Fewer Bay Area homeowners listed homes for sale in June than last the same month last year. 

Blanca Torres
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

Email
 | Twitter
 | Google+
 | LinkedIn

Housing inventory was down by more than 30 percent during the past year in the Bay Area, according to real estate website Zillow.

When comparing June of 2013 to June of 2012 in its database of listings, Zillow found there were fewer homes on the market in the San Francisco metro area, but nationwide, the number rose by 5.3 percent.

Zillow listed 4,528 total homes for sale in June of this year, down from 6,496 last year, in the San Francisco metropolitan area including San Francisco, Alameda, Marin, Contra Costa, and San Mateo counties.

In our market, having fewer homes for sale has pumped up prices and sparked bidding wars.

“Inventory will likely remain below year-ago levels for a while yet, as builders ramp up capacity and sellers wait to squeeze every drop of equity from their home before listing,” said Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist.

Experts expect that with prices climbing up, more homeowners will list their properties for sale and prices will stabilize.

“Going forward, as this new supply makes its way to market, we expect the pace of home value appreciation to slow down from unsustainably high annual levels of 5 percent or above to more moderate levels closer to historic norms of 3 percent or 4 percent,” Humphries said.

Blanca Torres covers East Bay real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.

Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2013/06/bay-area-housing-inventory-drops-by-30.html

Tuesday’s SP/Case-Shiller report underscored the rapid run-up in Bay Area home prices, showing that the San Francisco metro area — Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties — saw home prices surge 17.5% in January compared to a year ago. That outpaced the national run-up of 8.1 % and was second only to Phoenix.

For a detailed analysis of the numbers and what they mean for the Bay Area, click here.

Bidding wars and multiple offers are the new norm here.

Here’s a look at a San Jose house listed for $1,075,000 that sold for $1,120,000. Redfin agent Ashley Rabello said she had four offers within the first day of listing. The winning offer had no contingencies, a large percentage down, and was significantly higher than the asking price.

Share this gallery: 1 of 7 

Share this gallery: 1 of 7 

Share this gallery: 1 of 7 

Share this gallery: 1 of 7 

Share this gallery: 1 of 7 

Share this gallery: 1 of 7 

Share this gallery: 1 of 7 

Heavy action at all price points is new — and another harbinger of recovery.

“During the boom and bust, the lower-priced houses had the biggest percentage price increases and then the biggest percentage collapse,” said David Blitzer, chair of the index committee for SP/Dow Jones. That’s because the most-outrageous lending practices — subprime loans, liar loans, no money down — were more concentrated in the low end.

Case-Shiller tracks homes at three price tiers — low (under $383,942), middle ($383,9422 to $681,776) and high (over $681,776). “Until the boom, the three moved together; during the downturn, they spread apart,” Blitzer said. “Now they’re moving in sync again; it’s a sign the market is coming back to normal, behaving a lot less bizarrely than it did before.”

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. For insights and news on the real estate market, follow her on Twitter: @csaid

Article source: http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2013/03/27/the-incredible-soaring-bay-area-home-prices/

Overall, U.S. home prices registered their biggest annual climb since summer 2006, rising 8.1 percent compared with last year, according to the SP/Case-Shiller composite index. Every one of the 20 major metropolitan areas Case-Shiller tracks posted year-over-year gains. The annual gains accelerated in 19 of the markets, with Detroit the only exception.

“The number that jumps off the page is San Francisco’s 17.5 percent increase in the past 12 months,” David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee for SP Dow Jones Indices, said. “That’s pretty big. Only one city, Phoenix (with a 23.2 percent increase), did better. Compared to the low points, you’re way up there, about 25 percent over the low. It’s a strong comeback.”

Resale homes

Case-Shiller defines the San Francisco metro area as Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties. The index tracks sales of the same single-family houses over time, comparing changes with a base value of 100, which represents values as of January 2000.

The San Francisco index is now 147.45, meaning that prices are 47.45 percent above their January 2000 level. The region’s index peaked at 218.37 in May 2006 and hit a low of 117.74 in March 2009 – so prices are still 32.5 percent below their peak, according to the index.

Several forces propel the upward trend, notably an improving economy, low interest rates, tight inventory and fewer foreclosures.

The San Francisco area “is the second-leading place in the country in job creation (after Houston), and doesn’t build a lot of houses, so supply is very tight,” said Ken Rosen, chairman of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics at UC Berkeley. “We added 210,000 jobs to the Bay Area in the past 2 1/2 years – that’s a lot of people.”

Similar forces are driving the rental market, which is also experiencing big price run-ups. Exacerbating that situation, the tight for-sale inventory “is forcing a lot of people who want to be buyers to remain as renters,” Rosen said.

Rosen and others said Case-Shiller actually understates the turnaround – prices have risen even more than the index can capture. In part, that’s because it has a long lag time, measuring prices in January. Real estate service DataQuick, for instance, reported that February median sales prices in the nine-county Bay Area were up 24.6 percent compared with the same time in 2012.

“I would say Case-Shiller under-represents,” said Charmaine Frank, Redfin real estate’s area manager for San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Marin counties. “The market has taken a pretty dramatic turn since January.”

Cash is the fuel

Like agents throughout the Bay Area, she said there are “enormous bidding wars going on. We see upwards of 40 to 60 offers on some properties; typically the top five to eight will be all-cash buyers.”

The numerous cash sales help fuel price appreciation, she said, because buyers skip getting an appraisal since they don’t have a mortgage. Appraisals, which rely on recent comparable sales, would moderate the rapid run-up.

“There’s a huge shortage of homes on the market right now,” said Cindi Hagley, a broker with the Hagley Group at Prudential California Realty in San Ramon. “For example, there are only 12 single-family homes for sale in Dublin right now. Ordinarily there should be 100 to 150 homes for sale there.”

Patrick Newport, U.S. economist with market analyst Global Insight, said that the rising home prices should help boost the economy further. “They stimulate new construction, and they also help consumer spending because they raise the value of people’s homes,” he said.

With multiple bids and properties selling well above asking price, could another real estate bubble be forming?

“Not yet,” said Rosen. “If they keep (interest) rates this low for two more years, the answer is yes.”

“This time, rapidly rising prices are a good thing,” Newport said. “A lot of homeowners are underwater; this helps them come out of that.”

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

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Home-prices-in-Bay-Area-up-17-5-in-January-4386974.php

We’re in Silicon Valley, the Mecca for innovation and entrepreneurship. The weather can’t be beat and the opportunities are flowing.

The demand for Peninsula real estate is at an all-time high, while the number of housing options continues to shrink.

These are just some of the factors that have resulted in Coldwell Banker’s annual Home Listing Report ranking 10 cities in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties as part of the top 20 most expensive markets in the country.

“The success of many of our native tech companies has shined a spotlight on Silicon Valley and our real estate market in the San Francisco Bay Area,” said Rick Turley, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in the San Francisco Bay Area, in a written statement.

Ranking at #1? Los Altos/Los Altos Hills. Following behind: #3 Saratoga, #4 Menlo Park, #5 Palo Alto, #6 Los Gatos, #10 San Carlos, #12 Cupertino, #15 Belmont, and #20 Redwood City.

For the average listing price of a 4-BR, 2 BA home in these cities, check out this article. 

Cities’ staffs have seen large numbers of housing development proposals, such as Google’s housing project in Mountain View and the Cargill Saltworks Development in Redwood City.

And as more and more tech companies begin to sprout up and down the Peninsula, employees will want to live closer to their workplaces. Is increasing the prices of homes the answer to the skyrocketing demand for real estate?  

Tell us in the comments why homes in the area are worth their price tags. Or if they’re simply overpriced. 

Article source: http://losaltos.patch.com/articles/is-real-estate-on-the-peninsula-too-expensive-poll

The median price for a home in the Bay Area rose to $429,000 in September, the highest in more than four years, according to DataQuick. Let’s take a look at the median prices in San Francisco, Alameda and San Mateo counties, and what those prices can buy:

The Alameda county median is $379,000, up 8.9 percent from September 2011. Here’s a house listed at that price, at 3441 Oak Knoll Blvd in Oakland:

<!– –>

In San Francisco, the median is $745,000, up 21 percent from September 2011. This California Craftsman in Westwood Park (near City College) is pending sale, and was listed just above the median at $749,000. (Of course, that doesn’t mean it sold for that — the price paid won’t be public until the sale closes.)

<!– –>

The San Mateo county median is $620,000, up 12.5 percent from September 2011. Here’s a house in Pacifica that’s listed for that price:

<!– –>

Carrie Kirby is a freelance writer who recently returned to the Bay Area after living for six years in Chicago. Carrie is more heavily invested in real estate than she ever expected to be, since she and her husband are now long-distance landlords of their Chicago home, and have also purchased a house in Alameda. She posts about interesting properties and real estate trends in San Francisco and Silicon Valley every Tuesday. Carrie also shares money-saving tips on her blog, Frugalistic Mom.

Article source: http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2012/10/30/what-the-new-higher-bay-area-medians-can-buy/

Still, area assessors pointed out that results were mixed. In some counties, most growth in assessments came from the annual 2 percent increase for inflation allowed under Proposition 13. In all counties, thousands of properties were worth less than their previous assessed value – the purchase price plus inflation – because 1978′s Proposition 8 lets the assessment temporarily drop to match the fallen property value.

“Remember, property values plummeted so low that we haven’t come close to making up the losses we’ve experienced,” said Jean Hurst, legislative representative for the California State Association of Counties. “This is no windfall by any means, but it’s a function of the stabilization and the gradual uptick that economists tell us the recovery will look like.”

San Francisco, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties had the biggest increases in the Bay Area, and among the biggest in the state.

“We are clearly on the way back up,” said San Francisco Assessor Phil Ting, noting that it is the only county in the state that never experienced a downturn in its property tax roll over the past few years. “We believe this is probably the last year that many homeowners will be getting a reduction (of assessed value) because the market is coming back.”

Silicon Valley growth

Both San Mateo and Santa Clara counties said they benefited from Silicon Valley firms’ expansion.

“The resurgence here is being led by business,” said Larry Stone, assessor for Santa Clara County, where the overall roll was up 3.25 percent. “The office market is on fire. As spaces lease up, they begin to build out the insides.”

Once businesses lease space and add staff, they buy equipment. That was apparent in both counties as the category of “business personal property,” which includes machinery, computers and fixtures, rose 6.48 percent in Santa Clara County and 5.45 percent in San Mateo.

Still, both counties had tens of thousands of homes that were assessed lower.

“It appears we’re gradually pulling out of the slump,” said Mark Church, assessor of San Mateo County, where the roll rose by 3.33 percent. “We’re moving in the right direction, but we’re not there yet.”

Property tax revenue is split among schools, counties, cities and special assessment districts. The plunge in real estate values resulted in an even tighter budget crunch for those entities.

This year, after three years of minimal or negative growth, Santa Clara County, with the biggest roll in the Bay Area – reflecting the value of Silicon Valley businesses and affluent residential communities – saw an extra $9.7 billion in assessed value. At a 1 percent tax rate, that translates to $97 million more in tax revenue.

But in Solano, the worst-performing Bay Area county, the roll was down by 3.12 percent or $1.22 billion, meaning $12.2 million less in tax revenue.

Wide disparities were evident even within a single county.

Take San Mateo, for instance. Atherton, where the cheapest house for sale is asking $1.595 million, saw assessed values rise more than 9 percent, but in East Palo Alto, where many home values hover around $300,000, the assessments were down 2 percent.

“We’re seeing sharp contrasts between the high-end locations and the entry-level locations,” Church said.

East Bay moderate

In East Bay counties, increases were more moderate.

Alameda County was up 2.14 percent, just a tad ahead of the inflationary increase. “It’s going to take a long time” to fully recover from the downturn, said Brian Hitomi, chief deputy assessor.

Contra Costa’s 0.86 percent growth was largely due to an appeals board decision that increased the value of Chevron’s Richmond refinery for 2007, 2008 and 2009. The tax bump for all three years is reflected in the 2012-13 roll.

“It’s a one-time thing,” said assessor Gus Kramer. “Anyone who hangs their hat on that economically going forward is a fool.”

Contra Costa’s real estate market is basically flat, he said.

“The market is bouncing on the bottom and trying to recover,” he said. “There are some areas that are pretty healthy,” such as the affluent communities of Danville, Lafayette, Moraga and Orinda.

Likewise, the North Bay was fairly stagnant, other than Solano County’s 3.12 percent decline. With towns like Vallejo ravaged by the foreclosure crisis, Solano reduced assessments for more than half of all properties. Since 2007, its roll has fallen by 17.16 percent or $7.849 billon.

Napa County saw a 2.06 percent rise, “mostly due to the inflationary increase,” said Steve Schellhamer, assistant assessor. “Although it’s positive, it would be premature at this point to declare that we’re out of the slump.”

Marin nearly flat

Marin County’s assessed roll nudged up just 0.82 percent.

“The good news is that we don’t see things going dramatically south anymore,” said Assessor Rich Benson. “I don’t think it’s time to say that the market has turned around yet, but we’re seeing some positive indicators.”

He and other assessors pointed out that home sales have been robust throughout the spring. Since assessments for the 2012-13 tax year look at values as of Jan. 1, 2012, those stronger sales aren’t yet factored in.

Sonoma County, which got an extension to close its roll in late July, expects it to be flat.

“I hope we’re close to the bottom,” said Bill Rousseau, chief deputy assessor.

Property tax assessments slowly rise

For the 2012-13 tax year, property tax rolls in most Bay Area counties edged up, even while thousands of homes still had assessments temporarily reduced because their values had declined. Assessments consider value as of Jan. 1, so the recent surge in the real estate market is not yet reflected.

{+1} In billions

{+2} Under Proposition 8, passed in 1978, properties are temporarily assessed lower when their market value falls below their previously assessed value – the purchase price plus an annual increase of 2% or the California Consumer Price Index, whichever is less. When the market rebounds, properties can be reassessed to this “factored base year value.”

{+3} Sonoma County numbers are estimates; roll will close in late July.

Source: County assessors

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

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Property-tax-assessments-gradually-bouncing-back-3690479.php

Eli Segall Reporter – Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal

Email

Several Bay Area real estate investors have agreed to plead guilty for conspiring to rig bids and commit mail fraud at foreclosure auctions, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

The investors named include Silicon Valley residents Gary Anderson of Saratoga and Troy Kent of San Mateo.

The government said six other people plan to plead guilty: Patrick Campion of San Francisco; James Doherty of Hillsborough; Keith Goodman of San Francisco; Craig Lipton of San Francisco; Henry Pessah of Burlingame; and Laith Salma of San Francisco.

Charges were filed against the eight investors on Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the department said.

According to the charges, the investors conspired to “rig bids” by agreeing not bid against each other at public foreclosure auctions in San Francisco and San Mateo counties.

According to the department, the investors conspired mainly to “suppress and restrain competition” and “conceal payoffs” in order to obtain certain real estate offered at the auctions.

The investors were also charged with conspiracies to use the mail to carry out a “fraudulent scheme to make payoffs to obtain title” for certain properties, as well as to receive payoffs and divert money to co-conspirators, the department said.

The conspiracy took place over various lengths of time between November 2008 and January 2011, the department said.

Three of the investors participated in the conspiracy in San Francisco. Anderson, Kent and three other investors were involved in San Mateo County, the Justice Department said.

The Justice Department noted that when real estate is sold at a foreclosure auction, the proceeds are used to pay off the mortgage and other debt attached to the property. The remaining proceeds, if any exist, are paid to the homeowner.

Eli Segall covers finance, law and sports business at the Business Journal. His phone number is 408.299.1829.

See all your followed company news on your personalized dashboard.

To access the full benefits of bizWatch and receive a weekly email with aggregated news on all the companies you are following, please provide your email address below.

You must have a bizjournals account to follow a company.
Please Log In or Register.

Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2011/10/28/bay-area-realty-investors-to-plead.html