San Francisco Real Estate - Janice Lee

San Francisco's tech industry rush has translated into a golden commercial real estate industry with high office rents and big sale prices, but now there are concerns about where the nation's hottest market is headed. During a 10-month period from July 2012 to April, 48 properties valued at $20 million or more exchanged hands — illustrating the strength of the market and how San Francisco ended up with higher-than-expected property-sales taxes. The sale prices of those properties totaled more than $4.5 billion, with 15 fetching more than $100 million and the 48-story tower at 101 California St. going for $910 million. "San Francisco has recently been the healthiest office market in the U.S. thanks to the tech boom, and that health has attracted significant investor demand, including overseas capital," said Jed Reagan, an analyst with the Newport Beach-based commercial real estate consulting firm Green Street Advisors. This level of activity has not been seen since fis...

Do not hesitate to contact me at (415) 832-9151 for any real estate purpose you may have. Janice Lee 415-832-9151 International President's Elite Top Producer, Realtor Investment Specialist janiceflee@gmail.com www.JaniceLeeHomes.com DRE #01720205 

While homeownership numbers may be down, Americans continue to believe that owning a home is still a good decision even as mortgage rates have changed. According to the National Association of Realtors 2013 National Housing Pulse Survey, eight in 10 people believe that purchasing a home is a good choice and 68% believe that now is a good time to make a purchase. Since the last survey in 2011, renters who are contemplating a home purchase rose from 25% to 36% while those who stated they prefer to rent fell from 31% to 25%. More than half of the renters surveyed stated that one of their highest priorities is owning a home, up to 51% from 42%. According to the most recent survey of wholesale and direct lenders performed by FreeRateUpdate.com,  current conforming 30 year fixed mortgage rates are as low as 3.875% (APR 4.052%), 15 year fixed mortgage interest rates are as low as 2.750% (APR 3.168%) and 5/1 adjustable mortgage rates are as low as 2.375% (APR 2.628%). Low rates are avail...

Shortage of listings and strong buyer demand may create good opportunity for sellers The Bay Area’s housing market has seen a rise in sale prices as strong buyer demand, historically attractive interest rates, an improving economy and a shortage of listings are combining to create a robust seller’s market. The region’s median sale price of $531,000 is up 33% year-to-date compared with the same period last year, according to MLS data analyzed by Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage. In addition, the average sale price is up 25% over the past year to $680,000. One of the reasons for the surge in prices is that there just aren’t enough homes on the market to meet buyer demand. Inventory has fallen to its lowest level in many years with Bay Area active listings in May down more than 50% from a year ago, according to MLS data. The Bay Area isn’t alone. According to statistics compiled by the National Association of Realtors® the inventory of homes for sale nationwi...

The housing market is supposed to slow down as we get deeper into the fall season and inch closer to the holidays, but something very unusual is happening here in the Bay Area. Not only is the market remaining active overall, there’s been a remarkable surge in luxury home buying – in particular, the mega-home sales. A quick look at closed sales at the end of October caught my attention. Our company alone closed an amazing 13 sales over more than $5 million in the Bay Area just in the last two weeks of October! The vast majority of these deals were in San Francisco, the Peninsula and Silicon Valley, although one was in Healdsburg. The homes went for as much as $11.1 million, the price paid for a Los Altos Hills property. In all, we saw the strongest October in sales volume since 2004 for the San Francisco Peninsula Region. And although I can’t share with you Coldwell Banker’s proprietary sales figures, I can tell you that this added up to a 56 percent gain from just last...

Extraordinary 5 bedrooms 4 bathrooms home has undergone a complete transformation with quality & style. Light filled open living/dining area with new dark kitchen cabinetry, designer backsplash, counters, 36” SS stove & hood, refrigerator & dishwasher. High 9” ceilings, recessed lights, crown molding, hardwood floors, double pane windows, skylight, roof, siding, furnace, fences, water heater, plumbing & electrical. Masterfully designed on 3 levels, top floor consists of 3bd/2ba, slate deck w/ city views. One is a master suite with large walk-in closet. The main level has 2bd/2ba & in-unit W/D & access to 2nd deck. TOTO toilets, unique tile design & vanities in each bath. 2 rms/1 ba on lower level unwarranted. Blocks to Cortland shops and restaurants, 280 & 101. First Open House – Sunday, November 4th 2:00-4:00 p.m. Tuesday Open House – November 6th 2:00-3:30 p.m. MLS #402594 Offered at $849,000 ...

By now it’s clear that this will not be an easy economic recovery. For every two steps forward we take one step back, as this week’s mixed economic signals show. On one hand, it was good to see improved GDP growth figures announced Friday. The U.S. economy grew at a better-than-expected 2 percent annual rate in the third quarter, the Commerce Department announced. That’s up from a 1.3 percent growth rate in the second quarter. The improvement was driven in part by greater consumer spending, but also defense spending and the government sector. Many analysts cautioned that the economy is still facing significant headwinds and warned that GDP isn’t likely to climb much above this level through the coming year. On the bright side, real estate continues to be one of the better performing sectors of the economy, as the recent Bay Area housing report from DataQuick reaffirmed. The La Jolla-based real estate research firm reported that Bay Area home prices last month rose to ...

  There was some welcome news for the housing market this week, both here in the Bay Area and nationally. The biggest headlines came on Thursday when the Federal Reserve, as expected, announced plans for further stimulus for the sluggish economy. And here at home, the local housing market continued to gain strength with luxury home sales improving once again last month (more on that later). The Fed surprised no one when it said it plans more economic stimulus. But what did take some by surprise was the approach Chairman Ben Bernanke and fellow governors chose. With its new quantitative easing, or QE3 effort, the Fed said it plans to begin an open-ended program to purchase mortgage-backed securities – a move aimed at bolstering the housing recovery and the overall economy as well. The Fed will buy $40 billion of mortgage debt each month until job growth picks up, a move that was greeted with enthusiasm by the financial markets Thursday with the Dow rallying ...

The Bay Area posted its strongest home sales for the month of August in six years, the result of low mortgage interest rates, an improving economy and increasing demand in mid- to move-up market segments. The median price paid for a home eased back a notch from June and July, but was well ahead of last year for the fifth consecutive month, a real estate information service reported.

Home sales in the Bay Area rose on a year-over-year basis for the 13th month in a row in July, the result of increased mid- and up-market buying activity. The median price paid for a home was the highest since August 2008, a real estate information service reported. A total of 8,461 new and resale homes were sold in the nine-county Bay Area last month. That was down 1.4 percent from 8,577 the month before, and up 22.9 percent from 6,887 for July 2011. The decline from June is normal for the Bay Area summer season. July sales have varied from 6,666 in 1995 to 14,258 in 2004, while the average for all Julys since 1988, when DataQuick’s statistics start, is 9,371. “The market has really been lopsided the past couple of years, tilted toward low-end bargain chasing. Now it’s re-balancing, slowly, with increased activity in mid and move-up markets. But mortgage availability remains one of the big challenges in the Bay Area,” said John Walsh, DataQuick president. The median...

So much for a summer slowdown in the housing market! Bay Area home prices surged to a four-year high in July and the region turned in its 13th consecutive month of year-over year sales increases, according to a new report out this week from DataQuick, the La Jolla-based real estate information services company. . The median sale price for all new and existing homes in the nine-county Bay Area jumped 12.6 percent to $421,000 from $374,000 a year ago and the highest price since August 2008. Sales gains were even more dramatic with 8,461 properties changing hands, nearly 23 percent more than a year ago. If there was any doubt left that our housing market is on the rise I think this spring and summer’s performance should put that to an end. The median price increase can be attributed to fewer distressed home sales and more “normal” market activity. Additionally, the shortage of inventory for sale is resulting in buyers bidding up prices on the relative few homes ou...

766 Thornton Ave, San Francisco, CA 94124     MLS #399445   This extensively renovated 5 bedroom 2 bath Silver Terrace corner home features a bright and open combined living room, kitchen and dining room w/ new floors, recessed lights. The kitchen features honey maple cabinets and new stainless steel appliances. The baths include beautiful vanities, porcelain tiles, Delta fixtures and tempered glass doors. 766 Thornton has fresh interior/exterior paint, deck, double paned windows, skylight, furnace, water heater, garage door, new electrical and plumbing. The main floor has 3 bedrooms 1 bath and the lower level has 2 bedrooms 1 bath and a family room w/ a separate entrance. There is a laundry room and separate bonus storage rooms. Close to San Bruno shops, restaurants, 1 block to transportation and easy freeway access. Extensively Renovated 5 Bedroom 2 Bath Corner Home Approximately 1438 Square Feet 3BD/1BA Main Floor, 2BD/1BA Lower Floor Built w...

The Bay Area’s housing market continued to heat up as summer got underway in June, with sales jumping 7.2 percent from a year ago and the median sale price surging to its highest level in nearly four years, according to a report released this week by DataQuick, the La Jolla-based real estate information services firm. According to DataQuick, the median price for all housing rose 10.4 percent in the nine-county Bay Area last month to $417,000, up from $377,750 last June and $400,000 in May. That was the highest median price for the region since August 2008. What’s causing the steady increase in the Bay Area median? While it’s pretty clear that all real estate is starting to appreciate once again, DataQuick analysts also suspect that it’s the result of an ongoing shift in the types of homes selling, slightly improved mortgage loan availability, and continued record low interest rates. My sense is that it’s also a simple matter of supply and demand here in the Ba...

The Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University recently released its annual “ State of the Nation’s Housing ” study. The report noted a number of interesting trends, including the fact that the nation’s housing markets are showing definitive signs of a turnaround. But one of the things that really caught my attention was the fact that it’s now considerably cheaper to own a home than to rent the same home – something that was unheard of as recently as 2008.

Bay Area home sales held at a six-year high last month as activity rose across the price spectrum, with the $500,000-plus market logging the biggest gains from last year. The trend toward more mid- to high-end deals, coupled with fewer foreclosures re-selling, helped the median sale price rise year-over-year for the second consecutive month, to a 22-month high, a real estate information service reported. A total of 8,810 new and resale houses and condos sold in the nine-county Bay Area last month. That was up 14.8 percent from 7,675 in April, and up 26.1 percent from 6,988 in May last year, according to San Diego-based DataQuick. Last month’s sales were the highest for a May since 2006, when 9,935 homes sold. Since 1988, when DataQuick’s statistics begin, May sales have varied from a low of 6,216 in 2008 to a high of 13,567 in 2004. Last month’s sales were 8.8 percent below the average number sold in May since 1988. A year earlier, in May 2011, Bay Area sales ...

    More “green shoots” sprung up for the nation’s housing market this week. On Tuesday, the National Association of Realtors reported that existing home sales rose in April and remain above year-ago levels, and home prices nationwide continued to rise as well. And on Wednesday, the Commerce Department said that sales of new homes rose 3.3 percent in April from March to a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 343,000. That was slightly more than what most analysts had expected.   Both reports are just the latest in a recent string of reports that suggest a housing recovery is finally taking hold across the U.S. We’ve certainly seen a good turnaround in many parts of the Bay Area for some time now. But the recovery has been more tepid in some other parts of the country, so these reports come as very encouraging news for the housing market as a whole. The improving existing home sales and prices were across all regions of the U.S., NAR pointed o...