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East Bay median home price growth crushes San Francisco

Tue, 24 Sep 2013 01:58:31 +0000

This three-bedroom home at 330 Gravatt Dr. in Berkeley is on the market for $1.15 million.

Blanca Torres
Reporter- San Francisco Business Times

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Homes in East Bay cities are seeing dramatic price gains far greater than homes in San Francisco, according to ZipRealty, an online real estate brokerage.

Oakland’s median home price ballooned 76 percent to $432,000 in August compared with $245,500 in August of 2012. In Hayward, home prices jumped 55 percent to $387,000 in August 2013 compared with $250,000 last year.

Meanwhile, San Francisco’s median went up by 20 percent to $880,000, up from $735,000.

“Oakland and other communities in the East Bay were impacted more severely by the foreclosure crisis, which took a toll on East Bay real estate values while also setting these areas up for the dramatic recovery in prices we are now witnessing,” said Lanny Baker, president and CEO of Emeryville-based ZipRealty.

Prices are up by 36 percent across the nine-country Bay Area with a median of $585,000, so cities like Oakland and Hayward represent a deal in the region.

Nonetheless, prices can vary significantly from ZIP code to ZIP code in the same city. For example, Berkeley, where the median home price jumped by 21 percent during the past year to $737,500, has three ZIP codes where the median is above San Francisco’s median: $955,000 in 94707, $901,000 in 94708 and $1.22 million in 94705, which includes neighborhoods such as Claremont, the Claremont Hills, Elmwood and Panoramic Hill.

In Oakland, the 94610 ZIP code has the highest median home price of $743,000 and encompasses neighborhoods like Grand Lake, Adams Point, Lakeshore, Crocker Highlands and Trestle Glen.

In San Francisco, some of the fastest appreciating neighborhoods include North Beach and Telegraph Hill in the 94133 ZIP code where prices grew by 82 percent during the past year as well as the Marina, Cow Hollow and Pacific Heights in the 94123 ZIP code where prices rose by 68 percent in the past year.

A number of factors influence how much an area’s median home price goes up such as number of homes available. Cities such as Oakland, Berkeley, Hayward and San Francisco had less home inventory in 2013 than the year before.

Blanca Torres covers East Bay real estate for the San Francisco Business Times.

Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/real-estate/2013/09/east-bay-home-prices-san-francisco.html

Pacific Union signs up with Hearsay Social

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 06:45:52 +0000

Social media image via Shutterstock.

Facebook- and Twitter-using agents at Pacific Union International, a luxury San Francisco Bay Area residential real estate firm, will have access to a content library and real-time analytics powered by social media company Hearsay Social, the companies announced today.

Hearsay Social, a San Francisco-based startup with approximately 80 employees, offers companies tools that help them manage their social media presence by organizing and monitoring content, streamlining branding and providing real-time information.

Pacific Union International, which has 22 offices and about 450 agents in the Bay Area, will focus on Facebook and Twitter. Hearsay Social also offers dashboard tools and user-specific, real-time analytics for LinkedIn, Foursquare and Google Plus.

Screen shot of Hearsay Social client-facing dashboard.

Pacific Union International is the first residential real estate brokerage to work with Hearsay Social, said Kate Keene, product marketing manager at Hearsay Social.

“We wanted to help our agents use digital media more effectively,” said C.C. Holland, vice president of digital media and content for Pacific Union International, of the company’s decision to engage Hearsay Social’s services. “It will enable our agents to be their own best sources of promotion and marketing,” she said.

Doing social media well is a challenge. Holland says Pacific Union International agents have told her social media takes too much time and that they don’t know what or when to post messages.

That’s where Hearsay Social comes in, Holland said. It offers Pacific Union International the ability to present an organized bunch of Facebook- and Twitter-ready content to its employees, content that’s ready for agents to take, modify slightly (or not) and share with their followers.

“We wanted to seamlessly provide our agents with great, relevant content and help them get the most out of social media,” Holland said.

Pacific Union International recently signed up with 14 other brokerages to participate in Zillow’s pilot “zPro for Brokers” program, which provides greater branding and lead generation options to participating brokerages in exchange for direct listing feeds.

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Article source: http://www.inman.com/news/2012/08/9/pacific-union-signs-with-hearsay-social

Prudential California Realty continues growth

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 02:04:30 +0000

Converging road image via Shutterstock.

San Ramon, Calif.-based brokerage Prudential California Realty Pearson Properties has acquired Brentwood, Calif.-based Coldwell Banker Amaral Associates.

The deal brings 25 agents and three offices to Prudential California Realty and represents the 12th acquisition the brokerage has made in the past two years. The brokerage — which has doubled in size since affiliating with Prudential Real Estate in September, 2010 — has more than 500 agents in 18 offices in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento.

“We’ve been strategically expanding for the past two years, and the addition of these productive offices strengthens our existing and thriving presence in East [Contra Costa] County,” said Gretchen Pearson, president of Prudential California Realty Pearson Properties, in a statement.

Amaral Associates will now do business as Prudential California Realty under the continued leadership of broker-owner Aaron Meadows, who became president of the 25-year-old brokerage in 2001.

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Article source: http://www.inman.com/news/2012/06/22/prudential-california-realty-continues-growth

Alain Pinel listings will top Trulia search results

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 21:49:14 +0000

Brand image via Shutterstock.com.

Trulia Inc. is providing “premium placement” of all listings represented by San Francisco-based Alain Pinel Realtors under the terms of a “strategic partnership,” the companies announced today.

With 1,400 agents working out of 32 offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, Alain Pinel was ranked by Real Trends as the sixth-largest U.S. real estate brokerage by dollar volume of transactions handled in 2010.

Premium listings show up on top of search results on Trulia.com with a brokerage’s branding. Trulia claims a branded homebuyer request form that appears next to the premium listings generates three times more leads than are generated by the company’s nonbranded form.

If agents have not “claimed” them, listings on Trulia are often accompanied by “Trulia Pro” lead forms that generate leads for agents who work for competing brokerages. The lead forms appear at the bottom of a listing, and invite site users who want more information about a property to contact up to four agents. Brokers and agents can also purchase dynamic Trulia Local ads, which appear higher up on listing detail pages.

“There are no competing agents on the lead form for any clients, paying or not, as long as the listings have been claimed by the broker or agent, which can be done for free,” said Ginger Wilcox, Trulia’s head of industry marketing. “For Premium Listings customers, additional advertising is pushed down on the page.”

A few brokerages that object to such ads and lead forms have said they will stop providing listings to third-party sites like Trulia, Zillow and Realtor.com. Other brokers and franchisors are willing to pay so that their listings will stand out on third-party sites.

In February, Pittsburgh-based Howard Hanna Real Estate Services announced it would pay Realtor.com and Zillow to promote its listings on the sites unaccompanied by ads or lead forms for competing brokerages.

Howard Hanna, ranked by Real Trends as the seventh-largest brokerage by dollar volume in 2010, said it would pay a seven-figure sum — between $1 million and $10 million — for special treatment of its listings on both sites.

Last June, the nation’s largest brokerage company, Realogy Corp. subsidiary NRT LLC, announced it had signed agreements to add advertising enhancements to 100,000 property listings on Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com and Yahoo Real Estate.

Under the terms of an agreement announced in April 2011, Trulia also offers brokers affiliated with Realogy subsidiary Century 21 Real Estate LLC discounts on premium listings. As part of a listing syndication deal announced in March 2011, Re/Max agents and brokers receive “partner benefits” on Trulia Pro and Trulia Local ads.

Wilcox said the company has agreements with “hundreds of brokers and franchisors across the country.”

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Article source: http://www.inman.com/news/2012/03/14/alain-pinel-listings-will-top-trulia-search-results

Just Listed! McGuire Releases Revamped Facebook(R) Page

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 08:51:15 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Feb 29, 2012 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) –
Today, McGuire Real Estate launches its redesigned Facebook Page
showcasing new timeline features, a large cover photo, historic
highlights and more. McGuire combines its new Page with an active
social media strategy to better connect with its clients, colleagues,
and communities across the Bay Area.

McGuire is honored to have been selected as one of the first small
businesses to roll out the new design and integrated features for
Facebook Pages. As a multi-generational, family-owned brokerage
specializing in high-end properties across San Francisco, Marin, the
Peninsula, and East Bay, McGuire believes that the new design allows
organizations to express their identity on Facebook in a more
accurate and entertaining fashion.

New layout upgrades include: a large cover photo, easy navigation and
access to company information and services, historic milestones
documenting 90+ years of business, in-depth page Insights, and pinned
post features that better highlight its Neighborhoods, Restaurants,
and Listings of the Week.

“We’re excited to enhance people’s experience and knowledge of the
McGuire brand as they connect with our new Facebook Page,” said Alex
Buehlmann, VP of Marketing. “For us, it’s really about creating and
curating valuable content to share with our readers — both on and
offline.”

You can visit the new McGuire Real Estate Facebook Page at

www.facebook.com/McGuireRealEstate .

ABOUT MCGUIRE REAL ESTATE

McGuire Real Estate has been an integral part of the San Francisco
Bay Area real estate scene for more than 90 years. A mid-sized,
regional boutique, McGuire specializes in luxury real estate but
upholds the highest standards of service to properties in every price
range, area, and to every client. Its customer first philosophy and
local focus continues to be the proven winning formula as a Bay Area
real estate leader. McGuire’s affiliation with Luxury Portfolio — an
exclusive network of luxury properties worldwide, and its parent
organization Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, the largest
global real estate network in the industry — successfully connects
its clients and agents to a worldwide marketplace. McGuire operates
three offices in San Francisco, one in Burlingame serving the
Peninsula, two in the East Bay, and one in Marin County.

To learn more about McGuire Real Estate, contact us at
clientcare@mcguire.com, 1-800-4-RESULT, or visit
www.mcguire.com .
Like our Facebook Page or follow us @mcguire_re to join the
conversation.

Facebook(R) is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.

Image Available:

http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=1904066

SOURCE: McGuire Real Estate

Article source: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/just-listed-mcguire-releases-revamped-facebookr-page-2012-02-29

Silicon Valley’s commercial real estate market expected to remain hot

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:10:56 +0000

With the tech boom building momentum, Silicon Valley companies are on the hunt for space equal to nine shopping malls.

That was the highlight conclusion of a conference Tuesday organized by realty brokerage Cornish Carey Commercial Newmark Knight Frank. The gathering heard brokers present a robust outlook for the Bay Area economy and the region’s commercial real estate sector.

“We had a lot of tenant demand in 2011, and there is still more tenant demand coming,” said Phil Mahoney, an executive vice president with Cornish Carey.

At present, tenants are seeking a combined 9.6 million square feet of office and research space in Silicon Valley, estimated Cornish brokers, who update tenant demand estimates every three months.

Demand in early 2012 follows a spike at the end of 2011 that saw tenant demand reach 11.1 million square feet of office and research space, the highest level in the past five years.

When San Francisco and San Mateo County are added to Silicon Valley, estimated tenant demand is 15.6 million square feet of office and research space.

“This is a strong recovery,” Mahoney said. “The hiring rebound is continuing.”

About 9,400 openings for tech jobs are currently listed in the Bay Area, according to Cornish Carey.

The South Bay during 2011 posted a 3 percent gain in total payroll jobs, more than twice the hiring pace for the U.S. overall, which reported a 1.3 percent gain.

“The

Bay Area will continue to be an outlier for job growth,” said Erik Doyle, an executive managing director with Cornish Carey.

To be sure, tenant demand won’t translate at a 100 percent rate into new leases. Tenants often decide to remain where they are and renew their leases. Still, Mahoney estimates that in a decent economy — which appears to be the case in Silicon Valley and the San Francisco metro region — about two-thirds of the demand winds up as a new office space lease.

That could mean 6.4 million square feet of leases in coming months in Silicon Valley alone. And it might result in 10 million square feet of leasing activity in the South Bay, Peninsula and San Francisco markets before long.

The amount of prime office space available in Silicon Valley has been chopped nearly in half, due to the strong demand. At the end of 2010, the region had a 20.6 percent vacancy rate. One year later, Class A office vacancies had dwindled to 11.9 percent, Cornish Carey reported.

Brokers suggested that recent activity in Palo Alto, Cupertino, Menlo Park, Sunnyvale and Mountain View is poised to spread to nearby regions.

The hottest spots in the short term are South San Francisco, San Mateo County and North San Jose.

Further out, the next waves of expansion are expected to reach Milpitas, downtown San Jose, central San Francisco and Fremont.

The East Bay will also benefit from the upswing if companies can’t find space in their primary target areas of Silicon Valley and San Francisco, said Thomas Fehr, a senior vice president with Cornish Carey.

“There is not enough existing space to fill all that demand,” Fehr said. “Historically, when there has been an overflow, it has come to the East Bay. We expect that overflow again.”

Contact George Avalos at 925-977-8477. Follow him at twitter.com/george_avalos.

—

Article source: http://www.mercurynews.com/real-estate/ci_19812931

Redfin Backs Off Some Agent Home-Sales Data

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 20:36:06 +0000

Just days after it introduced a tool that lets users search for real-estate agents by name and view their home-selling success statistics, the Web site Redfin backed out of some markets, after getting complaints from local multiple listing services about the use of some data.

Agents also identified some serious flaws in the tool’s information, which Redfin says it has corrected.

Since the “Scouting Report” tool went live last Thursday, two multiple listing services — one in Washington, D.C., and another in the East Bay area of San Francisco — have asked for a review of Redfin’s use of their data, said Glenn Kelman, Redfin’s chief executive. He says the company believes it is using the agent data in compliance with its licensing agreements with the multiple listing services, where agents list properties for sale. But Redfin has suspended offering information from those listing services while it sorts out the situation, Mr. Kelman said Monday.

“We knew this would raise a few eyebrows,” he said.

Also, according to a post on Redfin’s corporate blog, Redfin has discontinued the scouting tool in Sacramento, after determining that its offering did not comply with data-sharing rules there. It discontinued the tool in Atlanta, after determining that the effort there wasn’t ready. And it now requires users to register with the site in order to get access to information in certain markets, including Portland, Ore.

The site also had to correct some serious inaccuracies in its data, which some agents pointed out in angry posts to the site’s blog. In some instances, Mr. Kelman said, the tool showed an incorrect figure for the average length of time — known as “days on market” — that it took agents to sell some properties. (On the blog, Mr. Kelman conceded the mistake was “egregious” and apologized.)

In Phoenix and two other markets, the brokerage affiliations of about 10 percent of the agents were inaccurate. And in at least two markets — Denver and San Diego — the site initially said it was showing three years of data, but in fact just two years of data was available.

Agent Aquarium, a real estate Web site based in Austin, Tex., where Redfin is now offering its own scouting report, said it lets home buyers and sellers find active real estate agents in specific neighborhoods, but in a way that it says offers greater privacy for agents.

Agent Aquarium lets sellers and buyers search for agents by neighborhood or ZIP code and provides details of their sales records. But the agents remain anonymous — they are assigned an identification code — until the site makes an electronic introduction of a consumer and an agent. (The site will also request information from a specific agent, if a consumer requests it; the agent can decide if he or she wants to have the data released. If the information is provided, the consumer pays a $10 fee.)

“It’s the agent’s job and it’s their data, so we just feel it’s right to ask permission first to display their data,” Joe Molinelli, the site’s chief executive, said in an e-mail.

Agent Aquarium earns commissions from sales if the consumer chooses one of its own agents, and a referral fee — typically 25 percent of the agent’s commission — if the consumer chooses an agent who works for another firm, according to its Web site. The site currently is available in Austin and has plans to expand into other Texas markets.

“We don’t have animosity towards Realtors as an industry group,” said Tom Cunningham, Agent Aquarium’s chief operating officer, in a phone interview. “We’re simply trying to find a better way for consumers to vet their Realtors.”

In the case of Redfin, users must search by an agent’s name — they can’t yet search for agents by neighborhood. Mr. Kelman said such a feature is in the works.

Do you think it is fair for real estate agents’ sales histories to be publicly available?

Article source: http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/redfin-backs-off-some-agent-home-sales-data/

Bay Area office deals may lift up Tri-Valley

Fri, 20 May 2011 11:46:12 +0000

Optimistic: “There’s a sense that things are getting better,” says John Carpenter.

An uptick in deals and tenant activity has yet to push the Tri-Valley office market out of the stagnant state it’s been in the last several quarters.

Still, with office leasing increasing at a rapid pace in San Francisco and the Peninsula, secondary markets like the East Bay could start picking up speed.

“There’s a sense that things are getting better,” said John Carpenter, principal of tenant representation brokerage Carpenter/Robbins Commercial Real Estate Inc. in San Ramon. “That sense is really derived from the markets in San Francisco and on the Peninsula that are getting better very rapidly, but we …

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Article source: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/print-edition/2011/05/20/bay-area-office-deals-may-lift-up.html