advertisement

IMAGES: Famous Homes in San Francisco

LOOK

Bank-Owned $35 Million SF Penthouse Sells

LOOK

More Photos and Videos

The real estate glory days have returned to San Francisco.

The median price for a home in the city is back at the $1 million mark, according to the SFGate.com real estate blog On the Block.

It appears that the data from April reveals a median price increase of 32 percent from 2012, according to the Business Journal. That’s higher than the average list price of $799,000, which means “too many buyers [are] vying for too few properties,” the blog reported.

Supply and demand means that a home that sold at auction in 1998 for $106,500 in Twin Peaks is now listed for $995,000, the blog reported.

In general, sellers are getting 112 percent of their asking prices for San Francisco homes, according to Redfin.

A seller’s market — but could it get any hotter?

Yes. Another home, bought in November 2012 for $875,000, is back on the market, less than a year later — for an asking price of $1.2 million. Will it sell for a 100 percent profit? It could — which is saying something.

Copyright NBC Owned Television Stations

Article source: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/SF-Median-Home-Price-Tops-1-Million-211448041.html

advertisement

Ricardo Rodriguez, a San Francisco resident who has been fighting to save his home from foreclosure, has received some good news from Bank of America. After unsuccessfully applying for at least 10 loan modifications since 2009, Rodriguez was accepted by Bank of America last week for a trial loan modification.

He has made his first payment and will get to stay in his home. If he makes his payments on time during the three-month trial period, he may qualify for permanent loan restructuring.

“We’re just happy we get to keep our house after more than three years of this stuff,” Rodriguez said Monday. He said he is optimistic that he can meet the requirements to make the trial loan permanent.

NBC Bay Area and the Center for Investigative Reporting highlighted Rodriguez’s case in a joint report in April on questionable foreclosure practices in the Bay Area. The investigation found that thousands of homeowners were fighting in court to save their homes from a foreclosure system filled with mistakes, mismanagement and, on occasion, fraud. The report also found that in some cases, Bank of America was skirting proper foreclosure procedures, leaving Rodriguez and other borrowers unsure of the status of their loan modifications or who owned the rights to their home.

When Rodriguez lost his job delivering newspapers in 2011, he had trouble making the payments on his mortgage. He repeatedly applied for loan modifications but said Bank of America lost his paperwork and shuffled him among account managers, despite a state law requiring banks to provide homeowners with a single contact. Rodriguez became fed up and joined a local advocacy group to fight foreclosures in his neighborhood.

Bank of America spokeswoman Jumana Bauwens said in April that the bank previously had worked with Rodriguez and reduced his interest rate to 2 percent, but he was unable to pay the lower amount.

“If even the lowest possible payment is not affordable for a borrower, homeownership may not be the best or most responsible option for them,” the bank said at the time.

Bank of America plays the largest role of any bank in Bay Area foreclosures. From July 2008 through October, Bank of America’s foreclosure trustee, ReconTrust, handled 1 in 5 defaulted properties in the Bay Area, roughly 70 percent more than the next biggest trustee, according to RealtyTrac Inc., a real estate information company.

Article source: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Homeowner-Fighting-Foreclosure-Wins-Trial-Loan-Modification-210295101.html

advertisement

A prominent San Francisco real estate broker could lose his license after the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit uncovered what his investors call a decade of deception.   The broker attracted more than a dozen investors to false promises of profit from prime real estate in a historic San Francisco neighborhood.  

Article source: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/investigations/WB-Coyle-208367411.html

Article source: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Poverty-Growing-Faster-In-Bay-Area-Suburbs-168811506.html

advertisement

It’s a great Recession to be a property owner. For now at least.

Copyright NBC Owned Television Stations

Article source: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/San-Francisco-Real-Estate-Value-Grows-by-6-Billion-163918026.html

advertisement

UPDATE: Evan Flanary, phone his mother to let her know he is safe and staying with a friend. He had turned off his phone.

——————————

Police are looking for a missing San Francisco man who was last seen Tuesday in the South of Market district, according to reports.

Evan Flanary, 22, was last seen on his way to meet a “stranger from a social phone app contact,” according to his family.

He is 6-foot 1, 160 lbs, has blonde hair and blue eyes, and was last seen wearing blue jeans and a gray hooded sweatshirt, according to the San Francisco Appeal online newspaper.

Flanary has no history of medical or psychological conditions and was not on any form of medication, the newspaper reported.

His family is asking for any and all help from the community.

Copyright NBC Owned Television Stations

Article source: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Police-Seeking-Missing-San-Francisco-Man-Last-Seen-in-SOMA-160317475.html

If you have no desire or need to sell your home, then falling home prices are just on paper and likely temporary, right? Depends on how you look at it.

Falling home prices put more borrowers in a negative equity position, that is owing more on their mortgage(s) than their homes are worth. We call that “underwater,” and for good reason, because for some borrowers that sense of drowning in debt has profound implications.

Today Zillow.com reported a new high in negative equity: 28.4 percent of single family homes with a mortgage (remember, 32 percent of all homeowners do not have a mortgage).

That’s a national average, but the numbers are far worse in some of the nation’s big metros. Atlanta, for example, has a 55.7 percent negative equity rate. Denver, 41 percent, Chicago nearly 46 percent. This is on top of all the foreclosure hot spots like Phoenix, where close to three quarters of all borrowers are underwater.

Why should we care if it’s all on paper?

Page 1 of 3 | Next Page
Show Entire Article

Trading the Flood: Gas Futures Surge on Refinery Concerns

Pro: Early Stages Of EU Falling Apart?

More Couples Arguing About Money, Sneaking Purchases

Obama Gets Slight Boost From Bin Laden Killing: NBC Poll

What Makes a Stock Cheap?

More Top Stories

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/42957613?__source=RSS*blog*&par=RSS