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What makes a good housing market a good housing market? It depends on who’s asking.

Take a national survey by the credit site WalletHub, which first ranked 300 US cities by the robustness of their housing markets, comparing things like the proportion of homes with positive equity, the average degree of annual appreciation, the vacancy rate, and the foreclosure rate.

Out of those 300 cities, San Francisco ranked a respectable and downright competitive 64th. San Jose came in an amazing 18th place. Sunnyvale is number 35, and Berkeley just barely slid into the top third at 98. (Oakland scored lower than most Bay Area cities at 138.)

None of these figures should be a big surprise to anyone, except perhaps those market watchers who feel the Bay Area’s overall position might merit being a little bit higher.

So is that a good market? It certainly is if you’re in a position to take advantage of it. Or if six years ago you were spending a lot of sleepless nights staring at the ceiling and worrying that housing would just never bounce back from the flaming disaster of a few years prior.

On the other hand, the same WalletHub study also ranked those 300 cities for affordability, based on home prices relative to median household income, cost of maintenance, unemployment rate, and job growth rate.

You can see where this is going: While San Francisco blew away a lot of other cities on the jobs-related fronts, we got hammered on home prices, ranking only a devastating number 259 on the list.

San Jose managed to come in number 171. Berkeley was a depressing 272. Oakland got the worst of both worlds both times, rating only 278th place on the affordability scale. So is that a healthy housing market? Maybe. But it’s not always terribly healthy for the people in it. (In fact, it’s literally killing some people in Oakland.)

How did it get this way, some people ask? Well, to a degree, it’s always been like this. In a separate but timely report titled “Rich City, Poor City,” the real estate site Trulia notes that the median home value in San Francisco has rocketed 557 percent since 1986.

Back then, the median San Francisco home cost a little under $161,000, the equivalent of $353,500 today. San Jose’s median price was just under $155,000. Oakland’s, $130,700.

But here‘s the kicker: Even in ‘86, these three Bay Area cities were already the first, third, and seventh most expensive places in America, respectively.

The Bay Area’s crushing lack of affordability and accessibility is hardly anything new, as longtime residents will testify. The change over time is a question of degree; just like the gap between rich and poor continues to get wider, the gap between middle class earners and the lowest rungs of the home ownership ladder spreads out too.

Home Insurance company Nationwide recently reported that only a handful of home markets in the US are “vulnerable to a downturn.” Technically, that’s good news. Secretly, many people have probably been hoping for a bust, either in housing or tech, despite the damage it would do. But you can’t win (or lose?) them all.

• Best Real Estate Markets [WalletHub]
• Lack Of Housing Making Oakland Sick [Business Times]
• Rich City, Poor City [Trulia]
• Income Inequality Lowest in CA? [Curbed SF]
• Health of Housing Market [Nationwide]

Article source: http://sf.curbed.com/2016/8/31/12732720/san-francisco-best-worst-housing-market

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Climb Real Estate, a boutique San Francisco brokerage focused on city-dwelling Millennials, has been acquired by NRT LLC, the nation’s largest residential brokerage, the companies announced Wednesday.

NRT is the parent of Coldwell Banker, Sotheby’s International Realty and ZipRealty and a subsidiary of Realogy, a publicly traded real estate conglomerate. Terms were not disclosed.

Climb, which has about 100 agents in San Francisco and Oakland, will continue to operate under its own name. NRT has pursued the same approach with other regional firms it acquired including the Corcoran Group in New York City and Laura McCarthy Real Estate in St. Louis, said Bruce Zipf, NRT’s president and chief executive.

“For me the deal wasn’t about money, it was about helping me grow the business,” said Chris Lim, whose new title is Climb president. He started selling South of Market condos 14 years ago and in 2010 founded Climb with Mark Choey and Tiffany Combs. SoMa and South Beach are still the company’s stronghold.

With NRT’s backing, the plan is “to grow this platform where we believe it has the most relevancy in the marketplace,” Zipf said.

That includes San Jose, where Climb is already a big reseller of downtown condos, Oakland and possibly Berkeley and Walnut Creek.

Climb tries hard to appeal to Millennials by focusing on mobile technology and social media. It has hip, open-plan offices, and its website features agents’ pets and kids. It renovated a vintage Airstream trailer, which serves as a mobile office and marketing vehicle. It’s at the Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert this week.

“I believe what this represents is a more traditional type platform coming together with a more innovative, unique-type platform” and providing the financial capital to expand Climb in the Bay Area, Zipf said.

Greg Macres, NRT’s executive vice president for the western region, said, “We want our agents to be more mobile (and) stretch the boundaries of technology. The interesting thing about Climb … is they initiated their company with that. They are not transitioning” into it.

Lim said Climb’s top agents — who include Todd Montgomery, Marcus Lee, Matt Finely, Jessie Lee and Kristen Stuecher — are excited about the acquisition.

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/business/networth/article/Nation-s-largest-brokerage-firm-acquires-SF-s-9196002.php

Article source: http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/networth/article/Bay-Area-rents-plateauing-studies-confirm-9193894.php

For eight years, a pair of local developers gradually readied a 42-acre strip of waterfront land 10 miles south of downtown San Francisco for a major project, steering it through local land-use approvals.

Now, a group of major Chinese developers is poised to do the heavy lifting. The venture of Greenland Holding Group, Ping An Trust and other investors paid $171 million last month for the site that juts into San Francisco Bay.

…

Article source: http://www.wsj.com/articles/chinese-cash-pours-into-u-s-real-estate-1472569340

Two days removed from choosing to sit down during the national anthem, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick was adamant that he will continue to take a seat during future renditions of “The Star Spangled Banner” until justice is reaped by all members of American society.

“I’ll continue to sit,” he said while standing in front of his locker during a post-practice news conference Sunday. “I’m going to continue to stand with the people that are being oppressed.”

Fielding questions for nearly 20 minutes, the 28-year-old said that his primary gripe comes with the unjust treatment committed by police officers against people of color around the country.

“There’s people being murdered unjustly and not being held accountable,” he said. “Cops are getting paid leave for killing people. That’s not right.”

Kaepernick made it clear that his gesture Friday night before San Francisco’s preseason game against the Green Bay Packers was not about bashing the military. His goal was to spark a national conversation and ignite change that will positively impact people without a voice.

Teammate NaVorro Bowman’s concern was with the team on the field.

“We don’t think Kaepernick is a bad teammate,” Bowman said, “we just can’t allow him to divide our team.”

But Kaepernick doesn’t see the protest as a distraction. Instead, he believes it can do just the opposite.

“I think it’s something that can unify this team and something that can unify this country,” he said. “If we have these real conversations that are uncomfortable for a lot of people, if we have these conversations, there’s a better understanding where both sides are coming from.”

When asked if he has ever faced examples of police injustice, Kaepernick told reporters that he has been a victim “multiple times” and offered one instance when he said police pulled guns on him and a roommate while the two were moving out of a house in college.

“I have experienced this,” he said. “People close to me have experienced this. This isn’t something that’s a one-off case here, a one-off case there. This has become habitual. It’s something that needs to be addressed.”

In addition to future sit-downs, Kaepernick says that he will continue to have open conversations about police brutality in addition to leading unspecified community events until he feels that the American flag represents a country for the values that it was founded on.

In the meantime, he stands by his Friday night statement.

“This country stands for freedom, liberty, justice for all, and it’s not happening for all right now,” he said.

The NFL issued a statement, saying players are encouraged but not required to stand during the playing of the national anthem.

The 49ers’ next preseason game is 7 p.m. Thursday in San Diego.

Article source: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Kaepernick--391555111.html