bonds are doing all over this level shows that there is a bit of uncertainty in the markets - and it will take a series of economic reports that are either very strong or very weak to propel Bonds to move away from the 200-day Moving Average. Remember that strong economic news tends to move Bond prices lower, causing home loan rates to worsen - and weak economic news tends to move Bond prices higher, causing home loan rates to improve.

And last week's news just didn't provide enough impetus for Bonds to make a decisive move one way or the other. Retail Sales were much better than expected yet Consumer Sentiment was lower than expected, while reads on Producer Price Inflation were a bit mixed. All in all, home loan rates stayed generally flat for most of the week...

Read the entire report here.

- Foster Weeks

posted by SFResidence.com @ 8:25 AM 0 comments

San Francisco Real Estate Market Update for the week of October 7

Read what Rick Turley, President of Coldwell Banker, San Francisco/Peninsula says in his latest weekly report:

Our Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage agents are brimming with enthusiasm. Reports this week indicate that, in many areas, our more than 560 open houses were seeing steady streams of visitors, and buyer interest is up. There are slower spots around the Bay Area to be sure, but for every slow spot, there is another that is seeing exceptional activity. As I keep saying, real estate is a very local industry. The trends, numbers, statistics and “facts” we read about tell a regional story, but that story isn’t indicative of market conditions in specific locations, neighborhoods and communities. There are cold spots with high inventory levels, and there are hot spots where competition to buy a home is fierce.

The reality is this – the increased median prices that are reported in most areas are affected by the fact that, in those hotter markets, the prices have barely dropped, if at all. In addition, homes in the $2 million plus range are selling quickly and often over asking price. There is a wide variety of homes available in several areas of the East and North Bays at bargain prices waiting to be snapped up. In San Francisco and the Peninsula, sales activity is down largely because inventory is down – however offices in both the Peninsula and the City noted activity and sales were more brisk at particular price points...

Read the entire report here.

- Rick Turley

* For an e-mail alert when this report is updated, send an e-mail to info@SFResidence.com with "weekly market report" in the subject line.

posted by SFResidence.com @ 9:55 AM 0 comments

Things to do in San Francisco - Part 37 - SS Jeremiah O'Brien

posted by SFResidence.com @ 10:09 AM 0 comments

TRI Coldwell Banker San Francisco real estate statistics - last week in review

SFResidence is part of the TRI Coldwell Banker office at 1699 Van Ness in San Francisco which is one of the premier offices in the City and has the market share numbers to prove it. We have some of the top agents selling real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a result, our office posts some impressive numbers.

What's happening? It is apparent that people are listening to all the negative PR when it comes to the housing market, though it has not affected prices yet... only volume. It has been a long time since we have seen such little activity in a period that is usually humming right along. But listings are scarce as people seem to be content on waiting out the manufactured "crisis", at least manufactured here in the Bay Area.

The next time you hear something negative on the evening news about some real estate story, listen closely to WHERE the event is taking place. Foreclosures? House prices plummeting? I can almost guarantee you that it will not be happening in the Bay Area. Usually they pick some place like Texas or Florida where they have been having problems for a long time to do their stories and then air them here in San Francisco. Why would they do this? Because, if it BLEEDS it LEADS, i.e. bad news sells. The antidote? Investing for the long term!

Here are the numbers for this week: 10/10/07:

• 4 new listings (average price $1,090,000 - low $520,000, high $1,295,000)
• 6 ratified sales (pending) (average price $2,262,333 - low $485,000, high $4,950,000)
• 5 closed sales (sold) (average price $992,176 - low $559,000, high $1,861,000)

- Janis Stone

posted by SFResidence.com @ 2:38 PM 0 comments

San Francisco Real Estate Market Update for the week of September 30

Read what Rick Turley, President of Coldwell Banker, San Francisco/Peninsula says in his latest weekly report:

A home in a coveted neighborhood of Castro Valley sold within a week for $1,020,000 without even having a sign in the yard. Two Danville listings went pending in less than a week – one priced in the $680,000 range and the other at $1,179,000. Oakland-Piedmont sold a $2.5 million home preemptively, and then there were two they didn’t get in multiple offer situations. Two Pleasanton properties sold in fewer than ten days at full price. Southern Marin/Belvedere saw a $3,450,000 listing go pending in one week. Palo Alto and Menlo Park saw preemptive sales and multiple offers on approximately on half of their week’s transactions. San Francisco continues to see its high-end properties in short supply and high demand, and pretty much a well-balanced market in most other price points. Several $2M+ properties in San Francisco had as many as a half dozen disappointed buyers who lost in multiple situations this week. Cole Valley was one, another $1.8M in Corona Heights didn’t make it to the market as someone just had to have it for several hundred thousand more before the seller put it on.

It’s the triptych of real estate truth that we must continue to preach. Everyone – repeat after me, “price, condition, location.” Homes are selling – but buyers must perceive the value. Buyers perceive value when that triad is balanced in proportion to the needs of those buyers. While sellers cannot do anything about the location of their home, they can certainly invest in making the changes and upgrades to the property that are necessary to create value in its condition. In addition, when they are realistic about their price expectations, they can expect to sell in a reasonable amount of time...

Read the entire report here.

- Rick Turley

* For an e-mail alert when this report is updated, send an e-mail to info@SFResidence.com with "weekly market report" in the subject line.

posted by SFResidence.com @ 3:58 PM 0 comments

Mortgage Weekly Update - Last Week in Review

Foster Weeks publishes a weekly mortgage report which is updated every Monday morning. How is this affecting the San Francisco real estate market? Read our weekly and monthly market reports.

...it appears the Department of Labor missed some recent job creation counts by quite a long shot.

Last Friday, the highly anticipated monthly Jobs Report arrived bright and early, showing 110,000 new jobs created during September, very close to what analysts had expected. But the real surprise was the upward revision to last month's shocking number, which had shown a LOSS of 4000 jobs in August. The revised number was a gain of 89,000 jobs, or a change of 93,000! That's right - the Department of Labor "missed it by that much."

Bond prices and home loan rates worsen on strong or positive economic news, so the surprising upward revisions in job growth caused Bonds and home loan rates to worsen by about .125% on Friday alone...

Read the entire report here.

- Foster Weeks

posted by SFResidence.com @ 8:11 AM 0 comments

National DO NOT CALL for cell phones

This was sent to us from one of our clients:

REMINDER....5 days from today (October 5, 2007), all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sales calls. YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS.

To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone:1-888-382-1222. It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your time and it blocks your number for five (5) years.. You must call from the cell phone number you want to have blocked. You cannot call from a different phone number.

I did it for my phone yesterday, and it is easy to do.

- Janis Stone

posted by SFResidence.com @ 9:21 AM 2 comments

Things to do in San Francisco - Part 36 - City Hall

posted by SFResidence.com @ 6:33 PM 0 comments

TRI Coldwell Banker San Francisco real estate statistics - last week in review

SFResidence is part of the TRI Coldwell Banker office at 1699 Van Ness in San Francisco which is one of the premier offices in the City and has the market share numbers to prove it. We have some of the top agents selling real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a result, our office posts some impressive numbers.

Another week of lackluster listings! Are people holding their properties off the market because of all the negative press? Could be. As we have stated before, less competition usually means multiple offers and more money because buyers are competing for a small pool of available properties. Truth be told, all the negative press about mortgage problems, foreclosures and real estate busts in other areas has made people nervous. We'll see what happens, but it could be that the market will not pick up again until next year.

Here are the numbers for this week: 10/3/07:

• 5 new listings (average price $1,579,200 - low $520,000, high $4,200,000)
• 11 ratified sales (pending) (average price $1,200,200 - low $699,000, high $2,349,000, 1 confidential)
• 8 closed sales (sold) (average price $1,513,000 - low $597,000, high $2,800,000)
• 1 withdrawn (confidential)

- Janis Stone

posted by SFResidence.com @ 3:41 PM 0 comments

San Francisco Real Estate Market Update for the week of September 23

Read what Rick Turley, President of Coldwell Banker, San Francisco/Peninsula says in his latest weekly report:

It is perplexing and frustrating to continue to see news reports with people who could be considered little more than “real estate pundits” talk about only one side of the current real estate story. This week, the controversial stock market analyst Jim Cramer of Mad Money told viewers of The Today Show that “If you buy a home now, you will lose money." He went on to add "there is no money and no programs for first time home buyers. Down payment money is the biggest issue in the market, because young people don't have any." Housing is a good long-term investment – it’s not a day-trading activity. As we witness the steep increase in foreclosures among housing boom “flippers” who secured sub-prime, adjustable rate loans with no money down, we see the folly of playing the housing market like the stock market.

Homes are not stocks. Most people stay in their home for about 6 years – they buy for the long haul to create a home for their family, not to buy, then turn around and sell six months later. Owning a home isn’t just about investment, although that’s certainly important. It’s also about building community, a place of your own, and having a part of the American Dream. For people who want to buy a home to live in, this is truly a great time to buy a home. In some areas there may be more to choose from, mortgage rates are historically low and the economy is strong. There are some investor opportunities out there as well, but it’s important to remember that the criteria regarding these buying decisions are different between the investor and the homeowner...

Read the entire report here.

- Rick Turley

* For an e-mail alert when this report is updated, send an e-mail to info@SFResidence.com with "weekly market report" in the subject line.

posted by SFResidence.com @ 5:57 PM 0 comments

Mortgage Weekly Update - Last Week in Review

Foster Weeks publishes a weekly mortgage report which is updated every Monday morning. How is this affecting the San Francisco real estate market? Read our weekly and monthly market reports.

After all the gyrations that the week brought with interest rates, at the end it all, rates remained relatively unchanged.

...the markets are hoping for a bit more guidance from the Fed, including Fed Pres William "Everyone Into The" Poole.

The Bond market and home loan rates were fairly tame for the bulk of the week, but had picked up a little steam on Thursday following the US Treasury's auction of $13 billion in five-year notes that afternoon. The Treasury auction showed strong foreign demand and heavy buying by large institutional investors - and anytime demand is strong, pricing moves higher; so as Bond pricing moved higher, conforming home loan rates improved.

Then along came Friday, when the Bond market and home loan rates gave back the ground they had previously gained. What happened? Things started off well on Friday morning, when the important, inflation-measuring Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) Index arrived inline with expectations. The Report indicated that inflation appears to be under control which is good news for inflation hating Bonds and home loan rates.

But on Friday afternoon, a parade of Federal Reserve speeches provided some contradictory comments that spooked the markets - apparently not taking Fed President Poole's advice that sometimes no information is good information. San Francisco Fed President Janet "Always" Yellen raised her voice on inflation, renewing worries for a Bond market that hates inflation. Bond prices and home loan rates worsened in response, losing the ground they had gained the day before...and ending up quite close to where they began the week overall...

Read the entire report here.

- Foster Weeks

posted by SFResidence.com @ 10:59 AM 0 comments