Pending Sales Rise, Improving Real Estate Market Outlook Despite losing some of its footing last month, the San Francisco housing market saw an increase in pending sales in 7 out of its 10 neighborhood districts compared to May of last year. High-tech technology companies moving into the city have helped to energize the housing market, with many tech employees purchasing residences in San Francisco for cash. And, in spite of a drop in the stock market in the past 6 weeks, which has eroded some assets for down payments, sales of luxury condominiums are still growing. Single-Family Home Sales The number of pending… read more.
Market FOCUS: A Monthly Analysis of the San Francisco Real Estate Market
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011Home Prices Exploding in Silicon Valley Amid More Millionaires
Wednesday, June 15th, 2011Home Prices Exploding in Silicon Valley Amid More Millionaires By Dan Levy June 15 Bloomberg) — A surge in wealth from technology stock sales and initial public offerings is spilling into the Silicon Valley real estate market as newly rich workers bid up home values in suburban cities south of San Francisco. The median price of single-family houses sold in Palo Alto, home of Facebook Inc., climbed 20 percent in May from a year earlier to $1.63 million, the biggest jump since 2008, according to preliminary figures from research company DataQuick. In Mountain View, the base of LinkedIn Corp., prices rose 3.1… read more.
Ed Lee plans to pass tree costs to property owner
Friday, June 3rd, 2011City officials say they don’t have enough money to adequately care for San Francisco’s thousands of street trees and that local property owners will have to pick up the bill. The cost-switching plan is part of Mayor Ed Lee’s $6.8 billion budget proposal for the new fiscal year that starts July 1. Faced with having to close a projected $306 million deficit, the mayor wants to trim $600,000 from the city’s cost for street tree care next year. That would amount to a 27 percent decrease from this year’s budget of $2.2 million. The mayor’s solution: dump responsibility for 23,715 of the 38,559… read more.
Oyster Development takes on Mission district project in San Francisco
Friday, March 25th, 2011San Francisco Business Times Oyster Development Corp. has agreed to buy a site in the heart of San Francisco’s Mission district and will revive a stalled — and contentious — plan to build housing and an entertainment center there. Oyster President Dean Givas said his firm, along with equity partner Tricon Capital Group, is acquiring the Giant Value store at 2558 Mission St. near 21st Street, a site where Mission District impresario Gus Murad had planned to build 95 housing units and 14,000 square feet of retail. Murad, who owns Medjool restaurant on Mission Street, will retain ownership of the adjacent, shuttered New… read more.
Best American cities to invest your real estate dollars in 2011
Monday, December 20th, 2010By: Anna Marie Hibble SFGate On Tuesday we started with the doom and gloom by showing you the predicted worst places to invest in real estate in the coming new year. In the spirit of bad news first, here’s the good news. Experts also predict some “best” places to invest, American cities where the housing market is expected to a) rebound, b) stay strong, and/or c) improve. And this time, San Francisco proper is on the list. In fact, it tops the list. Trulia, a top real estate site for buyers, sellers, and renters, has identified the 10 cities the… read more.
How Long Will It Take For The Housing Market To Return To Normal?
Tuesday, November 30th, 2010At the recent Urban Land Institute (ULI) annual fall conference in Washington, D.C., the question on everyone’s mind was: “When will the real estate market see some normalcy?” Now that I’m back at the daily grind in San Francisco, I find myself reflecting on the discussions and unique perspectives shared by colleagues from around the world. A key point continually reiterated was that the real estate markets would not see any type of norm until 2013 or 2014. The good news was that we’re at the bottom, but we may have five years of excess supply, particularly tied to pending and upcoming… read more.
The Worst Mistakes Real Estate Investors Can Make
Friday, April 2nd, 2010Nuwireinvestor.com Written by: JasonHartman.com Most investor mistakes stem from “self-sabotaging behavior” so the goal is to recognize and overcome this behavior. The right frame of mind is essential for success in real estate. Instead of a gambler’s mindset, typical of speculators and property flippers chasing after instant gratification, adopt a buy and hold approach – the source of genuine wealth creation. Experiencing great luck on your first try can actually be detrimental since luck is inherently unreliable and a poor preparation for reality. Adversity is a better teacher. Here is a brief run-down of the worst mistakes committed by real estate investor… read more.
Tom Perkins bags Millennium Tower condo for $9.35M
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009by J.K. Dineen San Francisco Business Times Venture Capitalist Tom Perkins has bought a penthouse condo in the Millennium Tower on Mission Street, paying $9.35 million for a 4,806 square foot unit on the 60th floor. The 77-year-old is a co-founder of the Menlo Park-based Perkins Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the legendary Silicon Valley venture capital group that helped finance Google, Genentech, Amazon.com, and Electronic Arts. In an interview with Bloomberg, Perkins said he was “very enthusiastic” about the penthouse and suggested that he had timed the market well. “Prices have taken a tremendous discount,” Perkins said. “I’m no real estate tycoon, but… read more.
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
10 Pricey Cities That Pay Off We look at the “amenity value” of 10 cities By Matthew Bandyk Updated on 6/29/09: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that a 120 square-meter apartment is 373 square feet. It is about 1,300 square feet. When you pay a lot of money for something, you hope to get a lot of value in return. Despite the housing downturn and the number of cheap houses it has left in its wake, there is still plenty of expensive land left. According to the Global Property Guide, an online real estate investor’s guide, New… read more.
City Planning Process to Get Easier
Friday, August 15th, 2008Good news for homeowners By Zephyr Real Estate News The good news: Reforms are in store for the San Francisco Planning Department. The bad news: You now have one less thing to commiserate over cocktails with your fellow city homeowners. Whether you’ve attempted a major project like adding … read more.
Real estate can tell you a lot about people and markets.
Hundreds of Web-savvy startups have sprung up in San Francisco’s oldest buildings in the South of Market district (called “SOMA” for shorthand). So behind that sleek new Apple iPhone whatever-it-does application… 
