Sunday

SF Homes Prices: How Are We Doing



Everything after this week is old history. Still, it hasnt been all that bad for us.

Dataquick reports that bay area regional home sales had a slight uptick. No doubt due to bargain hunters picking up seemingly deep discounts of 30% or more.

The nine-county region saw a total of 7,232 new and resale houses and condos sold last month, down 4.7 percent from 7,586 in July but just 0.9 percent lower than the 7,299 sales a year ago. An "average" August sees just over 10,000. sales.

The bay area median price of a home has dropped almost 32% since last year. The hardest hit being Contra Costa (down42%), Solano (down almost 36%) and Sonoma (down 31%).

San Francisco Home Prices

Dataquick reports that home prices are down almost 12%, from a median of $822,000 to $725,000. Given whats happening to the outer regions, we are not doing that bad. More than anything the credit crunch and the difficulty in getting jumbo loans to finance higher priced homes seems to be the culprit.

The biggest reason for the relative health of San Francisco home markets is got to be the reverse commute that is bringing well paid jobs onto San Francisco.

Google, Apple, Ebay and Genetech all offer free round trip commuter buses to bring people than normally would likely live in the South Bay to san Francisco. They are populating the city with good jobs, seemingly untouched by the
financial services crises. i cant see Google really hurt by all of this.

San Francisco cant escape completely because we are the financial center of the west. We will certainly see job loss but the tech sector can hold us up. In fact, our credit rating as a city just went up! So, keep your fingers crossed...we just might escape with little harm.

Thanks for Reading
Howard Bell

www.yourpropertypath.com
A web site of over 450 articles related to real estate focused primarily on property management.

Your Property Path New Brief
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Saturday


Still Solvent After all These Years

Mayor Gavin Newsom today welcomed Moody’s upgraded bond rating for the City and County of San Francisco. According to its most recent ratings, Moody’s upgraded the City’s general obligation bond rating to Aa2 from Aa3 and revised the rating outlook to Stable from Positive. Moody’s also upgraded the City’s various general fund obligations to A1 from A2.

"We are proud that Moody’s has upgraded the City and County of San Francisco’s bond rating," said Mayor Newsom. "This rating is a statement about the strong, fiscal health of San Francisco, but we must remain steadfast in our commitment to financial prudence and sound managerial practices, in order to continue our terrific progress."

According to Moody’s, "Among San Francisco's strengths were an above-average resident socioeconomic profile, a highly diverse and robust revenue base, an exceptionally strong balance sheet at close of fiscal year 2006-2007, and a moderate debt burden with relatively rapid, direct debt retirement.

The ratings agency's upgrade came on the heels of the Mayor’s signing of the city’s $6.5 billion city budget last week, which closed a budget shortfall of $338 million.

This means that we will be able to borrow and fund more programs at less cost. Interresting how San Francisco can do it and the state is busted. This city closed a budget shortfall, I have to hand it to all the reasons why. The mayor, proximity to Berkeley and Stanford and all those Googlers who help keep the bars and restaurants open in times like these.

Thanks for Reading
Howard Bell

www.yourpropertypath.com
A web site of over 450 articles related to real estate focused primarily on property management.

Your Property Path New Brief
http://wwwyourpropertypath.blogspot.com/
Snap News updates real estate markets and all things of interest to property owners and real estate professionals.

Your Property Path Amazon Store
http://astore.amazon.com/yourpropertypath20-20

Hand picked from amazons huge selection




Thursday

15 More Victory Gardens


Why plant a victory garden?

In 1943, Americans planted over 20 million Victory Gardens, and the harvest accounted for nearly a third of all the vegetables consumed in the country. Today our food travels an average of 1500 miles from farm to table. The process of planting, fertilizing, processing, packaging, and transporting our food uses a great deal of energy. More than just energy is at stake. The amount of water used and the amount of pollutants produced to manufacture the plastics and sealants and then fly or truck produce is unnecessary and expensive. Producing and buying locally, from sustainable sources we can save money, energy .

The Mayors office will will install at least 15 pilot urban organic food gardens in San Francisco. Victory Garden staff will install, and support, each Victory Garden. Through public outreach and education programs, Victory Gardens 2008+ aims to create a community of urban food producers.

Just think about this... food for more animals, birds and butterfly's. Victory gardens grown in playgrounds or near public schools can augment fresh food for lunch programs. Micro sustainable food stands in each neighborhood, providing fresh food and small incomes for those who care to raise it. Great idea!

Thanks for Reading
Howard Bell
www.yourpropertypath.com
A web site of over 450 articles related to real estate focused primarily on property management.
Your Property Path New Brief
http://wwwyourpropertypath.blogspot.com/
Snap News updates real estate markets and all things of interest to property owners and real estate professionals.

Your Property Path Amazon Store
http://astore.amazon.com/yourpropertypath20-20

Hand picked from amazons huge selection