SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 11, 2013 /PRNewswire-iReach/ — Business Insider has recently shed light on the “hottest” luxury real estate markets across the United States. San Francisco joins New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Washington, DC on this collection of growing markets in the luxury real estate industry. Thea Miller , a sales and marketing professional who specializes in luxury properties, comments on the growth of the San Francisco market.

“As the Bay Area‘s housing market continues to heat up once again, it’s catching the attention of the media—and it is shining a spotlight on the rebound that the market is making,” comments Thea Miller . “In a front-page story in the Chronicle, titled ‘Bay Area Home Sales, Prices Surging,’ reporter Carolyn Said explores the extremely strong housing numbers that were released by DataQuick, which is a La Jolla-based information services company. She has examined the catalysts of the housing turnaround. DataQuick, in its monthly report, asserts that the median sale price for Bay Area properties in December rose to $442,750, a stunning 32 percent increase from a year ago and the largest jump in 25 years of record keeping.”

Miller goes on to explain that, according to the article, sales increased year-over-year for the 18th month in a row, ultimately climbing 4.5 percent in just the last month. She cites CaliforniaMoves.com data reporting that San Francisco and Santa Clara County achieved double-digit sales growth year over year with 29.5 percent and 13.1 percent increases, respectively.

“It’s good to see that Bay Area news and other media are on top of this story, but what’s especially gratifying is that they’re getting out the message that we have a severe shortage of homes for sale in the region and sellers are getting good prices for their homes once again,” asserts Miller. “My hope is that homeowners who have been sitting on the sidelines will begin to realize that this market presents a tremendous opportunity for them to get top dollar for their home. Right now, it’s a red-hot seller’s market. But as we know, it won’t always be that way. If traditional patterns apply this year, there will be some added inventory in March and April. This will bring more opportunities for buyers, but it will also incite additional competition between sellers, compared to the way the market stands today.”

Miller encourages any individuals who are contemplating selling a luxury property in the Bay Area to contact a qualified professional to discuss the value of putting their homes on the market while conditions are still in their favor. 

ABOUT:

Thea Miller is a luxury property specialist. With over two decades of experience, Thea Miller guides her clients through the market in San Francisco, California. Thea Miller provides a high degree of customer support while paying close attention to detail and providing insight regarding local property values and activities. She is a member of The National Association of Realtors, The San Francisco Association of Realtors, The California Association of Realtors, Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate, and Top Agent Network, of which she is a verified member.

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Article source: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/thea-miller-comments-on-growing-luxury-real-estate-market-190648651.html

Asking prices for homes for sale around the Bay Area rose substantially in December compared with the same time last year, according to San Francisco real estate website Trulia, ranging from a 16.3 percent spike in tech-fueled Santa Clara County to a 7.6 percent increase in Napa County. The nine-county Bay Area saw an average increase of 13 percent. By comparison, asking prices nationwide rose 5.1 percent in December compared with December 2011, Trulia said.

“Both job growth and tighter inventory gave (sale) prices a lift,” said Jed Kolko, Trulia’s chief economist. “Price increases accelerated throughout 2012, getting bigger as the year went on.”

Analyzing asking prices of homes currently for sale provides a leading indicator of what sales numbers are likely to look like in a few months’ time, Trulia said.

Data on sales throughout much of 2012 have shown the housing market recovering from the extended downturn that started in 2007.

Nationwide, Trulia said, “2012 marked a huge turnaround year for most local housing markets” with prices increasing in 82 of the 100 largest metro areas in December. In December 2011, only 12 markets had price increases.

Las Vegas, Seattle and Phoenix were Trulia’s “top turnaround” markets, followed by Oakland metro (Alameda and Contra Costa counties) and San Jose metro (Santa Clara and San Benito counties).

California cities such as Sacramento and Fresno that were devastated by the housing crisis also saw strong gains in 2012, Trulia said.

“Nine of the top 10 turnaround markets in 2012 were in the West,” Kolko said. “The only one east of the Rockies was Atlanta.”

Asking rents also rose, with Alameda County seeing the biggest spike (13.2 percent) and already pricey San Francisco the least (2.9 percent), Trulia said. The average increase for eight Bay Area counties (Napa did not have enough data) was 7.8 percent. Nationwide, rents grew 5.2 percent.

“We’re seeing rent increases across the region,” Kolko said. “In San Francisco they were smaller because rents are already so much higher there than elsewhere and it has had strong rent increases before this. The slower increase doesn’t make the city affordable.”

While rising home prices illustrate a housing market beginning to recover – and to stimulate economic recovery – they of course are not good news for those house hunting.

“They come with the perennial challenge of affordability in the Bay Area,” Kolko said.

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

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Bay-Area-rents-home-prices-up-sharply-4163037.php

In one of San Francisco’s trendiest neighborhoods, the point where Noe Valley and the Mission District meet, a group of 20- and 30-year-olds emerge from the early morning darkness, standing silently at street corners. They hardly talk to one another; their ears plugged with headphones.

Then it arrives: The unmarked bus that drives the hour-long ride to Silicon Valley and transports the group to companies such as Apple, Google and Facebook.

These largely unpublished bus stops may be the single biggest reason behind a sudden and huge turnaround for the housing market in San Francisco, and perhaps the ignition for a real estate revival across the bay area.

Amanda Jones sells real estate in San Francisco and right now, she’s selling just about anything that doesn’t move.

“I would say for the regions that were harder hit, we’re seeing a rebound,” Jones said. “We’re actually seeing five, six, seven or eight offers on a house where there might have been just one offer before.”

“When I go and meet with a client and we’re thinking about listing their home, I ask if there’s any gray, white or black unmarked buses that meet on corners and do they see people who have, you know, iPhones and computers and look like a tech bunch.” Jones said.

Jones and Kathleen Gervertz recently prepared a Noe Valley home for sale that’s across from a park and has a nice view of the city.

But that’s not the major selling point.

It’s about three blocks from a Google stop.

“I’ve seen houses that I felt were worth maybe a $1.5 going closer to $2 million because we find it’s literally two blocks from a shuttle stop for Google,” Jones said.

Matt Woebcke, a realtor, is also profiting from the big turnaround.

“I have a lot of buyers that work in the tech industry that get huge bonuses.”

Independent DataQuick numbers show the once almost 50-percent drop in year-to-year prices have slowed to less than 5 percent.

“They’re going to go to other places like San Mateo, Palo Alto, Marin County,” Woebcke said. “The trend will really be for those areas to increase.”

And that’s exactly what happened to Nikole Neugebauer Buret.

Buret said she looked at more than 100 houses. She is certain they looked for a place to buy every weekend for eight solid months and made eight solid offers.

“We were looking for so long,” she said. But, she finally ended up getting a house in San Mateo.

More than a few people told KTVU the prospect of Facebook going public is also helping drive a buying frenzy, out of fear that the stock market will make overnight millionaires of even more competing home buyers.

Article source: http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/tech-shuttles-inject-life-sf-housing-market/nMZbX/

Ideally, buyers would like to know that the market has hit bottom and that the value of what they buy won’t decline. Sellers, who will sell at a loss today, wonder if they should get out now or wait for a better market to sell.

When will that better market appear? It’s impossible to time the market. We’ll know that we hit bottom after the market turns around, not before. Some economists think this will take another two years; others expect a turnaround in five to six years.

Many economists think we’re at or close to bottom. However, it’s expected that the market will be rocky for some time. The market will change seasonally. For example, it’s typical for home sales to decline during the winter months.

House Hunting Tip: Good and bad news can affect whether buyers feel optimistic about homebuying. The fact that the conforming jumbo loan limit is likely to drop to $625,000 from $729,750 could spur home sales in higher-priced markets between now and September when the higher loan limit expires.

Interest rates have been fluctuating, but remain below 5 percent for conforming fixed-rate mortgages. Interest rates and affordability in general have a great impact on the strength of the housing market.

The news about the real estate market was discouraging at the beginning of the year as hopes of a solid recovery were dashed by declining home-sale volume and prices. Some economists even predicted that the housing market was headed for a double-dip recession, but this doesn’t look likely at this point.

March brought good news as home-sale volume nationally picked up 3.7 percent from February, according to the National Association of Realtors. However, the sales were primarily driven by investors buying cheap foreclosures.

Although investor purchases were up, the percentage of first-time-buyer purchases was down, possibly due to tough mortgage qualifying criteria, which are expected to become even more difficult going forward.

Leslie Appleton-Young, chief economist for the California Association of Realtors, points out that it’s difficult for buyers to trade up or down if they don’t have equity in their homes. According to CAR, about 25 percent of homeowners in the U.S. owe more than their home is worth. Appleton-Young believes the figure is closer to 31 percent in California.

As grim as the picture looks, it’s not the same everywhere. Residential real estate is a localized phenomenon. The San Francisco Bay Area is a good example. Although median prices are still lower than they were a year ago, the number of homes sold in the Bay Area in March was the best showing in four years. Sales volume was up 41.3 percent from February and up 0.2 percent from a year ago, according to MDA Data Quick.

However, within the Bay Area there was considerable diversity. Several higher-priced counties, which haven’t seen much activity until recently, saw gains. These included San Mateo County, where sales were up 8.6 percent, and Santa Clara County, up 3.9 percent. Both counties benefit from the Silicon Valley rebound. Jobs are necessary for a healthy housing market.

In Alameda County, home sales declined 7 percent in March. Even so, there are hot spots within the county. Select neighborhoods close to shops, transportation and good schools defied statistics with high buyer demand and over-asking-price sales.

The Closing: Keep an eye on trends, but focus on your local neighborhood when making decisions about buying and selling.

Dian Hymer, a real estate broker with more than 30 years’ experience, is a nationally syndicated real estate columnist and author of “House Hunting: The Take-Along Workbook for Home Buyers” and “Starting Out, The Complete Home Buyer’s Guide.”

Article source: http://www.lvrj.com/real_estate/no-way-to-time-market-123153123.html?ref=123