The experts at RealtyTrac told 7 On Your Side that home prices have increased 28 percent in the Bay Area from the time the housing market hit bottom in February 2012. In San Francisco, the prices have risen even more dramatically.

Brian Miller saw first hand how frantic the housing market in San Francisco can be right now.

“I found myself being constantly outbid, putting in offers of 20 percent over asking, getting outbid at 50 percent over asking in cash,” Miller said.

That type of activity didn’t surprise Serena Kokjer Greening of Guarantee Mortgage. She says the small number of homes for sale combined with the improved employment picture is leading to bidding wars.

“You’ll see properties getting six, eight, even 20 offers which, you know, hadn’t happened in four to five years here,” Kokjer Greening said.

All those offers mean rising prices taking us closer to the bubble, the point when homes are considered overpriced.

The Vice President of RealtyTrac Daren Blomquist says we’re still 21 percentage points below the peak of the housing bubble in the Bay Area.

“But then if you focus in on the city, that’s where we’re very close actually to the peak of the housing bubble in San Francisco,” he said.

Blomquist says San Francisco is just 6 percentage points from reaching that bubble stage.

“I think it’s pretty dangerous,” he said.

“Today I received probably my eighth denial of a modification,” San Francisco resident Gale Rosboro said.

Rosboro wrote President Barack Obama and the White House forwarded her case to the Treasury Department to assist her in getting a modification from Wells Fargo. So far, even that hasn’t helped.

“They’ve made no move towards working with me to get a modification,” Rosboro said.

In an email, Wells Fargo told 7 On Your Side, “We have worked with Ms. Rosboro for nearly three years and will continue to try to identify options that are appropriate for her individual financial circumstances. Our foreclosure rate is less than 1 percent.”

Ironically, rising home values could make it even more difficult for struggling homeowners to get modifications.

“I think that people are barely hanging on. There have been a lot of cuts and its been very difficult for families,” Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment spokesperson Grace Martinez said.

Blomquist predicts another round of foreclosures in San Francisco in the coming months.

“Four of the last five months in San Francisco foreclosure starts have increased from the previous month,” he said.

Blomquist advises home buyers to be patient and not feel you have to buy right now.

Miller waited and found something he could afford. “It feels great, I mean I’m very excited, he said.

RealtyTrac says the next wave of foreclosures in San Francisco won’t be an overwhelming flood, but it does expect an uptick.

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Article source: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/7_on_your_side&id=9196447

Fewer Bay Area homeowners listed homes for sale in June than last the same month last year. 

Blanca Torres
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

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Housing inventory was down by more than 30 percent during the past year in the Bay Area, according to real estate website Zillow.

When comparing June of 2013 to June of 2012 in its database of listings, Zillow found there were fewer homes on the market in the San Francisco metro area, but nationwide, the number rose by 5.3 percent.

Zillow listed 4,528 total homes for sale in June of this year, down from 6,496 last year, in the San Francisco metropolitan area including San Francisco, Alameda, Marin, Contra Costa, and San Mateo counties.

In our market, having fewer homes for sale has pumped up prices and sparked bidding wars.

“Inventory will likely remain below year-ago levels for a while yet, as builders ramp up capacity and sellers wait to squeeze every drop of equity from their home before listing,” said Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist.

Experts expect that with prices climbing up, more homeowners will list their properties for sale and prices will stabilize.

“Going forward, as this new supply makes its way to market, we expect the pace of home value appreciation to slow down from unsustainably high annual levels of 5 percent or above to more moderate levels closer to historic norms of 3 percent or 4 percent,” Humphries said.

Blanca Torres covers East Bay real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.

Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2013/06/bay-area-housing-inventory-drops-by-30.html

Blanca Torres
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

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With the Bay Area’s shift toward dense urban development under way, TCA Architects decided that now is the time to establish a stronger presence here. The firm, based in Los Angeles, focuses on multifamily housing and has worked on many projects in Northern California since its founding in 1993.

Chairman and CEO Thomas Cox will lead the Northern California office — a move that will bring Cox closer to his daughter and grandchildren as well as the non-car lifestyle that is much harder to find in SoCal.

The Bay Area office, in Oakland’s City Center, will kick off with about …

Blanca Torres covers East Bay real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.

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Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/print-edition/2013/01/25/qa-with-thomas-cox-of-tca-architects.html

This model is known as the Breezehouse. 

Blanca Torres
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

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Blu Homes is quickly becoming a household name in the Bay Area. The maker of prefabricated homes is targeting Bay Area buyers for their sustainably designed and energy-efficient houses.

Click on the image for a slideshow of Blu Homes units.

“You have a lot of people in the Bay Area who care deeply about technology, who want convenience, who are willing to go online and design something on their own, and who also want a process that is not going to take two years,” said Maura McCarthy, co-founder and vice president of strategy for Blu Homes.

The company makes homes with green building materials and steel framing that use about half the energy of a conventional home.

Now four years after it was founded, Blu Homes is ramping up production at its Vallejo factory and watching its sales climb.

You can read more in the Nov. 23rd edition of the San Francisco Business Times.

Blanca Torres covers East Bay real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.

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Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2012/11/blu-homes-targets-bay-area-buyers.html

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Stokley Properties Inc., a Bay Area property management group that serves the Concord, San Ramon, Oakland, Brentwood, Martinez and Bay areas, is offering important tips for real estate owners who are searching to rent or sell properties.

This has always been the case for as long as Stokley Properties Inc. has been in business but is perhaps more important today than ever before. The reason is because the market is so competitive in the current economic state, and people and business are looking at how to make the most for the least amount of expense. In this vein, Stokley Properties property management is currently offering the following tips for real estate owners:

For more information about Stokley Properties Inc., call 925-658-1415, view the company on the web at http://www.stokleypropertieseastbay.net or visit 1630 North Main St., Suite 54, in Walnut Creek.

About Stokley Properties Inc.

The Walnut Creek company, Stokley Properties, provides complete property management services throughout the greater San Francisco East Bay Area, including Concord, San Ramon, the Bay Area, Brentwood, Martinez and Oakland. They provide professional real estate investment advice to enable clients to make well-informed decisions. Services include advertising and marketing, residential screening, leasing and retention management, property inspections and more.

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Article source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/property-management/bay-area/prweb9348757.htm