San Francisco housing market booms bigger than ever

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 15:53:59 +0000

Plummeting inventory of homes for sale accompanied by a new wave of tech workers have San Francisco’s rental and real estate markets continuing to boom.

The average monthly price of an apartment lease has risen to $2,734 — up 12.9 percent since 2011 — according to data compiled by the rental data firm Real Facts. The spike in San Francisco rents seems to be spilling over to cheaper markets like Oakland, where the average rent is now $1,835 — up 14.4 percent since last year. Pacifica, where rents now average $1,908, has experienced a 15.6 percent increase.

“Outlying areas are starting to benefit from the improvement of Silicon Valley and San Francisco,” said Nick Grotjahn of Real Facts. “But you can still go right across the Bay and to Oakland and pay almost $1,000 less per month.”

At a forum Tuesday sponsored by the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association think tank, housing developers were asked whether The City is experiencing a “rent bubble.” Their answers didn’t break down along clear yes-or-no lines.

“Not quite yet,” said Meg Spriggs, a senior development director with the developer AvalonBay, which is seeking to put more than 250 new apartments on Ninth Street near the new Twitter headquarters. “But I think we’ll start to see rents taper a bit. Sixteen percent growth is not sustainable, but I think there’s still room for growth.”

Rental prices have surged following a new influx of young, high-earning workers who don’t necessarily want to be tied down to one place, but who also haven’t yet amassed enough money to make a down payment for San Francisco’s average home price of $725,000.

A recent survey by Realtor.com shows that The City’s median listing price is up 15.4 percent since last year, which matches a similar upward tick in Oakland, where the average home is selling for $379,000. The number of homes for sale in San Francisco is down 40 percent since last year, and nearly 60 percent in Oakland.

And where apartment owners in the mid-2000s fought to convert their units to condominiums so they could be sold, the popular move in today’s market is to build what could be considered condos and instead rent them as apartments.

“It’s the reverse trend now,” Grotjahn said.

Even with rising rents, the disparity between who can only afford to rent and who can buy in San Francisco remains large, said Kevin Kearney, a Coldwell Banker real estate agent who works throughout the Bay Area. He said even though high-earning young tech workers might not be able to afford homes just yet, in some cases their parents can.

“With the rising rents, we’re definitely seeing some people get off the fence,” Kearney said. “But still, a lot more people can afford to pay rent on a monthly basis — even if it’s higher than a mortgage payment — than those who can come up with a down payment. So we’re seeing more and more of those down payments from parents.”

dschreiber@sfexaminer.com

Median home price increases in Bay Area

San Francisco: Up 15.4 percent to $725,000 since last year
Oakland: Up 14.8 percent to $379,000 since last year
San Jose: Up 12 percent to $549,000 since last year

Source: Realtor.com

Monthly apartment rent increases in Bay Area

Article source: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2012/07/san-francisco-housing-market-booms-bigger-ever

Allen Matkins/UCLA Anderson California Commercial Real Estate Survey Shows …

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 15:27:45 +0000

LOS ANGELES, Jul 12, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) –
Developer sentiment continues to show signs of optimism and solid
indications of impending new commercial development, according to the
current semi-annual release of the Allen Matkins/UCLA Anderson
California Commercial Real Estate Survey. “Since the end of the
recession we have seen developer optimism spread to all markets and
types of commercial space along with an increased willingness to go
forward with new development,” said UCLA Anderson Forecast Senior
Economist Jerry Nickelsburg. (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ex7x2VSbK4 )

Multi-family development is returning in Bay Area and LA

Promising news also comes from the first Allen Matkins/UCLA Anderson
Forecast survey of multi-family housing developers. Overall, 70% of the
survey participants in San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Los Angeles
plan to begin new multi-family housing developments in the next 12
months. This turn around in multi-family residential construction is
being driven by high occupancy rates and rising rents, particularly in
the Bay Area, as household formation begins to rebound in California.
“This growth in multi-family housing is encouraging. It is in markets
where there have been substantial job gains – especially for younger
workers who prefer to rent apartments in urban areas – and where
property values are high,” said John Tipton, partner at Allen Matkins.

New office development in LA and San Francisco

California office space market sentiment has been positive over the past
three years, but it did not immediately translate into significant new
development. After two and a half years, the Bay Area panel had
indicated a change. With the current survey, Southern California
developers have joined their Bay Area counterparts and approximately 25
percent of the survey participants are planning to start new development
in the coming 12 months.

Industrial growth driven by California manufacturing

Despite uncertainty about Europe’s economic future and moderate growth
in California import activity, there is strong optimism in California’s
industrial space markets that should generate new building activity in
the next 12 months as well. This optimism has been present in the survey
panel for more than two years, with industrial space occupancy rising to
96 percent in both Los Angeles and Orange County, driven by growth in
California manufacturing exports.

The Allen Matkins/UCLA Anderson Forecast survey indicates that
opportunities for new developments have emerged in the industrial space
market – particularly in the Los Angeles and Orange County markets.

For a copy of the latest Allen Matkins/UCLA Anderson Forecast California
Commercial Real Estate Survey and Index Research Project, please visit
www.uclaforecast.com .

The Allen Matkins/UCLA Anderson Forecast California Commercial Real
Estate Survey and Index Research Project polled a panel of California
real estate professionals in the office space and investment market on
various aspects of the commercial real estate market. The survey is
designed to capture incipient activity by commercial real estate
developers. To achieve this the panel looks at the markets three years
in the future, and building conditions over the three year period. It
was initiated by Allen Matkins and the UCLA Anderson Forecast in 2006,
furtherance of their interest in improving the quality of current
information and forecasts of commercial real estate.

About Allen Matkins

Allen Matkins, founded in 1977, is a California-based law firm with
approximately 220 attorneys in four major metropolitan areas of
California: Los Angeles, Orange County, San Francisco and San Diego. The
firm’s core specialties include real estate, real estate and commercial
finance, bankruptcy and creditors’ rights, construction, land use,
natural resources, environmental, corporate and securities, intellectual
property, joint ventures, taxation, employment and labor law, and
dispute resolution and litigation in all these matters. For more than 30
years, Allen Matkins has helped clients turn opportunity and challenge
into success by providing practical advice, innovative solutions and
valuable business opportunities. When clients’ challenges require
experienced trial counsel, Allen Matkins has a proven track record of
successful litigation before juries, judges and arbitrators. Allen
Matkins is located on the Web at
www.allenmatkins.com .

About UCLA Anderson Forecast

UCLA Anderson Forecast is one of the most widely watched and often-cited
economic outlooks for California and the nation and was unique in
predicting both the seriousness of the early-1990s downturn in
California and the strength of the state’s rebound since 1993. More
recently, the Forecast was credited as the first major U.S. economic
forecasting group to declare the recession of 2001. Visit UCLA Anderson
Forecast on the Web at
http://www.uclaforecast.com .

About UCLA Anderson School of Management

UCLA Anderson School of Management is among the leading business schools
in the world. UCLA Anderson faculty members are globally renowned for
their teaching excellence and research in advancing management thinking.
Each year, UCLA Anderson provides a distinctive approach to management
education to more than 1,800 students enrolled in its MBA,
Fully-Employed MBA, Executive MBA, Global Executive MBA for Asia
Pacific, Global Executive MBA for the Americas, Master of Financial
Engineering, doctoral and executive education programs. Combining
selective admissions, varied and innovative learning programs, and a
worldwide network of 37,000 alumni, UCLA Anderson develops and prepares
global leaders. Follow UCLA Anderson on Twitter at
http://twitter.com/UCLAAnderson ,
or on Facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/uclaanderson .

SOURCE: UCLA Anderson School of Management


        For the UCLA Anderson School of Management
        Elise Anderson, 310-206-7707
        elise.anderson@anderson.ucla.edu
        or
        Gary Pike, APR, 415-585-2100
        gary@pikecompany.com

Article source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/allen-matkinsucla-anderson-california-commercial-real-estate-survey-shows-evidence-of-recovery-in-key-markets-2012-07-12

homesmillbrae.com » Housing Developers

San Francisco housing market booms bigger than ever

Median home price increases in Bay Area

Monthly apartment rent increases in Bay Area

Allen Matkins/UCLA Anderson California Commercial Real Estate Survey Shows …