Welcome back to the newest weekly feature of Luba’s San Francisco real esate blog. 

It’s a rolling average of the last 30 days of new listings. 

We’ll also be bringing you the last 30 days of sold listings in a different blog post. 

Check back next week to see the listings stack up. 

New Listings 03/10/09 – 04/09/09

I have been swamped the last few days with little time to think let alone write a blog post worthy of the Friendliest San Francisco Real Estate Blog. 

I’ve been working on a few new listings here in SF and have been navigating a few escrows for first time home buyers, all while meeting with more new buyers looking to get into the market and talking to new seller clients about the realities of selling their home in this whacky market (which, by the way, I have become more hopeful about with each passing day.)

I’m not sure how I survived the last few days, except for 2 things: 

1. Coffee
2. The video below 

If you’ve had a rough few days too, grab a cup of joe and click on the video. 

(Oh, and by the way, there is a pit bull here exhibiting behavior that is VERY common for the breed.  You’ve been warned.)

I recently posted some information on the tax credits available to those that are looking to buy a new home in California:

You probably heard about it already but in case you didn’t, here are the details.

 

1)      $10,000 tax credit for any NEW DEVELOPMENT purchase between March 1^st 2009 and March 1^st, 2010

2)      Has to be PRIMARY RESIDENCE

3)      Has to be NEVER BEEN OCCUPIED BEFORE

4)      Application has to be received within ONE WEEK after close of escrow

5)      Taxpayer has to occupy home for a minimum of TWO YEARS

6)      Be a single-family residence (attached or detached) – yes, condos count and so do house boats 

 

Here is the official link to the program

http://www.ftb.ca.gov/individuals/New_Home_Credit.shtml#def2

 

You can also see how many people have applied already and how much is left in the tax credit (maximum of 100M allowed – $7M has already been allocated).

But the tax credit may soon be GOING, GOING, GONE!!!

 

I just checked the website where you can track applications, and while the tax credit haven’t been allocated yet… buyers have already applied for OVER 25% of the amount allocated!!!

 

That’s right folks…. $100,000,000 has been allocated for the tax credit, and IN JUST 1 MONTH, OVER 25% of that amount has been requested!!!

 

That means that at this rate, the credit will be all used up before June is over!

 

And while the state of California hasn’t started allocating the funds yet, the requests will be fulfilled on a first come first served basis.

 

What does this mean to you?

 

If you’re thinking about buying new construction in San Francisco, act fast!!!

 

And if you need a little more information about new developments in SF (and a celebratory weekend getaway), give me a holler.

 

 

So you’ve seen the cheesy National Association of REALTORS commercial.  You know the one where the family is sitting on the fence. 

While San Francisco is lacking in white picket fences, we haven’t been lacking in potential home buyers that are sitting on the proverbial home-buying fence. 

Now, not EVERYONE should be out there buying a home right now. 

GASP!  I know, I’m a REALTOR and I’m really NOT supposed to say that, but everyone is in a different position with different goals, different dreams, different priorities, different financial situiations, etc., and today isn’t the right day for you to buy unless, well, unless it IS the right day for you to buy. 

But if you ARE on that fence and need some good reasons to ponder getting off (the fence, that is) and jumping into San Francisco real estate, here’s some good reasons why NOW might be the time for you.

1. Mortgage are LOW LOW LOW! One week after Freddie Mac reported rates of 4.85% on a 30 year fixed loan, they dropped even more to 4.78%!  Now, this is for a regular old conforming loan (right now $417K and below) and agency jumbo loan limits (currently $629,500) bring with them a slightly higher, but still remarkably affordable rate.  And even jumbo loans are coming with rates lower than we’ve seen in ages!

2.  You use borrowed money to leverage your investment.  I repeat as I have many, many, many times that real estate is NOT a get rich quick scheme.  This is NOT a short term investment.  In fact, you should plan on owning your home for at least 5–10 years.  But, if you take a $150,000 into the stock market and your stock goes up in value by 10%, you’ve just earned $15,000.  But, if you took that same $150,000 and used it as a down payment on a $750,000 home, and that home’s value increases by 10% (which it should over the long term), you earn $75,000! 

3.  You can paint it pink.  OK, so if you paint your home pink on the inside, and then you ask me to eventually list it for you, I’ll make you repaint it neutral colors to appeal to the largest number of buyers.  But, that being said, when you buy a home, you can do what you want with it.  Of course, if you buy a condo, there will be some restrictions (maybe on the number or type of pets, or on the types of alterations you can do to the unit.)  But for the most part, when you buy a home, it’s yours to do with as you please.

4.  The price is right.  Home prices in SF have slipped.  They haven’t slipped drastically in every neighborhood, but statistics show that while some neighborhoods like the Richmond District have only dropped 6% or so from the peak, other neighborhoods, like Hunter’s Point and Excelsior have dropped 25% from the peak.  This means that if you’re a first time home buyer looking to get your foot in the door, now’s your chance!  And if you bought prior to the peak of the market, you can still sell your old home for a profit and take advantage of the lower prices to move on up to a bigger home, or to pocket the money tax free by using the homebuyer capital gains tax exclusion.

5.  When prices start increasing again, you gain equity.  While San Francisco prices haven’t dropped so drastically that you’re going to get rich in the next few years, eventually, prices will go up again and historically, real estate has always been a great investment.  I client of mine bought a house recently for $1.6M.  That same house in 1996 sold for $280,000.  That house increased in value over 500% in just 13 years.  No.  Your story probably won’t be as good, but even a modest increase in equity is money in your pocket.

6. Help from the government to buy your home.  A first time buyer credit of $8,000 and a $10,000 credit that can be used to purchase new construction in California might help you buy your first home if you qualify. (And if the credits are still available – the $10,000 new construction credit is only around as long as the money allocated is around.) 

7.  Your mortgage payment won’t change.  If you get yourself a nice 30 year fixed intereste rate (which is advisable in many, but not all circumstances), your mortgage payment will stay the same for 30 years.  Rent will go up.  Gas will go up.  Milk will go up.  Even the cost of beer will go up.  But your mortgage will stay the same.

You can email me to discuss whether now’s the right time or the wrong time for YOU. 

I have clients looking for all sorts of real estate in San Francisco, from low priced condos and TIC’s that work great for first time homebuyers to larger single family homes for the growing family, to real estate investors that want to take on the task of owning and managing rental property.  I work with both seasoned investors and those that are just now getting their feet wet. 

I recently got an inquiry from a client interested in pursuing a multi-unit building in San Francisco.  He’s looking to occupy a unit and rent out the others and was curious to find out how the rental income would be considered when qualifying for a loan.

As I often do, I turned to Marc Geshekter (one of my favorite mortgage brokers in SF) to see if he could shed some light on the topic.  This is what he had to say:

When buying a 2-4 unit residential building to be used as a primary residence the buyer/borrower can use a portion of the rental income gained from each rental unit when qualifying for the new loan(s).  Most underwriters will allow the ‘net rental income’ to be used during loan qualification provided current lease agreements are in place and can be properly documented.
 
During the underwriting process ‘net rental income’ is calculated by taking 75% of the gross rental income (-) the monthly mortgage payments (-) the monthly cost of property taxes (-) the monthly cost of insurance (the building insurance).  Here’s an example:
 
Gross monthly rent collected:  $10,000
Rent roll at 75%:  $7,500
Monthly mortgage payment:  $4,500
Monthly cost of property taxes + ins.:  $2,000
Net rental income = $1,000
 
In the example above the building as an investment property is cash-flow positive and could potentially add $1,000 per month to the gross monthly income used to qualify for the new loan(s).  These are standard underwriting guidelines.  Some lenders do institute additional underwriting guidelines pertaining to using investment property income when qualifying a buyer for a new mortgage loan.  For more information relating to investment property purchases in the San Francisco Bay Area please feel free to give me a call at 415–354–5162.

Space Invaders, originally uploaded on by LubaSF 

It’s Photo Friday again here on Luba’s San Francisco Real Estate Blog! 

I spent two weeks on a pseudo-vacation in Lake County, CA.  The photo above, though, has nothing to do it – it just makes me smile.    (Check out www.sfcameraphone.com to see a few of the silly photos I shot with my cameraphone while I WAS on vacation.)  I say “pseudo-vacation” because I still worked just about every day, including driving back to the City for a day to take care of a client in the midst of a real estate transaction.  It was inspection day, and I HATE to miss inspection day!  Yes, I am that dedicated. 

This weekend, I’ll be being just as dedicated.  As usual, I’ll be working.  Though, there’s a good chance I’ll be spending a night out on the town with some girldfriends on Saturday night.  If you happen to see us out and about in the City, don’t be afraid to say “hi.”  

Don’t forget to check back next week for another glimpse of San Francisco as seen through the eyes of Flickr’s photogs.

And if you’d like to throw your photos into the pool of candidates for my SF Photo Friday collection, tag your SF Photos from Flickr with LubaSF.

Happy Friday!

We’re starting a new feature here at Luba’s San Francisco real esate blog. 

It’s a rolling average of the last 30 days (or so) of sold listings. 

We’ll also be bringing you the last 30 days of new listings in a different blog post. 

Check back next week to see the sold properties stack up. 

Sold Listings 03/01/09 – 04/03/09

Welcome back to the newest weekly feature of Luba’s San Francisco real esate blog. 

It’s a rolling average of the last 30 days (or so) of new listings. 

We’ll also be bringing you the last 30 days of sold listings in a different blog post. 

Check back next week to see the listings stack up. 

New Listings 03/01/09 – 04/03/09

As I do every month, I ran the latest San Francisco real estate sales figures for you.  I’m just getting back from vacation and swamped as can be, so the commentary this month is a little short, but the data is here for you with my brief 2 cents.

After the glum numbers from last month, I was relieved to see an uptick in sales volume.  Last month’s numbers had me breathing a sigh of relief, and this month did the same.  Volume, once again, crept up in March.  The other numbers though, siuch as median price, didn’t look so pretty.  However, I can say that I have a theory on that.  The new $729,500 loan limits we’ve been waiting for just aren’t materializing.  What I’m seeing instead (especially with a lot of the new buyers that have recently contacted me) is a huge upswing in activity in the lower tier of the market, the under $600K club.  In fact, almost 40% (38.59% to be exact) of all of the sales reported below fell under the $600K category, which means that the buyers were able to advantage of the new, lower interest rates.  However, buyers in the $800k-900K category are still waiting for their opportunity to take a crack at these lower rates, and unfortunately, we just haven’t seen them kick in yet.  I guess the test to my theory really will be when the $729,500 loan limit is really reinstated and the movement (or lack thereof) that occurs once that happens.

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 March 1 through June 31, 2009:

Single Family Homes

• 122 Homes Sold
• Median Sale Price was $672,500
• Minimum Sale Price was $320,000
• Maximum Sale Price was $7,750,000
• Median Selling Price was 97% of asking price
• Median Days on Market was 40
• Median Selling Price for homes that sold within 30 days was 101% of asking price

Condominiums, Lofts & Co-ops

• 86 Homes Sold
• Median Sale Price was $644,000
• Minimum Sale Price was $150,000
• Maximum Sale Price was $2,450,000
• Median Selling Price was 99.5% of asking price
• Median Days on Market was 45
• Median Selling Price for homes that sold within 30 days was 96% of asking price

TIC’s

• 20 Homes Sold
• Median Sale Price was $610,000
• Minimum Sale Price was $290,000
• Maximum Sale Price was $1,775,500
• Median Selling Price was 98% of asking price
• Median Days on Market was 80
• Median Selling Price for homes that sold within 30 days was 100% of asking price