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It’s a past many of us return to in whatever way we can. I do it by visiting my dad and brother in Mountain View, playing old Hieroglyphics CDs in my Jetta, and occasionally practicing my thizz face on a dance floor. I also do it by staying rooted among those who’ve remained: the homies who haven’t been gentrified or otherwise systematically removed from their homes. 

Unfortunately, there are only two people I know who still hold it down in our old 650 neighborhood. Israul Herrera and his brother, Darby, remind me of what it means to be a Baydestrian, a phrase Mistah FAB coined in his 2007 album, “Da Baydestrian,” to describe someone from the bay. Along with my older brother, Aldo, the Herreras are the only faces I still recognize on our block.

We are the lucky families who were able to buy property decades ago and have remained, despite the constant million-dollar home renovations and interchanging incomers who have flocked to work in the Silicon Valley around us. 

Though I’ve lived in the East Bay since 2008, I still go back to visit my brother and pops in the Peninsula. It’s disorienting to return to a place you were raised but don’t recognize — a consequence of aging, of course, but also a sign of the aggressive and rapid economic displacement that has impacted every Bay Area community and pushed out nearly everyone we once knew. It hurts, but it’s a reality many of us have had to swallow. And sometimes we chase our pain down with tequila or beer. 

But lately, we’ve been doing it with Hyphy Juice.

Since 2005, the hyper-local energy drink has been an iconic beverage that represents the region’s cultural pride, especially at the peak of the Hyphy Movement. The Red Bull-style “juice” was co-created by East Oakland rapper Clyde Carson as a way to capture “the flavor of the streets.” It especially blew up after the song “Hyphy Juice” was released by The Team in 2006.

Unless you grew up drinking it in the Bay Area, it’s not something you’ll casually encounter. But that’s why we love it; it’s also why the Herrera brothers keep a whole mini-fridge of them stocked up — something I haven’t seen since my community college days at house functions, back when we’d mix it in our drinks and pull all-nighters.

I’m not going to lie to you. I’ve never been a fan of sugary beverages, and I don’t mess with sodas or energy drinks. But you also have to understand that, for me, drinking Hyphy Juice feels more like a political decision to reclaim where we’re from. It’s about embracing the legacy of Bay Area culture we were blessed with, which has largely been pushed to the fringes in 2021 — especially in suburbs like Mountain View, where Google has virtually taken over. Here, Hyphy Juice is a reminder of our layered nostalgia. And I’m on a mission to get more.

I quickly learned that only certain liquor stores and gas stations still carry Hyphy Juice — including the one in my current San Pablo neighborhood at the bottom of Richmond’s Hilltop, where the cashier told me the drink quickly sells out after each shipment. You can also find it in areas like Bayview, Hayward, and other surrounding cities that extend as far as Sacramento, though you definitely won’t find it in a Safeway. It’s the sort of thing you need to seek out with loyalty and commitment, but it’s been around since many of us were kids and teenagers.

“The drink existed before the internet was even relevant, but we still here in stores, and we got our core audience who supports us,” says Carson, local rapper and entrepreneur who helped to popularize Hyphy Juice as the co-owner.

The brand is immortalized among those of us who remember it from as far back as ’05, when it was first launched into the market. Carson tells me how the beverage has thrived and evolved over the past decade with additional flavors like Pineapple Pop, while also expanding into Hyphy Soda. The soda, which is a separate product, has been embraced by today’s “youngsters who mob on scraper bikes,” Carson says, who have helped to reintroduce its uniquely bold brand with flavors like Birthday Cake on social media. It’s truly impressive, considering how many things from that era have fizzled away or been priced out.

For many Bayliens — another term that emerged during the Hyphy Movement to describe someone from the Bay Area — Hyphy Juice symbolizes everything we consumed before Instagram or Twitter existed. Before Ubers, there were more scrapers cruising our streets — old Buicks and Chevys sitting on chrome rims — and before online networks there were more rogues and cuddies around — words to describe your nearby kin and neighborhood folks. Hyphy was a platinum era that Carson knows about more than most, and he keeps it relevant for us. In fact, there aren’t many ambassadors who are better qualified to pass it down to the next generation than he is.

“People see something where they’re from and they’re like, ‘I wanna support that,’” he says.

Besides being involved with Hyphy Juice, Carson records music as one of the Bay Area’s premier rappers. His songs are soundtracks for many, and his lyrics played a major role in creating cultural trends like “High Speed” — a cocktail that originated in San Francisco’s streets by mixing Grapple-flavored Hyphy Juice with Bacardi and gin. It’s something that organically originated from communities that Carson identifies with.

More recently, he has helped push the Bay Area’s popularity with tracks like “Slidin” and “Slow Down.” In August, he released a new EP, “Summer Wave II.” Like those of us who haven’t been pushed out, he cares about where he’s from, and represents that in his work and lifestyle.

“I just know people feel like they’re being pushed out. I know people who had jobs and careers and literally can’t afford to live in Oakland and feel some type of way,” Carson says. “It’s hella frustrating, but we have to adapt and find a way.”

It may seem like an overstatement, but for some, going to the corner and picking up a can of Hyphy Juice, a bottle of Hyphy Soda, or a cutty bang, is a small but essential way of coping and adapting to a lifetime of rapid changes. It’s a way of seeing your neighborhood people still around, still present.

Another of Hyphy Juice’s co-owners, Koab, illuminates the context of how the drink has survived the massive economic and social shifts since its debut, while continuing to serve the same community.

“While gentrification has been happening on a wider level, the same thing has taken place in the beverage industry,” he says. “They’ve pushed out the small guy. It happened with real estate, and since stores are a part of real estate, lots of places couldn’t afford to stay open or always keep our drinks. It’s been a fight.” 

According to Koab, niche products like Hyphy Juice have “lost some visibility” over the years because they were often carried by independent businesses that have closed since the 2000s, often unable to keep their doors open when competing against a Whole Foods or other high-bidding mega company with its sights on prime Bay Area real estate. On top of that, the Bay Area’s residential demographics have largely transformed, and with many transplants arriving from other regions, the demand for something like Hyphy Juice has diminished in neighborhoods that might have traditionally had a connection with its history. 

Still, the drink has endured — like many longtime residents — and maintains relevance while staying true to the original flavor that made it appealing in the first place. It’s a drinkable metaphor for this region’s fluctuations.

Although the drink has roots here, Carson says it’s adapted and mixed from other influences, too. He gives credit to Crunk Juice and Pimp Juice from cities like Atlanta and St. Louis — beverages that were also popularized in the mid ’00s by rappers like Lil Jon and Nelly — for providing a blueprint on how to flip that business into the Bay with our own language.

“We want to be like ourselves,” Carson says. “The drink is from here. And the most important thing is that it’s hella good. It’s one thing to have something that brings you back and is from here but it also actually tastes hella good, and it gives you that nostalgic feeling. It’s what enables us to survive and thrive.”

He’s not just trapped in a static past, either. In thinking about future flavors and remixes, Carson and Koab reveal that they are always cooking up fresh recipes. Carson makes it a point to sit in on taste tests for their latest products when he’s not recording music or touring. He even refers to his Hyphyest peers like Mistah FAB and E-40 to get their opinions on flavoring and branding. That’s what makes the drink special to locals, because we know it’s made with the realness and attention of someone who lives it, rather than a corporate outsider trying to capitalize on something they have no connection to. I know when I pick up a can of Hyphy Juice at the People’s Market on Broadway that my money is going back into the pockets of Bay Area hustlers, rather than imported CEOs.

“These are making a huge comeback, bro,” Yusuf, the cashier at my nearest liquor store, tells me. I grab one of the only remaining cans of Grapple, while a Honduran mom and her kids wait in line next to the neighborhood folks who linger and crack jokes before dispersing home.

It almost feels like being back in the past. When taco trucks would pull up to where we lived in Mountain View on a street with a majority of Latino and mixed immigrants; when our Samoan neighbors rode their bikes around the block, eight heads deep; when our Vietnamese and Filipino homies would invite us over for meals and to spend the night, since we all knew each other’s families. Sadly, none of these exist in my neighborhood anymore. Only Hyphy Juice remains.

The Hyphy Movement might be over, but the vibrant spirit — and literal flavors — of those years are still here to remind us who we are. You just have to know where to get it.

Alan Chazaro is a Bay Area writer and teacher. His books, “This Is Not a Frank Ocean Cover Album” and “Piñata Theory,” are available through Black Lawrence Press. Follow his updates on Twitter and Instagram @alan_chazaro.

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Article source: https://www.sfgate.com/column/article/Bay-Area-Hyphy-Juice-Soda-Clyde-Carson-grapple-16480549.php

The information he’d just seen on his computer screen was gut-wrenching. His parents had been cruelly betrayed — financially and emotionally.

Berkes had finally succeeded in logging in to his father’s online banking records. He’d had financial power of attorney for years but hadn’t exercised it. His parents, both in their 70s, were fiercely private about finances and proud of their meticulous bill-paying systems.

But there were worrisome signs that both were increasingly in cognitive decline, so Andrew had spent months calling, faxing and emailing their online-only bank to gain access to their accounts.

Now, even at a quick glance, he and Elizabeth could see that the checking account log was filled with charges that were absurd for the elderly couple: eyelash extensions, a tanning salon, a fitness club in Alameda.

Andrew and Elizabeth looked at each other. They knew immediately what must have happened.

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Andrew and Elizabeth, both 43 and the parents of three children — Sonali, 9; Sarita, 13; and Daniel, 16 — moved back to Moraga, where he had grown up, in 2007. Both took jobs at De La Salle High School, she as director of faculty and he as chair of the religious studies department and special assistant to the president for mission.

Living just down the street from Andrew’s parents, Leslie and Cheryl Berkes, was a big plus. The older couple were excited to spend time with their grandchildren, teaching them to bake, hosting them when they were off from school. There were regular family dinners at the house where Andrew and his two siblings grew up, which the couple had owned since 1986.

Leslie Berkes, now 75, a retired organizational psychologist for large institutions, is a Vietnam veteran with two doctorates— one in clinical psychology and another in organizational psychology. Cheryl Berkes, also 75, had a career as a high school English teacher and real estate agent. Both were community stalwarts, active in their church, the Boy Scouts and other local civic organizations, their children say.

Perhaps because both were so accomplished and intelligent, they could compensate when each started experiencing memory loss relatively young, in their late 60s.

The first inklings came in 2016, when Leslie was hospitalized several times for falls and episodes of confusion. At 115 pounds on a 5-foot, 9-inch frame, he was skin and bones.

The couple’s grown children finally persuaded them to accept some help. They’d find a caregiver for weekdays when Andrew and Elizabeth were at work. That person could make sure Leslie took his 12 medications, drive the couple to doctor appointments and morning Mass, and prepare lunch.

After several weeks of looking, they settled on Heidi Miller, now 47. “She was lovely, friendly, helpful,” Elizabeth said. The former nurse’s assistant had great references and her background check was clean.

In late 2016, they arranged for her to work as a part-time home health aide for $25 an hour.

“After we hired her, it seemed like a miraculous turnaround,” Elizabeth said. “Dad gained weight. He looked a million times better. He stopped going to the hospital.

“It was a huge relief for us.”

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Two years later, the Berkes family all crammed into the home of Andrew’s sister in Southern California over Thanksgiving. The adult children observed that their parents’ cognitive facilities had deteriorated more than they’d realized. Especially troubling: Leslie was sleepwalking.

They had a family meeting and discussed getting more care. But the couple were adamant that they were fine. They flatly rejected the idea of moving to an assisted living facility.

Andrew and his sisters decided he should at least look at the couple’s bank accounts to get a sense of what kind of care they could afford down the road. Between work pressures, child-raising, bank stonewalling and technical issues, that took until April 2019.

The bank charges Andrew saw that day in his kitchen were just the tip of the iceberg.

It turned out that his parents’ retirement, checking and savings accounts had been ransacked. Credit cards had been issued, ringing up big-ticket purchases that sounded like a game-show shopping spree run amok.

The purchases, according to a sworn FBI affidavit, included four cars, clothing, jewelry, restaurant meals, a Princess Cruise, a trip to Disneyland, breast augmentation, liposuction, gym memberships, meal-service subscriptions, carpeting, high-end mattresses.

There was $18,000 for athletic wear from Lululemon and Athleta. An additional $14,000 went to services for five pets, including vet procedures and a “14-day dream dog package.” There were tens of thousands of dollars in ATM withdrawals and unauthorized checks.

All told, there were at least 1,500 unauthorized transactions, totaling at least $363,000.

And, according to the FBI affidavit, the forensic evidence made clear that Miller was the culprit.

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Andrew and Elizabeth immediately contacted the Moraga Police Department.

They said their parents were being robbed and that the thief was at their parents’ house, caring for them.

“My mind was racing,” Andrew said. “I thought, ‘If she’s gotten into these accounts, what else is she doing?’ Not only on the financial end but on the physical end. Could she be manipulating my father’s medications?”

They hoped the police would rush to their parents’ house with sirens blazing and arrest Miller right then and there.

But the police explained that they needed time to investigate, assigning two detectives to the case.

The police walked the couple through what to do.

Elizabeth texted Miller that she could take a week off starting immediately. It was spring break, so they’d care for their parents themselves.

They changed all the locks on their parents’ house.

Then they texted Miller a story concocted by the police, saying their mom’s purse, keys and cell phones had been stolen, so the locks were changed and the parents could not be reached by phone.

They froze all the credit cards and bank accounts. The police could see that someone was trying to access them all that week.

When the week was up, the police helped them compose a final text to Miller. It said they were so sorry to do this over text, but they had realized their parents needed 24/7 help and were moving them into assisted living ASAP. They’d reach out about setting up a time for her to come and say goodbye.

There was no reply.

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“Elder financial exploitation is like a pandemic itself,” said Paul Greenwood, who was a San Diego deputy district attorney for 25 years and headed his department’s elder abuse prosecution unit. He now consults on the issue. “These thefts occur at an alarming rate.”

Many aren’t even reported. Victims may be too embarrassed or in too much cognitive decline.

California seniors are estimated to have lost $15.9 billion to elder financial exploitation in 2020, affecting about 685,000 people, or 8% of the senior population, according to Comparitech, a website focusing on consumer security and privacy.

Greenwood helped push for California’s Elder Abuse Reporting Act of 2005, which mandates that banks and credit unions report suspected financial abuse of elderly people.

While some financial crimes against seniors are perpetrated by strangers, such as phone con artists or shady investment firms, all too often it can be family members or caregivers — people in a position of trust.

“A caregiver has unprecedented access,” said Dr. Anna Chodos, an associate professor of medicine at UCSF’s division of geriatrics. “It’s a situation that’s ripe for abuse.”

She’s had patients with caregivers whom they considered like family who, as in the Berkes case, opened credit card accounts in their name.

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The Berkes investigation took more than a year and ultimately involved four law enforcement agencies: the Moraga police, the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI.

Andrew spent hours every night after work and the entire summer of 2019 reviewing credit card and bank statements to highlight fraudulent charges. He went to phone stores to cancel service to iPhones, iPads and Apple Watches that Miller allegedly bought for her family members.

He discovered that Miller had told his parents she’d handle their taxes and then failed to pay them. With penalties and late fees, they owed about $40,000 to the IRS. He pleaded with Contra Costa County not to put a lien on their house for unpaid property taxes. He contacted all the individual banks and credit card companies, fighting with them to get some reimbursement.

Many did provide at least partial reimbursement, although ultimately about half of the parents’ savings and retirement accounts still were wiped out.

It rankles Andrew and Elizabeth that Chase Bank has refused to reimburse almost $50,000 in charges on one credit card in Leslie Berkes’ name, including unauthorized purchases from Kate Spade, TJ Maxx, Athleta, Costco, an auto imports dealer, a jeweler.

They are suing Chase, saying the bank failed to recognize red flags.

Chase declined to comment on ongoing litigation.

“The things she bought (with that card) should have set off alarms at Chase,” said the Berkes family’s pro bono attorney, Heather Gibson. “There were breast implants, all kinds of eating out, athletic gear, nail salons. Those purchases would have set off an alarm and locked all of my credit cards.”

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Miller was arrested at her Alameda residence in fall 2020, charged with credit card fraud and released on a $100,000 bond.

A hearing for her to enter a plea and be sentenced is set for Thursday. The U.S. Department of Justice Victim Notification System wrote to the family last month that Miller is expected to plead guilty.

Anne Beles, an Oakland attorney representing Miller, said neither she nor Miller could comment before that hearing.

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The Berkes couple did move into assisted living, forced to rush through a process that the family had hoped would be slow and deliberate.

The police convinced the family that their parents needed to be somewhere safe. All were concerned about what might happen if Miller came to the home. Leslie still needed help managing medications and had the sleepwalking issue.

Fortunately, they had already started looking for places and were able to move them almost immediately into a senior residence in Moraga.

Leslie’s dementia has escalated and he now requires help with activities of daily living such as dressing, bathing and eating. He lives in a memory unit separate from Cheryl, whose short-term memory became more compromised by her Alzheimer’s disease.

Andrew and Elizabeth say those issues were exacerbated by the shock of most of their money being embezzled, as well as the pandemic quarantine. Like many other senior residences, their new home had to ban outside visitors for a year starting in March 2020.

“Their lives were completely and irrevocably changed by her actions,” Andrew Berkes wrote in a victim impact statement. “They will never get the life back that they had.”

Cheryl Berkes also wrote a victim impact statement with help from her daughters. Leslie Berkes was too incapacitated to write one.

“We’ve worked all our lives,” Cheryl Berkes wrote. “We’ve been upstanding members of society who paid our bills on time, not living beyond our means. We have no more chances of working and making money. … (Miller) took away our hope, our confidence, we feel stupid and helpless.

“We included her into the family and she manipulated our trust to get closer to our finances.”

Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid

Article source: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/This-elderly-Bay-Area-couple-was-being-robbed-16520443.php

The advertisements for the event flooded Craigslist this week, showcasing all levels of units, with many offering 2.5 months of free rent in the title of the listing. That’s likely a lot more valuable than a couple of free beers on a rooftop, but keep in mind that luxury buildings are more likely to offer these types of deals to lure in renters only to have the rent increase after a year lease. 

Dubbed “Vance,” the building opened up in September at 830 Eddy St., featuring studios to three-bedrooms with luxury price tags to match. The Cathedral Hill apartments (which is a made-up neighborhood name employed to avoid calling it the Western Addition) have that all-white and steel aesthetic characteristic of these new high-end buildings, with the occasional concrete beam to break up the monotony. There’s also a fitness center and a working space, and the parking garage boasts electric vehicle charging stations — the new must-have among Bay Area home seekers.

Studios start at $2,749, according to the website, and three-bedrooms go for as much as $10,466 per month. Zumper reported the median rent of a three-bedroom apartment in the Western Addition is $4,325.

Article source: https://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/fleet-week-sf-party-to-rent-luxury-apartments-16519362.php

New leasing activity, excluding renewals, totaled 1.77 million square feet, the highest level since the third quarter of 2019.

“The third quarter was substantially better” than expected and offers “a glimmer of hope,” said Robert Sammons, senior director of Bay Area research. The brokerage had expected the vacancy rate to climb as high as 23% this year but plans to revise that number, likely to a lower amount, he said.

Office rents rose slightly to $73.46 per square foot annually from the prior quarter’s $73.24, but below the 2019 peak of $83.82 per square foot.

High-quality office space is still attractive to tenants, especially as companies try to lure workers back, Sammons said. Robust ventilation systems and outdoor space like rooftop decks are highly sought after.

“They need to tempt their employees back to the office. They need high-quality space,” he said.

The biggest lease of the quarter was financial tech company Chime’s 191,833-square-foot deal at 101 California St., which was also the largest new deal during the pandemic.

Pinterest, which canceled a huge lease at 88 Bluxome St., renewed its headquarters lease at 651 Brannan St. for 121,000 square feet.

Other leases were signed by startups Retool and Notion; Citi Ventures, the investment arm of the major bank; and Yelp, which is moving its headquarters from 140 New Montgomery to 350 Mission St. in a sublease with Salesforce.

Bloomberg reported in July that Google and Facebook are said to be touring office space in San Francisco, but no deals have been signed.

“San Francisco’s always been resilient. You go back over 100 years, whether it’s fires or earthquakes or the dot-com bust, we’ve always come roaring back, and usually we’ve led the economy back from the bottom, and I think that’s going to happen with us today,” said Chris Roeder, a JLL broker, at law firm Allen Matkins’ View From the Top real estate event last month.

“In the end, I think we’re going to come back stronger than ever, but it’s going to take a year or two to sort itself out,” he said. One major reason for optimism is the continued flood of venture capital investment.

Venture capitalists invested a record $156.2 billion globally in the second quarter, and Silicon Valley and San Francisco accounted for $23.7 billion of the funding, by far the largest for one region and nearly twice as much as the previous years, according to CB Insights.

“These VC-funded companies are hiring. We have a really low unemployment rate,” Roeder said. “We feel very bullish just based on the companies and how well that they’re doing.”

David Sternberg, executive vice president of Brookfield Properties, said at the Allen Matkins event that tenant interest has picked up at 415 Natoma St., the only new tower in San Francisco nearing completion without tenants.

“Tours have picked up over the last 60 days dramatically,” he said. “We’re really getting a good response.”

The project is part of the 5M development, which is a partnership between Brookfield and Hearst, owner of The Chronicle, whose office is next to the new tower.

The key to the city’s revival will be office workers returning downtown, which has been complicated by the delta variant, Sternberg said.

“I think we’re more productive being around one another and listening and sharing ideas,” he said.

Roland Li is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: roland.li@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rolandlisf

Article source: https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/A-fifth-of-S-F-office-space-remains-vacant-but-16520151.php

“It’s a logical progression,” Lento, a Red Oak Realty real estate agent specializing in the East Bay, said. “More and more people are getting EVs and that starts a fury of ‘what else can we do? I’m not paying for gas, how do I not pay for electric?’”

As these types of sustainable home features increase in popularity among homeowners, they’re starting to become something that buyers are putting top of their list of amenities they desire. “I have buyers that are targeting homes with solar power specifically and/or solar generators, or what’s more common is the Tesla power battery,” Lento said. “It’s not only from an ecological perspective, which most people are very mindful of, but also with blackouts being more popular every year and air quality being more of a problem every year, people are looking for those features so they can breathe when the power goes out.”

The sellers of that Oakland home told Lento that during the 2020 blackouts they were able to live three full days without power and never even turned off their air conditioning. They also didn’t feel bad about their carbon footprint.

Lento said it’s also being taken into consideration on the seller’s side. He recently had clients interested in selling their home, and the property had many of these features and he advised them to put the house on the market in September. “It’s going to be smoky and really hazy and really hot,” he said he told them. “People are going to walk into your air conditioned house with no electrical to pay for and have clean air. I think in the next three to five years, if not sooner, as these events become more intense, it’s only going to become more and more top of mind as fire season gets longer. It’s great for the environment, but it’s also a livability thing.”

East Bay Redfin agent Katy Polvorosa said she has had to learn more about these eco-features as they become more common, as well as educate clients more about them and their considerations in the home buying process. “I’m more in tune to them, too [as an agent]. It’s something you have to consider if you already have an electric car and you’re purchasing a house. You want it set up pretty much right away because you need to be able to drive your car,” she said. “It’s definitely part of the conversation, and it will probably grow as more and more people get electric cars.”

While Polvorosa said she has had a few clients that wouldn’t buy a home without an EV charger installed, she said these and other eco-friendly amenities are mostly bonuses for buyers and not necessarily a non-negotiable. If clients are particularly interested in these features, she often reminds them about their ability to be added later on. She also has had to add in more education for clients about the difference between solar panels that are fully owned and solar that is still part of a lease, which would then have to be transferred to the buyer. “In the Bay Area with power outages and fires, it’s definitely something people are thinking about,” she said. “They are wants but aren’t necessarily needs. They are pluses.”

Polvorosa said she’s even personally thought about adding a Tesla battery in her own house, assuming it would add some value to her home. 

While many buyers get excited about these “eco-features,” Lento said if a home ticks every other box except that one, it’s something clients are more likely to give up on if a house has everything else they’re looking for. “Eco-features tend to be the kind of thing where buyers are very intent on it, but because good inventory is hard to come by, it’s the kind of thing that buyers are willing to concede on,” he said.

Lento said it’s also not yet gotten to the point where realtors are recommending sellers add these features into a home to increase the ability to sell a house. The most common recommendation is still a new coat of paint or to refinish the floors first. If he was to recommend a buyer do something to appeal to someone who wanted a more eco-friendly property, he’d simply say to pop on a Nest thermostat.

“As the world is shifting to electric vehicles, we’re definitely seeing a trend develop in San Francisco with our buyers. About a third of our buyers are going to either have an electric car already or want the ability to install a charger,” San Francisco agent Aaron Bellings said. “… They are definitely a selling point for buyers, and good value adds, but sellers aren’t proactively installing them just yet for a sale from what we’ve seen.”

This desire for eco-friendly amenities is definitely not a passing fad, said Jim Walberg of Compass, as he said he’s seen them as more of a focus in the past three years, particularly among millennial home buyers. “The return on investment for adding energy efficiencies to a home are proven by higher resale prices and also the speed of the sale of the home,” he said. “New home builders have jumped on the bandwagon by creating energy efficient upgrades.”

Walberg also said he’s hoping to see a continued emphasis on water saving devices like graywater systems and smarter irrigation systems. Lento said drip irrigation systems — which use less water than traditional irrigation systems — are also becoming more common in Bay Area homes and are often advertised when selling a home.

The demand for amenities like solar and Tesla batteries is clearly increasing, Lento said, as he is seeing anecdotal evidence that the wait times for these items have skyrocketed. While some of that delay can surely be attributed to COVID-19-related supply chain issues, it also shows that more people around the Bay Area are adding on these amenities. 

Pricing on these features can vary — a Tesla Powerwall plus installation is likely to cost at least $10,000 in the Bay Area — so how much these features add to the actual value of the home is still hard to estimate, Lento said. But that doesn’t stop it from being enticing when you see it. “Once [buyers] see it, they say, ‘We really want to seek out homes like that.’”

Article source: https://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Tesla-powerwall-ecofriendly-homes-more-popular-16514935.php