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PIEDMONT, Calif. (KGO) — A magazine ad for real estate in Piedmont has members of the community hurt and wanting answers. The ad draws attention to the community’s demographics, comparing it to neighboring cities.

RELATED: Data exposes racial inequities in Bay Area housing market

For 43 years, the Nob Hill Gazette has served as San Francisco’s society pages. It’s a monthly staple on city doorsteps.

But, the real estate advertising section of November’s issue came with some problematic language.

“I was like, ‘is this fake? Is this really real, that this would be happening in 2021, after everything we’ve been through?’” asked Piedmont homeowner, Carole Porter.

Porter saw the Piedmont section posted on social media. In a paragraph describing the East Bay community, it said, “The city is surrounded by Oakland but is worlds apart. Among it’s 11,270 residents, 74.5 percent are white.”

The magazine’s publisher confirmed to ABC7 those words were published.

“For me this is kind of coded language,” said Porter, who raised her children in Piedmont and was shocked. “It’s a dog whistle to keep other people out, people that aren’t white.”

VIDEO: Black California couple lowballed by $500K in home appraisal, believe race was a factor

Porter is childhood friends with Vice President Kamala Harris. They grew up together in West Berkeley, where they desegregated schools together in the 70′s.

About the Gazette ad Porter said, “this is just so reminiscent of the challenges we’ve been through in the 60′s and 70′s. Me personally, with my family growing up in an inter-racial family and seeing and learning as I’ve gotten older how hard it was for my parent’s to find housing as an inter-racial couple.”

Directly under the Piedmont write-up, is a half page ad with Piedmont realtors Anian Tunney and Adrienne Krumins. The magazine confirmed neither of the women or The Grubb Company had anything to do with the article.

RELATED: 47 Bay Area ZIP codes make list of most expensive in US, report shows

In a statement, the mother-daughter team told ABC7, “We are appalled by the editorial copy written by the Nob Hill Gazette. We had nothing to do with creating the copy. As long time Piedmont residents we are deeply committed to all members of our community. This newspaper has disrespected the citizens of Piedmont and Oakland.”

ABC7 News Reporter, Kate Larsen, spoke to Nob Hill Gazette’s publisher, Clint Reilly, on the phone Thursday night. He apologized and confessed the piece was not edited appropriately. The online version has now been changed.

He said, “I grew up in the East Bay and I think it’s very unfortunate that wording appeared in the publication. It’s inappropriate and wrong. It does not reflect the values of the Gazette or my own family.”

Reilly explained the Piedmont advertorial was written by a freelance contract writer, who will not be hired again.

Article source: https://abc7news.com/nob-hill-gazette-san-francisco-piedmont-real-estate-article/11252171/

The majority of the Bay Area ZIP codes are on the Peninsula and in the South Bay, with 13 ZIP codes in Santa Clara County and nine in San Mateo County. For the fifth year in a row, Atherton in San Mateo County topped the list with a staggering median home sale price of $7.5 million. Last year, Atherton’s median home sale price was $7 million.

PropertyShark analyzes national home sales registered with county recorders. For the rankings, the company looked at the median home sale prices of transactions from Jan. 1 through Oct. 22, which includes the sale of single- and two-family homes, condos and co-ops.

The list only includes ZIP codes with a minimum of 20 transactions taken into account, and out of the Bay Area’s ZIP codes that appeared in the rankings, only three had fewer than 100 sales.

Eliza Theiss, the author of the study, said the “cost and exclusivity” of living in the Bay Area continues to soar, with 2021 prices increasing at an even sharper rate than in 2020.

“It’s more of the same trends we’ve been seeing over the past years, but 2021 further accentuated some factors such as increased price growth, especially in its priciest communities like Atherton,” she wrote in an email.

She said Atherton has “long been a favorite of ultra-high-income tech and business executives,” and as the town’s profile rose across the state and then nationally, it continues to attract interest from high-profile buyers, “which in turn further raises prices and the community’s profile — creating a feedback loop of increased prices.”

Boston’s 02199 came in second place of the national rankings with a median sale price of $5.5 million. Also in the top 10 are ZIP codes in the Hamptons, Miami Beach, Beverly Hills, and two other Bay Area ZIP codes: 94957, located in the town of Ross in Marin County, with a median home sale price of $4.6 million, and 94022 in Los Altos, with a $4.1 million median home sale price.

Marin County had five ZIP codes in the top 100, including 94970 in Stinson Beach, with a median home sale price of $3.5 million.

Both San Francisco and Contra Costa County counted four ZIP codes in the top 100. The priciest ZIP code in San Francisco is 94123 — ranked 50th and dropped 10 spots from last year — which includes the Marina District and Cow Hollow. The median home sale price was $2.3 million.

San Francisco’s ZIP codes all appeared in the bottom half of the rankings. Theiss said interest in buying in San Francisco hasn’t gone down, even though there were fewer sales this year than in 2020.

“That was more the influence of further tightening inventories,” she said. “San Francisco’s ZIP codes ranking mostly in the bottom half isn’t a trend that is new to this year, but more the result of the city overall being far pricier than other locations, as opposed to locations that may rank with only one or two ZIPs that represent only select neighborhoods favored by the area’s most wealthy individuals.”

She added that San Francisco still can’t compare to ultra-pricey locales such as Atherton or the Hamptons, and that many other California communities experienced a greater increase in their median sale prices than the city.

In Contra Costa County, 94528 or Diablo, a tiny census-designated community northeast of Danville, tops the rankings with a median home sale price of $3.1 million. The only Alameda County ZIP code in the top 100 was in Berkeley, encompassing the Claremont and Elmwood neighborhoods.

Out of the complete list of 127 ZIP codes, Theiss said only six Bay Area ZIP codes had year-over-year price drops, and most were only a decline of 1% to 4%. Greenbrae in Marin County had the biggest decrease of 12%, down from a median home sale price of $2.1 million in 2020 to $1.85 million in 2021. St. Helena in Napa County debuted for the first time on the complete list with a median home sale price of $1.65 million.

Winter used to be the best season for buyers to jump in on real estate deals, but not anymore.

The pandemic-induced pressure left home prices far above where they are in a normal year. Families making any less than six figures per year will have a hard time buying in even the cheapest Bay Area county.

And in the priciest county (can you guess which?), a household will need an annual income of at least $364,400 to make a 20% down payment and reasonable mortgage payments.

With more than 30 of the nation’s most expensive ZIP codes located in the nine-county region, that’s no surprise.

Reporter Lauren Hepler has the details on what prospective home buyers need to afford a median-priced property in the Bay Area.

• ICYMI: These charts show a strong geographic pattern in how Bay Area rents changed during the pandemic.

What to eat

If your weekend plans are in flux, The Chronicle’s Food and Wine team has dining ideas for you to noodle on.

Up north in Marin, restaurant critic Soleil Ho found comforting Californian-Italian cuisine at Route One Bakery and Kitchen, a roadside eatery hidden in plain sight. While people are sure to leave full of pastas and pizzas, it’s the snackage that hypnotized her. Route One, Ho writes, offers gourmet food at accessible prices, perfect for anyone who wants a little treat.

In Oakland, one restaurant taps into Asian American nostalgia by dishing it up in its snacks, art gallery and live entertainment. Baba’s House, a nod to the Chinese word for dad, will offer mah-jongg and mix favorites like shrimp heads and salted egg yolk into salads, Elena Kadvany reports.

Plus, Janelle Bitker sits down at an intimate dinner boasting the “food of the future.” You may think robot-grown lettuce is a scene out of “The Jetsons,” but it’s here right now.

Around the Bay

• Alternative reality: Imagine a world with several Bay Bridges. These rejected proposals show what could’ve been in San Francisco.

• About that Getty wedding: Nancy Pelosi officiated. Gavin Newsom attended. Here’s how much money San Francisco made hosting billionaire oil heiress and model Ivy Getty’s lavish nuptials.

• Injuries at protest: A vehicle struck two highway patrol officers and three Golden Gate Bridge workers as they attempted to control a crowd rallying against vaccination mandates.

• Explained: The California redistricting commission published its first official draft of the state’s new political boundaries — here’s how to participate in the process.

• Stepping on the brakes: Muni’s oldest active rail line no longer takes you to downtown S.F. Will it stay that way?

• Tragedy: A S.F. educator was struck and killed by a motorist next to Sherman Elementary School, where he worked and attended as a child.

• Step back: State politicians say Gov. Gavin Newsom’s hiatus from the public spotlight this month illustrates their own struggles with work-life balance.

• Sugar plum fairies: Holiday classics such as the “The Nutcracker” are back in production around the Bay Area. Here’s where to find local shows.

The national stage

Before Jalen Lewis became American basketball’s youngest pro, he was an Oakland kid with dreams of making it big in the NBA.

Rather than follow in the footsteps of other native sons such as Gary Payton and Damian Lillard, Lewis and his father, Ahlee, opted to skip the college basketball route and try something new. Now, he has a $1.2 million contract and opportunities that take young stars years to reach.

Here’s how one of Bishop O’Dowd’s best players could become a trailblazer for other young athletes.

The warehouse is a 336,680-square-foot structure, an Amazon spokesperson told SFGATE on Tuesday. The spokesperson also confirmed that the space will enable the shopping titan to strengthen the presence of Amazon Logistics, its delivery service, in the Bay Area. Its proximity to public transit and freeways is also desirable, the spokesperson added.

The warehouse is slated to launch by the end of November, the spokesperson added, but did not confirm hiring numbers.

The news of this lease comes as Amazon is set to formally propose construction of a warehouse in San Francisco’s Potrero Hill neighborhood where a Recology site once stood. That structure promises as many as 500 new jobs — but has drawn concern over clogging up the city’s already tight streets with more traffic, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. (SFGATE and the Chronicle are both owned by Hearst but operate independently of one another.)

Amazon’s Bay Area expansion has grown more rapid in recent months, with the e-commerce behemoth buying parcels of land — one in Pleasanton bordering a lake and the other in Milpitas, near the Great Mall. In recent years, Amazon has purchased or leased nearly 3 million square feet of Bay Area property, as documented by the Registry.

But Zillow’s collapse, and the almost-certain collapse of iBuying in general, came as no surprise to me. I sold my house to Redfin several months ago — and watched the company get clobbered trying to flip it.

It all went down in the spring when I was trying to sell my house in Los Angeles in preparation for a move to the Bay Area. At the time, my partner and I weren’t yet vaccinated against COVID, and we were not thrilled with the idea of showing the house prospective buyers and having them breathe all over our stuff.

That was when I saw an ad on Redfin that promised to “buy my home” sight unseen. Curious, I filled out a form on the site that asked me for photos and some basic details about my place. The very next day I got a call with an offer. And it had me ready to pop Champagne bottles. The number was significantly higher than a neighbor received for selling her place months before. And her place, if I’m being honest, was way nicer.

Redfin was going to take a 3% commission instead of the 5% I would have to pay to a normal agent. And I wouldn’t need to keep the place spotless for open houses or fix every little chip in paint.

“We aren’t emotional, like a typical buyer,” a Redfin agent assured me.

All I had to do was sign on the electronic dotted line.

It seemed too good be true — and despite my initial impulse to pop bottles, I woke up many a night over the next several weeks in a cold sweat over fears that I was being scammed. But I hired a real estate lawyer to coach me through the process and the sale went off smoothly.

Ever since, I’ve been fascinated to see what would happen. Would Redfin sell my old place for a fortune and make me look like a chump? Or would the convenience of the transaction prove to be worth it as Redfin made a marginal gain?

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be the one to make a big tech company look like a sucker.

Redfin listed the place a few weeks after purchasing it from me for roughly the same price they bought it. And I watched and waited for a sale. And waited. And waited. And waited.

The house sat. Meanwhile, the price kept dropping.

It finally sold four months later. And Redfin ate a big loss. All told, the company bought the place from me for roughly 9% more than they were able to get on the open market. They also carried all the costs of fixing the place up and maintaining it while it sat.

I’m someone deeply skeptical of big tech players like Zillow and Redfin and their intentions. And I am certainly thrilled that I was able to get such a good deal for my house. And yet I feel no sense of schadenfreude over Zillow’s collapse.

The truth is that the traditional real estate industry is highly problematic. From blockbusting in the 1950s and ’60s, to helping to write racial segregation into California’s Constitution in 1964, to continued racial bias in the appraisal process, this is an industry that has always been and remains plagued by racism. Just this January, a Black couple in Marin City had their home lowballed by a white appraiser to the tune of nearly $500,000. These stories happen with such frequency that they feel less like outliers and more like standard operating procedure.

Race-blind algorithmic purchasing like Zillow was doing, in theory at least, could have helped eliminate some of the bias in the system. At the very least, Black homeowners might have stopped having to worry about hiding the art on their walls for fear of revealing their race and not getting a fair price for their homes.

There’s also the undeniable fact that iBuying offers an incredibly convenient service. Sometimes we need to move when we need to move. And we don’t have months to wait for a buyer with a preapproved bank loan to come along.

Then there’s the hefty 5-6% fee that traditional real estate agents charge for each sale. Cutting those fees, as happened in my case, has the potential to lower housing prices for everyone.

That’s not to say there weren’t dangers if iBuying had taken off. Instead of easing the excesses of an extractive and often racist industry, the rise of Zillow could just have easily created a big tech monopoly on real estate, further fueling the nationwide housing crises.

Instead, the tech industry’s adventures in iBuying were closer to the ill-fated attempts of MoviePass to let us watch all the movies we wanted in 2019 — a rare and fleeting handover of tech investor wealth directly into the waiting public’s hands.