SAN FRANCISCO—When Alexandra Goldman got notice of her rent increase—from $6,000 a month on a five-bedroom house she shared with roommates to $11,000—she says she was in disbelief.

“We knew immediately we were not going to be able to pay that much money to live there,” said Ms. Goldman, a 28-year-old planning consultant whose share of the rent was about $1,000 a month. After receiving the notice in October, she said the house’s occupants ended up dispersing to other rentals. She is living with other roommates now and paying about $300 more than she had before. Her former landlord didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Welcome to what is arguably one of the worst cities in America to be a renter, but among the best to be a landlord and apartment investor. San Francisco led the top-50 U.S. metropolitan areas in average rent growth during the second quarter, jumping 7.8% to $2,498, while Oakland was No. 2 at a 6.9% increase, and San Jose was in fifth place at 5%. The 6.8% increase for the combined San Francisco Bay area was more than double the nation’s 3.1% increase, according to preliminary estimates by MPF Research, a market-research firm in Carrollton, Texas.

The Bay Area’s Building Boom

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Jason Henry for The Wall Street Journal

An advertisement for the new 22-story apartment complex at 1190 Mission Street, seen from Market Street in San Francisco

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The rent increases have investors rushing to purchase existing properties. San Francisco-based Ridge Capital Investors, for example, has acquired nearly 500 units throughout the area since 2011, including a 45-unit apartment complex in San Mateo, a city south of San Francisco, for $10.95 million in November. Trevor Wilson, managing director of Ridge Capital, said his company has competed against as many as 30 bidders on multifamily properties in recent months.

“We’ve been trying to find more [properties], but there’s not a lot available,” said Mr. Wilson, who added his firm is spending about $1.5 million to refurbish units at the 34-year-old Mariner’s West Apartments in San Mateo so rents now well below market levels can be raised. Tenants there are now paying as much as $1,000 below the market rate of $2,300 to $2,400 a month for that area, Mr. Wilson said.

Fueling the rental increases in San Francisco and many other cities across the country are a resurgence in two key industries—technology and energy—and a generally improving economy nationwide, said Ryan Severino, senior economist at Reis Inc., a market-research firm in New York. Rents in energy-rich Denver jumped 6.1% from a year ago, according to MPF Research, while Seattle, another tech hub, saw rents increase 6%.

Mr. Severino said rents are rising the fastest in cities with the tightest supply of housing, like the Bay Area and Seattle. San Francisco’s vacancy rate for multifamily housing in the second quarter stood at 3%, the same as a year earlier, compared with a national average of 4.7%, according to MPF.

Some cities with less-robust job markets enjoyed a strengthened market but remained at higher vacancy rates amid deeper housing inventories. Philadelphia’s vacancy rate dropped to 5.4% in the second quarter, from 6.1% a year earlier and compared with a national average of 4.7%. The rate in Las Vegas fell to 7.5% from 8.4%, and in Memphis, Tenn., to 8.9% from 10.1%, according to MPF Research.

For the nation’s tightest apartment markets, some observers worry the local labor pool may eventually go down, because of people being driven away. In Ms. Goldman’s case, she said she and her roommates mostly had the means to remain in San Francisco but said that may not be the case for everyone. “It’s getting a little out of control,” she said.

Regarded by industry analysts as chronically underhoused, San Francisco added 31,000 jobs in 2012 in a city of about 800,000. That is resulting in sticker shock for new arrivals. Leena Rao, with her husband, Suneel Gupta, recently leased a two-bedroom, two-bath home for between $4,000 and $5,000 a month, compared with $2,150 for the two-bedroom they left behind in Chicago.

“It was a brutal surprise,” said Ms. Rao, 31, an editor for a technology news website.

The tight supplies have unleashed a torrent of new construction in the Bay Area, with 14,377 units permitted for construction over the next 18 months, or almost as much as for Houston, typically a much more active building market, according to MPF Research. In San Francisco, the 22-story 1190 Mission at Trinity Place building preleased half its 419 units before opening July 1, with all the tenants signing agreements without the customary practice of having toured a model or attended an apartment tour, said Rob Willis, director of operations for Trinity Management Services, the builder. “We have never seen this,” Mr. Willis said.

Some homeowners are seeking to cash in on the demand. Jane Shepard said she and her husband, Avrum, plan to rent their four-bedroom, two-bath home in San Francisco to help raise money for needed repairs. “Financially, it’s a great time to be a landlord,” said Ms. Shepard, 67, a commercial-property manager. She said the couple would move to their second home in Visalia, Calif.

But renters with less means are finding fewer options. Dawn Griffin, 55, said she was served with an eviction notice in January on her $725-a-month apartment near the city’s Golden Gate Park. Landlord Elba Borgen, who didn’t return calls for comment, also served eviction notices on the other seven tenants in the building, said Ted Gullicksen, executive director of the San Francisco Tenants Union, which has offered advice and other help to Ms. Griffin and other tenants in her building.

“I can’t afford to move,” said Ms. Griffin, a 30-year resident of the apartment and a medical-office administrator.

Still, some tenants have turned the situation into opportunity. Sam Parr said he ended up starting a business matching roommates with apartments after moving to San Francisco from Nashville, Tenn., last year and seeing prices so high he needed to share rent with someone, too. “I thought, oh my God, this is awful—something has to be done,” said Mr. Parr, 24, who sold the business to a larger startup and now shares a $3,500-a-month house with three roommates.

Write to Jim Carlton at jim.carlton@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared July 16, 2013, on page C1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Bay Area Rally Sends Rents Soaring.

Article source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324694904578602013087282582.html

“It was a bit of a nightmare because I don’t live in Greenville…I have no desire to go back to Greenville because my life is in DC,” says Patel. “It was a lot of coordination and I am still trying to collect over $2,000 from my tenants.”

Patel finally ended up selling the home recently at a large loss. She didn’t want to do a short sale because the process is long and risky, and she didn’t want to damage her credit.

(Read More: Record High New Home Prices to Grow)

While there are no real estimates of how many “accidental landlords” now inhabit the housing market, Realtors say they are one more cause of today’s low inventory issue. Usually a buyer is also a seller, making the transaction a wash in terms of inventory, but if the buyer is not a seller, and instead becomes a landlord, inventory takes a negative hit.

Home prices have been rising steadily, up over ten percent from a year ago, according to the latest reading from CoreLogic. Prices are still well below where they were during the housing boom, when so many people bought into the market.

As millions come above water, others are far below. Forty-eight percent of borrowers in Atlanta are underwater, 37 percent in Miami, 54 percent in Las Vegas and 37 percent in Sacramento.

(Read More: Homes Selling at Fastest Pace Since Boom)

It will take many years of price gains for these homeowners to see the light of equity.

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100764601

The industrial building totals 219,000 square feet in the Bay Area Business Park, and IDC occupies 104,300 square feet. The property delivered in 2008 and is at the northeast corner of Bay Area Boulevard and Red Bluff Road.

Kyle Valentine and Justin Robinson of Stream Realty Partners represented the landlord, Bay Bluff, LP, and the tenant was represented by Coe Parker, Kelley Parker, John Littman and Tim Thomas of Cushman Wakefield.

Article source: http://www.costar.com/News/Article/International-Distribution-Center-Renews-104300-SF/143022

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/46829774?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS

Granite Point Capital, a Boston-based hedge fund, has leased 4,800 square feet at 109 State St. in Boston’s Financial District.

Granite Point Capital will relocate from its current location at 222 Berkeley St. in Boston’s Back Bay, according to a statement.

NAI Hunneman Senior Vice President Jeffrey Becker and Vice President Bonny Doorakian represented the landlord, Daniel René Safar and Marcel Safar of Daniel René Commercial Real Estate, in the transaction. Rebecca Galeota, of Cushman Wakefield, represented Granite Point Capital.

“After all the attention we have paid to our building and our business, we are thrilled to be able to attract a tenant such as Granite Point Capital to make the move to the property,” said Marcel Safar, general manager of Daniel René Commercial Real Estate. “It has been a challenge to convince the market that our level of services are on par and our finishes and design can even surpass the most sophisticated offices in the city. We thank Jeff and Bonny for showing this to the market and we hope to build on this success in our future acquisitions.”

Granite Point will occupy the entire fifth floor, and Daniel René will conduct the buildout.

Article source: http://www.bankerandtradesman.com/news147736.html

Walnut Creek, CA (PRWEB) September 01, 2011

Stokley Properties a Bay Area property management company is announcing an Eviction Protection Program that is being offered to all of their clients throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, Concord, San Ramon, Brentwood, Martinez and Oakland. They are releasing this program now because of the rise in evictions and the company’s desire to offer a service to their loyal clients.

“This is important because the number of evictions is up due to the current poor economic times we are experiencing. The concerns landlords have these days is how much will evictions cost and how long will they take. Our program takes the worry out of that,” said Joseph Stokley Jr. of Stokley Properties.

People know evictions can happen to any landlord no matter how well the tenant is screened. Circumstances change in people’s lives and sometimes they are not able to pay the rent. This is especially true when people lose their jobs, get a divorce or suffer a serious injury. When they aren’t able to pay the rent they can also find it difficult to find the money to move. When this happens the property owner has to go through a costly procedure of evicting the tenant.

Each month there are thousands of evictions filed in the area and with the real unemployment rate at 16.4 percent there are a lot of people on the edge of being evicted. According to the Contra Costa Times, there has been a 46 percent increase in evictions cases handled by the Bay Area Legal Aid of Oakland in 2009 and 2010.

The Bay Area’s Stokley Properties, serving Concord, San Ramon, Brentwood, Martinez and Oakland, is offering the eviction protection program to clients for the small fee of $10 per month for each unit. This program will cover the cost of all non-jury trial evictions.

“We pay for everything from beginning to end. The landlord will be covered,” Joseph Stokley added.

Stokley Properties believes that this will be a well-received service by their clients during these turbulent economic times being a landlord.

For more information about the company, please visit their website www.stokleypropertieseastbay.net/ to learn more about the announcement. Interested parties may also call them at (925) 658-1415 for any inquiries.

About Stokley Properties

Stokley Properties, Inc. is a licensed Property Management Company and California Real Estate Brokerage Firm. We provide property management services in Contra Costa and Alameda Counties in the San Francisco East Bay Area.

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For the original version on PRWeb visit: www.prweb.com/releases/prwebproperty-management/bay-area/prweb8766112.htm

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/09/01/prweb8766112.DTL

Compared to second-quarter data from 2010, rents rose 8.6 percent in San Francisco and 9.3 percent in San Mateo County, for monthly averages of $2,400 and $1,800 respectively.

The trend can be pegged to a dwindling rental supply and increasing demand from new workers with high-paying jobs, according to RealFacts owner Sarah Bridge.

“Talent is coming into the area. It’s not that there are so many jobs, but the ones out there are paying well,” Bridge said, adding that although the new tech boom is similar to the dot-com bubble of 2000, it is bringing workers with a more experiential, less materialistic mindset. “They’re not big into being tied down to a big piece of real estate.”

According to the real estate data aggregator Zillow.com, 480 homes were sold in San Francisco in May, down 22 percent in a year-over-year comparison. Meanwhile, RealFacts data show supply running out in San Francisco and San Mateo County, both with a 96 percent occupancy rate, up 6 percent and 1 percent, respectively.

The factors are helping San Francisco maintain its status as one of the most expensive big-city rental markets in the country, which has advocates for current tenants taking notice.

“It’s making it a landlord’s market,” said Ted Gullicksen, executive director of the San Francisco Tenants Union. “We could see more evictions, more tenant buyouts.”

Gullicksen said although The City’s rent-control standards keep some costs in check for renters, state law prevents the controls from being applied to units themselves. Like in 2000, Gullicksen said, he fears without cheaper options, residents could be pushed to the outskirts of the Bay Area.

“I think we’re headed back in that direction,” he said.

Of the 43 markets examined by RealFacts, 41 posted rent increases, with the biggest gains seen in the Bay Area. San Jose, the unofficial capital of Silicon Valley, experienced the largest increase at 6.6 percent, up from $1,650 to $1,759 per month.

dschreiber@sfexaminer.com

Average rent per unit type

Average rent increase

Source: RealFacts

Article source: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/peninsula/2011/07/influx-workers-drives-rental-rates-san-francisco-and-san-mateo-county