To give a sense of just how quickly this has happened, its important to note that the current median price is a 32 percent jump from where its sat last year.

The phenomenon isn’t solely confined to San Francisco proper. Other Bay Area cities are experiencing similar surges in housing prices, leading the whole region to see a 22 percent increase in prices over the past twelve months.

This is great news for current homeowners thinking about cashing out and moving to the Bahamas. But for everyone else it raises two questions: 1. Where can I get one of those internet millionaire jobs I keep hearing so much about, and 2. Are we in the midst of the housing bubble?

According to a recent study by real estate brokerage house Redfin, San Francisco is one of the cities in the United States most likely to be experiencing a real estate bubble based on a host of factors ranging from the ratio of home prices to median household income, the speed at which prices are growing and the speed at which houses are sold after being listed on the market.

“The normal laws of economics don’t apply to the Bay Area,” Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman told HuffPost in April. “You could have huge unemployment numbers here and home prices would still go up because [the supply is so constrained and] there are enough people with limitless amounts of money who want to live there.”

Unlike the real estate bubble that triggered the Great Recession, the Bay Area’s newfound growth in home prices isn’t fueled by sketchy financing (“Do you have a heartbeat and signature? Here are the keys to this 12 bedroom estate!”). Instead, what’s going on is directly tied to the strength of the Bay Area’s largely tech-fueled job market, which is drawing an influx of wealthy people into areas where there isn’t enough supply to go around.

The reason for the Bay Area’s lack of supply is largely due to the aftershocks of the last bubble, which devastated the construction industry and led to far fewer houses being built to accommodate the region’s swelling population.

Some of that is starting to change–especially in San Francisco, where a construction boom is simultaneously creating new housing units after years of virtually nothing coming onto the market–but the new construction isn’t happening fast enough to stabilize demand.

While the Fed is helping to keep interest rates low, which makes buying a house considerably cheaper, the money coming into some pockets of the Bay Area is so great that it’s common for properties to stay on the market for less than a week and the majority of buyers are paying entirely with cash.

However, it’s not only internet millionaires acquiring scores of Bay Area real estate with mountains of cold, hard cash. The practice of house flipping–where an investor buys a property (often with cash), fixes it up and then sells it almost immediately to make a profit both on the renovation and the rising tide of the housing market–is back with a vengeance.

A recent analysis by RealtyTrac found the average gross profit for flipping a house in San Francisco last year was 23 percent over the original purchase price, making it one of the best markets in the country for flipping.

In February, 28 percent of all the homes sold in Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda and Contra Costa counties went to absentee buyers not intending on actually living on the property and nearly one third sold for cash.

“In terms of the added frustration to Mr. and Mrs. Typical Homebuyer, the investor coming in with cash is going to trump,” Coldwell Banker’s Rick Turley told the San Jose Mercury News. “Even at the next price tier, you’ve got these young wealthy millionaires buying their first home at $1.5 million, and they’re paying cash. That’s edging out the move-up buyer.”

Even so, there are many housing experts who believe what’s happening is healthy growth that’s sustainable over the long term.

“This is not a bubble,” economist Diane Swonk told ABC News. “We are regaining lost ground which is a game-changer for most households since their home is what they rely on for wealth.”

Also on HuffPost:

Loading Slideshow

• Sacramento, Calif.

  Year Over Year Increase: 42.57 percent

  Median Home Listing Price: $285,000

  Total # Of Listings: 2,962

• Santa Barbara/Santa Maria/Lompoc, Calif.

  Year Over Year Increase: 35.72 percent

  Median Home Listing Price: $699,000

  Total # Of Listings: 1,195

• San Francisco, Calif.

  Year Over Year Increase: 25.04 percent

  Median Home Listing Price: $749,000

  Total # Of Listings: 2,292

• San Jose, Calif.

  Year Over Year Increase: 23.53 percent

  Median Home Listing Price: $562,000

  Total # Of Listings: 2,035

• Phoenix, Ariz.

  Year Over Year Increase: 21.21 percent

  Median Home Listing Price: $200,000

  Total # Of Listings: 15,114

• Atlanta, Ga.

  Year Over Year Increase: 19.93 percent

  Median Home Listing Price: $179,000

  Total # Of Listings: 32,530

• Oakland, Calif.

  Year Over Year Increase: 17.22 percent

  Median Home Listing Price: $375,000

  Total # Of Listings: 1,911

• Seattle/Bellevue/Everett, Wash.

  Year Over Year Increase: 16.66 percent

  Median Home Listing Price: $349,950

  Total # Of Listings: 4,381

• Fresno, Calif.

  Year Over Year Increase: 16.28 percent

  Median Home Listing Price: $184,900

  Total # Of Listings: 1,949

• Riverside, Calif.

  Year Over Year Increase: 15.65 percent

  Median Home Listing Price: $229,000

  Total # Of Listings: 14,909

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/29/san-francisco-median-home-price_n_3356238.html?ir=San+Francisco

And if a recent analysis by real estate brokerage Redfin is any indication, the city may be in the midst of a burgeoning housing bubble.

Redfin’s study looked at home sales in major cities across the country and found San Francisco to be among a handful of metro areas where the median home price-to-household income ratio is high enough to suggest the formation of a real estate bubble. Other factors, including rapid growth in prices, low levels of available properties and houses regularly selling within a week of first being placed on the market, also pointed to a similar conclusion.

“A lot of people [in San Francisco] are really frustrated that they can’t buy a home in the city because it’s so expensive,” explained Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman.

Over the first three months of the 2013, the median home sale price in San Francisco was $771,750. The median annual household income is currently $72,947. The former number is rising much faster than the latter, indicating that the price of housing in the city has increasingly less to do with what the average home buyer can actually pay.

The meager supply of available housing in San Francisco further exacerbates the problem.

“Some properties are receiving in upward of 40 to 60 offers and selling in 24 hours or less,” said Bay Area Redfin agent Charmaine Frank, who noted that on a number of occasions, every single Redfin agent in San Francisco represented a different potential buyer for a single property.

“The normal laws of economics don’t apply to the Bay Area,” added Kelman. “You could have huge unemployment numbers here and home prices would still go up because [the supply is so constrained and] there are enough people with limitless amounts of money who want to live there.”

As a result, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for anyone but the wealthy to afford a house in San Francisco. Last year, real estate blog Movoto urged prospective house hunters to cool their jets until the bubble bursts.

“Unless you happen to be a billionaire, you should probably steer clear of shopping for a new home in the city,” Movato writer Kristin Crosier advised. “Even then it would be an unfortunate way to spend your piles of money.”

In a typical real estate bubble, individuals put all their money into buying property on the assumption that they can later sell it for a profit. But market forces cause home values to eventually decrease. When that happens on a massive scale, the bubble pops, a large amount of money suddenly evaporates, and a trail of economic destruction ensues.

Deterred by skyrocketing home prices, many San Franciscans have opted to navigate the city’s mind-bogglingly expensive rental market on the assumption that renting will be cheaper. However, according to a recent investigation by real estate site Trulia, buying a home is still cheaper than renting in every major American city, San Francisco included.

This rapid growth in home sale prices isn’t limited to San Francisco’s city limits. Over the past year, the median sale price of homes in the whole San Francisco Bay Area jumped by nearly 40 percent — the biggest spike of any metro region in the country. Over that same time period, the number of new listings decreased by eight percent.

In fact, overheated housing markets have popped up all along the California coastline. After Washington, D.C., which the Redfin study ranked as having the biggest housing bubble in the nation, the next three cities — Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco — were all in California

“California is hot because that’s where so many people want to live,” Frank said. “There are long-term demographic patterns driving people into California.”

Related on HuffPost:

Loading Slideshow

• Sacramento, Calif.

  Year Over Year Increase: 42.57 percent

  Median Home Listing Price: $285,000

  Total # Of Listings: 2,962

• Santa Barbara/Santa Maria/Lompoc, Calif.

  Year Over Year Increase: 35.72 percent

  Median Home Listing Price: $699,000

  Total # Of Listings: 1,195

• San Francisco, Calif.

  Year Over Year Increase: 25.04 percent

  Median Home Listing Price: $749,000

  Total # Of Listings: 2,292

• San Jose, Calif.

  Year Over Year Increase: 23.53 percent

  Median Home Listing Price: $562,000

  Total # Of Listings: 2,035

• Phoenix, Ariz.

  Year Over Year Increase: 21.21 percent

  Median Home Listing Price: $200,000

  Total # Of Listings: 15,114

• Atlanta, Ga.

  Year Over Year Increase: 19.93 percent

  Median Home Listing Price: $179,000

  Total # Of Listings: 32,530

• Oakland, Calif.

  Year Over Year Increase: 17.22 percent

  Median Home Listing Price: $375,000

  Total # Of Listings: 1,911

• Seattle/Bellevue/Everett, Wash.

  Year Over Year Increase: 16.66 percent

  Median Home Listing Price: $349,950

  Total # Of Listings: 4,381

• Fresno, Calif.

  Year Over Year Increase: 16.28 percent

  Median Home Listing Price: $184,900

  Total # Of Listings: 1,949

• Riverside, Calif.

  Year Over Year Increase: 15.65 percent

  Median Home Listing Price: $229,000

  Total # Of Listings: 14,909

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/16/san-francisco-housing-bubble_n_3088591.html

Supplies are down across the nation, not just in the former crash markets, like Phoenix and Las Vegas, where investors decimated inventories of distressed homes in bulk purchases. Listings are down 31 percent in Seattle from a year ago, down 32 percent in Denver, down 20 percent in Houston, down 37 percent in Boston, according to local Realtor associations.

(Click Here: Recover Watch Map, Complete Coverage)

“At the moment it’s a seller’s market again,” said David Fogg, a real estate agent in Burbank, CA. “Very low inventory, very low interest rates, almost no bank inventory of homes, it’s crazy out there. Every good property I’ve listed this year has brought 10-50 offers and sales prices 10-20 percent over comps. Cash is King.”

Nearly one third of all existing home sales in January were paid for in cash, and not just by investors, who are making up a shrinking share of the market. Fierce competition is forcing buyers to use every advantage, given that so many are going after so little.

In California’s San Fernando Valley there are usually over 9,000 homes for sale this time of year, according to real estate agent Billy Wynn. Today there are just over 1,400.

“Realtors are getting so many offers they are taking the homes off the market and not accepting additional offers before any offer is even accepted,” said Wynn. “This is real estate bubble 2.0 on steroids.”

It is a puzzling situation, given all the warnings of a tsunami of so-called “shadow inventory” that was supposed to be flooding the market right now. As it stands, fewer distressed properties are coming to the market.

“The ticking time bomb of shadow supply has been diffused by a combination of foreclosure processing delays in judicial states, legislation slowing down the foreclosure process in non-judicial states, foreclosure prevention programs and initiatives encouraging short sales,” said Daren Blomquist of RealtyTrac. “Notably, in 2012, was the National Mortgage Settlement, which both encouraged foreclosure prevention and short sales as an alternative to foreclosure, and the loosening of short sale guidelines by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in November.”

As a result, short sales, where the home is sold for less than the value of the mortgage, are rising as a share of total distressed sales, while bank-owned home sales are falling. Investors are now competing for such little supply that they are ironically pricing themselves out of the market.

(Read More: Distressed Homes Still Drive Sales)

“We are hearing also, that new home buyers are not really looking at the foreclosure market—the houses are either not in good neighborhoods or the house is in bad condition and needs a lot of updates,” noted Paul Miller, an analyst at FBR. “So home buyers are either going to new-builds or being very picky with the type and shape of the house. We are hearing from plenty of mortgage brokers that they are working with many couples, and they just can’t find the perfect house.”

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100512238

In the nine-county region, 8,579 homes were sold, up 14.2 percent from August 2011, according to DataQuick, a real estate service in San Diego. The median price paid was $410,000, up 10.8 percent from last year. It was the fifth consecutive month in which the median rose significantly compared with a year earlier.

It was the best August sales volume in six years, since before the real estate bubble burst and the credit market collapsed, according to DataQuick.

“The market is gradually moving toward normalcy,” said Andrew LePage, a DataQuick analyst. “It’s a slow, modest recovery that depends heavily on the health of the economy and how lenders manage the remaining distress.”

Tight inventory continues to push up prices, as buyers hoping to lock in record-low interest rates vie for a limited supply of homes for sale.

Akil Murali, 27, a Symantec product manager who has been house-hunting in San Francisco and the Peninsula, exemplifies the challenges faced by many buyers.

“I made quite a number of offers where there was a lot of competition and the properties went well above asking,” he said. “I lost out and never even got an opportunity to make a counteroffer. Recently I made an offer $60,000 above asking, but (lost out to) all-cash buyers who removed all financial contingencies, making them more attractive to the seller.”

‘Things are crazy’

Murali finally has a contract on a two-bedroom home in Foster City, where a previous offer fell through when the buyer didn’t qualify for a mortgage.

“Things are crazy,” said his real estate agent, Regina Puzon, Peninsula team lead agent for Redfin. “Some homes are getting 20 or 30 offers. I have a lot of clients upping their down payments and removing all contingencies to get their offers accepted.”

She and other agents said that many sellers are underpricing their homes to spur bidding wars – a tactic that was prevalent in real estate’s boom days. By contrast, “during the downturn, people were pricing houses for what they thought they would go for,” said Sandy Patel-Hilfery of Pacific Union International in Montclair.

There are also signs that inventory may be increasing, she said. “This week alone there were 50 new, good listings in Berkeley, Piedmont and the nicer parts of Oakland,” she said. “Ordinarily, I would have expected 30 new listings of nicer houses at this time of year. The agents are jazzed because everyone has buyers who are chomping at the bit.”

Homeowners who were sidelined by the downturn may be starting to list their homes for sale as the market recovers. “Sellers are finally catching on to the fact that there are buyers coming out in droves,” Patel-Hilfery said.

Regaining equity

As values slowly rise, some homeowners who were underwater are regaining equity, another reason they may now be willing to sell. Nationwide, 1.3 million homeowners who had been underwater returned to positive equity this year, research firm CoreLogic said this week. In the Bay Area, about 27,000 homeowners returned to positive equity.

The 10.8 percent rise in the Bay Area’s median price in August is in part a reflection of a different mix of homes on the market – more higher-priced homes and fewer bargain-basement foreclosures, LePage said. Sales of homes over $500,000 were up 23 percent versus last year while sales of those under $300,000 were down 6 percent from a year ago.

Bank-owned foreclosures accounted for 14.9 percent of resales in August – down from 25.7 percent a year ago and approaching the historic monthly average of 10 percent. Foreclosure sales peaked at 52 percent of resales in February 2009. Short sales – homes sold for less than the balance due on the mortgage – accounted for 18.9 percent of resales, slightly up from 18.1 percent a year ago.

Fragile equilibrium

The market’s fragile equilibrium could be upset by such factors as a deluge of bank-owned foreclosures or a downturn in the economy, LePage said. But foreclosure activity is clearly slowing, although millions of homeowners nationwide continue to struggle.

Last year, lenders repossessed California homes at an average of almost 14,000 a month, said Sean O’Toole, founder and CEO of ForeclosureRadar.com. Through August of this year, the statewide pace plummeted by one-third, to an average of just under 9,000 foreclosures a month. Mortgage delinquencies also are falling compared with a year ago, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association, which implies that foreclosures will continue to decline.

And mortgage interest rates, already hovering near historic lows of 3.55 percent on a 30-year fixed-rate loan, are likely to remain super-affordable, thanks to the Federal Reserve’s plan to buy billions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities announced Thursday.

Bouncing back in a big way

8,579

Bay Area homes sold in August

14.2%

Change from August 2011

$410,000

Median price in August

10.8%

Change from August 2011

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: csaid@sfchronicle.com

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Bay-Area-home-sales-prices-up-in-August-3867301.php

The initiative will market Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage listings here at home on a global basis through a combination of print and online advertising, targeted direct marketing, and other outreach efforts.

Additionally, the program will leverage Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC’s extensive network of offices and sales associates throughout the Far East to find qualified buyers of local properties.

Homeowners in Asia have become the fastest-growing segment of offshore buyers for U.S. homes, according to recent industry figures. Buyers in China alone now represent 9 percent of the $41 billion spent annually by international buyers, according to the National Association of Realtors – nearly double the total just three years ago.

Chinese buyers now trail only Canadians as the top buyers of U.S. properties. India is tied with Mexico for third at 7 percent. For offshore buyers, California remains one of the top locations in the nation, according to NAR’s study.

“For a variety of reasons, buyers in Asia are increasingly looking to the U.S. in general and California and the Bay Area in particular when it comes to real estate investments,” said Anne Treacy Johnson, regional vice president of marketing for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage.

Affluent Chinese residents are facing increasing limitations from their government on purchasing real estate as China battles inflation and what the government and many investors fear might be a real estate bubble. Properties in the U.S., even in more expensive Silicon Valley communities, are considered relatively cheap compared to escalating property values in China.

“Given the strong international demand for our properties, it’s critical to reach Asian buyers with a very targeted and strategic marketing program in their home countries,” Johnson said. “Our goal is to put Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage listings in front of the widest possible audience of affluent buyers from Asia.”

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage will be marketing the properties with extensive advertising in a host of influential global publications, including the Wall Street Journal Asian edition, Unique Homes magazine, Millionaire Asia, and Previews International Homes Estates.

The program also gives agents the opportunity to showcase their properties on leading international websites, including ListGlobally.com, EastWestLuxuryEstates.com, the Wall Street Journal’s online Chinese edition and Caimeiju, one of China’s top websites specializing in luxury properties in America. In all, listings will be exposed to more than 15 million buyers worldwide on more than 550 highly trafficked websites.

Additionally, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage has launched its own “micro site” for international buyers of high-end California homes called CBPCalifornia.com. The site will be used when consumers in China, Russia and the Middle East search for California listings using their native search engine — Baidu, (the Chinese version of Google), Yande (the Russian version of Google), and Google UAE.

The company will complement the Internet and print advertising efforts with a direct marketing program overseas that is designed to reach more than 100,000 affluent individuals in the Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage will also leverage one of the largest networks of agents worldwide as part of the program. “One of the biggest tools we will be using is our global network of 86,000 sales associates in 3,200 offices in 49 countries around the globe,” Johnson said. “This incomparable network of real estate professionals will support our marketing efforts on the ground in each of these countries and give our listings a truly global reach in order to attract the right buyers for our properties.”

For more information about the new international marketing program, please contact Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage’s marketing department at 925.275.3085.

About Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage
Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage is the largest residential real estate brokerage in Northern California and serves the markets from Monterey to Tahoe and nearly every market in between. The company has 62 office locations and more than 3,600 sales associates throughout Northern California. Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage is part of NRT LLC, the nation’s largest residential real estate brokerage company. NRT has 750 offices and 45,000 sales associates operating in more than 35 major metropolitan areas. A subsidiary of Realogy Corporation, NRT operates Realogy’s company-owned real estate brokerage offices. For more information please visit www.CaliforniaMoves.com or call 925.275.3085. DRE # 00313415.

###

Article source: http://www.pr.com/press-release/381725

Like the market itself, the commercial real estate practice is rebounding from a deep low. Tech companies expanding into new digs and an uptick in off-market deals are helping keep big-firm real estate departments busy in San Francisco. Some are even thinking about hiring again, but stress they’re going to be very cautious — and choosy.

“I laid off a lot of people. It was very unpleasant,” said William Murray Jr., who leads the real estate practice at Orrick, Herrington Sutcliffe. He said his San Francisco group dropped from 18 to 12 attorneys because of the recession, and he doubts they’ll ever return to those pre-crisis levels. “My standards for hiring are tougher. I want to make sure I hire only people who can make it through another tough downturn.”

Murray said it’s not easy to identify those people and they are few and far between, but he said the ideal candidate will have experience handling the type of capital market transactions Orrick specializes in and can show they kept themselves busy even during the recession.

DLA Piper partner Stephen Cowan, whose own group in San Francisco dropped from 25 to 15 lawyers since the real estate bubble burst, echoed the sentiment. The pipeline at his firm has more promising matters than last year, including multiple portfolio transactions, purchase and sales deals, among them a purchase of 24 properties across the United States worth around $850 million, and a new redevelopment project in Mission Bay. “Every single person is busy,” Cowan said, ticking off the matters: “We’re doing more leasing, more financing, representing lenders and more borrowers.” His group’s even handling a large acquisition with no financing involved, he said.

But he’s not yet ready to claim a comeback strong enough to warrant a hiring surge. “Law firm management and real estate partners are very leery of the depth of the downturn,” Cowan said. The upturn could be a temporary blip, he said, and hiring won’t pick up until his firm is sure of sustained business. “Thinning the ranks is very, very painful.”

Orrick partner Michael Liever said his real estate group has been handling more work for tech companies buying campuses or leasing more space as they prepare to expand, such as Facebook Inc.’s move into the former Sun Microsystems headquarters. Most of the action is happening South of Market in San Francisco, he said, and in Menlo Park and Palo Alto. Orrick has represented two landlords in negotiations with Apple Inc. for buildings across the San Francisco Bay Area, for instance. Murray says the team has handled four $100 million deals in the past three to four months — mainly acquisitions of properties or portfolios of properties. “We didn’t have anywhere near that volume in ’08 and ’09,” Murray noted.

In March, Orrick handled the Westin San Francisco hotel’s restructuring, representing Westbrook Partners, which bought the debt on the property and took a deed in lieu of foreclosure on the property. Media reports put the mortgage debt at about $150 million.

Orrick’s San Francisco office added one fifth-year real estate associate from a Chicago firm a month ago and a first-year is starting at the end of August. The firm will be hiring one or two more lateral associates in the fall, partners say, if the deals keep coming. The ideal candidate these days will have just the right mix of experience and fire in the belly, Murray said. “There are people that have a hunger and that love real estate and I think they end up surviving better,” he said.

Gibson, Dunn Crutcher, known for caution in lateral hiring in good times and bad, is also beating the bushes for the perfect candidates to add to its 14-attorney San Francisco real estate group. Firm Chairman Kenneth Doran said demand in real estate has surged. Gibson is in a different position than many of its peers, Doran said, because it didn’t lay off any attorneys during the downturn. This year, the firm added one of counsel in Los Angeles and is in the process of hiring another in San Francisco. “We are cautious and selective,” Doran said.

Charles Thornton, a San Francisco partner at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky Walker, said clients are still risk averse. He said he has more off-market deals in the works than usual, which aren’t subject to a public bidding process. Two are acquisitions of office buildings and two are other types of commercial properties, all in California. “You sign a confidentiality agreement,” Thornton said. “You negotiate directly.”

Thornton said he’s not sure why more negotiations are happening behind closed doors now. One driver might be the complexity of deals these days, and various pressures on sellers. The loans attached to a property may be in default, there may be issues between the borrower and the lender, or a seller may have a deadline to get certain assets off its books in this fiscal year.

All those factors make turning to a single reputable buyer more appealing than a public bidding process that tends to be more fraught with risk, including the risk the deal won’t close or will be negotiated down in price after the buyer has done due diligence, Thornton said.

Generally speaking, Thornton said, the hottest properties today are office buildings in major markets, like Silicon Valley, San Francisco and L.A., that are fully leased to credit-worthy tenants.

Joan Story, a real estate finance partner at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter Hampton in San Francisco, said work has picked up on the transactional side since last year, but certain areas continue to be hit and miss, especially on bigger projects. Story said residential development on the urban fringe will take a lot longer to recover. That — and the uncertainty many still feel about the permanence of the upswing in commercial real estate — has kept Sheppard’s San Francisco group steady at 17 real estate and land use lawyers. One new first-year associate will be coming on board from the firm’s summer program, but no one’s been added laterally so far this year. “We’ve not talked yet about any lateral hiring in the San Francisco office,” she said.

What would it take for the firm to jump-start hiring? “More deals,” Story said. “A sense that the pickup we see is not just sporadic but is sustained. I guess nobody really believes it yet.”

Subscribe to The Recorder

Article source: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202506643112&Real_Estate_Coming_Back_but_Firms_Still_Cautious_on_Hiring

Updated March 8, 2011 at 1:56 p.m.

New Census figures released Tuesday show dramatic changes in the Bay Area over the last decade, with rapid population growth in Contra Costa County, an African-American exodus from Oakland, and a surge in the number of Asians living in Silicon Valley.

The nine-county region reached a population of 7.15 million people, the Census showed.

Contra Costa County Grows the Fastest

Contra Costa County grew by more than 100,000 people over the past decade, making it the fastest-growing in the Bay Area on both an absolute and percentage basis. 

Observers say most of that growth occurred in the eastern parts of the county, like Antioch and Brentwood, where acres of cherry orchards and corn fields were bulldozed to make room for new subdivisions.

Unlike most of the Bay Area, where the African-American population dropped, the black population in Contra Costa County grew.

“A lot of people moved out from Oakland, including members of my family,” said Paul Cobb, publisher of the African-American weekly, the Oakland Post.

“Single mothers with latchkey kids moved out there because they didn’t want to have to worry about drugs and crime,” Cobb said.

Steve Spiker, research director for the Oakland-based Urban Strategies Council, said Contra Costa County’s population growth would have appeared even greater if it was measured before the real estate bubble burst and the foreclosure crisis began.

“A lot of these folks were foreclosed on while the census was being conducted,” Spiker said. ”It’s unclear how many of them were missed.”

Oakland Shrinks

Among California’s 20 largest cities, Oakland was one of only two to shrink between 2000 and 2010 (Santa Ana was the other). Census figures show the East Bay city lost 8,760 residents over the past decade.

During the course of the decade, nearly 40,000 African-Americans left Oakland, the data shows, while the numbers of white, Asian and Hispanic residents increased.

The population loss came despite the building of thousands of new condo units, part of former Mayor Jerry Brown’s much-ballyhooed “10K Plan” to reinvigorate downtown Oakland.

“A lot of people came, but a lot of people also left,” Cobb said.

San Francisco Becomes More Asian

Like Oakland, San Francisco also saw an exodus of African-Americans, but this was more than offset by growth in the city’s  the city’s Asian population — which rose by more than 30,000 even as the numbers of blacks and Latinos dropped.

Overall, the city’s population grew by 3.7 percent to 805,235 residents between 2000 and 2010.

“The Asian community is growing everywhere [in San Francisco] — the Excelsior, Portola, Visitacion Valley,” said Max Kirkeberg, a professor emeritus of geography at San Francisco State University.

Ling-chi Wang, a professor emeritus in the ethnic studies department at the University of California, Berkeley, predicted the numbers would continue to grow as the visibility of San Francisco’s Asian community increased after the appointment of Edwin M. Lee as its first Chinese-American mayor.

Many Asian Americans are also moving into newly built condos in the South Beach and Mission Bay neighborhoods, he said, fueled by the biotech campus of the University of California, San Francisco, which is still under construction.

The number of whites in the city rose by a modest 5,000.

San Jose Nears 1 Million Residents

San Jose remained the Bay Area’s largest city, growing to 945,942 residents in 2010. Unlike San Francisco and Oakland, where the white population grew, San Jose saw its number of Caucasian residents drop.

In the meantime, the number of Asian residents skyrocketed, buoyed, observers say, by new immigrants from China and India who are moving to Silicon Valley for jobs in the tech sector.

“The Silicon Valley industries have used the H-1B visa to create its new economy and so new bridges have been built between San Jose and Bangalore,” said Raj Jayadev, director of Silicon Valley Debug.

According to the census, San Jose had 303,138 Asian residents in 2010 — approximately 35,000 more than San Francisco.

“These are folks in technology jobs, they’re engineers, they’re scientists, they’re entrepreneurs” said Russell Hancock, the president and CEO of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, a public-private collaborative that brings together government and business leaders in the South Bay.

“The census proves San Jose is among the most cosmopolitan cities in the country, more so than San Francisco,” Hancock said.

With more than 1.7 million residents, Santa Clara County remained the region’s most populous as it added 99,057 residents.

Article source: http://www.baycitizen.org/census-2010/story/what-census-tells-us-about-bay-area/comments/