North Beach: Its Official - No New Restaurants

The Board of Supervisors Ban All New North Beach Eateries

I love North Beach and the neighborhhood has changed from one that had local character to one that was losing it. Still, restaurants are local flavor and they provide lots of jobs. I also miss the butcher and the local deli's that no longer can make it, but legislation cant bring them back. They're not there because rents are so high that small business is priced out. This is a city wide problem. Having less restaurant development in North Beach will do nothing to bring back a cobbler. A rent roll back will....but I dont see that happening.

Polk street is often pointed to as a area that has developed a good restaurant and upscale business climate while retaining its older business environment too. Its a better mix, I agree, but its because parts of Polk street havent gone through the high priced real estate boom that North Beach did. Thats the cause and it wont be fixed by banning restaurants. They are the local, living art of San Francisco.

Exceptions: If their was a restaurant in the space a new one can open up in its place, unless its been empty for 18 months. Then it cannot be a new restaurant.

I might point out that Union street has a similar ban and it hasnt brought back the cobbler or the butcher....in fact its commercial scene has looked healthier in the past.

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 PathSF

http://yourpropertypath.blogspot.com/

Trade talk for the San Francisco real estate industry. Your source for property management tips, policies and market trends.

Your Property Path Amazon Store

http://astore.amazon.com/yourpropertypath20-20

super deals on agent open house tools

We hand picked Amazon for the tools you need

San Francisco: Good Indicators for Home Prices

Most of the country is having quite a lot of trouble, but San Francisco has held up. We have a strong diversified work environment and we balanced the budget. All of these things and a good strong tech industry has helped keep us above the fray.

One good indicator of home prices is the County Assessors office. The Assessor Recorder is the department that determines the property tax base. Phil Tang's office has received 1673 requests for lower property taxes based on reduced property values. 810 of those requests did get a lower appraisal by about $137,000. Thats an 11.5% drop in the value of those homes.

Most of the reductions came in the newer developments in SOMA, Potrero, parts of the Mission and Mission Bay. The Schiller index gives us an 12% drop in home prices for San Francisco, corroborating the city Assessor Recorders numbers.

In this environment I have to say that an 11-12% drop in values is somewhat of a relief. Lets hope that the Federal plan will keep those losses to low and recoverable numbers.

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 PathSF

http://yourpropertypath.blogspot.com/

Trade talk for the San Francisco real estate industry. Your source for property management tips, policies and market trends.

Your Property Path Amazon Store

http://astore.amazon.com/yourpropertypath20-20

super deals on agent home remodel tools

We hand picked Amazon for the tools you need

Shorter-Term ARMs Fall Slightly

McLean, VA Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE) today released the results of its Primary Mortgage Market Survey® in which the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage (FRM) averaged 6.10 percent with an average 0.6 point for the week ending October 2, 2008, up from last week when it averaged 6.09 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.37 percent.

30-year fixed-rate mortgage: Averaged 6.10 percent with an average 0.6 point for the week ending October 2, 2008, up from last week when it averaged 6.09 percent. Last year at this time, the 30-year FRM averaged 6.37 percent.

The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage: Averaged 5.78 percent with an average 0.6 point, up from last week when it averaged 5.77 percent. A year ago at this time, the 15-year FRM averaged 6.03 percent.

Five-year Treasury-indexed adjustable-rate mortgages ARMs: Averaged 6.00 percent this week, with an average 0.6 point, down from last week when it averaged 6.02 percent.A year ago, the 5-year ARM averaged 6.11 percent.

One-year Treasury-indexed ARMs: Averaged 5.12 percent this week with an average 0.5 point, downfrom last week when it averaged 5.16 percent. At this time last year, the 1-year ARM averaged 5.58 percent.

Commentary From the Freddie Mac Site:

"Average mortgage rates were nearly unchanged during the past week, leaving rates above the levels of two weeks ago," said Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac vice president and chief economist. "Reflecting the rate uptick from two weeks ago, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that loan applications were down 23 percent last week.

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

Russian Hill: Greening the Broadway Tunnel

This is a very good project that has been fully supported by the Russian Hill Neighbors Association, a nonprofit neighborhood organization established in 1981 to encourage friendly association among Russian Hill neighbors and merchants andto respond to neighborhood concerns.
Greening the Broadway Tunnel-West was a $660k DPW project. The City awarded us $325k, but the funds were retracted because of major budget cuts. Some of that money has now been restored (see above).

Greening: ($299k) -- planting twenty-eight trees up the sides of Broadway (just outside of and rising with the tunnel retaining walls), four planter trees on the pedestrian bridge, and fourteen trees in the median strip.

Cable Car Square on Hyde Street ($174k) -- A pedestrian pathway will lead from the SE corner of Broadway and Larkin (starting at Helen Wills Park) to an attractive square at the Hyde Street Cable Car stop. The pathway and square would be demarcated by special paving.

Traditional Ornamental Street Lamps ($187k) -- will help demarcate Broadway as an historic, grand boulevard.

Donations can be made through PayPal or sent to RHN at the following address:

Judy Junghans, Treasurer
RUSSIAN HILL NEIGHBORS
1819 Polk St. #221
San Francisco, CA 94109
Voice 415-267-0575

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

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
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

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

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