homesmillbrae.com » Gardens Real Estate

Where have home prices risen most in the Bay Area? You’ll be surprised

Fri, 07 Jun 2013 19:02:02 +0000

East Bay homes, like this house in Fremont, saw the biggest price gains during the past year in the Bay Area.

Blanca Torres
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

Email
| Twitter
| Google+
| LinkedIn

Home prices are shooting up across the nation with the Bay Area leading the pack — but which submarket has soared the most? Oakland.

Metropolitan Oakland — which includes much of the East Bay — saw home prices jump 31.2 percent from May 2012 to May 2013, towering above San Francisco with 19.6 percent growth and the San Jose metro area with 23.2 percent, according to Trulia, the San Francisco-based real estate information site. Nationwide, home prices grew by 9.5 percent during the past year.

Everyone keeps talking about how expensive homes are getting in San Francisco, but East Bay prices have more room to grow. Those growth figures over one year look pretty steep — and they are — but you have to keep in mind that prices dropped by greater percentages after the 2008 mortgage crisis.

“Inventory is really low,” said America Foy, an agent with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate who specializes in the East Bay.

A lack of inventory has led to bidding wars even in lower-cost areas or starter homes, Foy said, but more home owners are realizing that their homes are worth more and putting more homes on the market as demand shows no sign of slowing down.

“Some people have been saving up for the last four or five years, so they are ready to buy a house,” Foy said. “It’s smart to buy a house right now, that’s what people are feeling.”

Trulia looked at how much home asking prices had grown in 100 metropolitan markets in the United States and determined the 10 most expensive markets based on price-growth and percent of income going toward a mortgage.

You see the full list here. Here’s Trulia’s top ten:

Blanca Torres
Normal.dotm
Blanca Torres
2
2
2013-06-06T21:02:00Z
2013-06-06T21:22:00Z
1
53
273
SF Biz Times
28
23
304
12.0

Clean
Clean
false

18 pt
18 pt
0
0

false
false
false

]]>

/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:”";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:”Times New Roman”;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}

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/where-home-prices-grew-most-in-bay-area.html

Condo sales picking up in Bay Area

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 14:14:10 +0000

Beth Hood, 32, decided this year to buy her first home, wanting to take advantage of super-low interest rates and to get in before a rising market priced her out. But single-family homes within commuting distance of her job at a San Francisco environmental nonprofit were too expensive.

Instead, she opted for a condo. Like many buyers this year, she was outbid several times before finally settling on a new unit at Oakland’s Uptown Place near the 19th Street BART Station.

“The rental market has changed so much that it’s cheaper to own (in Oakland) than rent even a studio in San Francisco,” she said. “A condo was the right fit for me. I couldn’t afford a single-family home unless I lived way far away.”

Many other Bay Area home buyers, especially first-time buyers, investors and empty nesters, are making similar calculations. As the real estate market heated up in 2012, condo sales surged, particularly at existing complexes. (Supply of new units remains low as home building has been stalled for the past several years.)

Most since 2006

A total of 15,853 resale condos changed hands in the Bay Area in the first 10 months of 2012 , the highest level for that time period since the bubble days of 2006, when 16,720 sold, according to San Diego DataQuick, a real estate information service.

“It’s a traditional first foothold in the housing market for a lot of people,” said Andrew Le-Page, a DataQuick analyst. “In a year where mortgage rates were unbelievably low and prices started to ratchet higher in many Bay Area communities, condos looked better to a lot of people. Both first-time buyers and investors were getting pushed out of single-family markets because of price or lack of inventory.”

It’s a big turnaround from the downturn days.

“Two or three years ago you couldn’t give condos away,” said Davey Cetina, an agent with Better Homes Gardens Real Estate in Berkeley who specializes in condos. In 2008, for instance, fewer than 10,000 condos changed hands in the first 10 months of the year.

One big reason sales fell was because tight financing guidelines often meant that condo purchases had to be all cash. Too many delinquencies on homeowner dues and too many condos that weren’t occupied by owners scotched the ability to get a mortgage at many complexes.

Additional problems

Condos can come with other problems, too. Older complexes may have deferred maintenance projects that can result in higher homeowner assessments down the road. Homeowner association dues, usually a few hundred dollars a month, add to the costs. But still, their affordability outshines that of single-family homes.

“The purchase prices are significantly less than single-family homes because there is no land involved, so we are still able to find condos under $500,000, even under $300,000,” said Zanna Knight, an agent with Coldwell Banker in Berkeley. “For first-time buyers, a condo is a nice transition to homeownership. They don’t have to worry so much about upkeep and can graduate into a single-family house when their circumstances permit.”

“It tends to be a fall-back category for people who either can’t afford a single-family home in a decent neighborhood or have gotten beaten up with rejected offers too many times,” said Jeff Weissman, an agent with Highland Partners/BHG. “I also see condo buyers who are coming back into the real estate market after family issues or having lost a house to foreclosure, as well as a few empty nesters.”

Condo prices are still far off their peaks. The median price in the Bay Area is $295,000, or $256 per square foot. That’s only a tad higher than the trough reached in 2011 of $257,000, or $229 per square foot. At the peak in 2007, the median was $505,000, or $432 a square foot.

“Condos are the last to go up in price (in a rising market) and the first to drop off when things change,” said Rick Turley, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage.

Attractive investment

Investors are an increasingly potent force in the Bay Area condo market, with absentee buyers accounting for about a third of resale condo purchases in 2012, DataQuick said. That’s almost double their share in 2008, when they were 18.5 percent of the market. But in the cheapest county, Solano, where the 2012 median condo price was just $82,000, investors account for 62 percent of sales, DataQuick said.

“Condos are an appealing investment because rents relative to prices are pretty good and they are a manageable size,” said Andrew Jeffery, principal of Cirrios Real Estate, an investment firm in San Francisco. As a sideline to his company’s business of buying apartment buildings with outside money, he and four partners are investing in a few Oakland condos.

“To buy a $60,000 or $80,000 condo is a bite-sized chunk for us,” he said. “If we see one we like, we all pony up small amounts of cash.”

In late 2011, the group bought two one-bedroom condos in the Adams Point neighborhood near Oakland’s Lake Merritt, a neighborhood that they deemed “up and coming ” – one for $60,000 plus $25,000 in renovation costs, the other for $50,000. Both bring in enough rent to cover 15-year fixed-rate mortgages, homeowner dues and other expenses. The partners just made an offer on a third one for $92,000.

“None of us are going to retire off of them, but they’ll fund my golf habit or whatever I want to do with the (rental income) in 15 years when they’re paid off,” Jeffery said.

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

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Condo-sales-picking-up-in-Bay-Area-4207185.php

63rd Street bungalow reflects rebirth of NOBE area

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 06:36:00 +0000

The NOBE area, which consists of the North Oakland, Berkeley and Emeryville neighborhoods, has become one of the most evolved locations in the Bay Area due to the continuing influx of young professionals and property renovations.

The breath of new life flows through the many storied properties that stood the test of decades, such as the bungalow at 1024 63rd St. in Oakland. Built in 1908, the two-bedroom, one-bath house is in the trendy Golden Gate Neighborhood.

“It is a somewhat undiscovered area that’s about to take off. You are close to the heart of so many cafes and shops, yet you are 15 to 20 minutes away from San Francisco,” said Linnette Edwards of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate. “You get so much bang for your buck with a residence like this. So much of the original integrity has been kept with this house.”

Edwards said the house, priced at $389,000, is the perfect turnkey opportunity for first-time home buyers. In this price range, Edwards noted, an owner can experience much saving in the immediate future and beyond.

“You get something legitimate in such a home,” she said. “This is a starter home that does not require sweat equity. When you buy a fixer, you’re experiencing cash up front for repairs which is a deal breaker for most buyers. Here, a lot of the systems have been updated.”

The interior provides a modern touch while still retaining the home’s original personality in its high ceilings and sturdy fireplace in the dining room. Sunny, welcoming natural light pours through the entrance into the living and dining rooms.

Major updates in the kitchen include gray quartz countertops, a porcelain farmhouse sink and Italian-tiled backsplash. The kitchen also features new stainless appliances as well as newer custom cabinets.

“Usually, a lot of kitchens in a bungalow home are smaller. They don’t have an open flow as they do here,” Edwards said. “This kitchen is more open to let in that natural light.”

Though the bungalow residence houses two bedrooms, the spaces are not as small as one would expect. The two spacious areas have their original wood floors and share an updated Jack and Jill bathroom and walk-in closet.

The backyard, bordered by bamboo fencing, offers space for casual gatherings and enough room for an adventurous gardener to practice his or her craft. “We found in the NOBE there are a lot of urban farms that are utilized in the backyard,” Edwards said. “We have a lovely looking lemon tree and several other plants and a new irrigation system.”

Also included is a full-sized basement that could serve as an additional bedroom, an in-law suite or an office with a separate entrance on the ground floor. While the house with such value will attract many, Edwards said, the neighborhood is also a contributing factor to its allure.

“There are so many great cafes and parks, music venues at your fingertips,” she said. “That draws the younger person to NOBE. The walkability factor is ideal for anyone who wants something that is close to everything.”

Edwards explained the area has created a perfect storm of culture and uniquely situated properties sure to attract many potential homeowners for quite some time. “That is why so many people discovering NOBE and are flocking to it. We are seeing so many homes in the areas built up in this fashion. There is a renaissance that is going on.”

An open house will be held from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday. For more information, contact Linnette Edwards at Better Homes and Gardens, Highland Partners, (925) 580-8801, ledwards@MyHousingGuide.com; www.1024-63rd.com.

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/63rd-Street-bungalow-reflects-rebirth-of-NOBE-area-3923667.php

Bay Area housing values jump in second quarter

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 16:49:08 +0000

Bay Area home values increased at a sizzling pace in the second quarter, the online real estate site Zillow reported Tuesday, reinforcing hopes that at least some parts of the region are in the early stages of a housing market recovery.

Home values increased 3.9 percent in San Francisco from the first quarter of this year; 3.79 percent in Santa Clara County; 2.75 percent in Alameda County; 2.18 percent in San Mateo County; and 1.47 percent in Contra Costa County.

For the nine-county Bay Area, which includes areas hit hard by negative equity and foreclosures, the quarterly increase was a surprising 2.5 percent.

While such increases are unsustainable over the long run, according to Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist, the rising values eventually should persuade more people to put their homes up for sale. That will ease the current lack of inventory that has put a damper on sales, he said.

Home sales in the region have been crimped because so many houses are worth less than their mortgages, so owners don’t list them, he said. Also playing into the low inventory is “seller psychology,” Humphries said. “No seller wants to sell at the bottom,” he noted.

With inventory low, parts of the Bay Area are experiencing bidding wars, and some buyers are even enticing sellers with paid vacations or a couple of months of free rent in their home or a condo. Last month Zillow ranked the San Jose and San Francisco metro areas as the top two

“sellers’ markets” in the U.S.

“I have so many frustrated buyers spinning their wheels, having a difficult time getting offers accepted when there’s a multiple-offer situation or quite simply just finding home,” said real estate agent Linette Edwards of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate in Piedmont.

Edwards, who represents homebuyer and sellers in Contra Costa and Alameda counties, said she has started getting queries from would-be sellers who were too far underwater last year to consider putting their homes on the market.

“Now they’re calling me and realizing they may be able to start listing their houses,” Edwards said. “I anticipate we’ll see more of that in the coming year as homeowners realize the market has picked up.”

She said one homeowner in Danville is listing his home for $700,000. Last year the valuation was too low for him to consider selling, she said.

Zillow uses a proprietary formula for its home value index for detached single-family homes, as well as condos and co-ops. It includes homes that were sold, but also looks at other factors, including various attributes of homes sold, and excludes foreclosure resales.

For the greater Bay Area, the median home value was $453,255, Zillow said. San Francisco’s median home value was $680,000, followed by San Mateo County, $608,800; Santa Clara County, $575,200; Alameda County, $392,500; and Contra Costa County, $297,500.

Paul Kim of San Jose said he stopped looking to buy after a home in San Jose’s Rose Garden district drew 70 offers. Kim said he bid $80,000 over the asking price but the winner bid $140,000 over the price. “I’m going to start aggressively looking again in late September, when hopefully there won’t be as many buyers,” he said.

If rising prices spread to other areas, more homes may go on the market.

“When prices go up, more people will put their homes on the market and inventory will come back to normal levels,” said Richard K. Green, director of the Lusk Center for Real Estate at the University of Southern California. “There are places in the Bay Area where that could happen pretty quickly.”

Negative equity — the plight of homeowners who owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth — will probably remain high for the next two to five years, gradually lessening as home values increase, according to Zillow.

In some areas, negative equity is “not as much as people think,” said Silicon Valley real estate agent Brenda Avilla-Kintz. “We need another 10 to 15 percent growth and a lot of people won’t even need to do short sales,” in which a home is sold for less than is owed on it. “That’s still a couple years out,” she added.

“It’s becoming less negative as house prices are going up around the Bay Area,” said Ken Rosen, chairman at the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at UC Berkeley. “It only affects those people who bought at the peak two or three years. Part of the reason they have negative equity is that they borrowed a lot of money.”

Contact Pete Carey at 408-920-5419.

Article source: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_21142320/bay-area-housing-values-jump-second-quarter-zillow

Sonoma Valley Real Estate, Pacific Union Santa Rosa and Petaluma Merge With a …

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 21:23:26 +0000

Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate has merged with Pacific Union Santa Rosa and Petaluma to provide even more services to real estate clients in the Bay Area.

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) October 07, 2011

The Sonoma Valley real estate three former Santa Rosa and Petaluma offices of Pacific Union have merged with the Wine Country Group by Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate. The merger of these highly experienced and qualified real estate firms brings a new level of service to real estate clients in San Francisco, Berkeley and the Sonoma Valley.

Owned by Coralee Barkela and Suzanne Drace since 2006, the San Francisco real estate Pacific Union offices in Santa Rosa and Petaluma have a total of 37 agents. Ms. Barkela will remain with the company as a top producing agent, and Ms. Drace will remain as the branch manager of both offices.

“Six months ago, Wine Country Group was formed in order to give buyers and sellers a high end choice,” says Dougan Jones, managing partner. “Wine Country Group has quietly and steadily attracted top agents to better serve our clients.”

Since February of this year, Wine Country Group has grown to 11 offices and 219 real estate agents. Seven offices and 180 agents were added to the company when Frank Howard Allen Sebastopol was merged with the Wine Country Group by Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate in June. The company’s network now consists of 40 offices and 2,000 real estate agents throughout Northern California and Northern Nevada.

The Wine Country Group’s offices are in Santa Rosa, Petaluma, Sonoma, Healdsburg, Sebastopol, Cloverdale, Bodega Bay, Glen Ellen, Napa and St. Helena. The firm expects to continue to grow its footprint in other Sonoma and Napa County market areas.

For further information about San Francisco, Berkeley and Sonoma real estate agents, contact Cathy Harrington at 925-525-0946 or winecountrygroup.com.

About Better Homes and Gardens Mason-McDuffie Real Estate

The company’s heritage began with the founding of Mason-McDuffie Real Estate in 1887. In 2009, the company was named the 19th largest real estate services firm in the nation, and tops in the San Francisco East Bay. The company provides comprehensive solutions to home buyers and sellers, and handled more than 7,300 transactions in 2010, generating $2.9 billion in sales. Better Homes and Gardens Mason-McDuffie Real Estate is independently owned and operated and includes joint ventures with partners J F Finnegan Realtors, Highland Partners in Piedmont and Montclair, Wine Country Group Realtors in the North Bay, and Tri-Valley Realty in Pleasanton-Hopyard and Ruby Hill. The organization is comprised of more than 2,000 sales professionals in 40 offices.

###

For the original version on PRWeb visit: www.prweb.com/releases/prwebreal-estate/sonoma-valley/prweb8860079.htm

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/10/07/prweb8860079.DTL

Tech company founders leave management roles at Mason-McDuffie

Sat, 24 Sep 2011 06:32:16 +0000

iQoncept/Shutterstock

Two San Francisco Bay Area entrepreneurs hired a year ago to help run one of Northern California’s biggest real estate brokerages after it rebranded as Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Mason-McDuffie Real Estate have left the firm.

Mason-McDuffie named SmartZip Analytics co-founder Frank Richards co-CEO in October 2010, saying he would share leadership duties with Chairman Ed Krafchow, the company’s top executive for nearly two decades. A few weeks later, Mason-McDuffie named another SmartZip co-founder, Dan Worley, chief strategy officer.

Richards and Worley have left Mason-McDuffie “to pursue other interests,” but will continue to provide consulting and advisory services to the company, said Cathy Harrington, the brokerage’s vice president of new media and agent resources.

Harrington said Dougan Jones, a 30-year industry veteran and former CEO of Prudential Utah Real Estate, has been named managing director of Mason-McDuffie. Jones joined the firm in February and has been serving as managing partner of the company’s Wine Country Group in Sonoma County.

more…

To view this premium content sign in to your Premium Member account.

Premium Members have full access to all news archives premium content.

Purchase Premium+ Membership for $99/year OR
Premium Membership for $49/year

Buy Now

All rights reserved. This content may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News.
Use of this content without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.

Article source: http://www.inman.com/news/2011/09/23/tech-company-founders-leave-management-roles-mason-mcduffie