Here’s the latest Fast Facts update from the SFAR. Updates are provided almost weekly and each week is a different sector of the market (ie. Condos, Single Family Homes, 2-4 unit dwellings, etc.).

Check back next week for more statistics.

The latest market report is here. (You can also view previous market updates by selecting the archives on the upper right portion of the screen).

And guess what – for the first time since May of 2007, single family home year over year sales volume has increased! Of course, condos, lofts and TIC’s are still down year over year, but those numbers aren’t bad either. I could be crazy, but the market just doesn’t look horrible to me. Check out the report for yourself!

Welcome back to Photo Friday – my little way taking a break from San Francisco Real Estate and instead blogging about our great City’s past instead. All photos are published with permission from the San Francisco History Center and San Francisco Public Library.

I frickin hate parking meters.  Seriously.  I get a few tickets a month at minimum.  I have a budget for the tickets – which is kind of a ridiculous notion.  And I get so many of them that I fantasize about writing them off as an expense on my taxes.  In fact, parking meters are sort of my nemesis

So why the hell am I posting a photo of the very first parking meter in San Francisco? 

(By the way, that’s Mayor Roger Lapham testing the ”First Gadget Installed at Bush and Polk Streets” in 1947!)

Recently, a few things have come along that made me hate parking meters just a smidge less. 

First, came the SFMTA pre-paid parking card.  These things are pretty convenient for the most part.  They come in $20 and $50 amounts, and they’re much lighter than carrying $20 or $50 worth of change with you everywhere you go. 

There are some drawbacks to the cards though – they don’t always work, in which case, you’d better STILL have some change with you, and you have to remember to buy them when you the cards run out of money.  They’re also not rechargeable, which means the card ends up being waste (I thought we are working on being the greenest City ever???  Step it up SFMTA!) 

I still get more than my fair share of parking tickets, even with this card in my wallet – but that’s because my meter usually runs out while I’m in the middle of a meeting, or showing a property, and I don’t make it back in time to the meter to feed it. 

Thursday though - Thursday was different.  Thursday, while I was at West Portal grabbing some lunch at Fuji Restaurant, I set on my eyes on this! 

I was so struck by this special parking meter that I quickly snapped up a pic to post on www.sfcameraphone.com. 

But I didn’t have time to call the magic number to find out about the mysterious “Pay by Cell” message till much later in the day (well after I got a parking ticket while parked in Pacific Heights… grrrr.) 

When I finally got to call the magical number, its magical voice told me to visit www.cell-parking.com for more information.  (It also told me that it recognized me as a new user and asked if I wanted a free use of the system – to which I yelled “hell yeah” but it didn’t hear me – so I think I’ll have to call back again to get information on the free use thing.) 

Once I visited www.cell-parking.com, I tried to sign up for the service, until I realized that I don’t have my license plate number memorized, and that it was too damn windy for me to go outside and look at the plates on my car tonight. 

But I do plan on registering for the service tomorrow.  And I do plan on using it and seeing how it works.  And if this magical “Pay by Cell” thing isn’t new to you, and you happen to know all about it and have used it before, feel free to leave a comment here to let other readers know how you like it. 

And let me know whether you think it will help me to stop having to shell out big bucks for parking tickets every month at expired meters across the City. 

Oh, and until parking meters are able to wash my car for me while it’s parked, this probably is the first and last time a parking meter will ever excite me. 

Happy Friday!  May the meter fairy take good care of you!

I’m not paranoid – there really are people following me.  As of this very moment, 51 people to be exact.  But they’re not there when I turn around.  In fact, I don’t even really notice they’re there. 

But here and there, I catch myself talking to them.  I send them a message here and there.  I let them know about a new blog post.  I share a random thought.  I let them know when I’ll be hosting an open house.

Sometimes, they talk back.  They do this @reply thing that took me a few days to figure out when I first started doing it.  But now, I’ve figured out how to @reply, and how to twhirl and in the near future I might even try some other new things. 

You too might want to follow me.  Sign up.  And say “hi” when you do!

While the above question sounds very existential, I’m not really talking about my place in the world – I’m really talking about my words on this website and real estate blog.  I guess you can say the real question is - why do I blog?

I started this blog sometime last year (I’ve lost all track of time so can’t quite place the beginning)  because a friend of mine convinced me that blogginig is good for business.  I laughed at her and thought that she was crazy…. but decided that I’ve done crazier things in my life than start a real estate blog, so I went for it. 

At first, I didn’t really know what to write about.  But I’ve lived in San Francisco just about my entire life (or at least since I was two years old) and I know what I’m talking about when it comes to San Francisco real estate – so I fumbled around and tried to find a way to put all of my random thoughts into a format that people wanted to read. 

And frankly, it has indeed turned out that this blog really is good for business.  This blog allows me to share statistics with buyers and sellers of SF real estate.  It allows me to share my expertise with buyers and sellers of SF real estate.  It allows me to share my experiences with buyers and sellers of SF real estate.  And because I do so much sharing, and because some readers take the time to contact me, it allows me to meet buyers and sellers of SF real estate – and often times, we end up working together and I help them in the process of buying or selling a San Francisco home.   I have worked with several clients that have found me through my blog, and in every case, I have had a great time working with them.

The best part about writing this blog is that by the time someone contacts me, they know a good bit about me, about my sense of humor and about what I expect from them as a buyer or seller of San Francisco real estate and I know that they will be comfortable with me guiding them through the purchase of their new home, the sale of their old home, or sometimes – both.

So why am I here?

I’m here to meet people like you – people that are interested in San Francisco real estate, and specifically, people that want to buy or sell a home in San Francisco.  If you’re one of those people, please contact me.  I look forward to hearing from you!

It’s summer.  Seriously!  I know it’s overcast and cloudy, but it’s June, and that means the summer real estate buying season is at hand.

As I do every month, I ran the latest sales figures from the month of May for you.

The numbers this month don’t really have a common thread – except that sales volume is slightly up across the board.  Median price is down for single family homes but up for the others and days on market is down for single family homes but up for condos and TIC’s. 

So here’s this month’s summary of home sales pulled directly from the MLS. Remember, these are all closed sales and not pending sales.

Check back monthly to get the latest facts and figures – and if you have any questions about these statistics, or the market in general, feel free to give me a holler! I’m always happy to talk “real estate!”

Here’s a quick snapshot of the market from May 1, 2008 through May 31, 2008:

Single Family Homes

• 213 Homes Sold
• Median Sale Price was $899,000
• Minimum Sale Price was $280,000
• Maximum Sale Price was $14,500,000
• Median Selling Price was 101% of asking price
• Median Days on Market was 26
• Median Selling Price for homes that sold within 30 days was 103.5% of asking price

Condominiums, Lofts & Co-ops

• 190 Homes Sold
• Median Sale Price was $832,250
• Minimum Sale Price was $247,386
• Maximum Sale Price was $4,000,000
• Median Selling Price was 98% of asking price
• Median Days on Market was 39
• Median Selling Price for homes that sold within 30 days was 102% of asking price

TIC’s

• 51 Homes Sold
• Median Sale Price was $678,245
• Minimum Sale Price was $240,000
• Maximum Sale Price was $1,608,000
• Median Selling Price was 100% of asking price
• Median Days on Market was 54
• Median Selling Price for homes that sold within 30 days was 101% of asking price

2 Different Days.

2 Separate Clients.

2 Homes.

What do they have in common?

In the last two days, two separate buyers that I have been working with have experienced the exact same situation. 

Both have an ideal vision of what their future home will look like, and both have high standards for this future home - meaning it’s not the kind of home that’s a dime a dozen and it isn’t the kind of property that comes around often in this market. 

In the last two days, a home meeting each client’s list of wants and desires has seen a price reduction putting that home within my clients’ reach.  Each home was on the market for more than 30 days before the recent price reduction.

In each case, I let my clients know about the property immediately when I saw the price reduction.  But in both cases, my clients weren’t able to move fast enough on the properties, and their dream homes (or at least the dream homes that met today’s budget) slipped through their fingers.  Both lost out on homes they would have loved to live in and would have been proud to call “home” by waiting

So… what’s the point of my ramblings?

Even if a property has been on the market for a while, if you think it has a chance of being the one for you, you have to act fast!!!! 

As I’ve said many many many times before, SF real estate is NOT doing bad, and even though the market has shifted in the buyers’ favor in many cases – buyers still don’t have the luxury of waiting to see a place that might be right for them or waiting before writing an offer if they decided they truly want the home. 

If you’re serious about buying a home, you must approach the search for your home with dedication, and in many cases, urgency – or you might miss out on a home that is truly right for you.

It’s been a few days since I’ve posted, and will likely be a few more before I get a chance to post anything with any substance to it.  The truth is, I’ve been remarkably busy.  I’m working with a few sellers to get their homes ready for sale in the next few months, and I am also working with a few very active buyers. 

So, between the daily grind of emails, property inspections, meetings with stagers, last minute property showings, and working on The City Update – The Best San Francisco Real Estate Newsletter Ever! and The Avenues Blog, I’ve been busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest (quote courtesy from an old friend – thanks Tom!)

But regulularly scheduled programming should be back in the next few days as I think I might have a moment to come up for some air.  So stay tuned…. and do come back soon, since it’s now June, and that means I should have the sales figures for this May posted soon for your statistical pleasure.