Confidence, or lack thereof, is also still keeping some sellers sidelined.

“There always is a tendency to time the market, which we know is becoming a little bit harder to do,” said Budge Huskey, CEO of Coldwell Banker in an interview on CNBC. “It’s an assessment of their overall impressions of the economy. I think there’s still a little hesitation. People want to see stronger economic growth, people want to see more progress made toward unemployment rates and just feel better about moving on.”

Lack of inventory means it is a seller’s market, despite so much hesitance by potential sellers themselves. That will keep home prices strong, unless and until more people decide to list their homes and home builders ramp up production, which they have been so far slow to do.

(Read more: $1 million summer homes)

It begs the question, what is housing worth today, market-to-market? A million dollars may buy a McMansion in Oklahoma, but barely buy a bedroom in Manhattan.

In an effort to gauge differing values, CNBC is trawling the million-dollar market again, this time in a “back-to-school” edition.

Starting on “Squawk Box” this Friday, two reporters will show two homes without disclosing their locations; they will document the interiors, exteriors, marketed features and one unique bonus offered by each home.

Real estate maven Dolly Lenz will decide which house gives buyers a better bang for the buck.

We will then reveal where the two houses are located, and with that added to the mix, Lenz will choose a winner. That house will then go up against the next mystery location on the next show.

(Follow along on Twitter with the hashtag #MillionDollarHome and see the early winners here as well).

—By CNBC’s Diana Olick. Follow her on Twitter @Diana_Olick.

Questions?Comments? facebook.com/DianaOlickCNBC

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101009330

San Francisco’s luxury homes are in high demand.

Mark Calvey
Senior Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

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Luxury home values in the Bay Area hit their highest level since the fourth quarter of 2008, with the latest figures marking the fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year gains.

The value of luxury homes rose 8.7 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier and are up 3.2 percent from last year’s fourth quarter, according to the First Republic Prestige Home Index.

The average luxury home in the Bay Area is worth $2.82 million.

Los Angeles area values rose 7.1 percent from a year ago and 1.9 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012. The average luxury home in Los Angeles is worth $2.1 million.

San Diego posted more modest gains, with luxury home values there rising 2.8 percent from a year ago and 3.6 percent from the fourth quarter. The average home value in San Diego is $1.7 million.

“Luxury home prices rose strongly in the San Francsico Bay Area and Los Angeles, and continued to recover in San Diego,” said Katherine August-deWilde, president and chief operating officer at First Republic Bank, (NYSE: FRC) which produces its report on luxury home prices every quarter with Fiserv CSW, a provider of property valuation services to the banking industry.

“Limited inventory exists in many areas, and buyer demand is accelerating for properties in the most desirable neighborhoods. Many homes have received multiple offers and are selling over the asking prices,” August-deWilde said.

Those hallmarks of the Bay Area housing market was captured in a Financial Times report last week, looking at all the tech wealth flowing into real estate.

Janis Stone of TRI Coldwell Banker in San Francisco sees strong demand from cash buyers, looking for homes in the $3 million to $6 million range.

Mark Calvey covers banking and finance for the San Francisco Business Times.

Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2013/06/san-francisco-luxury-homes-real-estate.html

Through the use of technology, marketing, and presence in the San Francisco Bay Area, Climb is becoming the brokerage of the future. With my experience and relationships, I wanted to be a part of that change.

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) February 12, 2013

San Francisco-based Climb Real Estate Group is pleased to announce their affiliation with Michelle Balog, who will join the real estate team as Sales Director. An accomplished residential real estate agent, Michelle is one of San Francisco‘s top 50 Realtors and has sold everything from parking spaces to multi-million dollar homes. With a reputation based on experience from her numerous transactions, she has built strong relationships with her fellow Realtors as a professional who not only gets the job done but always does the right thing.

“I was attracted by the company’s mission to revolutionize the real estate industry,” Michelle said. “Through the use of technology, marketing, and presence in the San Francisco Bay Area, Climb is becoming the brokerage of the future. With my experience and relationships, I wanted to be a part of that change.”

Michelle Balog comes to Climb with over 12 years of sales experience in residential general brokerage. Most recently, she has been consistently recognized as being one of the very top performers at Vanguard Properties. She has also been recognized as a top producer at Pacific Union International and TRI Coldwell Banker. Her background has helped Michelle Balog to make an easy transition into her current role with Climb Real Estate Group. Having worked at some of the city’s top brokerages, she has had a chance to see several different approaches to real estate and she is excited about Climb’s innovative marketing. Climb has been a progressive company to watch and was recently named one of the country’s Next Generation Brokerages by Better Homes and Gardens.

Tiffany Combs, Climb’s Managing Broker, said, “I am pleased to announce that Michelle has joined the Climb family. She is an important part of our commitment to hire San Francisco’s top tier real estate agents. In addition, Michelle’s decision to join the company is a clear endorsement of Climb Real Estate Group and of the hard work and commitment of each and every one of our associates. I am excited to be partnering with Michelle and our entire management team, including Sales Leader Sean Sullivan, and will continue to work towards our future.”

“We are thrilled to have Michelle Balog on our team. She represents a new era for Climb Real Estate Group,” says Mark Choey, a top agent and co-founder of Climb. “As I have always said, we are in this for the long term, and we do what we do day in and day out so we can deliver the best possible service to our buyers and sellers throughout the Bay Area.”

As Sales Director, Michelle will still continue to provide her buyers and sellers excellent service with their real estate needs, and as a part of the senior management team at Climb Real Estate will be assisting and mentoring Climb’s sales team as they continue to grow and succeed in San Francisco’s vibrant real estate community. She is the most recent addition to a rapidly growing team of talented real estate professionals at Climb Real Estate Group. “I am honored to join Climb Real Estate Group,” says Balog. “We are strategically well positioned to to serve the needs of buyers and sellers in San Francisco for all their residential and leasing real estate needs.”

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Article source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/climbwelcomes/michellebalog/prweb10420616.htm

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SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ – Nina Hatvany, the top individual residential real estate agent in San Francisco, has joined the Pacific Union International family.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130128/AQ49519)

Hatvany, who was TRI Coldwell Banker’s #1 top producing individual agent for over 20 years, posted over $180 million in residential real estate sales in 2012. She represents both buyers and sellers of luxury homes, condominiums and apartment buildings.

“Pacific Union is honored to have Nina join our firm,” said Patrick Barber , President – San Francisco Region. “Nina is an exceptional individual and a stellar real estate professional. Her commitment to her clients’ best interests, her unparalleled market knowledge, and her high standards of excellence and integrity match perfectly with Pacific Union‘s standards of elite performance.”

“The international exposure and cachet of Pacific Union‘s association with Christie’s International Real Estate will provide a fabulous showcase for my high-end listings,” said Hatvany. “With that in hand, and now that my career is established, I am eager to move into a period of growth and high energy along with my daughter and son, Natalie and Paul. Pacific Union gives us that platform in a warm and supportive environment.”

Hatvany has a uniquely deep perspective on the world of real estate, having also spent over 30 years in real estate development. She helmed several condominium and townhouse development projects in Palo Alto, then turned her talents to remodeling and earned a contractor’s license. She has refurbished several Bay Area apartment buildings and has restored and rehabilitated numerous homes in San Francisco herself.

Prior to her real estate ventures, Nina was a professor at the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University and later the Graduate School of Business at Berkeley, California. She holds a M.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford in psychology and is widely recognized as one of the best-trained negotiators in the business.

Hatvany, who is originally from London, and her husband have lived in San Francisco for thirty years, where they raised three children. She is active in the community and is a former board member of both Big Brothers and Sisters of the Bay Area and International Women’s Forum, and is a current executive board member of Larkin Street Youth Services, which provides services and shelter to homeless youth.

About Pacific Union International
Pacific Union International is the San Francisco Bay Area‘s premier luxury real estate brand operating in seven regions, including the East Bay, Contra Costa County, Marin County, Napa County, San Francisco, Sonoma County, and the Tahoe/Truckee area.

With offices in eight Northern California counties, Pacific Union offers a full range of personal and commercial real-estate services including buying, selling, and relocation.

Locally owned, Pacific Union‘s leadership operates with an entrepreneurial mindset and unwavering commitment to deliver exceptional service and expertise to ensure deep, long-standing client and agent relationships.

For more information, please visit us at www.pacunion.com, get our real estate news and insights at blog.pacunion.com, or find us on Facebook (facebook.com/pacificunionrealestate) and Twitter (@pacunion).

SOURCE Pacific Union International

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Article source: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/superstar-real-estate-professional-nina-hatvany-joins-pacific-union-188724621.html

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

“We did have a brief window of opportunity—or now it seems brief, it actually lasted quite awhile—during the housing downturn where we had, for the first time in years something approaching reasonable affordability in the Bay Area,” said Carolyn Said, economics and real estate reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, on KQED Public Radio’s Forum show. “First-time home buyers could find a home in the $300,000 price range. [That home wasn't] necessarily in San Francisco, but in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, and without even going way out to the outer edges of the counties.”

And homes prices in San Francisco dipped as well.

Affordability was “the highest we have seen in 25 years in 2010, early 2011,” said Rick Turley, president of Coldwell Banker for the San Francisco Bay Area.

This Golden Age of Affordability may have come to an end, at least for now. But here’s the good news: If you didn’t buy a home in the past few years, you only sort of missed the boat.

Low Interest Rates

An advantageous part of the affordability equation is still applicable in the form of historically low interest rates, according to Said. “[Rates] are still right around 3.5 percent, which is just amazing when you think of it,” she said.

“That’s a positive for people looking to buy a house. Their buying power is really more because their effective monthly payment is still going to be less, even if they’re paying a little more [for the property].”

In addition to low interest rates, there’s some other good news for would-be home buyers. The Federal Housing Administration still offers loans requiring relatively small down payments.

FHA Loans

“In order to have home ownership, you need to have a down payment, which people starting out in their careers often don’t have,” said Said. She said FHA loan are available with a “3.5 percent down payment if you have decent enough credit, and of course it helps to have a stable income.” A down payment of less than 20 percent requires the purchase of mortgage insurance, but even with that added cost, the low percentage required up front should make the initial plunge more affordable.

Micro-Markets

It’s also important to remember that the Bay Area is a diverse region, and with that diversity comes price range.

“We tend to roll things up as the ‘Bay Area’ in general, but we’re probably 30 micro-markets,” said Turley.

You may have missed your window of opportunity to own a house in San Francisco and Palo Alto proper, but there are still relatively affordable places in the Bay Area.

“More affordable neighborhoods are in Oakland, eastern Contra Costa County, and other parts of the East Bay, as well as in some San Jose neighborhoods,” said Jed Kolko, chief economist for Trulia, an online real estate company.

These places might not have the cachet of the Marina district, but they still offer many of the benefits of living in the Bay Area: good weather,  a decent job market and proximity to outdoor recreation.

And even if you have to pay a bit more to enter the market, chances are you still will get a decent return on your investment.

Still Time to Make a Good Investment

“Historically, since World War II, housing has appreciated … maybe half a percent or a percent ahead of inflation,” said Said. “And that is normal for our country. If you look at [the value of your house] going up 3.5 percent a year over the next 20 years that’s still a substantial appreciation.”

True, that’s not a doubling in value that earlier California generations enjoyed. But Said said that “given what’s been happening in Silicon Valley, with the tremendous demand for housing and the tremendous amount of money that is out there for people working at high-tech companies, the housing in Silicon Valley is not following normal economic paths. It is fueled by all this tech money and from that perspective, it’s perfectly possible that your house will run way up there.”

Finding a Place in the Bay Area Was Never Easy

If you should find yourself put on the spot about why you didn’t jump while prices were lower, you can always blame a lack of credit.

“One of the reasons why people haven’t been able to take advantage of the relatively lower prices and low mortgage rates during the past couple of years is that mortgage credit has been very tight,” said Kolko. “Banks have been reluctant to lend to people who don’t have high credit scores.” The new mortgage rules announced Thursday might encourage banks to be more willing to lend to borrowers who meet income and credit guidelines, he said, so that credit could become easier for some people to obtain.

And remember, San Francisco is a world-class city. Affordability here is a relative term.

“It’s as if God wanted the Bay Area to be expensive,” said Kolko. Not only does the region’s relatively mild weather attract people, but because the region is “hemmed in by the ocean on one side, the bay and the mountains on the other, there’s very little available land to build. The Bay Area’s not like places in Texas or other parts of the South where you can spread out in all directions.”

And there are other limits on building…

“Regulations on building are particularly strict in the Bay Area,” said Kolko. “That makes it even more difficult to build new housing, both in the Bay Area and in much of California, and that adds to the high cost.”

So if you didn’t get around to buying a house when prices were low — take solace in the fact that prices weren’t ever that low.

Article source: http://blogs.kqed.org/newsfix/2013/01/10/if-youre-in-the-market-for-a-home-in-the-bay-area-yes-you-missed-the-boat-sort-of/

With an average home listing price of $1.658 million, Newport ranked second among the most expensive real estate markets in the country, according to Coldwell Banker’s annual Home Listing Report released this week.

That’s down a spot from last year, when Newport was at the top of the national list.

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Bay Area suburb Los Altos ranked No. 1.

Of course, that Newport has ranked high in expensive housing is hardly a surprise, said Rick Jenkins, regional vice president of Coldwell for Orange County and desert regions.

“Newport is constantly well up there,” he said. “Certainly close to, if not at the top.”

And that’s a good thing, said Tricia Moore, executive vice president of the Newport Beach Assn. of Realtors.

“Overall I think it’s a positive for the city. It’s the same as a school getting a Blue Ribbon Award,” she said. “We’re a desirable community.”

Costa Mesa, at 19th most expensive in California, was the second highest ranked city in Orange County with an average asking price of $851,799. Irvine, with an average listing of $721,035, ranked 28th most expensive in the state.

Newport held down the sole Southern California spot in the list’s top six most expensive markets nationwide. The other five are Silicon Valley suburbs. The top average asking price? About $1.7 million.

According to the report, there’s about a $1.6-million drop down to the average price in the most affordable market surveyed: Redford, Mich. at $60,490.

Despite the fact that 12 of the list’s most expensive markets are in California, the state overall was less expensive on average than Hawaii and Massachusetts, which were most and second most expensive, respectively.

The report is based on the average listing prices of four-bedroom, two-bathroom homes in 2,500 U.S. markets from January to June.

Jenkins said the report is meant more as a “snapshot” of a particular type of home in certain areas than as a broad portrait of the housing market.

In general, he said, that picture is getting rosier.

“Broadly and generally, our Newport market is extremely good,” he said. Inventory counts have gone down throughout Orange County, which means demand is higher. And the percentage of sales categorized as distressed — as in the case of a foreclosure or short sale — is down from more than 50% in 2010 to about 13% now.

Those indicators, especially in combination, Jenkins said, point to a strong housing market.

“All in all we are just pleased with the real estate market as it’s going and we look forward to it continuing,” he said. “Frankly, it’s a good time to sell.”

Moore said she’s a little less optimistic, as the country hurtles toward that looming “fiscal cliff.”

“[In Newport] we saw the market starting to improve, I would say in July and August of this year.” Whether that continues, she said, “I guess it’ll depend on what transpires in the next 45 or 60 days.”

jill.cowan@latimes.com

Twitter: @jillcowan

Article source: http://www.dailypilot.com/news/tn-dpt-1130-newport-housing-prices-20121129,0,2509969.story