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Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry is seemingly incapable of losing.

Off the court, not so much.

Somehow, Curry and his wife Ayesha have reportedly managed to lose money in the one of the hottest real-estate markets on the planet right now. While scores of Bay Area home sellers are getting multiple all-cash offers over their asking price, the Currys have learned that scoring big-time with real estate isn’t always a slam dunk. After paying $3.2 million for their 7,520-square-foot Walnut Creek mansion in late 2015, and putting in nearly a half-million dollars to fix it up, the couple has sold the place for $3.195 million after dropping the price last month from $3.395 million. And that price had been dropped from the $3.7 million they were asking back in October of last year. The more recent sale went pending July 5.

Wha?

The answer to how to lose money on Bay Area real estate seems to be a combination of buying high, and ignoring the first three commandments of home purchasing: location, location, location.

“Since homes valued at more than $2 million make up only a small percentage of properties in Contra Costa County, it’s a very niche market,” says Steve Mohseni, a real-estate agent with RE/MAX in Pleasanton. “So there’s limited demand for this type of home.”

Mohseni checked sales in the past year of homes listed in the city of Walnut Creek for $2 million or more, the definition of high end. He found that out of the 494 homes sold, only eight were in that category. Of those eight, four sold under the asking price, three sold at asking and one sold for $30,000 above the listed price. And, says Mohseni, “none of those were over $3 million, until now. So Steph had the most expensive house sold in the city.”

Anything can happen, of course. A recent survey by the real-estate powerhouse Pacific Union showed that in some parts of the region the high-end market is doing gangbusters.  The report shows that home sales activity in the Bay Area increased by 3 percent year over year in June and 2 percent for the first half of 2017, with Alameda and San Francisco counties posting the largest pickups in the first half of 2017, thanks to more sales of higher-priced homes.  In June, said the survey, 40 percent more homes priced between $2 million and $3 million sold in the Bay Area year over year. And sales of homes priced higher than $3 million were particularly hot in Santa Clara County last month, with transactions jumping 50 percent from last June.

Unfortunately for the Currys, the Santa Clara market is about 50 miles south of their home on Sugarloaf Court. And as Mohseni reminds us, real estate is all about location. The Curry home sits on a nondescript cul-de-sac south of downtown Walnut Creek, just a few blocks off an Interstate 680 exit and with its backyard sloping down to a major thoroughfare.

“The place is kind of remote and there’s no prestige, no view of the Golden Gate Bridge,” he says. Combine that lack of pizzazz with the home’s placement on the lonely nose-bleed section of real estate and you’ve got, well, you’ve got out less money than you put into it.

“It’s the mainstream that’s hot, not necessarily the high end,” says Mohseni. “And in many areas even the high end is not as hot compared to four years ago when we saw a lot of Chinese buyers paying all cash and over the asking price. That, as a rule, has slowed down.”

Article source: http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/07/18/steph-curry-did-it-how-do-you-lose-money-in-the-bay-area-real-estate-market/

http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/One-suburb-dominates-the-Bay-Area-s-list-of-best-11285977.php

By Amy Graff, SFGATE and Kiley Roache

Updated 11:05 am, Tuesday, July 18, 2017

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Tied at No. 8: Farm Hill. The average home price in this Redwood City neighborhood is $1.6 million. This 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house is on the market for $1.45 million. Click forward to see maps and homes from each of the top nine Bay Area neighborhoods. 

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Photo: Janice Woods, Alain Pinel Realtors

Farm Hill received a high commute score, since it provides accessibility to jobs north in San Francisco along with Google, Facebook, and other companies on the Peninsula. 

Farm Hill received a high commute score, since it provides accessibility to jobs north in San Francisco along with Google, Facebook, and other companies on the Peninsula. 

Photo: Google Maps

Have you ever considered a move to Redwood City? 

That mini metropolis that kisses the bay about 30 miles south of San Francisco?

If you’re house-hunting in the Bay Area and looking for value, this might be a place to start your search, according to a new report from real estate site Trulia on best value neighborhoods.

Burlingame, just a little north toward the city, would be another spot to start browsing open houses. 

In the high-priced Bay Area real estate market, buying a home can be an overwhelming, perplexing experience.

When you finally find a house you can afford, you might realize it’s located in a neighborhood with high-crime. When you decide on a location because the schools are great, you might find home prices you can’t possibly afford.  

Trulia sifted through its mountains of data to identify those Bay Area neighborhoods where you get the most bang for your buck and created a list based on real estate affordability, the quality of schools, crime rate, the commute and accessibility to shopping, restaurants and other amenities. 

The researchers identified only nine Bay Area neighborhoods — all on the Peninsula — that met the criteria.

Trulia spokesperson Debbi Baratz says, “Only nine met the requirements for affordability.”

Redwood City neighborhoods dominated the list with Palm Park, Roosevelt, Redwood Oaks and Woodside Plaza as the top four (in that order) and Farm Hill tying with San Mateo’s Sugarloaf for the No. 8 best-value neighborhood.

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Three Burlingame enclaves—Lyon Hoag, Burlingame Village and Burlingame Terrace—all claimed the title of the No. 6 best value neighborhood.

In the gallery above, we reveal why these neighborhoods made the list, provide median home prices and examples of homes on the market or homes that recently sold.

How does this list stack up with realtors on the Peninsula?

Celeste Johnson of Keller Williams agrees Redwood City offers great livability and for reasons beyond affordability, safety and schools. She adds that the weather is good, the location is ideal as it’s halfway between San Francisco and the Silicon Valley, and the downtown is bustling with restaurants, shops and events.

“The downtown is walkable and it’s vibrant,” she says. “The downtown has been completely overhauled in recent years.”

John Marshall of Coldwell Banker concurs that homebuyers are looking to Redwood City for value.

“One of the things that have kept Redwood City prices down over the years is the schools,” says Marshall, who has been helping clients buy and sell on the Peninsula for more than 15 years. “The school scores were lower than Atherton, Woodside and Menlo Park. But the attitude has changed, and people are asking, ‘Why would I go to Menlo Park and pay $4 to $5 million when I can be in Redwood City for $2 million or less than that. And the schools are slowly getting better.”

Marshall was happy to see Redwood City’s Woodside Plaza on the list. It’s where he lives and he says it’s the type of community where neighbors look out for one another. It also has Henry Ford Elementary School, with a Great Schools rating of 7 out of 10.

He was surprised to not see Redwood City’s Mount Carmel among the best value neighborhoods. Its neighborhood school is Roy Cloud, possibly the city’s most well-regarded elementary school, with a Great Schools rating of 8 out of 10. The houses go for a premium in this neighborhood, he says, and higher prices are likely why it didn’t make the value cut.

Johnson agrees that Roy Cloud is one of the most popular schools with families, and that drives prices up. And this might explain why Palm Park, with the lower-performing Hayes Elementary (Great Schools score of 5 out of 10), is considered the top value neighborhood. Trulia’s list is all about balancing affordability with livability.

And what about Burlingame and San Mateo, which also made a splash on the Trulia list?

Marshall says the schools are more consistently high-performing than in Redwood City, and the access to San Francisco is better with a BART station nearby, but the homes are more expensive. 

“A lot of the houses for $2 million and under are older and haven’t been updated and they’re a little on the small side,” Marshall says. 

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/One-suburb-dominates-the-Bay-Area-s-list-of-best-11285977.php

Bay Area single-family home prices rose 7.9 percent in June from a year earlier, outpacing the 7.0 percent statewide price increase, but the difference in outright home prices was far greater, according to a new California Association of Realtors report.

Closing in on a million bucks, the Bay Area’s median price of $908,740 for single-family homes was much higher than the statewide median sale price of $555,150.

And look at some of the numbers from specific counties: The median price rose 12.6 percent year-over-year to $1,182,500 in Santa Clara County and 12.1 percent to $900,000 in Alameda County. It jumped 9.8 percent to $1,433,750  in San Mateo County, 8.8 percent to $1,469,000 in San Francisco and 5.6 percent to $660,000 in Contra Costa County.

All of this is driven by the combination of low housing supply and job growth. Worried that they won’t otherwise seal the deal, buyers are pushing sale prices higher and higher.

Broken down another way, the data show that the highest per-square-foot prices in the state were in the Bay Area. At the top of the list was San Francisco ($909 per square foot), followed by San Mateo County ($848) and Santa Clara County ($662).

And which California counties showed the sharpest drops in inventory? The report showed the top five were all in the Bay Area: San Mateo was No. 1, followed by Santa Clara, Alameda, San Francisco and Contra Costa counties.

“A lack of available homes for sale continues to be the largest single factor influencing California’s housing market,” said C.A.R. President Geoff McIntosh. “With active listings 13.5 percent lower than last June, we’ve now experienced a full two years in which active listings have fallen on a year-over-year basis and the lowest inventory level this year. Would-be sellers aren’t listing their homes as many of them would also face an inventory challenge if they were to turn around and buy another property.”

Tight inventory combined with buyers’ desperation, spurring sales on a year-over-year basis. The volume of sales was up 2.4 percent across California and 6.1 percent in the Bay Area.

Sales jumped 9.4 percent in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties; 8.2 percent in Contra Costa County; and 4.8 percent in Alameda County.

In San Francisco, the number of sales declined by 5.6 percent.

This chart shows year-over-year changes in price and sales for single-family homes.

Article source: http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/07/18/bay-area-real-estate-region-has-tightest-housing-supply-in-state-and-highest-prices/

Single-family home prices rose markedly across the state in June — by 7.0 percent from a year earlier, according to a new report by the California Association of Realtors.

It’s no surprise that the price growth was even greater than that in the Bay Area — up 7.9 percent across the nine counties.

The statewide median sale price was $555,150.

Compare that with the Bay Area: $908,740.

Yes, the region-wide median sale price is now approaching a million bucks.

And look at some of the numbers from specific counties: The median price rose 12.6 percent year-over-year to $1,182,500 in Santa Clara County and 12.1 percent to $900,000 in Alameda County. It jumped 9.8 percent to $1,433,750  in San Mateo County, 8.8 percent to $1,469,000 in San Francisco and 5.6 percent to $660,000 in Contra Costa County.

Once again, all of this is driven by the combination of low housing supply and job growth. Worried that they won’t otherwise seal the deal, buyers are pushing sale prices up and up.

Broken down another way, the data shows that the highest per-square-foot prices in the state were in the Bay Area. At the top of the list was San Francisco ($909/sq. ft.), followed by San Mateo County ($848) and Santa Clara County ($662).

And which California counties showed the sharpest drops in inventory? The top five were all in the Bay Area: San Mateo was No. 1, followed by Santa Clara, Alameda, San Francisco and Contra Costa counties.

Read the report here.

“A lack of available homes for sale continues to be the largest single factor influencing California’s housing market,” said C.A.R. President Geoff McIntosh. “With active listings 13.5 percent lower than last June, we’ve now experienced a full two years in which active listings have fallen on a year-over-year basis and the lowest inventory level this year. Would-be sellers aren’t listing their homes as many of them would also face an inventory challenge if they were to turn around and buy another property.”

Interestingly, tight inventory combined with buyers’ desperation to spur sales on a year-over-year basis. The volume of sales was up 2.4 percent across California and 6.1 percent in the Bay Area.

Sales jumped 9.4 percent in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties; 8.2 percent in Contra Costa County; and 4.8 percent in Alameda County. Only in San Francisco did the number of sales decline, by 5.6 percent.

This chart (from the California Association of Realtors) shows the year-over-year changes in price and sales for single family homes.

Photo: A “sale pending” sign outside a house in Palo Alto. (Paul Sakuma/AP)

Tags: affordable housing, affordable real estate, Bay Area housing, housing, median prices, median sale price

Article source: http://www.siliconbeat.com/2017/07/17/bay-area-real-estate-region-leads-california-cost-per-square-foot-tightest-housing-supply/

As the national drought in home supply dragged into its 21st straight month, competition among buyers drove prices up once again.

And the fiercest competition was in the Bay Area.

A new report from Redfin shows that 73.7 percent of homes sold above the listing price in the San Jose metropolitan area in June. That was the highest percentage in the nation, followed by the San Francisco metropolitan area (70.6 percent, second highest in the U.S.) and the Oakland metropolitan area (69.8 percent, third highest). They were followed by Seattle (62.3 percent) and Tacoma, Wash., (52.6 percent).

“Every record in market speed and competition that was set in May was broken again in June,” the report stated.

The Redfin report comes two days after the Mercury News reported on a rash of over-asking home sales in Sunnyvale and Cupertino. In the last month, more than 50 homes in those two cities sold for at least $200,000 over the asking price. One modest Cupertino house — 1,046 square feet — sold for $660,000 above its listing price.

According to Redfin, San Jose had the nation’s largest decrease in housing inventory, falling 42.2 percent in June from one year earlier. The second largest year-over-year contraction of the home supply was in Rochester, N.Y., where inventory fell 29.7 percent. The third largest shrinkage happened in San Francisco, where inventory fell 26.6 percent.

With so few homes on the market, the law of supply and demand kicks in — particularly in a region like the Bay Area where the job force continues to expand along with the demand for homes. Inevitably, prices go up.

The nation’s median sale price rose 7.3 percent to $298,000 in June, Redfin reported.

Prospective Bay Area homebuyers paid a lot more. Oakland’s median sale price was $719,500, up 9.8 percent year-over-year. San Jose’s median price was an even $1,000,000, up 11.1 percent. San Francisco’s median price was $1,250,000, up 4.2 percent.

The “fastest” markets in the nation — where sales were struck most rapidly — were Denver, Colo., Portland, Ore., and Seattle, all tied at seven median days on market, followed by Grand Rapids, Mich. (eight days on market), and Boston, Mass. (nine days on market).

Article source: http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/07/13/new-report-bay-areas-rocketing-real-estate-market-leads-nation-in-over-asking-sales/