The predictions may sound dire, but the forward-looking indicators are falling in line. Mortgage applications have been falling for the past month. Applications to purchase a home are down 28 percent in the past month and up only 4.5 percent from a year ago. They should be up far higher, given that prices and demand are rising so fast. Signed contracts to buy existing homes jumped unexpectedly to a six-year high in May as rates started to rise; there’s your rush.

At a brokers open house in Northern Virginia this week, real estate agents said they are already seeing the effects of higher rates on the ground and in the homes they’re trying to sell.

(Read More: Apartments Reap Rewards of Rising Rates)

“It has gotten a lot quieter, which is a shame because historically the rates are still very low,” said Ruth Griel with Prosperity Mortgage.

“It’s having a kind of chilling effect on the market,” said Mark Beardsley, a Realtor with Long and Foster. “What’s happening is we are pricing down. If they were qualified for 600, now we’re looking at 550 and below.”

Mortgage rates going from 3.5 to 5 percent is roughly a 15 to 20 percent decrease in what the average buyer can afford. They can move to different loan products, like an adjustable rate loan, but ARMs are harder to qualify for and require far more documentation.

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100876300

The predictions may sound dire, but the forward-looking indicators are falling in line. Mortgage applications have been falling for the past month. Applications to purchase a home are down 28 percent in the past month and up only 4.5 percent from a year ago. They should be up far higher, given that prices and demand are rising so fast. Signed contracts to buy existing homes jumped unexpectedly to a six-year high in May as rates started to rise; there’s your rush.

At a brokers open house in Northern Virginia this week, real estate agents said they are already seeing the effects of higher rates on the ground and in the homes they’re trying to sell.

(Read More: Apartments Reap Rewards of Rising Rates)

“It has gotten a lot quieter, which is a shame because historically the rates are still very low,” said Ruth Griel with Prosperity Mortgage.

“It’s having a kind of chilling effect on the market,” said Mark Beardsley, a Realtor with Long and Foster. “What’s happening is we are pricing down. If they were qualified for 600, now we’re looking at 550 and below.”

Mortgage rates going from 3.5 to 5 percent is roughly a 15 to 20 percent decrease in what the average buyer can afford. They can move to different loan products, like an adjustable rate loan, but ARMs are harder to qualify for and require far more documentation.

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100876300

The predictions may sound dire, but the forward-looking indicators are falling in line. Mortgage applications have been falling for the past month. Applications to purchase a home are down 28 percent in the past month and up only 4.5 percent from a year ago. They should be up far higher, given that prices and demand are rising so fast. Signed contracts to buy existing homes jumped unexpectedly to a six-year high in May as rates started to rise; there’s your rush.

At a brokers open house in Northern Virginia this week, real estate agents said they are already seeing the effects of higher rates on the ground and in the homes they’re trying to sell.

(Read More: Apartments Reap Rewards of Rising Rates)

“It has gotten a lot quieter, which is a shame because historically the rates are still very low,” said Ruth Griel with Prosperity Mortgage.

“It’s having a kind of chilling effect on the market,” said Mark Beardsley, a Realtor with Long and Foster. “What’s happening is we are pricing down. If they were qualified for 600, now we’re looking at 550 and below.”

Mortgage rates going from 3.5 to 5 percent is roughly a 15 to 20 percent decrease in what the average buyer can afford. They can move to different loan products, like an adjustable rate loan, but ARMs are harder to qualify for and require far more documentation.

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100876300

A real estate agent tours a home for sale during an open house in San Francisco. According to real esate agents, in the current market environment, not having inside knowledge will prevent people from getting the house they desire. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Century 21 Realty Alliance president and broker Orhan Tolu shares what he knows to help buyers and sellers navigate the Bay Area’s strong and growing real estate market. The company had the biggest market share growth last year—357 percent—in the entire state of California when Century 21 Realty Alliance made its move into San Francisco, completing 850 transactions in their first year, with roughly 11 agents.

The Commercial Window

“This is the year to buy,” says Tolu.

If you have the capital, commercial properties are what you want to invest in, especially in San Francisco, Tolu says. In the current economy, it costs twice as much if you want to build a new building than what you can buy one for, and commercial property values are still comparatively low compared to housing. You might be able to buy a building for $200 per square foot, but it would cost about $400 per square foot to build that building today—and land is getting increasingly scarce.

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“Commercial is always the last sector in the real estate market to fall, and is the last one to pick up,” says Tolu, who has 15 years of experience in selling commercial real estate. “So it always happens in that cycle.”

“Right now there’s still a lot of vacancy in office space, there’s a lot of vacancy in retail,” Tolu said. “Commercial went up, rent went up, and there is a shortage of listings in apartments, too. But it’s not as bad as houses.”

“On the office or retail sector, I think it’s going to take another two years for the market to fully heal and become as good as residential in the state,” Tolu said.

In the next four to five years, Silicon Valley’s expansion will continue, and the real estate market is just growing. Analysts say the market has still not returned to normal levels, making this a good time to jump on a property if one is looking to invest.

“Real estate is maybe going to appreciate 30 to 40 percent in the next two years,” Tolu said, compared to banks or investment in stocks. “So if you add the appreciation plus net income return, it’s going to be more than 20 percent increase in a five-year time period, so there’s nothing better than a commercial real estate investment in the world, nothing better.”

Compared to other real estate sectors, “maybe you pay a little bit too much compared to the other areas, your net cap is less, but your appreciation is always much, much higher,” Tolu said.

Overseas investors may not be familiar with the market or the nuances of the way sales are made in each city. With the purchases of commercial property, there’s a big difference from housing, Tolu says. With residential real estate, buyers can look in newspapers, magazines, or search online, but commercial listings are less frequent.

Tolu says that in Silicon Valley, there are about 15 realtors who specialize in commercial real estate, and 50 to 60 in the Bay Area. In most transactions, the realtors can just make a few calls among themselves and sell the property without listing it on the market. If you want to invest in commercial real estate, be sure to find a local professional commercial real estate agent, he suggests.

International Buyers

Foreign buyers will be at a disadvantage if they search overseas. It’s necessary to be in the United States in order to even start the search, go to showings, and buy a house with the limited time buyers have to bid on properties. For international buyers, working with a company that has a large global network can greatly help facilitate the process and improve your chances of getting that house.

Just recently, Tolu said, a Century 21 real estate broker from London gave him a call—two people from London wanted to purchase a property in San Jose.

“She already did the search for me, she already did everything for me,” Tolu said. “All I have to do is send one agent to go show [the property], to take care of them.”

Many buyers in the Bay Area may be looking for something that requires specialized knowledge—condominiums, for example, are different from houses, and it’s best to choose an agent with that specialization. Properties are often sold within a week of listing, and some buyers get hasty after not being able to get a property after a certain amount of time, leading to bad decisions.

Use a Better Network

It’s crucial to have the most updated information while doing your search—lest you start to prepare to bid for a property that’s already sold. There are many popular online listing sites, like Trulia, but how up to date are they?

Listing information is released within 24 hours on Century 21’s website, Tolu says, but many other real estate sites take their listings from Century 21’s listing generator, and often aren’t updated until 72 hours after it’s available. There are even houses that are sold the next day, which the agents would know, but websites might not show.

Experience Is Key

In the current market environment, not having inside knowledge will prevent you from getting that house. Many buyers lose three or four properties before they start looking for help.

“[There’s] a huge shortage of listings. I’ve never seen a shortage like this in the last 50 years,” Tolu said. “And if you look at the data, the listing comes in today, and tomorrow it’s gone already.”

Sellers barely need to advertise, Tolu says. “You just put it in the Internet and somebody will buy it with a high price anyway. Why spend money for advertisement?”

A good broker will know the ins and outs of the neighborhoods you’re interested in, and be able to help you navigate the market, where prices are rising daily. “Rely on your broker, because your broker and your agent have much more updated information than the Internet.”

Pricing isn’t a sure thing in this market, and buyers who caution to bid 10 percent above asking price might end up with a house only months later, when asking prices too have gone up 20 percent, according to Tolu.

“If a house comes along and you don’t get the right advice, you’re going to lose that house anyway,” Tolu said. “Each time you lose, the price is going to keep going up and up. Rather than waiting six months and having the price go up, work with an experienced agent and you’ll buy it at your first look.”

Expand Your Options

Most buyers make the mistake of starting with an area they like and then look at what houses are there, Tolu said. It’s a common mistake.

If you only consider buying a house in a particular neighborhood or city, your choices are very limited, and if there are no listings, you’re stuck. Broaden your search to nearby areas, Tolu suggests, and look at their school districts as well. Then work with an experienced agent and bid right the first time.

School Districts

If you delay or don’t get the right information and haven’t gotten the house in the school district you want come September, it might affect your children’s education.

“If you do it at the right time, then your kids will go to the better schools—good schools,” Tolu said. “Otherwise in September when the schools open, if you still don’t have a property, you don’t have a good location or a good school for your kids.”

If you buy a house in a better school district, you won’t have to spend money on private schools, which can be at least $20,000 to $30,000, and very time-consuming to drive to and from, Tolu said.

Additional reporting by David Zhang

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 21 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Article source: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/business/navigating-the-bay-area-real-estate-market-370116.html

When Orange County, Calif., real estate broker Raj Qsar wanted to promote an open house last year, he turned to Facebook.

That Facebook ad netted Qsar two transactions and a six-figure payday.

Now Qsar spends about $2,000 a month — roughly a quarter of his ad budget — on Facebook ads.

Like Qsar, many brokers and agents are spending their ad dollars nowadays to harness the connecting power of social media — to capture new business, to stay top of mind, to grow their community and influence and to generate higher-quality leads.

And Facebook might be the most effective social media channel for marketing to consumers. According to a January 2012 survey of 972 marketing professionals by marketing software provider HubSpot Inc., Facebook was a more effective tool for converting consumers into customers than Twitter, LinkedIn and company blogs.

Qsar, owner of Premier Orange County Real Estate, says 30 to 40 percent of his online referrals come from Facebook.

This Facebook “sponsored story” ad by Raj Qsar promoting a video shoot in a luxury neighborhood in Orange County targeted Facebook users who liked the community Facebook pages of this neighborhood and the local golf course, were at least 25 years old, and who also liked anything to do with horses or the city.

Ben Kinney, a Keller Williams Realty agent in Bellingham, Wash., spends about $500 per month on Facebook ads and generates between 10 and 20 leads each month from them, with near 100 percent engagement.

About half of those leads, Kinney said, go to an in-person appointment with him or a member of his team; the other half check out his listings page.

But advertising effectively on Facebook is not easy, said Stacey Harmon, a real estate marketing consultant who specializes in Facebook. “It’s a complicated opportunity,” she said.

Facebook ad strategy all depends on your goal, Harmon said. Do you want to advertise a listing, grow the number of people who “like” your business page, get the attention of relocation agents in other markets or keep your community aware of you and what you do?

There are three types of Facebook ads, Harmon said:

• Crafted ads, which allow advertisers to specifically target Facebook users by gender, age, location and other demographic specifics, and run in the right-hand column of Facebook pages.
• Sponsored stories, which create ads of the interactions a Facebook page’s fan has with a specific story. The ads show up, like the crafted ads, in the right-hand column of the desktop version of Facebook once a fan “likes” a particular post.
• Promoted posts, which increase the visibility of posts in friends or friends of friends’ Facebook news feeds.  

The Facebook ad about the open house that generated a six-figure commission for Qsar was a sponsored story.

A fan of Qsar’s business page liked the post and, because Qsar had paid to make it a “sponsored story,” it showed up as an ad on the Facebook pages of that fan’s friends.

Raj Qsar

One of those second-degree Facebook contacts saw Qsar’s ad, got in touch with him, became a client and eventually sold, and bought, a home with him.

“The key with Facebook ads is that you can be very specific in your targeting,” said Heather Elias, the director of social business practice for the National Association of Realtors. Before joining NAR in late July, she worked as a real estate agent in Loudon County, Va., where she also wrote a blog.

Unlike Google, Facebook allows you to specifically target ads by demographic stats, Elias said. She would choose, for example, to advertise market reports to a subset of Facebook users (between 30,000 and 40,000 users) within a 10-mile radius of where she worked.

Some ads Elias ran were not intended to be clicked (for some ads, Facebook charges only on a per-click basis), but just to be seen, she said. One ad promoting her blog got 500,000 impressions for free, she said, because there was no actionable language in the ad.

Other ads Elias ran, like the “crafted” one below, were meant to generate leads. She had some of the greatest success when the ad directed users to a lead capture form on her website. About 45 people signed up, she said — none unsubscribed and the ad generated four deals, for about $400 in total advertising costs.

Facebook crafted ad from Heather Elias that drove users to a lead capture form.

Some ads are designed to capture Facebook “likes.” A strategy called “fan-gating” requires users to “like” a business page in return for something, like a market report or a chance to win a Starbucks gift card, Harmon said.

Facebook ad by San Francisco Bay Area real estate agent Viktor Manrique.

Because Facebook has so many different opportunities to advertise, it’s important to be strategic and clever, and also do the little things that will make your ad stand out, Harmon said.

Ben Kinney sometimes uses an image of an upside-down house to advertise short sales, he said. He also puts his phone number in some ads, which allows him to capture leads without paying the click fee Facebook charges for its stand-alone ads.

Qsar uses professional photography in all of his ads. Sometimes, he said, he even uses what he calls “eye candy” — enticing images, with sharp colors and intriguing detail. Advertising, especially on Facebook, can be like “a love affair,” he said.

Sometimes the best Facebook advertising is just to cultivate, consistently and frequently, the brand you want your real estate business to be known for. And that can be free.

Gillian Swanson, an agent in Livingston, Mont., has been using Facebook ads for about two months, spending an average of about $400 per month. But Swanson says she continues to generate the most leads from her personal Facebook page.

Gillian Swanson

By cultivating an “intelligently humorous,” brand via her personal page, Swanson said she’s been able to set herself apart from other agents in the area. She does work with the local theater and posts lots of information about that, which adds an upscale flavor to her brand, she said.

Reporting on wildfires that swept through the area recently helped make her page (and her business) more prominent in the rural Montana community, as well. “I decided I’d be the person to post the updates,” she said.

Swanson has more friends on her personal page than she has likes on her business profile, she said. She has plans to stop paid advertising with Facebook next month.

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Article source: http://www.inman.com/news/2012/10/23/harness-power-facebook-ads

Have you always been in the real estate industry or did you have a different career before entering brokerdom? I am a recovering lawyer of 6 years. Let me put it this way: it’s more satisfying when people come together to make a deal (real estate) than it is to be coming together after a lawsuit has started (law). One friend asked me at my first listing in Mission Dolores why I was in the Mission selling a small TIC when I had went to Berkeley for law school. I answered him it was because I went to Berkeley and am smart enough to get into something that fits my personality and skill set a lot better.

What’s the best part about selling real estate in San Francisco? Access and getting to see how people really live. Of course it’s great meeting new people all the time without having to depose them for a trial. And it’s wonderful getting to see all the pretty houses and realizing opportunity when others don’t see it. But what is far more interesting is seeing high-power lawyers, CEOs, start-up gurus throw their laundry on the floor just like anyone else — it’s seeing people’s dirty laundry, literally.

What do you like to do when you’re not selling real estate? Is there such a time? Well, I like taking my former seeing eye dog trainee to Duboce Park. I love biking with all the good folks with the AIDS LifeCycle and I love to shop and to eat…locally sourced, fair trade of course.

What separates you from the others in this competition? I am me and they are them. But in all honesty, I’m pretty “on” all the time and I get pretty intensely involved with taking care of my clients. I give broad, lawyer-informed advice and I like to take pictures and YouTube videos that I send to my clients in the moment so we can get going and fast. For example, I get use technology not just as a novelty to play Angry Birds, but my latest escrow only happened after I broadcast/Skyped an open house walk-through to a client based in Seattle for a great place in NoPa that was on the market for about 48 hours. That’s what I do differently I suppose.

Everyone give it up for Kevin!

On the right: Sheldon Rilliet of Alain Pinel Realtors

Funniest anecdote from life as a broker: You never know what you’re going to walk into, every open house, lock box showing, it’s always different? you simply can’t be shocked as a broker? There is always the potential to walk into any of the following: sexy time, hoarding, explicit drug use, grow rooms, every possible pet in the book – snakes, chickens (indoors), mice, rats, pygmy goats, pigs – all in The City. This Incredible City.

What’s the best part about selling real estate in San Francisco? San Francisco is such a diverse world renowned city, the people that come here are fascinating, knowledgeable all have such interesting back stories. The City has so many distinct neighborhoods and it’s great to narrow down the “right” location for clients. Listing in The City also provides such great opportunities to showcase the differences that every home possesses be it view, history, neighborhood etc?

What do you like to do when you’re not selling real estate? I enjoy friends and family. My Wife Lauren, Daughter Sloane Son Jake; to cook, create art design (home, furniture, etc.). Admittedly, I enjoy television and spend a fair amount of time on the internet.

What separates you from the others in this competition? I’m a considerate, unpretentious guy I don’t drive a Mercedes.

Our polls require javascript — if you’re viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your javascript-enabled web browser.

Article source: http://sf.curbed.com/archives/2012/08/13/curbeds_real_estate_hotties_contest_begins_right_now.php

Moreover, the very “openness” of an open house means anyone can walk through the door, putting real estate agents at risk every day. There are instances when an open house may not be the safest option, and that’s one reason why Robertson launched OpenHouseKey.com, a website dedicated to transforming open house management.

“We always wished somebody had put together the right set of real estate tools to make our lives easier, more productive and safer,” says Robertson, who also owns the real estate brokerage firm YourSeattleHomeTeam.com. “Nobody did — so we decided to do it ourselves. By harnessing the power of current technologies and the Internet’s popularity as a real estate marketing and research tool, we’ve created a solutions-oriented site that makes open houses more convenient, meaningful and safe, while providing its users with a number of marketing, sales and consumer tools that support industry-wide success.”

OpenHouseKey.com is a one-stop portal for posting “for sale” and “for rent” properties, open house times, auto-generated QR codes for each listing, and auto-fill pdf flyers with photos + QR code. Perhaps even more important, OpenHouseKey.com features SecureShow®, a cutting-edge ID verification process that identifies buyers and tenants, and verifies they are who they say they are before agents, sellers and landlords meet them at properties. SecureShow eliminates speculation regarding who will attend an open house, while reducing the odds of “looky loos” or, worse, unscrupulous imposters popping in for a “showing.”

OpenHouseKey.com is currently in beta-testing, yet Robertson has already been named a finalist for the Washington Association of Mortgage Professionals’ “Best of the Best” award. The honor recognizes outstanding innovators, advocates and community leaders within its industry.

“I believe that part of why I was chosen as an award finalist is because this website is such a welcome reprieve for the industry,” she says. “The issues and challenges related to open houses are very well known, yet there have been no solutions for addressing them effectively until now. With OpenHouseKey.com, we’re doing what we can to make the entire open house experience safer and more effective for all.”

For more information, visit http://openhousekey.com.

About OpenHouseKey.com

OpenHouseKey.com provides security awareness and screening, along with current, user-friendly marketing tools, to sellers, real estate professionals and landlords. All this is delivered through a single-source platform website that also supplies accurate and timely information to prospective buyers and tenants.

Contact:

Lynn RobertsonPresident, OpenHouseKey.comMedia@OpenHouseKey.com 206-225-6941

This press release was issued through eReleases(R).  For more information, visit eReleases Press Release Distribution at http://www.ereleases.com.

SOURCE OpenHouseKey.com

Article source: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/12/12/4116753/openhousekeycom-transforms-open.html

SEATTLE, Dec. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Lynn Robertson has seen her fair share of open houses. With 25 years of experience as a real estate broker in various regions of the U.S., including the San Francisco Bay area and Washington State, she knows firsthand the challenges of opening up a property for all the public to see. While an open house may create an opportunity to engage the perfect buyer, the ultimate success of generating solid leads through this approach can be hit or miss.

Moreover, the very “openness” of an open house means anyone can walk through the door, putting real estate agents at risk every day. There are instances when an open house may not be the safest option, and that’s one reason why Robertson launched OpenHouseKey.com, a website dedicated to transforming open house management.

“We always wished somebody had put together the right set of real estate tools to make our lives easier, more productive and safer,” says Robertson, who also owns the real estate brokerage firm YourSeattleHomeTeam.com. “Nobody did — so we decided to do it ourselves. By harnessing the power of current technologies and the Internet’s popularity as a real estate marketing and research tool, we’ve created a solutions-oriented site that makes open houses more convenient, meaningful and safe, while providing its users with a number of marketing, sales and consumer tools that support industry-wide success.”

OpenHouseKey.com is a one-stop portal for posting “for sale” and “for rent” properties, open house times, auto-generated QR codes for each listing, and auto-fill pdf flyers with photos + QR code. Perhaps even more important, OpenHouseKey.com features SecureShow®, a cutting-edge ID verification process that identifies buyers and tenants, and verifies they are who they say they are before agents, sellers and landlords meet them at properties. SecureShow eliminates speculation regarding who will attend an open house, while reducing the odds of “looky loos” or, worse, unscrupulous imposters popping in for a “showing.”

OpenHouseKey.com is currently in beta-testing, yet Robertson has already been named a finalist for the Washington Association of Mortgage Professionals’ “Best of the Best” award. The honor recognizes outstanding innovators, advocates and community leaders within its industry.

“I believe that part of why I was chosen as an award finalist is because this website is such a welcome reprieve for the industry,” she says. “The issues and challenges related to open houses are very well known, yet there have been no solutions for addressing them effectively until now. With OpenHouseKey.com, we’re doing what we can to make the entire open house experience safer and more effective for all.”

For more information, visit http://openhousekey.com.

About OpenHouseKey.com

OpenHouseKey.com provides security awareness and screening, along with current, user-friendly marketing tools, to sellers, real estate professionals and landlords. All this is delivered through a single-source platform website that also supplies accurate and timely information to prospective buyers and tenants.

Contact:

Lynn Robertson
President, OpenHouseKey.com
Media@OpenHouseKey.com
206-225-6941

This press release was issued through eReleases(R).  For more information, visit eReleases Press Release Distribution at http://www.ereleases.com.

SOURCE OpenHouseKey.com

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Article source: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/openhousekeycom-transforms-open-house-management-with-suite-of-security-and-sales-solutions-135432043.html

San Francisco Bay Area Home Sales Below Average

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Real estate agent Paul Barbagelata, left, talks with a client during an open house in San Francisco.

Real estate agent Paul Barbagelata, left, talks with a client during an open house in San Francisco. Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Home sales in the San Francisco Bay
Area were 22 percent below average last month as buyers waited
for better mortgage availability, DataQuick said today.

A total of 6,749 houses and condominiums sold in the nine-
county region, below the average of 8,644 property deals for
September since 1988, the San Diego-based data seller said in a
statement. Last month’s total was down 10 percent from August
and up 6.6 percent from a year earlier.

“Demand continues to accumulate,” DataQuick President
John Walsh said in the statement. “Empty-nesters want something
smaller, growing families want something bigger. People still
die, they get married, retire — all of this generates demand.
And only a fraction of that demand is being met in today’s
market.”

The number of transactions financed with adjustable-rate
loans, an indicator of mortgage availability, fell to 13 percent
in September from 16 percent in August, according to DataQuick.
Such loans were used in 45 percent of Bay Area sales over the
past decade. Jumbo mortgages, or those higher than $417,000,
were used in almost a third of all deals, little changed from
August and about half 2007’s tally.

The median home price in the Bay Area fell to $365,000,
down 1.4 percent from August and 7.6 percent from a year
earlier, DataQuick said. All nine counties had price declines
from a year earlier, led by a 13 percent decrease to $252,000 in
Contra Costa. Santa Clara fell 6 percent to $470,000 and San
Francisco fell 1 percent to $613,750.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Dan Levy in San Francisco at
dlevy13@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Kara Wetzel at
kwetzel@bloomberg.net

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Article source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-14/san-francisco-bay-area-home-sales-below-average-as-buyers-wait.html

With tech workers flocking to the Bay Area again and the homeownership market still sluggish, local demand for rental housing is spiking and prices are on the rise, according to new data gathered by Novato-based RealFacts.

The combination of factors is driving people to choose — and then beg — to rent. The occupancy rate in The City rose 6 percent between 2010 and 2011 — meaning there are fewer apartments available on the market — and the average cost of all rentals went up from $2,214 to $2,422, according to RealFacts data.

Sarah Bridge, owner of RealFacts, theorized that members of Generation Y just don’t want to be tied down in the real estate market, especially not in the suburbs.

“That demographic is moving more toward rentals in a tight-knit, walkable community,” Bridge said.

The new data matches what countless apartment hunters already know. Even if you have the credit score report and boilerplate rental application in hand to try to beat out the competition — and especially if you’ve already given the 30-day notice on your current place — life is not getting easier for The City’s potential tenants.

That clock is ticking for 29-year-old nonprofit employee Allyse Heartwell and her tech worker boyfriend. After the couple suspected they had been outbid by other tenants on a place they really liked, they decided they would fight back at some open houses on Wednesday.

“If we like the place, we are going to bid $100 up,” Heartwell said, adding that she tried to bid $50 over the asking price on a previous place, but to no avail. “It’s like they should start putting these places on eBay.”

Because the couple’s options are narrowed by the fact they have a dog and are interested only in certain neighborhoods, they see some of the same people at the open houses.

“We definitely smile at each other, but we don’t really chat with them,” she said.  “You just go for 15 minutes, then you have to leave to get to the next one.”

Abigail Glynn, a broker with Davis Realty Co., said she’s noticed a resurgence in The City’s rental market. She said the demand is no surprise, considering increased hiring at tech companies that are now better established than they were during the dot-com bubble a decade ago.

“I’m getting Google people and they’re making money,” Glynn said. “We’re getting the second wave of dot-com kids.”

dschreiber@sfexaminer.com

Rents on the rise

Average San Francisco rental
Second quarter 2010: $2,214
Second quarter 2011: $2,422

Average rent cost per unit type
Loft: $2,100
Studio: $1,821
One bedroom: $2,229
Two bedroom, one bath: $2,394
Two bedroom, two bath: $3,272
Three bedroom, two bath: $2,975
Three bedroom, three bath: $3,609

Source: RealFacts

Article source: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2011/08/new-wave-tech-workers-san-francisco-becomes-landlord-s-market