homesmillbrae.com » Appetite

The Madrone, Mission Bay: sold out in record time

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 16:43:23 +0000

Share this gallery: 1 of 13

Mission Bay: Where once tumbleweeds tumbled and defunct buildings moldered, a thriving community has emerged, one that’s been developing over the past decade and a half. And part of it is Bosa’s Madrone at Mission Bay, a condo complex that broke SF records for the rapidity with which it sold out.

Composed of two 16-story towers and a total of 329 units, these condos, according to a recent press release from The Mark Company, are 100% spoken for. Despite facing a still recovering economy, The Madrone closed on more than 200 residences by the building’s completion in August 2012. In August, its grand opening month, a total of 97 units closed, making it San Francisco’s fastest selling property (previously, the most units closing escrow in a month was 50 for a single development).

Luxury condos back in demand

San Francisco’s appetite for luxury condos has been reawakened of late, but the dearth of inventory makes satisfaction of that hunger hard to come by. In March of this year, the number of available condos on the MLS was down 32.9% year-over-year, while the median sold price was up 31.6%. The Madrone met the needs of well paid tech, education, and science employees looking for for waterfront 1, 2, and 3 bedroom units with swanky amenities. But the record sell-out of every single condo in the complex is still a striking accomplishment given the price point here: Property records for a sold 2-bedroom unit show a sale price of $1,818,750; and a 3-bed for $1,995,000.

Evolution of a neighborhood

Mission Bay covers 303 acres of land between the San Francisco Bay and Interstate-280. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors established the Mission Bay North and South Redevelopment Project Areas in November 1998, successfully planning the building of the University of California, San Francisco research campus, a state-of-the art UCSF hospital complex, housing and services, all steps away from ATT Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants.

San Francisco, already so dense and tiny, offers few chances for the emergence of a new neighborhood. We asked Alan P. Mark of the Mark Company what he expects next for the area, given this large induction of new, well-monied residents.

There will be a couple of thousand renters moving into Mission Bay within the next couple of years as a number of rental buildings are being delivered. Retail services typically follow. My forecast would be that there will be a mixture of more well known entities and entrepreneurial retailers.

What do you think, readers? We have our established Haight-Ashbury, our Marina, our Pac Heights, each with their identity and unique vibe. Given these latest developments, what will be the flavor and feeling of Mission Bay?

Anna Marie Erwert writes from both the renter and new buyer perspective, having (finally) achieved both statuses. She focuses on national real estate trends, specializing in the San Francisco Bay Area and Pacific Northwest, and writes for SFGate and CurbedSF. Follow Anna on Twitter: @AnnaMarieErwert

Article source: http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2013/04/19/the-madrone-mission-bay-sold-out-in-record-time/

Bay Area home sales rise, but prices fall

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:39:15 +0000

Bay Area home sales and prices remain lackluster, especially at the high end of the market, according to a real estate report released on Wednesday.

“Sales are subpar, prices mainly flat and I don’t anticipate much change,” said Andrew LePage, an analyst with San Diego’s DataQuick, which produced the report. “Lots of people are stacked up on the sidelines, waiting for a better time to buy or sell when things are more certain.”

The median price for all homes – resale, new and condos – sold across the nine Bay Area counties in November was $363,500, down 4.3 percent from a year ago.

The total number of properties changing hands edged up 3.4 percent to 6,317, compared with last year.

Not much inventory

Low inventory remains an issue as many people are reluctant to sell, said Rick Turley, president of Coldwell Banker’s Bay Area region.

“The home seller who becomes a move-up buyer is almost like a missing generation,” he said. “We have some people out there with an appetite (to buy) who have a down payment and can qualify, but because of the ho-hum market, there isn’t inventory for them.”

Turley said he sees about 4 1/2 months’ worth of inventory for high-end homes and just a few weeks’ worth on the low end.

Cindi Hagley, managing broker at Prudential California Realty in San Ramon, observed similar dynamics.

“We have multiple offers on almost everything we sell for under $400,000,” she said.

But at the other end, “People who could theoretically afford to buy bigger homes are hunkering down a bit,” Hagley said. “People are downsizing” rather than moving up.

High-end sales are also taking a hit from a change in the conforming loan limit, which eliminates most government-backed mortgages between $625,501 and $729,750. Lawmakers restored FHA loans in that bracket, but Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages are no longer available.

“We don’t know yet to what extent FHA and the private mortgage market can fill that void,” LePage said.

The tighter financing for high-end homes is reflected in declining sales volume.

Low-price purchases

For instance, in Santa Clara County, November sales of homes over $800,000 were down 18.2 percent from a year earlier, while sales of homes under $300,000 rose 22.3 percent compared with November 2010, LePage said.

Throughout the real estate downturn, sales of higher-end homes have declined dramatically. Mortgages above $417,000 accounted for about 29.7 percent of November’s purchase lending, DataQuick said. Before 2007, such “jumbo” mortgages represented almost 60 percent of local purchase loans.

Distressed sales – foreclosures and short sales sold for less than is owed on the mortgage – remain a potent force, accounting for almost half of all resales in the Bay Area in November.

Investor activity remains high, with absentee buyers snapping up 22.6 of all homes sold last month compared with a regular monthly average of 13.9 percent since 2000. All-cash buyers represented 27.9 percent of November sales.

Other national reports out this week underscored the market’s continued malaise:

– Real estate service Zillow.com said values nationwide were down 5.1 percent in October compared with a year earlier. In the San Francisco metropolitan area, it said, values fell 6.3 percent and are now 33.8 percent off their peak.

– Foreclosure service RealtyTrac said November foreclosure filings nationwide were down 14 percent compared with a year ago. But the company said that despite that seasonal slowdown, numbers suggest a new surge of foreclosures in coming months.

California foreclosure auctions hit a 10-month high in November and the state had the nation’s second-highest foreclosure rate (after Nevada) with 1 in every 211 properties receiving a foreclosure filing in the month. Bucking the national trend, California foreclosure filings rose 11 percent in November compared with 2010.

– Move.com, the nation’s largest online collection of for-sale listings, with data from all of the country’s 900-plus multiple listing services, showed national inventory down 21.3 percent in November compared with a year ago and median list prices up 4.05 percent.

In the counties of San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin, Move.com showed median list prices basically flat compared with a year ago and inventory down significantly. Homes in those counties sold much faster than those elsewhere in the country, with an average inventory age of 76 days versus 114 days nationwide.

E-mail Carolyn Said at csaid@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page D – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/15/BU6K1MCHQJ.DTL