Where are the DINK couples most populous, and powerful?  According to DINK Life, San Francisco is the best place for dual income, no kids couples, aka DINKs.  Here are the top 3 cities we share honors with.

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Unless you’ve had your head in the sand, you know DINKs flock to San Francisco, a city famed for having more dog-raising families than kid-raising ones. So perfect is this fair city that DINK Life headquarters in San Francisco (they’re even writing a book about the DINK lifestyle).

DINK Money and Real Estate

DINKs are so powerful a demographic they got their own acronym sometime in the 1980s; along with that acronym came a flood of targeted marketing and spending-habit studies. No surprise that with a much freer expendable income than their child-rearing brethren, these American adults spend money differently. That includes how they spend it on real estate.

San Francisco DINKs and Dogs

Here in San Francisco where inventory is tight, we have to expect some overlap between parent homebuyers and DINK homebuyers, especially dog owners. Both groups, as homebuyers, will want yards.

But families with children are fast leaving the city, per the Huffington Post: “According to statistics presented to a special hearing of the Board of Supervisors on Thursday, San Francisco has the lowest percentage of children of any major city in the country. Only 13.4 percent of the city’s approximately 800,000 residents are under the age of 18.”

That leaves the yards wide open for DINK buyers, who might compete for something like this, a 3 bedroom, 2 bath condo on California Street. Note the smallish kitchen, sexy bath, and shared yard– all very DINK- listed at $995K.

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DINK Demands

Today’s  DINK buyers want to be able to walk to as many essential services as possible. Alex Clark, a Realtor® in San Francisco confirms: “DINKs are definitely different than San Francisco families with kids looking to purchase.  Walkability is important, as is access to recreation.  Big on the list is close access to restaurants, and low on the list are designer kitchens…as they tend to cook less. Parking is less and less of a priority, hence the importance of walkability or the increasingly more popular “bike-ability.”

This demand has real force on the industry.  The George Washington University School of Business reports that walkable neighborhoods have now exceeded suburban ones in terms of demand.  Their study found that for each 6% improvement in a neighborhood’s walkability score, rent prices for office and retail space increase 7%, apartment rents increase 6%, and home sale prices go up $133/ft2. So in a sense, DINKs demanding close-in property help keep the price of said property in this city as expensive as it is—and getting more so.

For example, take this tenancy in common. Formerly thought to be a troublesome type of property to sell or buy (due to fractional financing, which this unit requires), this Castro/Duboce area TIC lists at $899K.

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Message to Developers

With no kids and need for less space overall and a strong desire for walk-(or bike)-ability to both work and daily essential services and amenities, DINKs have potential to influence future housing construction. Their priorities—and buying power—encourage small scale homes, closely centered near an already established retail/business area. This preference for a more close-in, clustered style of living has already made its stamp on American real estate. As pointed out in DINK Life’s recent article “DINKs Quickly Becoming the Power Couples of Real Estate,” the performance  of suburban property in this country during the recent recession shows that “as U.S. home values declined from 2008- 2011, areas located far from urban hubs have lost value most dramatically. Areas close-in, however, have either held their value or increased it.”

Confirming this information, The Brookings Institute, in an economic analysis of “walkable” neighborhoods, explains: “This distinction in housing proximity is particularly important since it appears that the United States may be at the beginning of a structural real estate market shift….. a preference for mixed-use, compact, amenity-rich, transit-accessible neighborhoods or walkable places.”

With plenty of all of the above, no wonder San Francisco made the #1 best city for DINKs. Can’t you just see them in this Valencia St. condo, strolling to the bars and restaurants, partying on the roof deck, and generally enjoying child-free fun in the Mission?

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The city is rife with DINK-worthy real estate- that we all must agree. All that’s left to debate is what’s the best neighborhood in which to live the DINK lifestyle. So we leave that to DINK readers to decide– the comment section awaits.

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/2012/12/06/sf-top-city-for-dink-couples-rich-in-dink-worthy-real-estate/

Where are the DINK couples most populous, and powerful?  According to DINK Life, San Francisco is the best place for dual income, no kids couples, aka DINKs.  Here are the top 3 cities we share honors with.

<!– –>

Unless you’ve had your head in the sand, you know DINKs flock to San Francisco, a city famed for having more dog-raising families than kid-raising ones. So perfect is this fair city that DINK Life headquarters in San Francisco (they’re even writing a book about the DINK lifestyle).

DINK Money and Real Estate

DINKs are so powerful a demographic they got their own acronym sometime in the 1980s; along with that acronym came a flood of targeted marketing and spending-habit studies. No surprise that with a much freer expendable income than their child-rearing brethren, these American adults spend money differently. That includes how they spend it on real estate.

San Francisco DINKs and Dogs

Here in San Francisco where inventory is tight, we have to expect some overlap between parent homebuyers and DINK homebuyers, especially dog owners. Both groups, as homebuyers, will want yards.

But families with children are fast leaving the city, per the Huffington Post: “According to statistics presented to a special hearing of the Board of Supervisors on Thursday, San Francisco has the lowest percentage of children of any major city in the country. Only 13.4 percent of the city’s approximately 800,000 residents are under the age of 18.”

That leaves the yards wide open for DINK buyers, who might compete for something like this, a 3 bedroom, 2 bath condo on California Street. Note the smallish kitchen, sexy bath, and shared yard– all very DINK- listed at $995K.

<!– –>

DINK Demands

Today’s  DINK buyers want to be able to walk to as many essential services as possible. Alex Clark, a Realtor® in San Francisco confirms: “DINKs are definitely different than San Francisco families with kids looking to purchase.  Walkability is important, as is access to recreation.  Big on the list is close access to restaurants, and low on the list are designer kitchens…as they tend to cook less. Parking is less and less of a priority, hence the importance of walkability or the increasingly more popular “bike-ability.”

This demand has real force on the industry.  The George Washington University School of Business reports that walkable neighborhoods have now exceeded suburban ones in terms of demand.  Their study found that for each 6% improvement in a neighborhood’s walkability score, rent prices for office and retail space increase 7%, apartment rents increase 6%, and home sale prices go up $133/ft2. So in a sense, DINKs demanding close-in property help keep the price of said property in this city as expensive as it is—and getting more so.

For example, take this tenancy in common. Formerly thought to be a troublesome type of property to sell or buy (due to fractional financing, which this unit requires), this Castro/Duboce area TIC lists at $899K.

<!– –>

Message to Developers

With no kids and need for less space overall and a strong desire for walk-(or bike)-ability to both work and daily essential services and amenities, DINKs have potential to influence future housing construction. Their priorities—and buying power—encourage small scale homes, closely centered near an already established retail/business area. This preference for a more close-in, clustered style of living has already made its stamp on American real estate. As pointed out in DINK Life’s recent article “DINKs Quickly Becoming the Power Couples of Real Estate,” the performance  of suburban property in this country during the recent recession shows that “as U.S. home values declined from 2008- 2011, areas located far from urban hubs have lost value most dramatically. Areas close-in, however, have either held their value or increased it.”

Confirming this information, The Brookings Institute, in an economic analysis of “walkable” neighborhoods, explains: “This distinction in housing proximity is particularly important since it appears that the United States may be at the beginning of a structural real estate market shift….. a preference for mixed-use, compact, amenity-rich, transit-accessible neighborhoods or walkable places.”

With plenty of all of the above, no wonder San Francisco made the #1 best city for DINKs. Can’t you just see them in this Valencia St. condo, strolling to the bars and restaurants, partying on the roof deck, and generally enjoying child-free fun in the Mission?

<!– –>

The city is rife with DINK-worthy real estate- that we all must agree. All that’s left to debate is what’s the best neighborhood in which to live the DINK lifestyle. So we leave that to DINK readers to decide– the comment section awaits.

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/2012/12/06/sf-top-city-for-dink-couples-rich-in-dink-worthy-real-estate/

Still, while mortgage refinances soar to a two-year high, weekly numbers from the Mortgage Bankers Association show that applications to purchase a home are down by 6 percent over the past year.

Jason and Pascale Royal would love to move up to a bigger home. With a new baby and a dual income, they are even willing to pay more for a bigger mortgage. The trouble is, the mortgage on their south Florida home is about $100,000 more than the home is currently worth. To add insult to injury, they can’t get any help from the bank or the government.

“Because we’ve been current on our payments and have never been late or missed one, we don’t qualify for any of these short sales or any of these special programs to help underwater borrowers,” says Jason Royal.

Jason and Royal are among 11.4 million borrowers, or nearly 24 percent of all residential properties with a mortgage, that are currently in a negative equity position, according to CoreLogic. In addition, 2.3 million borrowers have less than 5 percent equity, referred to as near negative equity. But mortgage analyst Mark Hanson takes it one step further, adding that most move-up buyers need to just 6 percent extra to pay the Realtor, but 20 percent to put down on the next mortgage. He therefore puts real or “effective” negative equity at 80% loan to value; that is, you probably need about 20 percent equity in your current home to move up. He calculates about 25 million borrowers don’t meet that amount of equity. That’s twice as many underwater borrowers as most analysts and politicians purport.

“Investors and first-timers have come in and out of the market throughout history at various times for various reason, but underpinning housing has always been move-up/across/down buyers,” says Hanson. “Half of the repeat buyers have died. They are down for the count due to negative equity, “effective” negative equity, low quality credit, or legacy 2nd liens they can’t extinguish. This is a huge problem for anybody betting on ‘escape velocity’ or a ‘durable recovery’ in housing.”

The Royals could just walk away, as many like them already have. The Obama administration has been pushing its program that pays lenders to slash mortgage balances, but this week the regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said the two mortgage giants will not participate. The administration claims reducing principal will keep borrowers from walking away. Fannie and Freddie’s regulator, Edward DeMarco, claims offering principal reduction will cause current borrowers to miss payments just to qualify. The Royals appear to prove both of them wrong. They won’t walk away and they won’t stop paying.

“I bought this house, I sat down, I signed the paperwork, I knew the numbers, and so I’ve made my payments as committed, and I don’t want to stop paying to create a situation where the bank wants to get me out of the house. I’d rather do it in a way that’s fair to both parties,” says Jason.

But the Royals also won’t move, and therefore won’t be able to contribute to the housing recovery.

Questions?  Comments?  And follow me on Twitter @Diana_Olick