The $510,000 median for the nine-county Bay Area represents a jump of 30.8 percent from a year ago and a record 17 percent above March’s median price, said DataQuick, a San Diego real estate service that produced the report.

“The Bay Area is getting back to normal fast,” said Andrew LePage, a DataQuick analyst. “We’ve had just the right ingredients for big increases in the median and other price measures. We’ve got drum-tight inventory of homes for sale, an unprecedented level of investors chasing homes, interest rates lower than most of us alive have ever seen, and changes in the types of homes selling and where they’re selling.”

The median represents a midpoint, meaning half of Bay Area homes sold for more than $510,000 and half sold for less. It is influenced both by actual appreciation in home values and by a changing mix of homes sold.

The Bay Area median peaked at $665,000 in summer 2007. During the real estate downturn, bargain-basement foreclosures and short sales helped drag the median down to a low of $375,000 in March 2009. Now, with far fewer distress sales and more high-end homes changing hands, a similar dynamic is buoying it. DataQuick said the median has regained 59 percent of its losses.

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: Csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Bay-Area-median-home-price-hits-510-000-4520145.php

So few homes are listed for sale that agents are resurrecting old ways of drumming up business – going door to door, leaving cards and flyers and writing personal letters, asking owners if they’re interested in selling. Social networking and e-mail blasts are being used to increase inventory as well.

“People are going old-school, farming their territory,” said Lynda DiVito, an agent with Redfin in the East Bay, using real estate agent slang for canvassing neighborhoods.

While tight inventory is a national trend, it’s especially pronounced in the Bay Area.

Alameda County, for instance, had 949 homes for sale in February, down 64 percent from the 2,617 on the market at the same time last year, according to data from Realtor.com, the listings website of the National Association of Realtors. Contra Costa County had 899, down 58 percent from 2,152 in February 2012.

“Those are striking reductions in inventory,” said Errol Samuelson, president of Realtor.com.

While inventory numbers did tick up slightly from January to February, that was a normal seasonal change, not an indication of the logjam loosening.

“After seasonal adjustments, inventory is still falling; the underlying trend is still downward,” said Jed Kolko, chief economist with real estate site Trulia.com.

However, he thinks the rate of decline is slowing.

“Inventory tends to fall the most sharply after prices bottom, as no one wants to sell at the bottom, they just want to buy,” he said. Trulia shows that Bay Area prices bottomed more than a year ago.

Price a factor

Sellers remain reluctant and elusive for several reasons. Those who are still underwater – owing more than their house is worth – have the obvious impediment of not wanting to do a short sale.

But many others “feel underwater based on the price they paid,” Samuelson said. That is, someone who paid $700,000 for a home in 2007 won’t feel good about selling it for $625,000 right now, even though the sale would cover their remaining mortgage.

Some potential sellers, seeing prices surge, are hoping to hold out for more. Others who might want to move up to a bigger house fear that the market frenzy means they won’t be able to find or afford anything else.

Now that it’s spring, the busiest real estate season, more homes should start hitting the market. But many agents have been taking matters into their own hands, making pitches directly to potential sellers about why it’s time to get off the fence.

Although there are numerous online sites to track homes for sale, “the way the market is set up now is forcing us to go back to the beginning where (agents) walk up to a door and knock and say, ‘Hi, how are you, my name is … ‘ ” said Adelaida Mejia, a Realtor with Vanguard Property in San Francisco.

Personal touch

She recently worked with a client seeking a home in San Francisco’s Clarendon Heights neighborhood, above Cole Valley. After losing out with bids, she walked the neighborhood with him and identified houses he particularly liked. Mejia looked up the homeowners and wrote personal letters to each, explaining that her client loved the area and was seeking a house there.

“Three weeks later, one person called me back and said ‘We loved your letter, we’d love to talk even though we’re not on the market, come on over,’ ” she said.

Rich and Renee Gimigliano, the homeowners, said they received two or three agent solicitations a week after unsuccessfully trying to sell the house last year, but ignored them because they were form letters.

“Adelaida’s note was different; more personalized,” Rich Gimigliano said. “We were planning to put the house on the market again, but the note just pre-empted that.”

Her client ended up visiting the house, making an all-cash offer and buying it. “It was a really stress-free experience for both” the buyer and seller, she said.

Beating the bushes for sellers is an about-face from just 18 months ago, when the challenge was to find people who wanted to buy.

A corresponding trend is that homes are selling very quickly.

‘Unbelievable’

“The median days on market in Contra Costa is 13 days – that’s unbelievable,” Samuelson said. A year ago it was 33 days.

Redfin has identified another trend it calls “flash sales” – homes that sell within 24 hours of being listed, usually because a buyer swoops in with an offer too good to refuse. Often, those are buyers who have lost other bidding wars and are determined to land a property.

In the past six months, almost 1,000 Bay Area properties went under contract within one day, Redfin said.

“I just had that experience at a house in the Oakland hills,” DiVito said. “I held the brokers’ tour just before putting it on the market. A buyer and agent walked in and offered us our list price in cash on the spot.”

Underscoring how much the market has changed, she said her sellers had tried to sell the house a year ago “and could not move this property, even though they lowered the price three times.”

Same-day offer

The sellers, who were buying a new home and needed to sell quickly, were happy to take the same-day offer since a cash deal meant it couldn’t be derailed by problems with financing or appraisals.

“Flash-sale terms tend to be really good because (buyers) really want to lock down that property quickly,” DiVito said. “They’re more willing to meet the sellers’ needs to scoop it up before anyone else gets it.”

What happens next with inventory is a big question hanging over the real estate recovery.

“My best guess is that you’ll see an orderly return of inventory to the market,” Samuelson said. “I don’t expect that you’ll see the floodgates open and torrents of properties hit the market. But for each percentage point increase in price, there will be some people who for life reasons have wanted to sell for the past five years – their kids moved out, they got divorced – and now feel that the time is right and they have enough equity.”

Tight inventory, fast sales

The number of homes for sale in the six largest Bay Area counties has dropped dramatically compared with a year ago, according to data from the Multiple Listing Service. Correspondingly, the time the homes stay on the market has also dropped.

Source: Realtor.com

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Homes-sell-faster-than-ever-in-Bay-Area-4375058.php

Thursday
24 January 2013
2:45 p.m.

A San Francisco Bay area real estate firm has acquired three extended-stay hotels in Las Vegas for a combined $34.4 million.

Hall Equities Group acquired the 359-room Hotel Suites of America for $11 million and the 96-room Cameron Suites for $4.9 million in November.

Those deals came after Hall spent $18.5 million in May for the 396-room Emerald Suites five miles south of the Strip.

Hotel Suites is on Paradise Road, across the street from Wynn Las Vegas’ golf course, and Cameron Suites is across from the Orleans, on Cameron Street off of Tropicana Avenue.

All three properties will eventually be branded Emerald Suites. They were being refurbished as of last month. Hotel units have a refrigerator, stove, oven and dishwasher.

Based in Walnut Creek, Calif., Hall Equities says it manages more than 8 million square feet of office, retail, multi-family, hospitality, industrial and self-storage facilities.

Share

• Comment
• Print
• E-mail
• Share
  • Facebook
  • Fark
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Stumble
• Tweet

Article source: http://www.vegasinc.com/news/2013/jan/24/real-estate-firm-buys-3-las-vegas-extended-stay-ho/

Thursday
24 January 2013
2:45 p.m.

A San Francisco Bay area real estate firm has acquired three extended-stay hotels in Las Vegas for a combined $34.4 million.

Hall Equities Group acquired the 359-room Hotel Suites of America for $11 million and the 96-room Cameron Suites for $4.9 million in November.

Those deals came after Hall spent $18.5 million in May for the 396-room Emerald Suites five miles south of the Strip.

Hotel Suites is on Paradise Road, across the street from Wynn Las Vegas’ golf course, and Cameron Suites is across from the Orleans, on Cameron Street off of Tropicana Avenue.

All three properties will eventually be branded Emerald Suites. They were being refurbished as of last month. Hotel units have a refrigerator, stove, oven and dishwasher.

Based in Walnut Creek, Calif., Hall Equities says it manages more than 8 million square feet of office, retail, multi-family, hospitality, industrial and self-storage facilities.

Share

• Comment
• Print
• E-mail
• Share
  • Facebook
  • Fark
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Stumble
• Tweet

Article source: http://www.vegasinc.com/news/2013/jan/24/real-estate-firm-buys-3-las-vegas-extended-stay-ho/

Bay Area home sales are continuing to rise, with the median sale price the highest it has been in nearly four years, according to a real estate report released Friday.

In the nine-county Bay Area, 8,461 homes were sold last month — a 22.9 percent increase from the same time last year, according to a report by the real estate information service DataQuick.

The average figure for July, based on data recorded since 1988, is 9,371 home sales.

The median price for a new home or condo was $421,000, which is a 1% increase from $417,000 in June and a 12.6% jump from July 2011.

July’s median price was the highest recorded since it was $447,000 in August 2008.

The increase appears to be connected to a higher share of sales in the mid-to-upper price ranges, according to DataQuick.

Median sale prices in San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Solano, Marin, Napa, San Mateo and Sonoma counties all increased in the past year with Napa County seeing the biggest price increase at a 32.6% jump.

Median prices in that county were at $281,000 in July 2011 and reached $372,500 this July, according to DataQuick.

The highest home prices in the region this summer are in San Francisco with $714,000 listed as the median cost, while the lowest can be found in Solano County at $188,000.

Sasha Lekach, Bay City News

— Bay City News Service

Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.

<!–

E-mail a friend a link to this story.

–>

Article source: http://www.pleasantonweekly.com/news/show_story.php?id=9901

Bay Area home sales are continuing to rise, with the median sale price the highest it has been in nearly four years, according to a real estate report released Wednesday, Aug. 15.

In the nine-county Bay Area, 8,461 homes were sold last month — a 22.9 percent increase from the same time last year, according to a report by the real estate information service DataQuick.

The average figure for July, based on data recorded since 1988, is 9,371 home sales. The median price for a new home or condo was $421,000, which is a 1 percent increase from $417,000 in June and a 12.6 percent jump from July 2011. July’s median price was the highest recorded since it was $447,000 in August 2008.

The increase appears to be connected to a higher share of sales in the mid-to-upper price ranges, according to DataQuick. Median sale prices in Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano, Marin, Napa and Sonoma counties all increased in the past year, with Napa County seeing the biggest price increase at a 32.6 percent jump. Median prices in that county were at $281,000 in July 2011 and reached $372,500 this July, according to DataQuick.

The highest home prices in the region this summer are in San Francisco with $714,000 listed as the median cost, while the lowest can be found in Solano County at $188,000.

— Bay City News Service

Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.

<!–

E-mail a friend a link to this story.

–>

Article source: http://mv-voice.com/news/show_story.php?id=5969

In September of 2011, he began as co-host on “Bay Area Game Day” on 95.7 FM, which is a college football radio that show that also features former Stanford center Mike McClaughlin and ex-Miami (FL) QB and 1992 Heisman winner Gino Torretta.

Olson had a prolific career at UCLA, where he is among school leaders in yards, completions and touchdowns. He was on the rosters of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers and San Francisco 49ers in 2007 after a short stint in NFL Europe.

Stay connected with LostLettermen.com via Facebook, Twitter, E-Mail RSS Follow @lostlettermen

After being cut by the 49ers in July of 2008, Olson tried his hand in the eventually dissolved United National Gridiron League before joining Jones Lang LaSalle. The look back at Olson is part of “UCLA Week” at Lost Lettermen. Drew Olson profile

Article source: http://www.lostlettermen.com/5-29-2012-drew-olson-ucla-whos-hot/

Except this parking lot, at Howard and First streets in San Francisco, is located in one of the hottest commercial real estate markets in the country.

Late last week, New York’s Tishman Speyer Properties closed escrow on the space, which, by the end of next year will be transformed into a 10-story, 286,000-square-foot office building serving “tech tenant demands and needs perfectly,” said Allen Palmer, managing director at Tishman Speyer’s San Francisco office, in an e-mail to Bay Area real estate brokers.

Two distinguishing aspects of the deal: It’s the first “spec development” (i.e. built from the ground up with no signed tenants) in the city since the onset of the recession in 2007, and no debt financing is involved. The land, architectural plans and construction costs – the latter estimated between $180 million and $185 million – is “funded with all equity,” said Palmer.

“Tishman has just turned on the light switch,” said Daniel Cressman, executive vice president at Grubb Ellis, suggesting that San Francisco’s tech-driven market, especially in the South of Market area, may see similar deals in the near future. (Grubb Ellis, which was recently acquired by New York’s BCG Partners, is not involved in the Tishman Speyer deal.)

In fact, Tishman Speyer cut an even bigger spec deal at 222 Second St., which is also a parking lot. Scheduled to begin construction next year and to be open for tenants in the fall of 2014, the “world-class” $100 million, 27-story, 452,000-square-foot high-rise is “purposely designed … to cater to the tech user, yet also appeal to the professional, traditional office space user,” said Palmer.

Partnering with Tishman Speyer in both deals is JPMorgan Chase Asset Management, which bought a majority stake in China Basin Landing in January for $415 million. Like Tishman Speyer, which owns 555 Mission St., another spec project, and Infinity Towers, the upscale condo complex on Spear Street, JPMorgan has identified South of Market as the place to be.

“The demand is relentless, especially for tech space,” said Michael Covarrubias, CEO of TMG Partners, which is putting the finishing touches on the retrofit of 1275 Market St., a 17-story office building across the road from Twitter’s soon-to-be-occupied new headquarters.

The space at Howard and First streets is part of the 1.2 million-square-foot Foundry Square development, originally designed for Sun Microsystems. Three architecturally similar 10-story buildings are occupied by Oracle, the law firm of Orrick, Herrington Sutcliffe and BlackRock, the global investment management company.

The fully leased BlackRock building reportedly has been sold for $240 million by another New York property company to the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio. A second Foundry building, owned by Utah Retirement Systems and leased to Oracle, was put on the market in February, with a reported asking price in the $185 million range, “or just shy of an eye-popping $800 per square foot,” according to Real Estate Alert, an online newsletter.

“Our initial goal is to find one tenant” for the space at Howard and First streets, Palmer told potentially interested brokers. “But don’t let that goal get in your client’s way if they would like to pursue part of the building.”

Buyers’ market: If San Francisco real estate is a little too rich for your blood, how about Oakland? Home sales are up, especially in the condo market, and property developers are keen to show you their wares.

A number of developers and real estate firms, including Holliday Development and Uptown Place, are part of a monthlong business campaign called Passport Oakland, designed to entice folks to experience a city that has had some not-so-good press lately. Five “new home communities” are available for inspection, plus neighborhood tours. Barbecues, wine tasting, deals on meals and $100 gift-card prizes are among other incentives.

More information at passportoakland.com and on Facebook (Facebook.com/PassportOAK) and Twitter (#PassportOAK).

Andrew S. Ross is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Blogging at www.sfgate.com/columns/bottomline. Facebook page: sfg.ly/doACKM. Tweeting: @andrewsross. E-mail: bottomline@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/2012/04/09/BUET1O0RN2.DTL&type=tech

The Associated Press

OAKLAND, Calif. — The Black Panther party preached “power to the people,” but in the San Francisco Bay area’s thriving real estate market, the power is in the property.

In this March 14, 2012 photo, a for sale sign is placed in front of the former home of Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale Oakland, Calif. on Wednesday, March 14, 2012. The house where the Black Panther Party got its start in the late 1960s is now on the market after being sold and remodeled into a trendy showpiece. The bungalow once hosted young revolutionaries Huey Newton and Bobby Seale as they drafted their 10-point party manifesto and unloaded their weapons after their nightly patrols. (AP Photo/Bay Area News Group, Jane Tyska)

Realtors expected to close a deal Friday on the Oakland home where the militant black power group was founded in 1966.

Panther co-founder Bobby Seale’s family sold the house in October for $200,000 to real estate investors who renovated the home with chic maple and quartz upgrades, The Oakland Tribune reported (http://bit.ly/GSQhOX ).

After the improvements, the home was put on the market for $400,000 — almost 40 times what Seale’s parents paid for it in 1960.

Seale said he and Huey Newton drafted the party’s manifesto in the dining room.

“We would come in from patrol at night, unload our weapons at my house, and lay them all out across the long dining room table,” Seale wrote in his 1978 autobiography.

The surrounding streets that armed party members once patrolled in the name of black empowerment are quickly gentrifying, with longtime residents like Seale departing for less expensive suburbs.

Seale, now 75, has worked as a draftsman and a carpenter. He made improvements on the house and wanted to do more, but his sister persuaded him to sell.

The house’s dramatically increased selling price was part of “the same crap that got this financial debacle started in the first place,” he said.

But Seale didn’t hold the cutthroat realities of buying and selling homes in the Bay Area against the new residents.

“People move. Humans move. Power to the people, whether they’re black, white, blue, whatever,” he said.

___

Information from: The Oakland Tribune, http://www.oaklandtribune.com

___

March 23, 2012 05:21 PM EDT

Copyright 2012, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Article source: http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/home-where-black-panther-1396570.html

ShareThis



Email


PDF


Print

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) October 12, 2011

California Property Tour — American Investor Association(AIA) has kicked off a National tour in the San Francisco Area. American Investor Association has scheduled 4 free events Oct 18th – 22nd and you are personally invited to attend.                                        

The opportunities are never ending; AIA is teaching the average person how to invest in real estate with today’s market. They show hard facts on what investors are buying, where they are buying, and how they are paying for it. American Investor Association is so detailed that they show what they are buying(multifamily, single family, Land, tax deeds).

AIA is taking education to the next level. They will be teaching Notes, Factoring, lease to own, Tax deeds, Rentals, Land Contracts. If you are interested in Real Estate it’s time to take advantage of this opportunity. Click here

American Investor Association has been actively involved in today’s changing economy. With that said look at what the government has done with interest rates. They are at an all-time low!! Look at the big picture, 4% rate on a mortgage loan, is amazing for investors. The country has gone through a very large recession; American Investor Association has searched the country to find the best deals and highest returns. It’s time to take action!

To register go to:

http://www.uspropertytour.com or call 801-709-2771 ext 709 or e-mail tlarson(at)nwreal(dot)com

Tony Larson

801-709-2771

http://www.uspropertytour.com

###

Share:

Article source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/10/prweb8870372.htm