PG&E – San Francisco’s Big Bad Wolf

I hate meter reading day.  In fact, my alarm just went off to notify me that it’s time for me to call PG&E and give them my gas & electricity meter reading. 

But, I hate meter reading day.  Sometimes, I forget.  And the rest of the time, it’s just a pain in the ass. 

Unfortunately, my meters are located in places where PG&E can’t see them from outside my house.

So when I heard about PG&E Smartmeters, I was SUPER excited.

But the wind has been taken out of my sails somewhat.  Seems PG&E’s mew smart meters aren’t that smart.  They’re full of errors.  BOOOOOO!

In fact, apparently there’s SO many errors that the San Francisco City Attorney has asked them to slow their roll.

For the full article, click here. 

And of course, whether you own SF real estate, or rent in the City, you might be affected by this too. 

In my fantasy world, PG&E will work out the kinks, fix the errors and make my meter reading life easy.

Till then, I’ll be calling it in manually. Bah humbug.

More News on San Francisco Pay to Play Condo Converstion Policy

So I got a GREAT email from Plan C.  And while I usually love to add my two cents, they pretty much said it ALL for me.  So here it is, verbatim, for your condo conversion supporting pleasure:

We have good news to report regarding the proposed one time “condo bypass” for TIC owners, originally proposed in 2009 by Supervisor Elsbernd: the Mayor has included the condo bypass proposal as part of this year’s budget.

The details of the proposal are as follows:   TICs must have participated in the 2010 condo conversion lottery in order to be eligible for the condo bypass.  The fee for the bypass starts at $20,000 per unit for those who first participated in the lottery in 2010, and declines by 20% for each previous year of unsuccessful lottery participation. So, if 2010 was the first year your TIC participated in the lottery, your fee will be $20,000 per unit in the building. If 2010 was your second year, your fee will be $16,000 per unit. If 2010 was your third year of participation your fee with be $12,000 per unit. If 2010 was your fourth year $8,000/unit, and if it was your fifth year and beyond, $4,000/unit.  Note:  If your TIC only qualified to participate in the last 25 units which were drawn from Pool B of the 2010 lottery (because of eviction history), you are not eligible for the one-time bypass.

Plan C has worked with the Mayor’s office on this issue since it was first proposed, and we are very pleased that the Mayor has included the plan in the budget.  The proposal will bring significant revenue (likely in excess of $8M) to the city during this time of budget crisis – money that will provide funding to affordable and supportive housing programs that might otherwise be cut.  At the same time the legislation will bring much needed ownership and mortgage relief to middle income San Franciscans that owner occupy their TICs.  This is sensible legislation that helps everyone – it addresses the needs of TIC owners AND provides funding to low-income residents with special housing needs.  Tenants are also protected – to be eligible to participate in the lottery, the TIC building must not have been subject to recent Ellis Act evictions, must not have evicted any protected tenants and must not have more than one no fault eviction.

How you can help!

Email the Mayor and Key Supervisors. The Mayor and the Supervisors need to hear from us – contact them today by clicking here – let them know that you support the one-time condo bypass. Tell them that the program would help thousands of first-time homeowners, would hurt no one, and that it would help solve the City’s budget mess. And then tell them that you support overall reform of the completely broken condo conversion process! If you have the time and desire to call them, do that too. (contact information available here).

Attend the budget hearing on June 21.  The condo bypass will be considered at the budget hearing at City Hall on June 21. The hearing starts at 10AM, and the Condo Bypass is Item Number 4.  We don’t expect the Board to get to Item 4 until at least noon.  Please come and speak in public comment – tell the supervisors that you support the condo bypass! We know that the opponents of this program will be out in force – so it is critical to have supporters there as well.  If you are able to attend the hearing, let us know by email at info@plancsf.org- we may be able to give you better information as to exactly when to show up as it gets closer to June 21.

 

Dolla Dolla Billz Changing the San Francisco Real Estate Game

So sales of homes in San Francisco are well, moving like hotcakes, at least relative to the last year or two. 

Socketsite reported that “recorded home sales volume in San Francisco was up 50.6% on a year-over-year basis last month“ and that “median sales price in March was $675,000, up 11.0% compared to March ’09 ($608,000) and up 7.6% compared to the month prior.”

Not enough evidence for you that we may have seen the bottom of the market? 

Well, how’s the evidence that multiple offers are on the rise again?  Out of the last 8 offers I’ve written for clients, 7 properties received multiple offers. 

But what’s MORE interesting, at least in my opinion, is that we seem to be seeing a major resurgence of the all cash offer! 

Yup.  In the last few weeks, the words “all cash offer” are a phrase I’m hearing on a daily basis.  Lenders are talking about it.  Escrow officers are talking about it.  And without a doubt, real estate agents are talking about it. 

But what does this all MEAN? 

Someone asked me the other day, “Why the hell would enyone ever tie up so much money in San Francisco real estate?”  Well, I’m going to go out on a limb here, but it might mean that the folks that are smart enough (or lucky enough) to amass a giant pile of cold hard cash seem to think that dumping all of their dough into real estate RIGHT NOW is a smart investment decision. 

Prices don’t seem to be going any lower and with sales spiking upwards and prices creeping upwards, it might be safe to deduce that the bottom of the SF housing market has come and gone.

I’d love to hear from some of you cash buyers, or even agents with cash buyers whether my theories are sorta correct or completely far fetched.  You can drop a note in the comments, or if you want to keep yourself anonymous, email me.

Spend Less Green to Go More Green in San Francisco

Good news my earth loving, tree hugging, composting, recycling, reusing San Franciscans! 

From the San Francisco Association of Realtors:

San Francisco Homeowners Have New Way to Pay for Going Green

San Francisco homeowners have a new way of paying for solar panels, energy-efficient appliances and low-flow toilets.

A new city-run program, GreenFinanceSF, will give San Franciscans the money to pay for such projects up front and let them pay it back through installments on their property tax bills. Berkeley pioneered the idea in 2007, and since then, hundreds of cities, counties and states have adopted their own versions.

For more details, visit https://greenfinancesf.org/systems/energy.

That’s great news for you, your pocket, your carbon footprint, global warming and all that.  If you’ve been thinking of making some environmentally friendly upgrades to your home, you may have just run out of excuses.

March 2010 San Francisco Housing Sales Data is Here!

Yet again, Luba’s San Francisco Real Estate Blog brings you latest San Francisco Real Estate market report here. (You can also view previous market updates by selecting the archives on the upper right portion of the screen). Heres’s a little glimpse of the report:

Property Sales up Sharply in March

Sales of single-family, re-sale homes were up 87.5% from February. Year-over-year, home sales were up 66.7%. This is the ninth month in a row home sales have been higher than the year before.

The median price for homes gained 13.5% from February, and was up 14,5% year-over-year.

Sales of lofts/condos also increased sharply last month, rising 51.1% from February, and up 82.1% year-over-year.

The median price for lofts/condos rose 3.1% from February, and was up 3.2% year-over-year.

The increase in sales was welcome and put home sales up 39.9% year-to-date. For lofts/condos, sales are up 73.8%.

With the new state tax credit and the federal tax credit still in effect until the end of April, we expect sales for the Spring selling season to be strong.

Read on for full details.

San Francisco Real Estate Sales Data – January – March 2010

In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been a little behind on my blog posts as of late.  I’m a San Francisco Realtor first, and a blogger second.  So priority has been taking care of my buyers and sellers.  But there’s a teensy calm in the storm (the kind where the forecast is still calling for rain, but you peek outside and see a rainbow knowing that by the time you take off your galoshes, the rain will be back!) 

So since I’ve been behind in getting you the data you so desperately crave, here’s three months of it all at once.  Hopefully, it’ll be enough to make ammends.  And if not, I promise I’ll be around more often for you all.   

So here’s this wuarter’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 January 1 through March 30, 2010:

JANUARY

Single Family Homes

• 119 Homes Sold
• Median Sale Price was $718,000
• Minimum Sale Price was $150,000
• Maximum Sale Price was $6,500,000
• Median Selling Price was 103% of asking price
• Median Days on Market was 61
• Median Selling Price for homes that sold within 30 days was 103.5% of asking price

Condominiums, Lofts & Co-ops

• 93 Homes Sold
• Median Sale Price was $620,000
• Minimum Sale Price was $208,700
• Maximum Sale Price was $1,750,000
• Median Selling Price was 99% of asking price
• Median Days on Market was 72
• Median Selling Price for homes that sold within 30 days was 99% of asking price

TIC’s

• 22 Homes Sold
• Median Sale Price was $584,000
• Minimum Sale Price was $330,000
• Maximum Sale Price was $895,000
• Median Selling Price was 101% of asking price
• Median Days on Market was 108
• Median Selling Price for homes that sold within 30 days was 100% of asking price

FEBRUARY

Single Family Homes

• 120 Homes Sold
• Median Sale Price was $701,250
• Minimum Sale Price was $200,000
• Maximum Sale Price was $3,362,500
• Median Selling Price was 101% of asking price
• Median Days on Market was 33
• Median Selling Price for homes that sold within 30 days was 104% of asking price

Condominiums, Lofts & Co-ops

• 120 Homes Sold
• Median Sale Price was $660,000
• Minimum Sale Price was $115,000
• Maximum Sale Price was $4,100,000
• Median Selling Price was 97% of asking price
• Median Days on Market was 54
• Median Selling Price for homes that sold within 30 days was 100% of asking price

TIC’s

• 23 Homes Sold
• Median Sale Price was $549,000
• Minimum Sale Price was $250,000
• Maximum Sale Price was $870,000
• Median Selling Price was 102% of asking price
• Median Days on Market was 104
• Median Selling Price for homes that sold within 30 days was 97% of asking price

MARCH

Single Family Homes

• 210 Homes Sold
• Median Sale Price was $790,000
• Minimum Sale Price was $130,000
• Maximum Sale Price was $13,500,000
• Median Selling Price was 100% of asking price
• Median Days on Market was 31
• Median Selling Price for homes that sold within 30 days was 103% of asking price

Condominiums, Lofts & Co-ops

• 182 Homes Sold
• Median Sale Price was $683,500
• Minimum Sale Price was $235,000
• Maximum Sale Price was $2,450,000
• Median Selling Price was 101% of asking price
• Median Days on Market was 40
• Median Selling Price for homes that sold within 30 days was 99% of asking price

TIC’s

• 22 Homes Sold
• Median Sale Price was $560,000
• Minimum Sale Price was $370,000
• Maximum Sale Price was $980,000
• Median Selling Price was 99% of asking price
• Median Days on Market was 53
• Median Selling Price for homes that sold within 30 days was 101% of asking price

Could You Find Your Next San Francisco Home While Grocery Shopping?

photo credit: SparkCBC

The real estate technology market has been flooded in recent years with “location-based” applications to help buyers find properties in their area. With little variation, they all work in about the same way:

• Start an application on your mobile phone
• Utilize your phone’s GPS to determine your location and
• Have the application retrieve location-based real estate data

But, what if you’re searching for San Francisco real estate and don’t even have to initiate an application to get real time real estate data?

What if while you were out and about, shopping or running errands, the home of your dreams just showed up on your phone automatically?

Sound like something from the Jetsons? Well it isn’t.

Advertising company Placecast has developed a service called ShopAlerts and there might be some cool uses for the real estate industry.

ShopAlerts allows users to opt in to receive marketing messages on their phone from retail stores that are nearby. For instance, a person would sign up for alerts from Tartine and would automatically receive tailored text message marketing notifications each time they were close to Tartine. 

It could work the same way for a house hunt.  You could opt in to receive alerts about specific types of properties – say 3BR’s in the Outer Sunset with Ocean Views.  Or properties in Pacific Heights between $3-5M.  And when you get close to one of those available properties, you cross a “geo-fence” which prompts an automatic notification to be sent to cell phone.

Essentially, a person lives their life and in the meantime, receives notifications about properties they’re close to that match what they want.

Question is, how many of you would use it if it where available? 

Feel free to leave comments below – and for more info on potential uses, read the full article here.

1896 San Francisco Firehouse For Sale!!! (And a Tour Business and Memorabilia to Boot!)

**UPDATE** 

We’ve determined pricing for the Firehouse and the Tour Business!!!! 

The Firehouse is $975,000

The Tour Business is $249,000

And if you are interested in grabbing the torch and taking over the complete lifestyle, then make a reasonable offer for both!!!  For once, the sellers are not JUST interested in the price (though money DOES talk), but more than anything, they would really love to see someone carry on the legacy they created.  And frankly, I’d like to see the dream kept alive as well! 

(And ideally, I’d like to reserve the right to slide down the firepole from time to time, but that’s not a deal breaker. )

I’m giving you a fair warning – this video is addictive, amazing and has a jingle you may not be able to get out of your head for days!!!  It is NOT your typical property listing video.  TRUST me. 

And thanks to the video, I’ve been singing the “The Big Shiny Mack Truck Fire Engine!” for DAYS now!  I haven’t had anyone complain yet, and may have been the cause of people all over San Francisco singing that jingle now too!

But the video and the song are just bonuses…. along with the song, you get over 4000 square feet where you can whirl around the firehouse which, to my knowledge, is one of the last San Francisco firehouses (if not THE last one) that has still maintained it’s historical integrity. 

The couple that owned it lovingly restored it (a before & after pic are below), and fell so much in love with the place and the lifestyle that they added a “Big Shiny Mack Truck Fire Engine” to their collection and used it to create a profitable tour business that had made kids (of all ages) from ALL over the world smile!!! 

But as many stories go, it’s time for the current owners to move on.  Which means you can pick up this HOT (badumpum) piece of real estate for yourself.    As a fellow colleague joked, it would make an especially “HOT” Valentine’s present. LOL!

Though the price is still not yet determined, numbers are being crunched and the list price will be announced in the next few weeks.  The building, business and historic collection will all be for sale – together, or separately. 

In the meantime, email me at luba@zephyrsf.com or call me at 415-307-1392 for more information. 

30 Days of Sold San Francisco Real Estate

Want to know know what sold in San Francisco in the last 30 days? Sign up for The City Update(TM) – San Francisco’s Friendliest Newsletter. You’ll get the details, and then some, in your inbox (almost) every Friday.

If you just want the round numbers, you can check them out below.

Sold Listings 12/25/09 – 1/28/10

You’re Smart if you Buy a Home in San Francisco

As I’m browsing the blogosphere, I caught a glimpse of yet another article saying something positive about San Francisco real estate. 

Realtor Magazine quoted Forbes Magazine as saying SF is one of the 10 smartest places to buy a home NOW!

Why?

Well, according to them:

For people who want to own a home, the premium to buy—the spread between what they’d spend to rent and what they’d pay for a mortgage—is much lower than the 15-year average in many cities.

To determine what cities are smart buys, Forbes magazine computed the premium and also identified locales where economists predict home prices will go up the most over the next five years.

Click here for the rest of the “smart” cities for purchasing real estate. 

Oh, and give me a holler when you’re ready to make that SF home purchase.