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U.S. home prices jumped 10.9 percent in March compared with a year ago, the most since April 2006.

A growing number of buyers are bidding on a tight supply of homes, driving prices higher and helping the housing market recover. The Standard Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index released Tuesday also showed that all 20 cities measured by the report posted year-over-year gains for the third straight month. And prices rose in 15 cities in March from February. That’s up from only 11 in the previous month.

The monthly figures aren’t seasonally adjusted and may reflect the beginning of the spring buying season.

Prices rose in Phoenix by 22.5 percent over the past 12 months, the biggest gain among cities. It was followed by San Francisco (22.2 percent) and Las Vegas (20.6 percent). New York City had the smallest year-over-year increase at 2.6 percent, followed by Cleveland at 4.8 percent.

“Rising home prices may begin to alleviate a lack of housing inventory … by encouraging more homeowners to put their properties on the market,” said Maninder Sibia, an economist with Economic Advisory Service, in a note to clients.

“The housing market is clearly improving.” The index covers roughly half of U.S. homes. It measures prices compared with those in January 2000 and creates a three-month moving average. The March figures are the latest available.

The U.S. housing market is steadily recovering, buoyed by solid job gains and near-record low mortgage rates.

Sales of new homes rose in April to nearly a five-year high. And sales of previously occupied homes ticked up in April to the highest level in three and a half years. Despite the gains, a limited number of homeowners are putting their houses on the market. That’s helped lift home prices. And it’s made builders more willing to ramp up construction. Applications for building permits rose in April to the highest level in nearly five years.

The supply of available homes jumped in April, but was still 14 percent below its level a year earlier. Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow, a real estate data provider, said that the increase in the Case-Shiller index has been skewed higher by cities such as Phoenix and San Francisco.

Fewer homes are available in those areas because many homeowners still owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth.

That makes it difficult to sell. Still, even excluding those markets, home prices are rising steadily nationwide, Humphries said. The increases are “certainly confirmation that the housing market is experiencing a brisk recovery,” he added.

The housing recovery is creating more construction jobs and bolstering the economy in other ways. Higher home prices make homeowners feel wealthier and encourages them to spend more.

Rising prices also encourage more would-be buyers to purchase homes, before prices rise further.

They also enable more homeowners to sell homes, by reducing the number of people who owe more on their mortgages than the homes are worth. Prices have been increasing steadily since last summer.

Still, they are about 29 percent below the peak reached in July 2006. Banks have raised their credit standards since the housing bubble burst and are demanding larger down payments. That’s made it particularly hard for potential first-time buyers to get a mortgage.

Copyright Associated Press

Article source: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Bay-Area-Housing-Prices-Take-Big-Jump-209268641.html

Station 2, the HOK-designed building Shutterfly will likely occupy at Bay Meadows

J.K. Dineen
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

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Shutterfly is looking at possibly moving its corporate headquarters to Bay Meadows in San Mateo, but corporate officials cautioned that nothing has been signed yet.

Several Peninsula brokerages sources stated that the digital personalized photo firm is looking at taking all the office space in Station 2, one of five office buildings slated for the 83-acre former racetrack. The five-building campus will total 763,000 square feet.

Gretchen Sloan, Shutterfly’s director of corporate communications, said that no lease has been signed and that the company continues to look at its options across the Bay Area. The company is growing and currently has 40 job openings, according to its website.

Station 2, located at the southwest corner of Delaware Street and 28th Avenue, is an L-shaped structure composed of two rectangular wings — one parallel to 28th Avenue and the other adjacent to the Caltrain rail line. The building includes large floor plates on levels two through four, with space for retail and active use on a portion of the ground floor. A landscaped courtyard links the building’s two-story office lobby to Delaware Street. Parking is hidden below the building and within its lower levels at the rear of each wing. The building includes 177,000 square feet of office space and 11,000 square feet of retail, which will include a 3,000-square-foot restaurant.

The architect is HOK.

Shutterfly is currently located in Redwood City at 2800 Bridge Pkwy.

Bay Meadows master developers Wilson Meany and Stockbridge Capital Group have submitted building permits for foundation and grading on Station Blocks two, three, and four. The developers have also pulled a superstructure permit for Station Block Two, the building Shutterfly is looking to take, according to Darcy Forsell, an associate planner with the city.

Shutterfly makes photo books, personalized holiday cards, announcements, invitations and stationery, as well as custom home decor products and photo gifts

The potential Shutterfly lease comes as Bay Meadows is making tracks on multiple fronts. This week Wilson Meany and Stockbridge announced that they have started construction on Field House, a 108-unit apartment complex. In addition TRI Pointe Homes and Shea Home are well underway on 156 for sale town homes, 97 of which have been permitted. The 30 homes released so far sold out immediately.

Bay Meadows will also include a 12-acre park and a campus for the Nueva School, an independent school that is building a 2.76-acre high school.

On May 28th Forsell gave San Mateo planning commissioners an update on the project and said that she expects the three Bay Meadows office buildings could be under construction this summer.

A Shutterfly deal at Bay Meadows would be a huge boost for the development, which a decade in the making, is an ambitious effort to build a dense, mixed-use, transit-oriented community in an area that often resists density and change.

J.K. Dineen covers real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.

Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2013/05/bay-meadows-lands-first-big-corporate.html?page=all