Recent Price Trends for San Francisco

Real Estate Price Trends

The median single family home price as of June 29 2008 for San Francisco is $588,558. Note that there has been a slight uptick in price in the last few weeks.

Home Sales and Demand Trends

The average property in San Francisco as of June 29 2008 has been on the market for about 72 days.

Homes for Sale

There are about 3,891 properties on the market in San Francisco as of June 29 2008. Note: although price is on a short term increase volume is up significantly since January.

Its our view that volume precedes price. Its simply supply vs demand. These charts show supply on a significant increase and we expect that price will continue to soften. There are strong reasons to suspect more supply.

1. Foreclosure continue to rise and put supply on the market at a cut rate price.
2. Mortgage rates are on the rise as the Fed signals its now more concerned about inflation than housing. Costs of money makes it more difficult to buy.
3. The new Jumbo FHA loans are set to expire unless they are reinstated and they are difficult to get anyway.
4. ARMs will continue to re-set through 2010 and they will increase monthly payments by as much as 3 times or more.

The best hope is that the tech industry continues to thrive and this reverse commute brings well paid people who might otherwise live in Mt. View to the city. I believe there is a merge taking place between Silicon Valley and San Francisco.

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

Your Property Path News Brief
http://wwwyourpropertypath.blogspot.com/
Trade talk for the San Francisco real estate industry. Your source for property management tips, policies and market trends.

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Affordable & Sustainable Food Prevails in San Francisco

The Heart of the City Farmers Market

Market. Started by Quakers and farmers in the 1980s to serve low-income families, this farmers market is a community hub and one of the few places near the Tenderloin to buy fresh fruits and vegetables. It's run on a shoestring by a nonprofit whose board members are elected by the farmers who sell their produce at the market. And it is about to be taken over by City Hall's Real Estate Division.

Just opposite the plaza that houses the heart of the City affordable fresh food markets, their will be the resserection of city urban gardens that will also help provide fresh sustainable food for all. SF Victory Gardens and Slow Food Nation, this project will not only create a fruit-and-vegetable garden in Civic Center Plaza, it'll create an archipelago of urban agriculture throughout the city, mostly in families' back yards.

I recently recieved an email from the group that runs the Heart of the City. They have won this battle with the city, to the credit of both sides. The operation will have to tighten up its operatons, but the city will not take over as originally planned (at least by the city) and we will not see an upscale high priced food mart in the civic center. Reasonably priced food provided by the small farmer and food vendor and a fair price is as important as the farmers market at the Ferry Building. Once again, thanks to this city, another win win for the people of San Francisco

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 News Brief
http://wwwyourpropertypath.blogspot.com/
Trade talk for the San Francisco real estate industry. Your source for property management tips, policies and market trends.

You can add this page to your favorite Social Bookmark site:

Greening San Francisco: Edible Gardens

Victory Gardens 2008

History: Victory Gardens 2008 is a pilot project funded by the City of San Francisco to support the transition of backyard, front yard, window boxes, rooftops, and unused land into organic food production areas. The SF Victory Garden program builds on the successful Victory Garden programs of WWI and WWII but redefines "Victory" in the pressing context of urban sustainability.

Throughout the country people plowed front yards, lawns, back yards, flower gardens, and vacant lots to grow their own vegetables. Even public land was put to use, from the lawn at San Francisco City Hall to the Boston Commons to portions of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park San Francisco’s victory program became one of the best in the country. There were over 250 garden plots in Golden Gate Park. Every park in the city had gardens and many vacant lots were used for growing vegetables.

Slow food Nation: Has the high goal of creating an era of self-sufficiency using city land and all available land to create edible gardens. One high profile project will be to create an edible garden in the heart of San Francisco’s Civic Center. Planted on the same site as the post-World War II gardens 60 years ago, the Slow Food Nation Victory Garden demonstrates the potential of a local agriculture practices that will promote edible foods that are indigenous to the area, while producing high quality food for those in need. Growing and concentrating on local plant foods is easy on the planet because they require less care and water resources, having adapted to the local environment. The garden will consist of heritage organic vegetables suited to the Bay Area micro climate.

Volunteer at Slow Food Nation!

Project Timeline

• July 1- Groundbreaking
• July 1 - 11 - Garden Installation
• July 12 - Community Planting Day
• July 12 – September 21 - Garden Operation, stay tuned for workshop schedule!
• August 29 – September 1 - Slow Food Nation, First Harvest
• September 21 - Community Harvest Day, food donated to those in need

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.

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The State of the City: San Francisco is Looking Good

The Internet Drives the City

Thanks to the internet and the technology industry continuing to be the infinite work space, thousands of new technology jobs drove the city's population to a new high of more than 824,000.

Yahoo and Google have opened offices in the city and continue to provide shuttle buses that have dominated the city neighborhoods. The increase of high paying young professionals has caused a crimp in the housing supply, but it has also certainly boosted the local economy. This huge influx of workers connected to south bay industries seem to be merging the economies of San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Yahoo, Microsoft and Google farmed out some of their work to San Francisco offices and young start ups are popping up and transforming lower rent districts.

The growing number of online-media and business-software firms are creating a perfect compliment to the computer and microchip focus of Silicon Valley. This divergence of skills is highly complimentary and will continue to knit the San Francisco and the South Bay.

City Stats: In 2007, the 3,281 units authorized for construction was a 41 percent increase from 2006. Projects on the horizon - including Rincon Hill, the Transbay Terminal area, Hunters Point Shipyard, Candlestick Point, 5400 potential units in Merced Park, 6000 units in Octavia area of market and trinity place at market and larkin will add tens of thousands of homes.
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
http://www.yourpropertypath.com/
Snap News updates real estate markets and all things of interest to property owners and real estate professionals.

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Green San Francisco: Making Bio Diesel

A Million for a Brown Grease Conversion Plant

The Cal Energy Commission just awarded San Francisco a million dollars to build a pilot fuel conversion facility to help the sf grease cycle program that has been a huge success in gathering old frying grease from restaurants for the cities bio-diesel fleet. More than 300 restaurants have signed up for the free pick up of cooking oils.

The plant will be located in Oceanside Sewerage Treatment plant and able to produce enough bio diesel to make the plant energy self sufficient and off the grid. You can count on a lot of experimentation to try and do the same for all the city owned vehicles. This pilot program has grand schemes and hopes to be a model for the state.

The city's restaurants have a down side that only owners and property managers can talk about.Much of this grease often finds itself in the sewers and creates a kind of "plaque" that causes a grease blockage. San Francisco spends about 4 million a year to remove sewer blockages. This is a good win win program, restaurants get free pick up, the city gets free fuel for its fleet and the saves the PUC 4 million a year by keeping grease out of the serwer system.

Here's a kick. According to the SFist blog......

"Looking to honor the forty-third President of the United States of America, George W. Bush, the recently formed Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is looking to change the name of the Oceanside Wastewater Treatment Facility to the 'George W Bush Sewage Plant."

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

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

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Mid Market Gets New Face

Trinity Plaza Becomes an Upscale Trinity Place

The 360 rent controlled units with parking and small commercial will be replaced by a project large enough in scale to change the very nature of Market at eigth, just opposite the library. You can tell that this area is slated for gentrification by just walking through the civic center. Its a well stocked open air market run by smaller local farms. Truely, a local sourced food choice and its very inexpensive.
Lately, there is a pettition floating around suggesting the city wants to take back this part of civic center to do its own open air market. We have no doubt it will be another organic and beautiful market similar to the Ferry building markets. Vey much in keeping with the new Trinity development. It would certainly beautify the area, but I would like to see the small farmer and their offers of inexpensive, low cost food remain available to the area. This is still a low income area and people do need to eat. We have to be careful as we build out the new San Francisco to continue to provide for all our citizens.

Other than that, I thank the city for preserving the 360 rent controlled units and look foreward to the new development. Trinity Place will look beautiful and here are some of the numbers:

1. 1,900 new residential units (approximately 1,411,000 gross square feet [gsf] of residential space).
2. 1,100 studio units and 800 one-bedroom units comprising the residential component of the project.
3. 360 units would be rent-controlled,
4. 15 percent of the 1,540 non-rent-controlled units, or 231 units, would be designated as affordable
5. 60,000 gsf of ground-floor retail space, with street frontages along Market Street, Mission Street, and portions of Eighth Street.
6. 63,000 square feet (sq. ft.) of open space
7. 1,450 off-street parking spaces for residential and short-term use in a five-level parking garage.

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

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Prop G: 10,000 New Homes for Hunters Point

Lennar and the Unions Make a Deal

Lennar strikes a deal with the SF Labor Council to build 10,000 new homes at Hunters Point Shipyard. This is a huge development encompassing 721 acres of land that would build out homes, shopping as well as industrial and commercial space. Heres some of the highlights:

1. More homes for family's than originally planned. The average size will be 2.5 bedrooms.
2. 35 million set aside for job training programs for the resident s of the neighborhood
3. The San Francisco Labor Council agrees to to support Prop G on the June 3 ballot public support for the project
4. A new 49ners stadium, if we can convince them to stay.
5. Affordable housing: 25% of the homes would be classified as affordable.
5a. 1600 units for very low income families
5b. 1600 homes for purchase for people making between 80-160% of the areas median income.

Their is some doubt in my mind to Lennars ability to commit at a time when home builders are the walking wounded. As home prices have tanked we have seen more and more supply come onto the market. This has hurt all the builders and just recently Lennar credit ratings have slipped.
S&P's expectation that it ( Lennar) will "face ongoing earnings pressure due to worsening operating conditions, particularly in its important California and Florida markets." S&P's outlook is still negative.

Lennar is Junk Status

In November, S&P dropped Lennar by two notches to "BB+," the highest junk rating, from "BBB." In October, Moody's also dropped Lennar's debt ratings to junk status. We dont expect Lennar to disappear but the city is signing paper with a very sick pup.

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.
You can add this page to your favorite Social Bookmark site: