This three-bedroom home at 330 Gravatt Dr. in Berkeley is on the market for $1.15 million.

Blanca Torres
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

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Homes in East Bay cities are seeing dramatic price gains far greater than homes in San Francisco, according to ZipRealty, an online real estate brokerage.

Oakland’s median home price ballooned 76 percent to $432,000 in August compared with $245,500 in August of 2012. In Hayward, home prices jumped 55 percent to $387,000 in August 2013 compared with $250,000 last year.

Meanwhile, San Francisco’s median went up by 20 percent to $880,000, up from $735,000.

“Oakland and other communities in the East Bay were impacted more severely by the foreclosure crisis, which took a toll on East Bay real estate values while also setting these areas up for the dramatic recovery in prices we are now witnessing,” said Lanny Baker, president and CEO of Emeryville-based ZipRealty.

Prices are up by 36 percent across the nine-country Bay Area with a median of $585,000, so cities like Oakland and Hayward represent a deal in the region.

Nonetheless, prices can vary significantly from ZIP code to ZIP code in the same city. For example, Berkeley, where the median home price jumped by 21 percent during the past year to $737,500, has three ZIP codes where the median is above San Francisco’s median: $955,000 in 94707, $901,000 in 94708 and $1.22 million in 94705, which includes neighborhoods such as Claremont, the Claremont Hills, Elmwood and Panoramic Hill.

In Oakland, the 94610 ZIP code has the highest median home price of $743,000 and encompasses neighborhoods like Grand Lake, Adams Point, Lakeshore, Crocker Highlands and Trestle Glen.

In San Francisco, some of the fastest appreciating neighborhoods include North Beach and Telegraph Hill in the 94133 ZIP code where prices grew by 82 percent during the past year as well as the Marina, Cow Hollow and Pacific Heights in the 94123 ZIP code where prices rose by 68 percent in the past year.

A number of factors influence how much an area’s median home price goes up such as number of homes available. Cities such as Oakland, Berkeley, Hayward and San Francisco had less home inventory in 2013 than the year before.

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

Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2013/09/east-bay-home-prices-san-francisco.html

It also comes with a deal involving some of The City’s most valuable public real estate, and the pact with race officials needs significant changes if San Francisco’s financial ship is going to stay on course, a budget analyst’s report released Thursday says.

The business arm of the race, the America’s Cup Event Authority, plans to finance waterfront pier improvements that the Port of San Francisco cannot afford. In return, race officials would receive ownership and long-term rent-free leases after the 2013 event for some of The City’s most desirable Bay-front property to build luxury condominiums, retail outlets and other developments yet to be determined.

Although the Port normally requires such deals to include a portion of future lease revenue to be funneled back into public coffers, that’s not currently part of the America’s Cup agreement. But the report conducted by budget and legislative analyst Harvey Rose recommends a 1 percent equivalent of all condominium sales be retained by the Port and that it also should receive a cut of real estate transfer fees.

Under the terms of the current deal, the authority would initially invest $55 million in pier improvements in exchange for a 66-year lease at Piers 30-32 and ownership of Seawall Lot 330, a property already approved for condos.

The authority could then opt to do additional pier work and get 66-year leases on piers 26, 28 and 29, which would trigger repayment from The City with an 11 percent interest rate. The report recommends that a cap be placed on the amount race officials can spend on improvements, or else The City could end up being roped into repayment for up to 91 years after the event.

The report suggests The City should nix Pier 29, at the foot of Telegraph Hill, from being transferred to race officials after the event. Board of Supervisors President David Chiu has been pointing to the lucrative property as a problem spot in the deal.

“Pier 29 needs to come off the table,” Chiu said in a statement Thursday. “I’ll push to have it removed in the weeks ahead.”

Stephen Barclay, a board member of the authority and the group’s primary negotiator, has been talking tough in recent weeks, saying concessions have already been made to mitigate the financial stress on the Port. Barclay said on Tuesday he will “draw the line” with Pier 29, because it is essential to the authority seeing a return on the total $111 million it plans to spend.

“We face an urgent deadline to get construction under way, so any additional changes would detrimentally affect the balance of the bargain,” Barclay said recently in a statement.

The report also levies concern about potentially lax fundraising by the America’s Cup Organizing Committee, the nonprofit in charge of covering The City’s $52 million cost of putting on the race in September 2013.

If the committee raises its goal of $32 million by 2013 and The City can generate $22 million in hotel and sales taxes during the event, San Francisco will come out more than $2 million ahead, the report says. But if fundraising stagnates at its current $8 million level, The City’s taxpayers could be in the hole for nearly $22 million.

Local Democratic Party Chairman Aaron Peskin said the long-term fiscal impact of the race shouldn’t be taken lightly, and upcoming Board of Supervisors hearings on the matter should include discussions about how to expose The City to less risk.

“As currently structured, this transaction is still taking San Francisco and its taxpayers to the poor house, and many of us are hopeful the Board of Supervisors will insist on some rational changes,” Peskin said.

dschreiber@sfexaminer.com

America’s Cup price tag

$300M Total cost for competition

$52M Cost to The City

$32M City costs to be offset by fundraising

$22M City costs to be offset by hotel and sales taxes

$1.4B Economic benefits for Bay Area, as estimated by race officials

Sources: America’s Cup Event Authority, San Francisco budget and legislative analyst report

Article source: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2012/02/regatta-deal-might-sink-san-franciscos-coffers

It also comes with a deal involving some of The City’s most valuable public real estate, and the pact with race officials needs significant changes if San Francisco’s financial ship is going to stay on course, a budget analyst’s report released Thursday says.

The business arm of the race, the America’s Cup Event Authority, plans to finance waterfront pier improvements that the Port of San Francisco cannot afford. In return, race officials would receive ownership and long-term rent-free leases after the 2013 event for some of The City’s most desirable Bay-front property to build luxury condominiums, retail outlets and other developments yet to be determined.

Although the Port normally requires such deals to include a portion of future lease revenue to be funneled back into public coffers, that’s not currently part of the America’s Cup agreement. But the report conducted by budget and legislative analyst Harvey Rose recommends a 1 percent equivalent of all condominium sales be retained by the Port and that it also should receive a cut of real estate transfer fees.

Under the terms of the current deal, the authority would initially invest $55 million in pier improvements in exchange for a 66-year lease at Piers 30-32 and ownership of Seawall Lot 330, a property already approved for condos.

The authority could then opt to do additional pier work and get 66-year leases on piers 26, 28 and 29, which would trigger repayment from The City with an 11 percent interest rate. The report recommends that a cap be placed on the amount race officials can spend on improvements, or else The City could end up being roped into repayment for up to 91 years after the event.

The report suggests The City should nix Pier 29, at the foot of Telegraph Hill, from being transferred to race officials after the event. Board of Supervisors President David Chiu has been pointing to the lucrative property as a problem spot in the deal.

“Pier 29 needs to come off the table,” Chiu said in a statement Thursday. “I’ll push to have it removed in the weeks ahead.”

Stephen Barclay, a board member of the authority and the group’s primary negotiator, has been talking tough in recent weeks, saying concessions have already been made to mitigate the financial stress on the Port. Barclay said on Tuesday he will “draw the line” with Pier 29, because it is essential to the authority seeing a return on the total $111 million it plans to spend.

“We face an urgent deadline to get construction under way, so any additional changes would detrimentally affect the balance of the bargain,” Barclay said recently in a statement.

The report also levies concern about potentially lax fundraising by the America’s Cup Organizing Committee, the nonprofit in charge of covering The City’s $52 million cost of putting on the race in September 2013.

If the committee raises its goal of $32 million by 2013 and The City can generate $22 million in hotel and sales taxes during the event, San Francisco will come out more than $2 million ahead, the report says. But if fundraising stagnates at its current $8 million level, The City’s taxpayers could be in the hole for nearly $22 million.

Local Democratic Party Chairman Aaron Peskin said the long-term fiscal impact of the race shouldn’t be taken lightly, and upcoming Board of Supervisors hearings on the matter should include discussions about how to expose The City to less risk.

“As currently structured, this transaction is still taking San Francisco and its taxpayers to the poor house, and many of us are hopeful the Board of Supervisors will insist on some rational changes,” Peskin said.

dschreiber@sfexaminer.com

America’s Cup price tag

$300M Total cost for competition

$52M Cost to The City

$32M City costs to be offset by fundraising

$22M City costs to be offset by hotel and sales taxes

$1.4B Economic benefits for Bay Area, as estimated by race officials

Sources: America’s Cup Event Authority, San Francisco budget and legislative analyst report

Article source: http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2012/02/regatta-deal-might-sink-san-franciscos-coffers