Fortunately, Monica Viarengo, a landscape designer who had been consulting with the couple’s second architect, believed she knew just the right person for the job: her husband, Brett Terpeluk, the principal of Studio Terpeluk. When the Arnejas met him, it felt like a perfect match.
“I think Brett’s sensibility veers toward the Italian sensibility,” Mr. Arneja said. “It’s not about creating these blank, clean, modern lines; it’s really about, in totality, how everything feels warm.”
Mr. Terpeluk saw why the couple wanted to preserve so much. “When I walked into the house, the architecture just really resonated with me,” he said. “It has such a beautiful, almost mystical quality, in the way the space embraces you. Taking a curatorial approach to maintaining that, while upgrading the house, was the right approach.”
His plan called for expanding and finishing the bottom level, to make space for an office and a media room with a kitchenette that looks out to a new garden designed by Ms. Viarengo; updating the bedrooms and bathrooms on the second level; and making surgical additions to the main living spaces on the top floor.
According to an analysis from Better Mortgage, an online lender and homeownership platform, San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland and San Rafael have some of the highest average ratios between the list price and the sale price of each home sold. The company looked at Nov. 2021 housing data from real estate listings website Redfin, the most recently available figures.
Cities with ratios over 100% represent areas where homes sold for over their list prices. The bigger the number, the greater the gap between the house’s listing and sale prices.
“This isn’t the least bit surprising,” wrote Khadeejah Johnson, head of brokerage for Better Mortgage, in an email. “The Bay Area is home to some of the most competitive housing markets in the country, driven by historically low inventory levels and supply chain issues causing new construction delays and higher costs.”
Johnson said there’s scarcity in the Bay Area, especially in San Francisco and San Jose, where “buyers are competing so fiercely that sales prices are far surpassing listing prices.”
San Francisco came in second on the list, with an average sale-to-list ratio of 108.3% and 70.8% of homes sold over asking price. The median sale price was $1.575 million. The Better Mortgage article explains that the city’s “extremely low housing inventory” stayed tight because when interest rates dropped, “savvy buyers capitalized on the cheaper loans by purchasing real estate in this city.”
San Jose was third on the list, with an average sale-to-list ratio of 107.5%, with 75.8% of homes sold about the list price and a median sale price of $1.4 million. The article explains that a lack of new construction and buyers capitalizing on record-low interest rates have led to bidding wars and purchase prices to rise.
Oakland followed very closely behind with an average sale-to-list ratio of 107.3% and 76.7% of homes selling above asking price. The median sale price was unavailable. Better’s article points again to not enough inventory: Oakland’s population grew by 13% in the past decade, but new housing grew by only 5.16%, according to the report.
In eighth place, San Rafael’s average sale-to-list ratio was 104.6%, with 56.4% of homes sold above the asking price and a median home sale price of $1.325 million.
Johnson said the pandemic increased remote and hybrid work models, and low interest rates allowed more people to move out from city centers.
“Not everyone opted to move to Idaho, Colorado, Arizona or Florida,” she said. “Many homebuyers bought in the metro areas surrounding their home markets, such is the case in the Bay Area. The markets there have gotten so competitive over the last couple of years that homebuilders in the Bay Area haven’t been able to keep pace.”
Supply chain issues drove up prices higher, and many home buyers have scrambled to purchase homes while interest rates are still low, Johnson explained, which in turn has driven up the average purchase loan size. And, she said there have been even more second-home buyers on the market, adding to the scarcity.
Just outside the Bay Area, Santa Cruz also landed on the list at number 10, with an average sale-to-list ratio of 103.8%, with 62.5% of homes sold over the asking price, and a median sale price of $1.05 million
Johnson does not think the Bay Area housing market will cool anytime soon.
“Home builders are trying to catch up on a backlog of homes that won’t come close to meeting demand,” she said. “All the while, interest rates will continue to rise over the next couple of years, but homebuyers in the Bay Area will happily pay cash or the higher mortgage payments each month if it means landing the dream home they’ve been waiting years for.
In other words, demand will outstrip supply for the foreseeable future, she explained.
So what should prospective home buyers do in this wildly competitive market? Johnson said it really depends on a person’s financial situation. If someone is able to make a bigger offer to compete against other bids, then paying well over asking price might be the best course of action.
“You never want to try and time the market, so waiting on the sidelines isn’t always the best option either,” she said.
If paying over asking isn’t an option, Johnson recommends “making concessions in your search if you’re really determined to buy sooner than later.” She also said to be flexible with the size and location of a home if you plan to stay for fewer than five to seven years. And if you’re looking for the long-term, “make a higher offer if you can afford to or use a cash offer program.”
Kellie Hwang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KellieHwang
Today, the community of about 700 homes just off the San Pablo Bay waterfront retains an appeal for home buyers similar to what was promised back then: a relaxed atmosphere that can feel much more South Florida than Bay Area.
In a recent analysis of Zillow’s home values by neighborhood, the waterfront community had the largest home value growth of any Bay Area neighborhood since the start of the pandemic. According to data, home values spiked nearly 50% from December 2019 to December 2021, from an average home value of about $1 million in 2019 to $1.5 million in 2021.
In Bel Marin Keys, the outdoors comes in the form of two lagoons and Novato Creek. Instead of typical grassy or tree-filled yards, backyards there feature decks and boat docks that overlook private, man-made lagoons. Hiking trails and cycling paths are nearby, yet the community is just minutes from dining and shopping along Bel Marin Keys Boulevard and Highway 101.
Bel Marin Keys
Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle
Andrea Kraemer, 48, is a Realtor with Coldwell Banker and has been a resident of Bel Marin Keys for 13 years.
“I was one of many people who didn’t know that the community existed,” she said. “We came on a random Sunday and saw an open house, looked at the property and put in an offer that night.”
Kraemer said she’s been seeing two main groups looking at Bel Marin Keys homes recently: families with young children who are looking for an active lifestyle, and couples who work from home and want an office with a view. She said her last sale in Bel Marin Keys was an active couple who are able to work from home and whose children are grown.
Kraemer said there’s an “exceptional lack of inventory,” with homes going between $850 and $1,110 a square foot. As of last week on Zillow, only one house in Bel Marin Keys was listed. The house, priced at $1.95 million, last sold for $1.2 million in June 2019. But as of Tuesday morning, even that one listing was gone.
That combination of factors — a low supply of homes in a unique, more affordable area — is likely the main reason the area has seen outsize growth in home values, even over other Bay Area neighborhoods whose popularity has exploded in the pandemic.
Longtime residents say the low inventory is, in part, because Bel Marin Keys residents tend to buy and stay put. But it’s also cyclical, and the turnover process has sped up during the pandemic.
Kraemer said the all-time high sale in Bel Marin Keys was $2.8 million in July 2021, an off-market sale for a home that was completely renovated with blown-out walls and floor-to-ceiling windows. She recently sold a fixer-upper for $1.25 million.
Longtime Novato Realtor Sylvia Barry said that before the pandemic, people in San Francisco usually looked to the area to expand. But more recently, more people from the South Bay have been scoping it out.
She said Novato is overall less expensive than other parts of Marin County, and you get the benefit of more open space with big lots and large yards. And because of widespread remote work, the commute from Marin County is no longer an issue.
“When you have a bigger buyer pool, it brings the price up,” she said. “People want to have more room.”
Madalienne Peters, 75, has lived in Bel Marin Keys since 2004. She and her husband didn’t even know they could swim in the lagoon until they moved in, and now they also kayak and use paddleboards. She said she’s not surprised people are looking to Bel Marin Keys, especially if they work from home and no longer need to remain close to downtown San Francisco or Silicon Valley offices.
“What’s surprising is the property values stayed so modest for so long,” she said. “We’re not like other areas of Marin, definitely not well-known. But I think people understand that living in Bel Marin Keys is a good choice.”
Construction of Bel Marin Keys started around the late 1950s and advanced in phases. At the time, homes were advertised for an “unusually modest cost” starting at $26,000, with a choice of 80 exteriors and 10 floor plans. Man-made lagoons were added sometime in the 1960s, and homes continued to be built into the late 1980s.
Kraemer said a fifth phase of Bel Marin Keys was never built, and now it’s a wetlands area that residents call the levees, with “beautiful open space.” That has made the community a sanctuary for wildlife, brimming with waterfowl, fish and the occasional river otter.
The old 13-page brochure for Bel Marin Keys boasted planned amenities including a yacht club, shopping center, golf and country club, riding academy, and a proposed rod and gun club for fishing and hunting. Only the yacht club came to fruition.
Residents say it’s a more casual and family-oriented club than what one might imagine, hosting parties and events year-round, including a public Fourth of July fireworks show.
Jeffrey Martino, 61, has lived with his family in Bel Marin Keys for 25 years. He and his wife, Diane, love boating and raised their daughters to love being out on the water too. He said most of the homes are traditional compared to newer properties around Novato, but it’s the water and access to nature that’s the main draw.
“I try to imagine someone looking for a home and why they would want to spend $1 million in another part of Novato when they can get a home in Bel Marin Keys for relatively the same price and be on the water,” he said. “I have always thought Bel Marin Keys was undervalued for many years. I don’t think you can really put a price on the water lifestyle.”
Jeffrey Martino takes his boat out in Bel Marin Keys.
Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle
According to the 2019 American Community Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau, the census tract for Bel Marin Keys shows a population of just over 1,600 people. It’s a tiny community, and one that is, in some ways, an exaggerated microcosm of Marin County’s demographics.
Marin is known as being populated by affluent, mostly white families and older people. Bel Marin Keys’ population is 83% non-Hispanic white, compared with 63% for all of Novato and 71% for Marin County.
The median household income is just over $133,000. In 2019, the median home value was $988,500, about 25% higher than the Novato average.
The median age in Bel Marin Keys is 55, with 37% of residents in the 50-69 age range. That compares to a median age of 47 for Marin County, and 29% in the 50-69 age group.
Martino’s daughter, Lindsey, 21, said that growing up in the area, she and her friends would joke that Bel Marin Keys was like a retirement community.
She remembers kayaking to the wetlands where she would fill a 5-gallon bucket with lost golf balls and keep them as souvenirs.
Jeffrey Martino in his backyard in Bel Marin Keys.
Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle
Amy Khan, 40, lived in San Francisco for most of her adult life. When she and her husband had their two boys, they needed more space. The couple enjoy going up to Wine Country and always noticed an exit for Bel Marin Keys.
“I figured there was probably water involved,” she said, saying that one day they decided to check it out. “It was different than anywhere in the Bay Area. We considered a lot of neighborhoods … but kept coming back to the idea that we could just walk into our backyard, and it would be right on the water.”
She said there wasn’t a lot of availability then, but it was “definitely more inventory than what I’ve seen in the last couple of years.”
They lucked out and got the first home they put an offer on: a three-bedroom, two-bath mid-century modern home built in the 1960s. They had to do quite a bit of remodeling, and moved in in July 2013. The commute to San Francisco was the biggest challenge, and Khan took Golden Gate Transit or, from time to time, the ferry.
“The biggest game-changer was to forgo that commute in the last couple of years,” she said. “The pandemic was a challenge, don’t get me wrong, but, honestly, quarantining with a lagoon in your backyard and hiking trails all around made it much more bearable.”
Khan said when they first moved to Bel Marin Keys, she was a little disappointed there weren’t more children the same age as her kids, but now she sees that changing. And while she misses living in the city from time to time, she sees the benefit that living there has had on her family.
“We’re in it for the long haul,” she said. “With prices rising pretty much everywhere in the Bay, there’s just not a better deal out there. I feel like my kids have gotten so many benefits from living in this community, and we’ll probably lose out going anywhere else.”
Kellie Hwang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KellieHwang
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – In 2021, U.S. housing gained nearly $7 trillion in value, breaking the previous record for a single year, according to a new Zillow analysis.
That makes the U.S. housing market worth twice as much as it was a decade ago in the middle of the Great Recession, analysts said.
Here in San Francisco, it’s no surprise that homes are worth a total of $1.95 trillion, according to Zillow’s estimate. That makes the San Francisco metro the third-most valuable out of the 50 largest U.S. metros, behind New York and Los Angeles.
The San Francisco metro area is now worth $1.2 trillion more than it was 10 years ago.
The report also analyzed homes in the nearby San Jose metro area – where they were worth a total of $836 billion, ranking ninth among the top 50 metros.
In San Jose, the housing market is now worth $548 billion more than it was a decade ago.
Los Angeles–area homes gained more value than any other metro in 2021, but the New York metro area remains the nation’s largest housing market, worth $3.5 trillion.
Here are the top 5:
New York ($3.5 trillion)
Los Angeles ($3.3 trillion)
San Francisco ($2 trillion)
Boston ($1.1 trillion)
Washington, D.C. ($1.1 trillion)
California is home to more than one-fifth (21%) of the nation’s housing value, according to Zillow. The state’s housing stock gained $1.4 trillion in 2021 and is now worth a total of $9.2 trillion – that’s more than the combined value of the bottom 30 states.
The Golden State is among 14 states with more than $1 trillion in housing value. Other states that surpassed that milestone include Colorado, Arizona, and Georgia, the report revealed.
Today, the community of about 700 homes just off the San Pablo Bay waterfront retains a similar appeal for home buyers as what was promised back then: a relaxed atmosphere that can feel much more south Florida than Bay Area.
In a recent analysis of Zillow’s home values by neighborhood, the waterfront community had the largest home value growth of any Bay Area neighborhood since the start of the pandemic. According to data, home values spiked nearly 50% from Dec. 2019 to Dec. 2021, from an average home value of about $1 million in 2019 to $1.5 million in 2021.
In Bel Marin Keys, the outdoors comes in the form of two lagoons and Novato Creek. Instead of typical grassy or tree-filled yards, backyards there feature decks and boat docks that overlook private, man-made lagoons. Hiking trails and cycling paths are nearby, yet the community is just minutes away from dining and shopping along Bel Marin Keys Boulevard and Highway 101.
Bel Marin Keys
Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle
Pandemic growth
Andrea Kraemer, 48, is a realtor with Coldwell Banker and has been a resident of Bel Marin Keys for 13 years.
“I was one of many people who didn’t know that the community existed,” she said. “We came on a random Sunday and saw an open house, looked at the property and put in an offer that night.”
Kraemer said she’s been seeing two main groups looking at Bel Marin Keys homes recently: families with young children who are looking for an active lifestyle, and couples who work from home and want an office with a view. She said her last sale in Bel Marin Keys was an active couple who are able to work from home, and whose children are grown.
Kraemer said there’s an “exceptional lack of inventory,” with homes going between $850 to $1,110 a square foot. Currently on Zillow, only one house in Bel Marin Keys is listed at $1.95 million, last sold for $1.2 million in June 2019.
That combination of factors — a low supply of homes in a unique, more affordable area — is likely the main reason the area has seen outsize growth in home values, even over other Bay Area neighborhoods whose popularity has exploded in the pandemic.
Longtime residents say the low inventory is, in part, because Bel Marin Keys residents tend to buy and stay put. But it’s also cyclical, and the turnover process has sped up during the pandemic.
Kraemer said the all-time high sale in Bel Marin Keys was $2.8 million in July 2021, an off-market sale that was completely renovated with blown out walls and floor-to-ceiling windows. She recently sold a fixer-upper for $1.25 million.
Longtime Novato realtor Sylvia Barry said that before the pandemic, people in San Francisco usually looked to the area to expand. But more recently, more people from the South Bay have been scoping it out.
She said Novato is overall less expensive than other parts of Marin County, and you get the benefit of more open space with big lots and large yards. And because of widespread remote work, the commute from Marin County is no longer an issue.
“When you have a bigger buyer pool, it brings the price up,” she said. “People want to have more room.
Madalienne Peters, 75, has lived in Bel Marin Keys since 2004. She and her husband didn’t even know they could swim in the lagoon until they moved in, and now they also kayak and paddleboard. She said she’s not surprised people are looking to Bel Marin Keys, especially if they work from home and no longer need to remain close to downtown San Francisco or Silicon Valley offices.
“What’s surprising is the property values stayed so modest for so long,” she said. “We’re not like other areas of Marin, definitely not well-known. But I think people understand that living in Bel Marin Keys is a good choice.”
The ‘water lifestyle’
Construction of Bel Marin Keys started around the late 1950s and was built in phases. At the time, homes were advertised for an “unusually modest cost” starting at $26,000, with a choice of 80 exteriors and 10 floor plans. Man-made lagoons were added sometime in the 1960s, and homes built into the late 1980s.
Kraemer said a fifth phase of Bel Marin Keys was never built, and now it’s a wetlands area that residents call the levees with “beautiful open space.” That has made the community a sanctuary for wildlife, brimming with waterfowl, fish and the occasional river otter.
The old 13-page brochure for Bel Marin Keys boasted planned amenities including a yacht club, shopping center, golf and country club, riding academy, and a proposed rod and gun club for fishing and hunting. Only the yacht club came to fruition.
Residents say it’s a more casual and family-oriented club than what one might imagine, hosting parties and events year-round, including a public Fourth of July fireworks show.
Jeffrey Martino takes his boat out in Bel Marin Keys.
Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle
Jeffrey Martino, 61, has lived with his family in Bel Marin Keys for 25 years. He and his wife, Diane, love boating and raised their daughters to love being out on the water, too. He said most of the homes are traditional compared to newer properties around Novato, but it’s the water and access to nature that’s the main draw.
“I try to imagine someone looking for a home and why they would want to spend $1 million in another part of Novato, when they can get a home in Bel Marin Keys for relatively the same price and be on the water,” he said. “I have always thought Bel Marin Keys was undervalued for many years. I don’t think you can really put a price on the water lifestyle.”
According to the 2019 American Community Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau, the census tract for Bel Marin Keys shows a population of just over 1,600 people. It’s a tiny community, and one that is, in some ways, an exaggerated microcosm of Marin County’s demographics.
Marin is known as being populated by affluent, mostly white families and older people. Bel Marin Keys’s population is 83% non-Hispanic white, compared to 63% for all of Novato and 71% for Marin County.
The median household income is just over $133,000. In 2019, the median home value was $988,500, about 25% higher than the Novato average.
The median age in Bel Marin Keys is 55, with 37% of residents in the 50 to 69 age range. That compares to a median age of 47 for Marin County, and 29% in the 50 to 69 age group.
Jeffrey Martino in his backyard in Bel Marin Keys.
Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle
Martino’s daughter, Lindsey, 21, said that as a kid growing up in the area, she and her friends would joke that Bel Marin Keys was like a retirement community.
She remembers kayaking to the wetlands where she would fill a 5-gallon bucket with lost golf balls and keep them as souvenirs.
Amy Khan, 40, lived in San Francisco for most of her adult life. When she and her husband had their two boys, they needed more space. The couple enjoy going up to Wine Country, and always noticed an exit for Bel Marin Keys.
“I figured there was probably water involved,” she said, saying that one day they decided to check it out. “It was different than anywhere in the Bay Area. We considered a lot of neighborhoods … but kept coming back to the idea that we could just walk into our backyard and it would be right on the water.”
She said there wasn’t a lot of availability then, but it was “definitely more inventory than what I’ve seen in the last couple of years.”
They lucked out and got the first home they put an offer on: a three-bedroom, two-bath midcentury modern home built in the 1960s. They had to do quite a bit of remodeling, and moved in in July of 2013. The commute to San Francisco was the biggest challenge, and Khan took Golden Gate Transit or, from time to time, the ferry.
“The biggest game changer was to forgo that commute in the last couple of years,” she said. “The pandemic was a challenge, don’t get me wrong, but honestly quarantining with a lagoon in your backyard and hiking trails all around made it much more bearable.”
Khan said when they first moved to Bel Marin Keys, she was a little disappointed there weren’t more children the same age as her kids, but now she sees that is changing. And while she misses living in the city from time to time, she sees the benefit that living there has had on her family.
“We’re in it for the long haul,” she said. “With prices rising pretty much everywhere in the Bay, there’s just not a better deal out there. I feel like my kids have gotten so many benefits from living in this community, and we’ll probably lose out going anywhere else.”
Kellie Hwang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KellieHwang
