SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – If you’re planning on purchasing a home in the Bay Area soon, you may be up against steep competition.

According to San Diego-based company DataQuick, house and condo sales throughout the Bay Area in July were the highest since 2005.

A total of 9,339 sales were finalized, up 13.3 percent from July 2012, when 8,241 homes were sold, according to DataQuick.

The sales were at its highest since 12,538 homes sold in July 2005, the data company stated.

The spike in sales was most evident in Santa Clara County, where 2,244 homes were sold, 26.1 percent more than the 1,779 from July last year.

In San Francisco, 718 homes sold last month, up 31.3 percent from last July’s 547 sales.

Solano County was the only Bay Area county that recorded fewer sales this July from last, totaling a 0.8 percent decrease, from 610 last year to 605 last month.

With the rise in sales, the median price of homes in the Bay Area has also increased, reaching its highest price in more than five and a half years.

In July, the median price was $562,000, the highest since December 2007 when homes were averaging a price tag of roughly $587,500, according to DataQuick.

Twelve months ago, the median price of homes in the nine-county region was 33.5 percent less, averaging roughly $421,000 per sale.

All counties throughout the Bay Area recorded an increase in median sale prices, but none more than in Contra Costa County, which had its median sale price rise nearly 43 percent from $308,000 to $440,000, according to DataQuick.

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Article source: http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/08/15/bay-area-home-sales-home-prices-climbing/

In December 2010, the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a deal to host the America’s Cup sailing race, which is being staged by Oracle Racing and sponsored by San Francisco’s Golden Gate Yacht Club. The arm of the race that puts on the event was to receive long-term development rights to waterfront property in San Francisco, in return for fronting the millions of dollars needed to fix several dilapidated piers.

Yet days after the board signed the agreement, Newport, R.I., suddenly emerged as a finalist to host the race, and America’s Cup officials seemed open to holding the event there instead of San Francisco. In a move to hang on to the race, then-Mayor Gavin Newsom unilaterally changed portions of the hosting agreement, making the deal a worse one for The City than the one approved by the board.

Nonetheless, for the next year or so, planning of the event seemed to sail along, with committees and subcommittees hearing the plans and mostly rubber-stamping the approvals in a deal that wasn’t heavily scrutinized by the public or media.

But lying just below the surface were voices of criticism, and rightly so. While the deal would have fixed portions of the waterfront that are badly in need of repair, the long-term costs to The City and its taxpayers did not make sense. So when Mayor Ed Lee announced Monday that two piers were being taken off the table, and the investment in waterfront rehab was scaled back from $111 million to a price tag of between $10 million to $18 million, everyone in San Francisco should have breathed a sigh of relief.

Developing prime waterfront real estate in San Francisco should not be taken lightly, nor proceed without proper public vetting. The City’s bayshore waterfront is some of the best real estate in the entire nation, and it does need to be redeveloped — possibly in a public-private deal like the one the America’s Cup Event Authority proposed. But doing so under the duress of losing a world-class event led the prior administration to agree to a shortsighted deal.

The America’s Cup is a boon for San Francisco, and city officials should do whatever is within their means to make it successful. The long-term status of San Francisco’s waterfront, however, need not be resolved so breezily.

Article source: http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/2012/03/americas-cup-downsized-pier-pact-gives-sf-better-deal

“We’re very, very fortunate in San Francisco,” Ting told SFAppeal. He also predicted that the growth will only continue here in SF in the coming years.

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This may be news for Bay Area buyers and sellers, but real estate agents aren’t surprised.

“This city is a gold mine for real estate,” Rick Teed, cofounder of real estate and development company Teed Haze, told HuffPost. “If you have a house with no view, but it’s redone and in a neighborhood like Pacific Heights, it’s going to be north of $1000-per-square foot for starters.”

Teed agrees with Ting’s prediction that the market will only continue to grow. “We are a seven-by-seven-square-mile city,” said Teed. “There is no new land.”

Daniel Cressman, executive vice president of the commercial real estate company Grubb El, also commented on our city’s limited space. He told NBC Bay Area that San Francisco is “one of the very few markets in the entire country where investment demand for commercial office space is far outstripping the available supply that’s for sale.”

To celebrate this news, we contacted Sotheby’s International Realty and got some pictures of a home they are especially excited about. Check out this unreal Gold Coast-style 1927 home designed by Willis Polk Co. in Pacific Heights. We would move in tomorrow if it weren’t for that $25 million price tag.

Take a look at images of this amazing home below:

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Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/22/san-francisco-real-estate-best-market-in-state_n_907245.html

Of the 13* Redwood City residential properties currently for sale between $900,0000 and $1,000,000 on the Multiple Listing Service, 1733 Hull Avenue in the West Selby area, listed by Rick Freeman of Intero Real Estate, comes in just under $1 million at $999,999. Available since the beginning of February this unique property offers a “2 for 1” approach with 2 separate homes on a large, 13,155 lot – an updated 3 bedroom/2 bathroom home with master suite, plus a 2 bedroom/1 bathroom home, and an office behind the garage.

For a more traditional home, one need look no farther than 2470 Edith Avenue, priced in the middle of the range at $949,000 and listed by  Howard Clark, Dumas Company since August 2010.  With 4 bedrooms and 3 baths, the two-story, 2450 square foot residence on a 6300 square foot lot offers a formal dining room and family room as well as a master suite and is in need of some “TLC”.

At the beginning of the price range, now listed at $900,000 is 31 Foss Drive by Sylviana Montano, Century 21 Landmark Network. This 3 bedroom/3 bathroom home initially arrived on the market at $1,250,000 in March, 2010, and is now a short sale with a much reduced price tag.  Located just below Emerald Hills, the two-story, updated 2880 square foot house on a 5850 square foot lot features a formal dining room, family room, den and a master suite.

There are currently 3 sales pending between $900,000 and $1 million.  962 Round Hill Road  in Farm Hill, listed by Gary Bulanti of Alain Pinel Realtors and priced at $999,000 was on the market for 94 days.  The 3 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom home with 2130 square feet interior space offers an updated kitchen, family room, master suite and laundry room, and the 8260 square foot lot provides a good-sized, private backyard.  

3 brand new construction homes in Redwood City – 10, 20 and 30 Kenna Court in the West Selby area are representative of the 15 closed sales in this price range over the past six months.  Listed by Greg Terry with Alain Pinel Realtors, all three properties were completed and arrived on the market in November, 2010, and all were listed and sold for $998,000 in 11, 8 and 7 days respectively.  The two-story residences boast all the “bells and whistles” with marble, granite and tile hard finishes, stainless steel appliances, master suites and open great rooms.  All offer 4 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms in 2688 to 2566 square feet on 5444 to 5100 square foot lots.

*All housing market information is provided by MLSListings.com and is deemed reliable but may not be accurate.  

For more information about any of these properties, contact the listing agents or Wende Schoof.

Looking for the right home on the San Francisco Peninsula?  Redwood City could be the right place!  Wende By The Bay is definitely the right place to start! 

Article source: http://redwoodcity.patch.com/articles/home-report-what-can-you-get-for-under-1-million