Blog of Greg Bryan for GB and Associates Covering San Francisco Real Estate - GB and Associates

Foreclosures Around The Country

1/9/2014

I read an interesting article today on the Top 10 States Hit by Foreclosures. The following is the information from RealtyTrac.
Note the average number of foreclosures in the nation is 1 in 1,155 housing units with an average foreclosure sales price of $110,000.

1    Florida                        1 in every 392 housing units
2.    Delaware                1 in every 480 housing units
3.    Maryland                    1 in every 618 housing units
4.    South Carolina         1 in every 660 housing units
5.    Illinois                        1 in every 700 housing units
6.    Ohio                            1 in every 757 housing units
7.    Connecticut               1 in every 768 housing units
8.    Nevada                       1 in every 859 housing units
9.    Iowa                            1 in every 869 housing units
10. Utah                            1 in every 889 housing units

See link. http://realestate.msn.com/10-states-hit-hard-by-foreclosures

Inventory Is Tight in San Francisco

2/13/2013

San Francisco is experiencing one of the shortest levels of inventory of property listings I have ever experienced. There just are not as many properties being put up for sale as we have had in previous years. There definitely was a change that happened over last year.

A healthy market typically has about 3 months worth of properties available on the market in any given month. San Francisco in November of 2012 had just 1.4 months worth of active housing units up for sale. This is causing a spike in pricing as there are less properties available and more buyers looking to purchase who now enter into bidding wars. Just this past week I saw 17 disclosures go out on one property and 16 disclosure packets go out on another. Also one of the houses 162 22nd Ave in the Lake District went $122,000 over asking price in January and sold for $1.31M.

If you are a buyer, be prepared to pay above asking if you want to get a good property in a nice neighborhood.

According to the Wall Street Journal Bay Area Home Prices up Q4 2012

1/31/2013

The Bay Area had home prices climb across the region in 2012. This increase in prices was driven by tech growth and a recovering national economy.

Median prices for single-family detached homes were up in all but 8 of 107 communities in the Bay Area for the fourth quarter, according to the real estate data firm DataQuick.

Prices in San Francisco rose 21.2 percent.

Prices in Oakland were up 35 percent.

To see full article in the Wall Street Journal click here.

New Home Construction is Up

10/30/2012

The housing market in the Bay Area is undergoing an amazing turn-around since January. The US Census Bureau projects 8,762 new building permits in the SF-Oakland-Fremont metro areas for the year 2012. Last year there was about 5,800 new building permits, thus we are looking at a projected 51% increase over 2011. With low interest rates, job growth, and pent up housing demand, we can expect to see more building in the greater Bay Area.

US Home Sales Up

10/24/2012

New Single Family homes in the US sales were at their highest level in nearly 2 1/2 yrs. The Commerce Department stated that sales increased 5.7%, the highest level since April of 2010. In April 2010 for those of you who don't remember we saw a sales increase due to the government's implementation of a tax credit for first-time home buyers.

You can read the Reuters report to get more information on US Housing sales.

Real Estate Investing

10/23/2012

It is currently a great time to invest in real estate in San Francisco if you can qualify for a loan or have cash.
Interest rates are historically at near their all time lowest rates.

Rental prices are going up in SF as more businesses are locating themselves in the area and as there is continuing job growth
Market prices in San Francisco are going up and there is an opportunity to capture property appreciation as the housing market continues to improve
Inflation, if you believe it is going to increase in the future and have a fixed rate mortgage, you will have an opportunity to use increasing rents to pay down your fixed mortgage payments
Reduced taxable income by depreciation of your investment property structure over 27.5 years, but be sure to check with your tax or accounting professional
Diversification, real estate investing serves as a means of diversifying ones portfolio from more than just stocks

Rentals on the Increase

5/24/2011

I recently read an article about how the home market is creating a generation of renters. Here in San Francisco there have always been a high proportion of renters.

Apparently 33.6% of households are renters and that there are a total of 38 million household renters in the United States according to the Associated Pres s. As more an more people are going bankrupt, facing foreclosures and facing unemployment, more and more people are turning to renting. This is driving up the price of rentals in many cities throughout the United States. I know here in San Francisco the supply for rental units in Pacific Heights and Presidio Heights is particularly limited with extremely low vacancy rates.

There is also a younger generation of people who no longer view home ownership as something desirable. They have seen family and friends' home values deteriorate and are more and more turning to rentals. The Associated Press' article stated that according to Moody's Analytics it is cheaper to rent in about 72 percent of the biggest metro areas than to carry a mortgage.

LA v SF Condos, Who has the better resale market

5/19/2011

I recently was asked a question regarding the resale Condo market of SF v LA.

In a nutshell as of April 2011 Condo prices in San Francisco were only down 14.5% from the peak of the market in 2007 as opposed to Los Angeles' whose overall market has fallen 38.6% as of February 2011 from its peak in September 2006. Note though each neighborhood and community is different so it is better if you were to actually compare on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis as some neighborhoods have actually seen an appreciation in condo prices recently while others continue to decline.

To get a good idea for what is currently happening in San Francisco with regard to Condo and SFR (Single Family Residences) pricing go to our Marketing Reports page .

To see the article itself on Trulia about who has the best condo resale value San Francisco or Los Angeles click here.

Current Housing Market Double Dipping

5/16/2011

I came across an interesting Blog article this past weekend. Basically it references several other articles and carts. It can be summarized as follows:

The latest Case-Shiller data shows that housing prices in the 20 City and 10 City composite measures are down by 32 percent from their 2006 peak and nominally the worst drop since the Great Depression.
Household income is too low to support prices even at today’s new lower levels.
The Housing Market is in a double dipping
Housing prices were artificially kept higher through tax credits and the Fed intervention which made home buying cheaper by placing an artificial floor. This has resulted in a non transparent housing market where prices are no longer based on traditional supply and demand factors.
There is also an estimated 7 million in shadow inventory basically properties that banks are holding back on selling as they would flood the market driving prices down.
Moody's in 2009 feels that 2006 prices will probably not be reached again until 2020 or later.
Prices are increasing driving down the amount of disposable income available to pay for housing resulting in lower housing prices
Many of the actions currently taken by the Fed and Banks with regard to housing prices has been done to keep bank balance sheets artificially high.

To summarize the housing market prices are falling and will continue to fall in the near term as incentives for housing by the Fed are cut, more inventory is put on the market by banks and as people's disposable income available for housing decreases.

Home Markets Dropping Across Country Says Wall Street Journal

5/9/2011

According to the Wall Street Journal "Home values posted the largest decline in the first quarter since late 2008, prompting many economists to push back their estimates of when the housing market will hit a bottom."

During the first quarter according to data from Zillow, home values fell 3% in the first quarter from the previous quarter and 1.1% in March from the prior month. The primary reasons for this were the oversupply of inventory and the large amount of foreclosed properties. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the first quarter sold more than 94,000 foreclosed homes during the first quarter. This represents a 23% increase over the previous quarter.

There had been appreciation of property values here in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego, but recently they have declined again resulting in a double dip.