homesmillbrae.com » Bargain

America’s Cup sends rentals into the stratosphere

Fri, 12 Jul 2013 08:52:36 +0000

Would you pay $18K a month to rent this place, because it has a view of the Bay and thus the race action?

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The home, perched atop Clarendon Heights, is one of many being marketed as a temporary rental specifically suited for fans of America’s Cup, and is actually the least expensive example we’ll offer today. Per its write up through Trulia, this is a 3 bed, 2 bath, “available June 15th through August 15th.” For the weekly rental price of $5,000, up to 12 people could share the home, which includes “sweeping views of the Ocean, Golden Gate Bridge, North and East Bay” plus two-car garage, patio, and utility costs (as long as they don’t exceed $250 a month, which if 12 people actually stay there, is possible).

$18K a month is a bargain, going by this next example:

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A relatively unremarkable loft-style condo of 2 beds, 2 baths, this 2,300 square foot unit is advertised as follows: “Available July-Sept 2013. Sleeping 6 comfortably, look no further for a conveniently located place to stay for the upcoming America’s Cup races.” The views aren’t featured (we can’t tell if there is one) but the fact that it’s walkable to the Embarcadero is. For that, you’ll pay $25K a month (that includes utilities and cable, plus one car parking).

Moving still higher on the monthly rent, we land at this home somewhere on Francisco Street with a view of the action from its roof deck.

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With 6 beds and 4.5 baths and a Marina District address, this condo asks $30K a month. Advertising on Trulia promises: “the master suite features a private deck, and there is a rooftop deck with extensive views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz… and full view of the Americas Cup Events this summer.”

Is America’s Cup fever really this hot?

Can homes close to, or with a view of, the fabled race really command prices like these? The comments await.

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. Follow Anna on Twitter: @AnnaMarieErwert

Article source: http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2013/07/11/americas-cup-sends-rentals-into-the-stratosphere/

Parking Spot Sells For $82K In San Francisco Building

Mon, 24 Jun 2013 07:58:38 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) – It seems parking spots aren’t immune from the recent surge in San Francisco real estate prices.

A spot in the city’s trendy South Beach neighborhood sold last week for $82,000.

The 8- by 12-foot parking space is in an enclosed garage in a condominium building just a block from ATT Park. The unidentified buyer did not respond to interview requests, but a Porsche SUV was parked in the space on Thursday.

While it may seem like a lot of money, real estate agents said parking could be a good investment. It can add as much as $100,000 to the purchase price of a property, or be rented out at rates of $400 to $450 a month — the going rate in South Beach.

Sean Sullivan, who sold the space, said the spot has an ideal location with Instagram and other tech companies nearby.

“We had a very good response right out of the gate,” said Sullivan, an agent who works for Climb Real Estate. “It was only in the market two weeks.”

Sullivan said that he’s previously sold a space for even more. In fact, he sold a parking spot in the same exact building at the height of the last real estate boom for $95,000.

Overall, the city has seen real estate prices climb. Home prices in San Francisco grew by 22.2 percent in March compared with a year ago, second only to Phoenix among U.S. cities, according to the Standard Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index released in May.

Home prices in the wider, nine-county Bay Area posted a 12th straight month of double-digit price increases last month, according to research firm DataQuick. DataQuick said Thursday that the median price for new and existing houses and condominiums reached $519,000 in May, up 30 percent from the same period last year.

Condos in the South Beach area are going for $1,000 a square foot. At 96 square feet, the parking space was a relative bargain at $854 per square foot.

Sullivan said the building where the parking spot was sold was built before the city restricted spaces to one per unit. It is one of the few buildings that allows non-residents to own a spot.

The new owner has a deed and will be required to pay property taxes and homeowner association dues on his little slice of South Beach.

The sale was all cash.

Article source: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/06/13/parking-spot-sells-for-82k-in-san-francisco-building/

Top cities to buy bargain fixer-uppers don’t include San Francisco

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 19:09:48 +0000

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San Francisco doesn’t offer the best area for people hoping to buy bargain fixer-upper homes, probably because even fixers sell for a fortune in the Bay Area, and not many properties end up foreclosed or otherwise abandoned to decay much anyway, given the value of property in general. So, even among our few homes for sale needing “TLC,” we don’t find many “bargains.” The properties above show that.

Among the currently MLS listed homes for sale in San Francisco proper, only 16 came up under a parameter search for “fixer-upper,” and zero came up when the term “foreclosure” was also added. RealtyTrac maps SF’s pre-foreclosures (we’ve got 180 shown in purple below), bank owned (we have 185 marked in gold below), and for auction properties (we’ve got 41, marked in red below). This section of the map shows you a portion of the RealtyTrac heat map.

A portion of RealtyTrac’s heat map for distressed property in SF.

Slim pickings, really, in a city with a lot more potential homebuyers than potential homes for sale. The city’s inventory in May was down 24.5% year-over-year.

Best cities for fixer-upper bargains

RealtyTrac, prolific provider of U.S. real estate data with a particular focus on foreclosure-related activity, analyzed national data to find the 15 best markets for buying fixers at discount prices. The figures show the number of foreclosed homes old enough to potentially be candidates for makeovers that are also valued at $100K or less– a sure sign, in more robust markets– of a bargain. Also analyzed here: the average market value of a distressed home as well as the change in the median sales price of such properties in each location year-over-year.

“Low-priced homes are still plentiful in many markets, particularly in the form of foreclosures,” said Daren Blomquist, RealtyTrac vice president. “While these homes may be in need of more work than a typical home and are certainly harder to find now than in previous years, buyers and investors willing to put in a little extra legwork and sweat equity can often find the best deals in their markets on these foreclosure fixer-uppers.”

RealtyTrac analysis found that nationwide , there are more than 51,000 potential foreclosure fixer-uppers: bank-owned homes that were built before 1960 with an estimated market value below $100K.

Meanwhile, back in SF

As usually happens when we compare other parts of the country to San Francisco, our home prices stand out in sharp relief. For less than you’d need for a downpayment on a fixer here, you could buy an entire home outright somewhere else. So if your reason for wanting a fixer-upper is bargain price (though of course, “bargain” is a relative term), you might want to look elsewhere.

Article source: http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2013/06/10/top-cities-to-buy-bargain-fixer-uppers-dont-include-san-francisco/

Home Builders Still in the Woods

Wed, 25 May 2011 03:11:33 +0000

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The best number out of today’s report on sales of newly built homes is not the 7.3 percent bump up in signed contracts, it’s the drop in inventories to a 6.5 month supply.

That number is based on a quicker sales pace and a drop of 5000 in the absolute number of newly built homes on the market.

That volume is the lowest since at least 1963, according to Miller Tabak’s Peter Boockvar, who worries that the supply of existing homes is still simply too much for anyone to be touting the builders.

“The best response on the part of builders is to shoot themselves in the foot for as long as they can financially stand, so the market can more quickly absorb the excess inventory of existing homes which make up most of the overall market,” writes Boockvar.

Aristar’s JT Smith chimes in on the actual April sales number: “Unadjusted sales of 32k makes April 2011 tied for the worst April sales number in recorded history.”

My concern is not over the inventory of newly built homes. I think it’s a big positive. My problem is the glut of bargain-priced REO (bank owned) homes against which the builders compete.

Check out a chart we re-made from data by the Calculated Risk Blog.

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Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/43151710?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS