Ms. San Francisco Real Estate (Janice Lee)

Private real estate marketplace PocketList has released its mobile app, giving San Francisco Bay Area homebuyers unprecedented access to non-publicly available properties for sale. Buyers can download the free app for iOS and Android , complete a simple verification process, and gain access to pre-MLS and off-MLS homes that match their budget and desired locations.

San Francisco homes are still some of the priciest in the nation, but sales of those houses are showing significant weakness. September sales were down 19.5 percent in the city from a year ago, according to the California Association of Realtors.

There have been plenty of questions flying around lately about whether San Francisco's madhouse real estate market is beginning to cool, and now Paragon Real Estate has weighed in with a resounding "yes"—at least in the luxury sector.

Don’t expect any rent breaks (or cheesecake) from your landlord this year. Alex Thornton, 34, a video producer based in Fort Greene, a hip enclave of Brooklyn, N.Y., is looking for an apartment to rent in neighborhoods across the borough. What he’s found: Prices are up considerably over last year and, on at least one occasion, the rent even went up after he and his fiancé Christopher expressed interest in a property. “The rent is increasing faster than people’s salaries,” he says. “Landlords want you to make 40 times the monthly rent per year and want tenants to have an unrealistically high credit score,” he says. “Even those who have a decent salary can’t find a place that would match their financial status.” And it’s not just in New York. The majority of property managers are planning on showing little mercy to their tenants this year. Some 88% of property managers raised their rent in the last 12 months and 68% predict that rental rates will continue to rise in the next ye

The Balboa Park Upper Yard, a wedge-shaped parking lot squeezed between Highway 280 and San Jose Avenue, isn’t anybody’s idea of picturesque real estate. But the wind-swept island of concrete could be the key to something that has confounded housing advocates for decades: how to turn one of San Francisco’s busiest transportation nodes from transit backwater to transit village In December, the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development will issue a request for qualification for a developer to build 80 family housing units on the 1.8-acre property, which serves not only as a place to park automobiles but also as a “kiss-and-ride” drop-off point for commuters. The project, which could break ground in a year, will be 100 percent affordable, probably geared toward families earning 60 percent of area median income, about $61,000 for a family of four, said Teresa Yanga, director of housing development for the office. Broader interest sought But Supervisor John Aval