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Home prices in Bay Area up 17.5% in January

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 06:59:10 +0000

Home prices in the five-county San Francisco metro area surged 17.5 percent in January versus a year ago – one of the biggest gains nationwide – according to a key gauge released on Tuesday.

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

San Francisco, San Jose team up to keep tech companies

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 05:32:07 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO — For years, as they’ve jockeyed for tech jobs and the cachet that comes with them, San Francisco has touted its cosmopolitan allure, while San Jose has countered with its vast supply of land.

Now, in an effort to add a weapon to his city’s arsenal, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee has proposed reshaping a 30-acre stretch of freeway and rail yards into high-density housing, shops, restaurants and more than 2 million square feet of high-rise office space.

But rather than a new stage in a Bay Area arms race, Lee’s plans are being hailed as a sign of a new, cooperative sentiment sweeping the region. “Mayor Lee wants to see how to promote the Bay Area,” said his spokeswoman, Chrisine Falvey. “There will

be widespread benefits if companies relocate or expand to San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland or nearby areas.”

Added San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, whose city long has billed itself as Silicon Valley’s capital: “I’m worried about Texas,” not San Francisco. “We’ve got much bigger competition for companies that are expanding to other states and countries instead of keeping their growth in Silicon Valley.”

Enrico Moretti, a professor of economics at UC Berkeley who has studied the region’s history of innovation, said traditional rivalries have yielded to the reality of a fast-shifting business landscape.

“It used to be the case that tech companies were either in the South Bay or San Francisco. Now they are in both locations,” he

said. “And workers are much more mobile.”

At the same time, Moretti said, Lee’s proposal to knock down Interstate 280 north of 16th Street and relocate a Caltrain storage yard near ATT Park is an aggressive move for the business-friendly mayor, who has worked to keep startups in town as they grow.

Lee already has cut tax deals with such startups as Twitter in exchange for help revitalizing rundown areas, and he persuaded city voters in the fall to eliminate a payroll tax the mayor and others insisted punished companies for growth.

“Knocking down the 280 extension makes a lot of sense,” Moretti said. “It will free up a lot of land to attract companies and create jobs.”

Lee, in fact, said razing the overpass and rail yard is the city’s last, best hope to create the kind of corporate campuses that San Jose and other cities long have used to woo companies that have outgrown San Francisco’s South of Market area. The neighborhood is home to companies such as Zynga and Yelp and also includes the Mission Bay area, where city officials have already targeted expansion zones for tech firms.

But

some say the area already is so filled up there’s little room for growth.

“When you go to lunch in SoMa, you have to get out of the office before noon or you’re going to be standing in line,” said Jason Johnson, co-founder of startup accelerator Founders Den, which sits near the Caltrain yard in Lee’s sights and offers startups shared office space and other resources.

“At certain times, companies have to leave because of their size, or because of tax incentives elsewhere,” Johnson said. “San Francisco has lost a lot of companies over the years.”

To be sure, Lee’s plan won’t give San Francisco anywhere near the amount of office space San Jose boasts. The 30 acres the mayor thinks can be freed up is about the size of a single corporate campus on San Jose’s North First Street. And Reed and other San Jose officials are making plans of their own to add millions of square feet to that area, accommodating as many as 20,000 new jobs.

Rather than view Lee’s plan as a possible threat, Reed sees it as another piece of the region’s real estate portfolio.

“It’s important that we have options in the Bay Area,” Reed said. “North San Jose’s got one kind of development potential. We’ve got Coyote Valley with another kind of development potential. We’re trying to provide lots of different kinds of environments for companies to work in. Those that want to be in a San Francisco high-rise will choose that.”

Lee’s proposal isn’t without its sharp critics. Some

commuters worry it will slow traffic in and out of the city.

Caltrain officials, too, say they need the rail yard to house trains, especially with plans afoot to electrify the line as part of the state’s high-speed rail project. The city is paying for Caltrain to conduct an eight-month study weighing the plan’s potential impacts, according to Santa Clara County Supervisor Ken Yeager, who heads the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board that owns and operates the commuter line.

Still, Yeager acknowledged, despite Caltrain’s concerns, Lee’s plan “would be a tremendous boon” for San Francisco and the rest of the region.

Ultimately, economic forces that are far stronger than the ambitions of the mayors of San Jose and San Francisco are likely to carry the day, said UC Berkeley’s Moretti, who wrote the 2012 book “The New Geography of Jobs.”

“The labor markets in the Bay Area are getting increasingly integrated,” Moretti said. “This is very good for the region, very good for high tech and very good for the Bay Area economy.”

Contact George Avalos at 408-373-3556 or 925-977-8477. Follow him at Twitter.com/george_avalos. Contact Peter Delevett at 408-271-3638. Follow him at Twitter.com/mercwiretap.

Article source: http://www.insidebayarea.com/business/ci_22831780/san-francisco-san-jose-team-up-keep-tech-280-development

Occupy Bay Area YBCA: New Exhibit Highlights Protest Art (PHOTOS)

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 15:03:40 +0000

After its New York birth in September 2011, the Bay Area quickly became ground zero for the Occupy Movement.

Starting this Saturday, The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts pays homage to the local legacy with a new exhibit featuring protest art from Occupy Movements throughout the Bay.

The exhibit features 25 local artists and focuses on pieces that have been particularly effective in raising the morale of members within the movements and garnering external support. The exhibit also includes a selection of photographs and videos from significant events within the movement.

(SCROLL DOWN FOR PHOTOS)

“Attending actions of the Occupy Movement was the initial inspiration in my search for posters” Amanda Verwey, development assistant at YBCA said in a statement, “I was struck by the flood of work creating a distinct visual aesthetic that was both as diverse and somehow succinct as the movement itself.”

In an attempt to connect the Occupy Movement to important Bay Area political struggles of the past, the Occupy Bay Area artworks will be displayed alongside posters from The Black Panther Party, I-Hotel in Manilatown, The ARC/AIDS Vigil at City Hall, The Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley and the fight for Ethnic Studies Program in Universities. The exhibit asserts that all these movements are the result of a deep desire for marginalized peoples to be represented and treated fairly.

?”There’s a large community of artists and graphic designers committed to social justice in the Bay Area” Betti-Sue Hertz, director of visual arts at YBCA said in a statement. “This exhibition aims to display their work in the context of earlier political activist movements in the Bay Area”

The YBCA will host an opening night party for the exhibit on Saturday that will include live music and a discussion on the value of Occupy and other social movements in contemporary society.

Scroll through the pictures below for a sneak preview of the exhibit:

Loading Slideshow

Occupy Everything
General Strike
Occupy
Photo of Occcupy Oakland

Article source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/05/occupy-bay-area-ybca_n_1652376.html

More finalists unveiled in Real Estate Deals of the Year

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 08:20:07 +0000

UC Berkeley’s Li Ka Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences is a $210 million facility where collaborative biological research and teaching center on solving the world’s health problems. The focus is on cancer biology, stem cell biology and infectious and neurodegenerative diseases.

Emily Fancher
Senior Editor – San Francisco Business Times

Last week, we featured 10 finalists from the San Francisco Business Times’ annual Real Estate Deals of the Year contest. Here are more finalist deals and projects that reshaped the Bay Area real estate landscape in 2011.

(Click the photo to start a slideshow of Real Estate Deals of the Year finalists.)

This week’s collection of deals and projects range from the mammoth and potentially transformational $210 million Li Ka Shing Center at UC Berkeley to a massive $520 million industrial portfolio that spans the Bay Area. While big transactions and buildings are certainly noteworthy and fun to write about, Real Estate Deals also celebrates some of the smaller, but riskier deals, such as Swift Realty’s purchase of Tower Plaza in San Mateo.

I hope that this week’s slideshow gives you a sense of the incredible range of Bay Area real estate activity in 2011. If you want to find out which of these finalists actually won, you’ll have to attend the awards on March 21 at the Palace Hotel. (Click here to register)

In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you about which real estate deals of 2011 — leases, sales and new projects — from RD to office to residential to health and cultural space — deserve to win.

Emily Fancher is a senior editor at the San Francisco Business Times.

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Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2012/02/more-finalist-unveiled-in-real-estate.html

State’s jobs picture is looking up

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 12:47:04 +0000

Some things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving weekend:

“California’s economy is actually healthier than popular or pundit opinion would suggest,” says Christopher Thornberg, president of Beacon Economics. Despite the unacceptably high 11.7 percent unemployment rate – 2 million Californians still out of work – the economic trend line is up. “Considering that employment is a lagging indicator of overall health, it is clear that California is solidly in a new growth phase,” Thornburgh says in his firm’s latest employment analysis.

Stephen Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy, notes that California has added close to 250,000 jobs in the past year, a bigger percentage gain – albeit a paltry 1.7 percent – than the nation as a whole.

“The industry pattern is positive for the future with gains in professional, technical, scientific and information services, and a rebound in manufacturing activity and continuing export gains,” says Levy.

Nationally, chimes in Ken Rosen, chairman of the Fisher Center for Real Estate Urban Economics at UC Berkeley‘s Haas School of Business, “employment growth will be stronger than thought.” In his annual Economic and Real Estate Outlook presented last week, Rosen forecasts a net gain of 1.6 million jobs in 2012.

And which urban areas lead the pack, employment-wise? San Francisco and San Jose (Silicon Valley). Despite an 8.1 percent unemployment rate, “San Francisco is No. 1 in the country for job growth,” thanks largely to the latest tech boom.

But, the recovery remains “slow and choppy,” said Rosen, and can be derailed by, for example, Europe’s debt crisis.

And it’s not working for those who aren’t in the professions Levy mentions above, or for the millions caught in the jaws of the mortgage meltdown. (More than a quarter of the subprime loans out there are 30 days or more delinquent, according to Rosen’s report.)

“This has become a bifurcated economy,” and we need people in Washington who will honestly step up and help fix it,” he said.

Yes, the flip side of this year’s Thanksgiving.

Help needed: Natural Resources, the well-known and much appreciated pregnancy and early parenting resource center on San Francisco’s Valencia Street, is in trouble.

Voted this year’s “Best Shop for Parents To Be” by Bay Guardian readers, the 25-year-old center is on the verge of going out of business. Tough economic times have taken their toll and attempts to get new financial partners or even sell the business have failed. So the owners have turned elsewhere for help in getting $45,000 by 11:59 p.m. Monday to keep the doors open.

As of Wednesday afternoon, a community fundraising drive had raised $33,246. If the goal is not reached by the deadline, I’m told Natural Resources will return all the donations received ( www.naturalresources-sf.com).

Merit badges: Every year since 2000, the Consumer Electronics Association has inducted inventors and industry leaders into its Hall of Fame. Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell were among the first, along with Bay Area alums, including the late Philo T. Farnsworth, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell and Ray Dolby of San Francisco’s Dolby Systems.

Steve Jobs made it into the hall in 2009, five years after Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Joining that illustrious company this year are two more from the Bay Area – retired SanDisk CEO Eli Harari and Sam Runco, a pioneer of large-screen video projectors, whose company, Runco International, trademarked the name “home theater.”

“His namesake company became the most innovative and highly respected projection television makers in the world,” said the association.

Harari, co-founder of SanDisk, a multinational company headquartered in Milpitas, came up with a precursor to flash memory and “helped launch the flash memory revolution to become the global leader in flash memory cards,” the organization said.

One other inductee with Bay Area connections is Robert Metcalfe, who, with fellow computer scientist David Boggs, invented the Ethernet while working at Xerox PARC in Palo Alto in 1973. Metcalfe later went on to found 3Com.

Blogging: www.sfgate.com/columns/bottomline. Facebook page: sfg.ly/doACKM. Tweeting: @andrewsross. E-mail: bottomline@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page D – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/26/BUR61M3K5M.DTL

Analyst: Bay Area home prices will rise

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 06:24:50 +0000

Speakers at a UC Berkeley real estate conference Monday noted that healthy job growth in the Bay Area’s tech and social media sectors is having a positive impact on residential real estate between San Jose and San Francisco. But the housing markets for California and the nation are still struggling from high numbers of foreclosures and a lack of consumer confidence.

“Are we out of the woods? No, not at all,” said Alexander Villacorta, director of research at Clear Capital, a real estate information firm.

His firm predicts a slight rise in Bay Area home prices over the next two years. But prices likely will drop further in Los Angeles and Riverside counties.

Despite historically low interest rates and a plunge in home prices, many consumers today aren’t purchasing single-family homes, the experts said. Some have difficulty qualifying for loans under today’s tougher credit standards. Others are hesitating due to uncertainty concerning the direction of home prices and the amount of distressed properties that still must come to market.

“We’ve got what I call analysis paralysis,” RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio said of consumers. “They’re not buying. They’re waiting.”

Both men were speakers at UC Berkeley’s 34th annual real estate and economics symposium at the Westin St. Francis Hotel.

Saccacio said both the nation and California still have large amounts of distressed properties, including homeowners in default and those who owe banks far more than their homes are now worth. At current absorption rates, he said, it could take the state 28 to 33 months to work through that supply.

Speakers also suggested that global worries would weigh down the housing market.

Kenneth Rosen, chairman of the Fisher Center of Real Estate and Urban Economics, said the United States is headed for a “choppy recovery” over the next year, and Europe’s sovereign debt crisis “could spin out of control.”

“I think there is some chance that we could get a double dip,” said Rosen. He placed the chances at only 30 percent, “but it scares me.”

Nonetheless, Rosen and others insisted that at today’s prices and interest rates, the rental housing sector offers investors a chance for significant returns. Rental properties will benefit from strong demand by renters and from coming inflation, which he suggested seems inevitable given the nation’s debt problems.

“Real estate is better than gold, and not as volatile,” he said.

Article source: http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20111121/BUSINESS/111129945/1339/business?Title=Analyst-Bay-Area-home-prices-will-rise

Presidio Bank Adds Client Expertise

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 11:26:54 +0000

Richard Cerf Joins as Relationship Manager

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Presidio Bank (OTCBB:PDOB), a Bay Area business bank, today announced
that it has hired Richard Cerf as Senior Vice President/Relationship
Manager in the San Francisco Regional Office.

“Richard’s banking expertise combined with his market knowledge make him
a great fit for Presidio Bank. We are thrilled that he has joined our
team as we continue to grow the bank.”

Richard brings with him 25 years of banking experience providing
businesses with financing and treasury management solutions. He joins
the Presidio Bank team from City National Bank where he was a
relationship manager for companies in the San Francisco area.
Previously, he was with Silicon Valley Bank.

Richard lives in Marin County with his wife and two daughters and serves
as the Board Treasurer for The Ritter Center, a San Rafael
not-for-profit organization. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley.

Steve Heitel, Presidio Bank President Chief Executive Officer stated,
“Richard’s banking expertise combined with his market knowledge make him
a great fit for Presidio Bank. We are thrilled that he has joined our
team as we continue to grow the bank.”

About Presidio Bank

Presidio Bank provides business banking services to small and mid-size
businesses, including professional service firms, real estate developers
and investors, and not-for-profit organizations, and to their owners who
desire personalized, responsive service with access to local decision
makers. Presidio Bank offers clients the resources of a large bank
combined with the personalized services of a neighborhood bank. Presidio
Bank is headquartered in San Francisco, California and currently
operates four banking offices in San Francisco, Walnut Creek, San Rafael
and Palo Alto. More information is available at www.presidiobank.com.
Presidio Bank is a member of FDIC and an Equal Housing Lender.

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that
involve risk and uncertainties. These statements are identifiable by use
of the words “believe,” “expect,” “intend,” “anticipate,” “plan,”
“estimate,” “project,” or similar expressions. The risks and
uncertainties that may affect the operations, performance, development,
growth projections and results of Presidio Bank’s business include, but
are not limited to, the growth of the economy, interest rate movements,
timely development by Presidio Bank of technology enhancements for its
products and operating systems, the impact of competitive products,
services and pricing, client-based requirements, Congressional
legislation, changes in regulatory or generally accepted accounting
principles and similar matters. Readers are cautioned not to place undue
reliance on forward-looking statements which are subject to influence by
the named risk factors and unanticipated future events. Actual results,
accordingly, may differ materially from management expectations.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6783803lang=en

Article source: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110706005522/en/Presidio-Bank-Adds-Client-Expertise

City of Richmond Gains Momentum as a Top Finalist for Lawrence Berkeley …

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 14:19:22 +0000

Richmond, CA (PRWEB) June 28, 2011

Anticipation is growing in the City of Richmond as the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) continues to move forward with the site selection process for its second campus. The University of California, Berkeley-owned Richmond Field Station, one of LBNL’s remaining candidate sites, is being recognized as a shoreline campus location that would inspire researchers to continue to develop innovative energy solutions for the 21st century and beyond. The University of California, Berkeley has developed a Campus Concept Plan for this facility situated along San Francisco Bay that “presents a vision for a new research campus that embraces the existing unique and successful partnership between the University of California, Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). An initial campus would combine an LBNL Energy and Life Sciences research cluster, and the existing UC Berkeley Engineering research cluster, on University-owned properties in the Richmond, California southern waterfront area.”

Meanwhile, Richmond city officials are enthusiastically sporting buttons that announce: I ? LBNL. “We’re looking forward to making Richmond the ideal home for LBNL’s second campus and understand the positive economic impact that it would have on the Richmond community,” says City Manager, Bill Lindsay, a Haas Business School alum. “The natural beauty of the Richmond Field Station speaks for itself, and the city will do everything in its power to streamline the process for the developer and welcome the campus into the community.”

The facility will eventually accommodate up to two million gross square feet. These combined research and development clusters are expected to accelerate innovation, technology transfer, and commercialization, while creating jobs. Final selection for the Richmond Field Station developer is expected by early July and final selection of the site from among five other site locations being considered by LBNL is expected in early winter.

From its 32 miles of walkable shoreline trails to its revitalized downtown center, Richmond is a city on the rise, thanks to its competitive leasing rates, enterprise tax incentives and appealing amenities. Richmond already hosts a number of green and applied science businesses including LBNL spinoff Alion, Heliodyne, PAX Water, MBA Polymer and recently acquired Sunpower. And it’s attracting more.

“Moving to Richmond from San Francisco is the perfect fit for our company and our workforce,” says William ‘Billy’ Morrison site director of Hoefer, a division of Harvard Bioscience. The company, which manufactures gel electrophoresis equipment for testing DNA, scoured the Bay Area before settling on a location in Richmond and will relocate in early fall. “Cash is king and Richmond’s real estate prices were the most competitive. But even more important, the majority of our employees live in the East Bay and will now have a much easier and less expensive commute with nearby access to BART and I-580.”

Richmond’s village-like communities are also in motion, re-tooling neighborhoods street-by-street. Downtown revitalization efforts have spawned growing merchant associations and green-tech industry clusters. With a top Richmond site in contention for LBNL’s new second campus, the view is looking very good from Richmond.

###

For the original version on PRWeb visit: www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2011/6/prweb8602265.htm

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/06/28/prweb8602265.DTL

Bay Area Universities Well Represented Among Colleges That Will Make You Rich

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 09:16:50 +0000

As expected, many Bay Area institutions have been included in Forbes Magazine’s 2010 list of the top colleges and universities that can make their students rich. In fact, six of the top 14 schools in Forbes’ list are located within an hour of Dublin, CA: Stanford University (3), Santa Clara University (4), St. Mary’s College (5), UC Berkeley (12), University of San Francisco (13), and San Jose State University (14).

Forbes scoured data from 611 colleges and universities across the country and identified the schools that had alumni with earnings that far exceeded their salary expectations based on their field of study. Forbes was also sure to control for student background so that the top institutions were picked based purely on their ability to help boost the earnings for their graduates.

Five variables were highly correlated with earnings including institution acceptance rates, percentage of the student body with majors in Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math (STEM) fields, and SAT scores. All data used were provided by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity (CCAP) and are the same information as those used to determine Forbes’ 2010 list of America’s Best Colleges.

“These are the colleges who can take a group of students that, statistically speaking, shouldn’t go on to earn much, and help them beat the odds and make big bucks,” Forbes Magazine’s Natalie Doss noted.

The six top Bay Area institutions represented in Forbes list of colleges that will make you rich provide the Tri-Valley’s top high school students with a panoply of options to choose from depending on factors such as their financial means, religious beliefs, and fields of study. “My experiences as a St. Mary’s College student and member of its Board of Regents provided me with the knowledge and many different perspectives to be even more successful in my career. The St. Mary’s curriculum, professors, and staff are of the highest caliber, and my involvement with the college continues to be very rewarding,” said Shirley O. Griffin, executive vice president for Wells Fargo’s Commercial Real Estate group in San Francisco.

The Around Dublin Team would like to thank reader Patrick Y. for bringing to our attention how well represented the Bay Area colleges and universities are on Forbes Magazine’s list.

Article source: http://www.arounddublinblog.com/2011/02/bay-area-universities-that-will-make-you-rich/