Those workers need more trucks, which has been a boon to companies like Ford and General Motors, which saw sales of pick-ups jump 24 percent and 23 percent respectively.

(Read More: Here’s Why Pick-up Truck Sales are Surging)

Retailers are also seeing the effects of housing growth. Homeowners spend an average $7,400 furnishing a newly built home, according to the National Association of Home Builders.

“Spending at furniture and appliance stores is finally coming back, which has meant more hires there since the start of the year,” added Swonk.

Home prices were up just over 10 percent nationally in February, according to CoreLogic, which continues to bring thousands of homeowners out from underwater on their mortgages. That has allowed more borrowers to refinance to lower monthly payments, which in turn gives them more spending money. It also gives them more confidence that they will be able to afford more in the coming year.

(Read More: Back in Business: Jobs Picture Brightens in April)

“Consumers’ views regarding the housing market have been increasingly more positive,” noted Fannie Mae’s chief economist Doug Duncan. “Our April National Housing Survey, to be released next Tuesday, is expected to show that the housing market is gradually approaching its sweet spot, as the share of consumers who believe that it is a good time to buy remains high while the share of those who think it is a good time to sell continues its upward trend witnessed over the past year.”

Article source: http://www.cnbc.com/id/100705522

Taking those flaws into consideration, Realtor Bernard Katzmann listed it for $1.1 million at the inauspicious sales time of Thanksgiving. Then he watched in amazement as 22 offers came in – many for all cash – and it ended up selling for $1.54 million.

“Lots of tech companies were represented” among the bidders, he said. “I heard that many buyers want to get in now before Facebook goes public (and spawns scores of new millionaires), which is pushing demand.”

In a still-moribund real estate market, Noe Valley stands out as a neighborhood buoyed by positive fiscal forces.

All the money flowing into tech firms, and all the tech jobs being created in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, have been a boon for Noe Valley because of its fortuitous location for Peninsula, South Bay and downtown commutes, along with its walkable, small-town feel, family-friendly vibe (it’s called “stroller valley”), and charming, albeit pricey, Victorians.

“It’s like a little village within the city,” said Sally Smith, co-publisher and editor of the Noe Valley Voice, the monthly neighborhood newspaper. “It has that community feeling that everybody wants.”

“Noe Valley is a favorite neighborhood for techies because it’s so close to 101 and 280,” said Tim Gullicksen, an agent with Zephyr Real Estate. “It’s a pain to live on the north side of San Francisco because they have to get all the way through town to get to the freeways.”

Tech firms’ buses a plus

The private bus routes sponsored by tech firms are a draw, said Zephyr agent Danielle Lazier. “We see a lot of first-time buyers from tech companies who still want to have a city lifestyle; they don’t want to live in the suburbs, but they work down south. What I notice is when people from Google, Apple, Yahoo and Genentech come in for a first meeting, we literally draw a line in the city because of the commute. Noe Valley is at the top of the list, then Bernal, Mission, Dolores, Cole Valley.”

The numbers tell the story. The median sales price in San Francisco has tumbled to $653,000, down 22 percent from its 2007 peak of $840,000, according to real estate information service Dataquick. That’s a far less dramatic slide than most other California cities. But in ZIP code 94114, which includes Noe Valley and the Castro, the median sales price for single-family homes now stands at $1.332 million, only 5 percent below its 2007 peak of $1.406 million. The median condo price is $820,000, down 8.5 percent from its 2007 peak of $896,000.

“It’s not completely bulletproof, but it’s more stable than other areas,” Lazier said. “Not everything sells over asking price the way it used to.”

Noe isn’t the only San Francisco neighborhood whose cachet has insulated it from the real estate downturn. ZIP codes 94117 (Haight-Ashbury/Cole Valley) and 94123 (Marina/Cow Hollow), for instance, have seen even less pricing impact.

Tight inventory is one factor that keeps Noe Valley prices up. Last year, 163 existing single-family homes, 143 existing condos and 10 new residences changed hands in the ZIP code, Dataquick reported.

Location, location, location

“Noe Valley has several things going for it,” said Jed Kolko, chief economist at real estate site Trulia.com. “Being closer to the Silicon Valley commute than other desirable parts of the city is a big plus. It’s also convenient to downtown. And it’s a neighborhood where there’s not a lot of new construction to relieve price pressure as more people go after pretty much the same number of homes.”

Brendan Collins, owner of Collins Construction, buys “fixer” houses, remodels and expands them, and then sells them. Noe Valley, where the older Victorians and Edwardians are modest in size because they were built for working-class families, is particularly fertile ground because it is such a desirable neighborhood for families, he said.

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/19/BUIS1N7MM8.DTL&type=business

How do I loathe home price day?

Let me count the ways.

The rash generalizations, the seasonal vs. non-seasonal adjustment confusion, the month-to-month vs. year-over-year, the contention among all the varied home price reports from the various and varied entities that track them.

I could go on, but if you are a regular Realty Check reader, you’ve heard all this before.

This month is particularly frustrating, because the big headline from SP/Case Shiller was that home prices rose for the first time in eight months. Okay, yes, from March to April, with no seasonal adjustments, home prices rose barely, less than one percent, in the nation’s top 20 housing markets. When you seasonally adjust those numbers, the prices fall. Why?

Because in different seasons, different types of buyers buy different types of homes.

The Spring market is historically replete with families; these are move-up buyers, purchasing larger, more expensive homes. That skews the overall prices higher. They buy in the Spring because they want to move over the summer, when school is out. You tend to see more single and first-time buyers in the fall.

This is why I judge prices year over year, because you are comparing apples to apples. Prices are down in 19 out of the top 20 markets year-over-year, with six markets hitting new lows on the SP/Case Shiller Home Price Index.

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