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Article source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-08/san-francisco-apartment-rents-drop-35-as-tech-embraces-remote-work-during-covid
SAN MATEO, Calif., Dec. 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/ – The Level Up Group of Keller Williams Realty is expanding its reach to the Peninsula. This addition offers buyers, sellers and investors a comprehensive real estate experience with the best-in-class service the organization is known for.
Real estate powerhouse Jeff Lang will lead the group’s expansion which will extend its stronghold in San Francisco to include cities from South San Francisco to Palo Alto.
Lang has been a leader in the Peninsula area for over 15 years. He has an impeccable reputation in the industry for his shrewd negotiation skills, creative and innovative marketing campaigns, practical solutions, and unparalleled support to his clients. Lang earned his JD at the University of San Diego, School of Law where he was President of the Negotiations team and competed nationally. He gained his MBA from Boston University. A portion of every transaction will be donated to the Peninsula Humane Society SPCA and the San Mateo County Parks Foundation to support two indispensable community organizations.
“I’m excited to leverage the expertise and resources of a top-performing team like the Level Up Group to deliver more value and an even better client experience,” Lang said. “I value Michael’s leadership and the integrity of the brand he’s created because I know it will result in a quicker and more profitable sale for my clients.”
Owner and CEO Michael Minson said, “Jeff brings a wealth of local area and professional expertise to the team. We are thrilled to be in business with such a talented and dedicated agent and are excited for being able to help our future Peninsula clients achieve their real estate goals and level up their lives.”
The Level Up Group is one of the Bay Area’s premier real estate teams. They equip agents with tremendous resources to deliver exceptional results for their clients. In the past eight years, they’ve helped nearly 500 families buy, sell, and invest in over $600M worth of Bay Area real estate. Keller Williams is the #1 training organization in the world across all industries (Training Magazine) and their agents leverage their training to deliver a white-glove experience in all areas of the real estate transaction – including marketing, systems, ethics, technology, sales, and support.
Contact Information:
Michael Minson, CEO Level Up Group SF
415.606.2625
[email protected]
Keller Williams San Francisco
775 Monterey Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94127
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Jeff Lang, Level Up Group
SOURCE Michael Minson, CEO and Founder Level Up Group
Article source: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/level-up-group-expands-to-sf-peninsula-with-real-estate-powerhouse-jeff-lang-301197861.html
PALO ALTO — A big Midwest investment group has spent $111 million to buy five Bay Area hotels, including two in Silicon Valley, a strong indicator that veteran players see long-term potential in the region’s lodging market despite COVID 19-linked challenges.
Oxford Capital Group has bought a hotel in Palo Alto, one in Los Gatos, and three in San Francisco, in a series of just-completed transactions that arrive amid brutal economic woes unleashed by the coronavirus.
The purchase price of the entire package was $111 million, according to Oxford Capital.
Chicago-based Oxford Capital, acting through multiple affiliates, paid $53.8 million for the two hotels in Santa Clara County, according to public documents filed in Santa Clara County during December. That would point to a combined price of $57.2 million for the hotels in San Francisco, according to experts familiar with the deals.
Creekside Inn at 3400 El Camino Real in Palo Alto was bought for $$32.7 million, according to county documents filed on Dec. 11.
Hotel Los Gatos at 210 E. Main St. in Los Gatos was bought for $21.1 million, public records filed on Dec. 10 show.
“We have been contrarian, value-oriented investors in the lodging sector for nearly 30 years,” said John Rutledge, founder and chief executive officer of Oxford Capital Group.
Oxford Capital has launched significant investment gambits even during epic economic downturns of recent decades.
“Through multiple cycles we have consistently had the courage of our convictions to step up during periods of great uncertainty,” Rutledge said.
Oxford Capital bought the hotels at an excellent price compared to what their values would have been prior to the coronavirus-triggered economic slump, said Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group, which tracks the lodging market in California.
“This is an excellent long term buy for Oxford Capital,” Reay said. “They have purchased quality hotel assets in ‘A’ locations, with huge barriers to entry.”
The $115 million price tag for the entire package of hotels, sold by affiliates of Greystone Hotels, is about 36% less than what would have been a typical value, Reay estimated.
“The purchase price is at a big discount to what we would expect to have seen pre-COVID,” Reay said. “I would have expected that pre-COVID, these hotels could have sold for $180 million.”
Oxford Capital Group assumed $15 million in debt as part of its $32.7 million purchase of Palo Alto’s Creekside Inn and also assumed $17 million in debt through its $21.1 million acquisition of Hotel Los Gatos, county public documents show. The debt had been incurred by the seller through separate mortgages in 2015 of the properties.
Among the details of the hotels:
King George Hotel in San Francisco, 153 rooms, opened in 1914.
Creekside Hotel in Palo Alto, 136 rooms, opened in 1955, includes CIBO restaurant
Hotel Los Gatos, 72 rooms, opened in 2002, Dio Deka restaurant.
Hotel Griffon, San Francisco, 62 rooms, opened in 1906, Perry’s restaurant.
The Inn at Union Square, San Francisco, 30 rooms, opened in 1980, includes Chloe’s Gallery.
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“We are optimistic about the recovery potential of the Bay Area lodging market,” said Sarang Peruri, Oxford Capital Group’s chief operating officer. “These properties are poised to outperform given unique product offerings and locations.”
The investment firm has bought properties even during cataclysms such as the savings and loan debacle, the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the worldwide financial crisis..
“Despite the current challenging environment in the travel and hospitality space, we remain sanguine about the medium- to long-term desirability of downtown San Francisco and Silicon Valley,” Rutledge said.
Article source: https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/12/14/real-estate-big-silicon-valley-s-f-hotel-deal-price-111-million-covid
The SEC complaint states that despite dozens of the company’s development projects not being profitable or paying returns to investors since 2016, Acharya raised $119 million from approximately 250 investors since then, through “a continuous series of misrepresentations and omissions and other deceptive conduct.” The complaint claims that Acharya was using new investor funds to pay earlier investors.
The San Jose Mercury News reported that as recently as October, Acharya allegedly discouraged at least one investor from bringing their concerns to the SEC, and that the company was still seeking funding from investors throughout the summer.
Those who now face the reality of losing their investments are largely from the South Asian community in the South Bay, the SEC said.
“Acharya marketed these investments to South Asian friends and family and then sought referrals, expanding his investor base to over three hundred
investors in the Northern California South Asian community,” reads the complaint, filed on Dec. 21 in the U.S. District Court for Northern California.
Silicon Sage’s slick website touts many condo developments, some of which are forthcoming. Though a disclaimer under glossy artists’ renderings of condo complexes does warn: “In an effort toward continuous improvement, Silicon Sage Builders and Silicon Sage Homes reserves the right to change prices, standard materials, designs, floor plans, or information provided on this list without notice.”
Only last year Acharya was excitedly touting plans for a “mega village” in north San Jose — a 2,000-home community with a movie theater complex, playgrounds and one million square feet of office space.
“The idea is to create a place where people can come and spend half a day,” Acharya told the Mercury News in 2019. “We want this to be a destination for the Bay Area.”
In January, Silicon Sage was also part of another unusual real estate venture: the opportunity to buy a historic fire station in Fremont for one dollar. Though the building did need to be moved to a new location as part of the deal, and the buyer would be on the hook for all moving costs.
In a Silicon Sage promotional video from 2017, Acharya said he came to America with only $20 in his pocket, and got into the condo development business full time in 2011 after the buyer of his first home wrote him a letter saying, “This is the greatest house I could have ever bought.”
“I realized I was doing this better than others, I was doing it more efficiently,” Acharya said.
The property mogul was celebrated across local news outlets in 2016 when he was credited with revitalizing downtown Santa Clara.
“For decades [Santa Clara] hasn’t had much of a downtown, that’s about to change. Today we got a first glance at the Downtown Gateway Project,” NBC Bay Area’s Scott Budman told viewers in 2015. The development, two blocks from Santa Clara University, claimed to be the first new home community to be built in historic downtown Santa Clara in 20 years.
“We took a different approach to meeting with the neighbors, we took an approach of trust … that’s where the fun lies,” Acharya said in 2017, “and if that approach turns into dollars and cents that’s good for everybody, then we have a great business.”
Silicon Sage did not reply to a request for comment at time of publication.
Find the full SEC complaint here.
Article source: https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/Mega-village-Bay-Area-real-estate-mogul-15822545.php
Over the past year, Bay Area rental prices have plummeted at a historic pace as people fled the ultra-pricey market during the pandemic. But data shows that many didn’t look too far away for their next home.
California’s capital region — the Sacramento area plus Stockton and Modesto — was the biggest draw by far for Bay Area residents in 2020 making inquiries on apartment listings website Zumper.
What’s more, renter interest in San Francisco and the Bay Area has rebounded, showing strong growth after sagging at the beginning of the pandemic, according to a new Zumper report.
The end-of-year review by the San Francisco-based company looked at trends across the U.S. rental market in this unprecedented year — including the interests and behaviors of typical Bay Area renters as well as price trends.
According to Zumper’s State of the San Francisco Bay Area Renter Report for 2020, which surveyed more than 14,000 of the website’s users, many renters have looked to escape the Bay Area’s expensive rents during the pandemic. Using data from its website, Zumper looked at how many renters were interested in moving out of and into the Bay Area each month for the past year.
Interest in outward migration has followed an upward trend since the start of the year, and in November, the percentage of Bay Area renters searching outside the region reached a high of 41%.
Zumper analyst Neil Gerstein said one trend seen across the nation is that renters leaving expensive markets don’t move too far. Looking at messages that Bay Area renters sent to listings outside the Bay Area on the Zumper website, the company found that the Sacramento/Stockton/Modesto area had the most interest by far, accounting for 34% of outbound messages sent from Bay Area renters in 2020.
“The Sacramento/Stockton/Modesto metro area is the closest large metropolitan area, and is significantly cheaper, so it was likely the most logical option for renters who wanted to leave the pricey Bay Area but wanted to stay close,” Gerstein said.
The top five areas of interest to Bay Area renters were all within California. Los Angeles was second with 8.6%, then Sonoma County at 6.8%, followed by Fresno/Visalia at 5.8% and Monterey/Salinas at 4.7%.
A September survey of 825 Bay Area renters by InterQ, commissioned by San Francisco developer Maximus Real Estate Partners, echoed the Zumper report, finding that 31% of Bay Area renters would leave their apartment if they were able to work full-time from home, but 73% would prefer to stay within a 30- to 60-mile radius.
Gerstein said he doesn’t think renter interest in leaving the Bay Area will slow down anytime soon. Still, the Zumper report showed renter interest in moving to the Bay Area is also growing. The inbound message rate from prospective renters outside the region hit its lowest point this year in April, accounting for just over 35% of the Bay Area’s total, but saw a steep increase over the next couple of months, and from October to November saw an uptick again.
“Despite a massive outflow of renters, there has also been a significant increase in new renters coming in to replace them, likely because Bay Area rental prices are at historic lows but not enough to stabilize prices yet,” Gerstein said.
In fact, the Sacramento/Stockton/Modesto area accounted for nearly the same percentage of inbound messages to Bay Area listings as it did outbound, at 33.4%. Los Angeles followed at 11.3%, then Sonoma County at 11%. Two large cities outside California took the fourth and fifth spots: New York at 10.7% and Philadelphia at 5.2%.
When the pandemic shut down large office buildings in the Bay Area, many renters newly able to work remotely sought larger, cheaper homes while sheltering in place. That spurred an exodus of renters from big cities in the Bay Area, the Zumper report said, causing supply to spike and rent to plunge.
San Francisco, still the country’s most expensive rental market, saw the most significant drop out of all big U.S. cities, down 22.6% year-over-year to a median one-bedroom price of $2,700. Rents also declined dramatically in other Bay Area markets, including Oakland and San Jose.
“The most interesting change to the Bay Area rental market has been an unprecedented price decline caused by a renter migration out of the area,” Gerstein said. “San Francisco and Oakland rank among the largest price drops in the country throughout 2020.”
Cities outside the Bay Area, including Sacramento and Fresno, saw big growth. Compared to last year, Fresno shot up 15 spots in one-bedroom median price rankings from Zumper’s national rent reports, while Sacramento moved up six spots.
According to the December report, Fresno saw an 18.9% increase in rent prices year-over-year for a one-bedroom, averaging $1,130, and a 15.3% increase year-over-year for a two-bedroom with a median rent of $1,360. Sacramento’s year-over-year increase for a one-bedroom was 15.9% with an average rent of $1,460. The median rent for a two-bedroom was $1,800 with a 24.1% year-over-year increase.
“Price growth in Sacramento and Fresno might not be entirely driven by increased migration, but migration is likely the dominant driver here,” Gerstein said. “Increased migration to an area typically has an upwards effect on rental prices because the rate at which people move in typically outpaces the construction or availability of new rental units to house them.”
Dramatic price shifts in individual cities aren’t necessarily felt at the state level. In California, for instance, rental prices have declined significantly throughout 2020 in major Bay Area cities and Los Angeles. But the big increases in places like Sacramento and Fresno have offset that. The result is a very slight increase of 1.7% in the 1-bedroom median price in California statewide, to $1,983.
Nationally, growth in median one-bedroom apartment rental prices was a modest 0.6%, to $1,224. Montana saw the biggest growth of all states, 36.7%, with a median rent of $950, and New York state saw the largest decline, 20.2%, with a median rent of $2,150.
Kellie Hwang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com
Article source: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Renters-fled-S-F-and-the-Bay-Area-in-2020-15820765.php
