By Ray A. Smith The Wall Street Journal A recent Building Value column discussed creative ways investors could defer capital-gains tax bills from the sale of their properties. Numerous readers wrote in asking for more information about one such strategy: private annuity trusts. Under this plan, the owner of commercial or residential property transfers ownership to… read more.
Private Annuity Trusts: Questions and Answers
Tuesday, September 29th, 2009The Case-Shiller Index Sends A Message To Would-Be Home Buyers: Buy Now Or Risk Higher Prices
Monday, September 28th, 2009Case-Shiller Index — Comparing May 2009 levels to April 2009 levels For the 4th consecutive month, the Case-Shiller Index showed a softening in year-over-year home price declines. As a standalone story, this is news. Even more relevant to homeowners than the annual Case-Shiller numbers, though, are the monthly ones. According to the data, 18 of the 20 tracked markets improved between April and May 2009. It’s the Case-Shiller Index’s strongest showing in nearly 3 years and yet another sign that housing is on the mend. That said, the Case-Shiller Index is far from perfect: 1. Case-Shiller measure… 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.
Andrew’s Frequenty Asked Questions
Tuesday, September 15th, 2009Q: Why does it seem like I can generally get more for my money with a TIC in a 3-unit building than in a 2-unit building? With the market in San Francisco remaining quite healthy with relatively low inventory and large price tags, entry-level buyers continue to consider partial interest purchases in buildings (as Tenants in Common – TICs) at the same time they seek out more traditional condominium purchases. Most TIC listings are 2-4 unit buildings that are offered for sale as a whole, although we are beginning to see larger building sales offered and structured as TICs as well. The… read more.
Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009
Michael Corkery Wall Street Journal Online Lennar Corp.’s multiyear, billion-dollar effort to develop decrepit former military properties on San Francisco’s waterfront has tapped a new financing source, underscoring the home builder’s success in doing deals to survive the wretched housing market. Lennar says it has formed a new venture with Ross Perot Jr.’s Hillwood Development Co., and the investment firm Scala Real Estate Partners LP. The venture is taking equity stakes in massive projects at former military properties across San Francisco , including a project at Hunter’s Point, which would bring development to one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. The new venture replaces the… read more.
Fed Focusing on Real-Estate Recession as FOMC Meets (Update1)
Monday, August 10th, 2009By Scott Lanman The collapse in commercial real estate is preventing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke from declaring the economy and financial markets are healed. Property values have fallen 35 percent since October 2007, according to Moody’s Investors Service. That’s making it tough for owners to refinance almost $165 billion of mortgages for skyscrapers, shopping malls and hotels this year, pressuring companies such as Maguire Properties Inc., the largest office landlord in downtown Los Angeles, to put buildings up for sale. The industry is likely to be high on the agenda when Bernanke and his colleagues sit down in Washington tomorrow for… read more.
Newsom sides with landlords. Again.
Monday, July 13th, 2009By C. Nellie Nelson San Francisco Bay Guardian In the late afternoon on Friday, Mayor Gavin Newsom stood by his earlier threat and vetoed pro-tenant legislation known as the Renter Relief Package. In June, the Guardian reported that the package, introduced by Sup. Chris Daly, had majority support on the Board of Supervisors. But the legislation was one vote short of the eight votes need to override a veto. Daly told the Guardian that he was disappointed with the lack of any alternative or counter-proposal in the mayor’s veto message. “If you’re a renter … read more.
Real estate slump threatens projects
Friday, June 26th, 2009Falling land values imperil public-private development deals San Francisco Business Times – by J.K. Dineen Plummeting land values and the deep recession have taken a toll on one of San Francisco’s central business models for urban redevelopment: public-private development deals. With many developers predicting that highrise development of any sort won’t work economically for another five years, public agencies are struggling with a development model in which private builders pay for the right to develop valuable land and, in the process, bankroll public benefit… 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.
Evidence That US Housing Has Hit A Price Floor
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009Don Miller Money Morning The U.S. housing market has been the epicenter of the global financial crisis. And many analysts believe that by watching it, investors will be able to better predict an economic recovery. Unfortunately, because housing market data is an amalgam of a wide range of local markets, it is notoriously difficult to follow. “It’s like a weatherman who combines conditions in Nome, Alaska and Clearwater, Florida and issues an “average” national forecast of 45 degrees,” says Andrew Waite, a former institutional investor who is now the publisher of a magazine focusing on real estate investing. Real estate markets are by their… read more.
By Hui-yong Yu, Bloomberg
U.S. commercial real estate yields are near the highest level relative to Treasury bonds on record, a signal to some investors it’s time to buy property.
Capitalization rates, a measure of real estate yields, averaged 7.22 percent in the… 