San Francisco real estate agents reveal who’s buying homes in the city
The residential real estate market wasn’t good for home sellers heading into the new year as the median price of existing single-family homes in the Bay Area in December represented the largest month-over-month decline of any region in the state.
But according to a new report from traffic analytics firm Placer.ai, people are still moving to San Francisco and the city’s population was only about half a percent below pre-pandemic figures by last August, with a 2.2% population increase from March 2021 to September 2022. The caveat: The survey also found that people currently heading to the city often earn less money than those who left during the pandemic.
But buyers are still circling for homes, a number of local brokers have told me, and many of them — though by no means all — are relocating into the city from somewhere else. Here’s what real estate agents are saying about some of their buyers and sellers so far this year.
“I have clients buying who have moved here from Texas,” Compass (NYSE: COMP) agent Karen Mendelsohn Gould said. “I have a family selling and going out of state. I have two move-up buyers (who are) families staying in S.F., and I have a seller who moved to Marin.”
“Activity has been positive this January,” Compass agent Jessica Grimes said. “Yesterday we ratified a Marina home for a couple relocating with their infant from London, joining the arts community here in San Francisco. Tomorrow, I am showing one of our team’s off-market listings to an investment banker, also from the U.K. Our six off-market listings represent half and half — three families staying in San Francisco, just transitioning to different homes, while the other three are relocating to Marin, Hillsborough and Connecticut.”
“Many people looking today just began this year. We of course are also seeing people move back to the city who moved away after the arrival of the pandemic,” Vanguard Properties co-owner Frank Nolan told me. “We’re also seeing a spike in pied-à-terre buyers.”
Meanwhile, many real estate brokers are seeing only local buyers. “I don’t have any out-of-town buyers,” KW Advisors broker Jennifer Rosdail told me. “The buyers I have popping up are trade-ups and people who have been renting who are deciding it’s finally time for them. They are hitting a certain point in life or just trading up.”
Dale Boutiette at Compass said he’s seen several buyer profiles recently: a young couple who moved here from New York City for work; empty nesters that lived in S.F., moved to the suburbs to raise their kids and are now back after kids left the house; downsizing longtime S.F. residents; East Coast parents buying for a daughter who is starting Ph.D. program at UCSF; and a young family in tech that moved to S.F. last year for work and are now buying.
Joe Lucier and Stacey Caen at Sotheby’s International Realty told me they had a couple in their 50s relocating from Boston to the Bay Area for a job at Apple looking at a $4.4 million view condo in Pacific Heights.
“When I asked if they were looking in Peninsula locations closer to Apple, they said, ‘Absolutely not! We are city people,’ Lucier told me. “What was interesting to me was the fact that reduced time requirements in tech offices will now allow people who work in tech to live in S.F. and not have to commute to (Silicon Valley) everyday.”
“There seems to be some energy and momentum gaining in San Francisco real estate — all of the usual suspects are back, first-time home buyers, move-up buyers and renters eagerly awaiting the spring inventory surge,” said Compass broker Aaron Bellings. “All signs are pointing towards a strong spring, so far so good, and the players (buyers) haven’t changed. They’re getting ready.”
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Here’s how many of San Francisco’s newest condos have sold so far this year
Some of San Francisco’s most recent condo developments still have large swaths of unsold units after sales failed to tick up during the third quarter — a time when inventory and sales expectations rise each year.
While large downtown condo towers such as the 392-unit Mira (280 Spear St.) and the 298-unit Harrison (401 Harrison St.) have filled up, others have fallen far short. For example, the Serif at 960 Market St., delivered last year, has only sold just over 50 of its 252 units. Likewise, One Steuart Lane has sold 40 of its 120 units.
Meanwhile, a mere 13 of the 146 units at the Four Seasons Private Residences, 706 Mission St., have sold, according to a third-quarter condo report from Compass Development Marketing Group. City records show the last new deed dates to June 1, indicating that no sales closed in the third quarter. On top of that, Steph Curry’s high-profile $8 million deal on the 30th floor — announced two months before the pandemic in 2020 — also never reached fruition.
Sotheby’s International Realty agent Gregg Lynn — one of the few brokers who’s so far sold three condos at 706 Mission St. — noted that this past year has been “remarkably quiet” for condos South of Market. Other agents like Vanguard Properties co-owner Frank Nolan reported October sales that were better than the summer months with expectations that November will be even stronger.
Coldwell Banker Northern California President Jennifer Lind told me the condo market in the city has been lagging behind the single-family home salesfor the past couple of years. However, unlike the single-family home sales, the amount of condo units being sold in October increased month-over-month and increased slightly since the summer, she said, adding that the sales prices of condos are holding steady and seeing a slight uptick compared to September.
“This is indicative that despite a slowdown there is still demand in the market, this is especially true of condo units that are well priced,” she said. “We had several agents last month sell condos in the city for over the asking price in less than 20 days.”
However, KW Advisors broker Jennifer Rosdail told me that it’s been hard to move condos this fall. “I think there’s plenty on the market, it’s just not really moving,” she said. “Stuff is sitting. There are lots of people looking but no offers.”
Rosdail said that many condos are even struggling to sell below 2018 levels and that there’s about six months of inventory on the market right now in the city. “I think it’s a good time to get a deal on a condo,” she said. “The question is when can they afford to do it?” noting that interest rates are set to go up again. “People say marry the house and date the rate,” she said. “Maybe have a medium-term engagement with the rate.”
According to a November sales report from Compass (NYSE: COMP), the three-month rolling median sales price for a 2-bedroom condo in the city was $1.25 million, down about 7.5% year-over-year. However, a number of buildings have units priced far below that.
For example, Compass agent Dunja Green told me that One Eleven, located on Minna Street in the SoMa, has currently sold 15 of its 39 units and now has 1-bedroom condos starting as low as $500,000 and 2-bedroom units starting at $870,000.
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San Francisco records major drop in median house sales price
It hasn’t been the October the San Francisco real estate industry was hoping it would be.
Third-quarter median home sales prices have retreated dramatically from spring peaks, a decline brokers attribute to changing market conditions prompted by increases in interest rates and declines in stock markets and consumer confidence.
The median price of closed sales fell from $2 million in the second quarter to $1.65 million in the third quarter, a huge 17.5% decline, according to September data from Compass (NYSE: COMP). It’s a 9% year-over-year decline. During the same period, the median sales price for condos dropped from $1.3 million to $1,147,500.
Compass Chief Market Analyst Patrick Carlisle told me that economic volatility generally makes buyers more cautious and that changes in the market are best described as a correction.
“Low interest rates effectively subsidized increasing home prices for years, and increasing interest rates have delivered hammer blows to affordability since spring,” he said, noting that overbidding statistics continue to decline while days on market climb. “Soaring stock market values made households feel wealthier, a major factor in home markets, and now the reverse is occurring.”
Not all Bay Area counties posted declines. For example, Napa County recorded a 13% increase in median home sales price during the same period.
By and large, though October is a month of high sales expectations in the city, and sales have so far been patchy. Some big listings in Pacific Heights and Telegraph Hill have come to market, but on the other side of the token, some sellers have held listings back or even delisted them. One high-profile example is the Pink Painted Lady at 714 Steiner St., which went up for sale in May for $3.55 million and was just pulled off the market on Sept. 29, according to Zillow. Owner Leah Culver confirmed that she took the listing down and told me the current state of the market factored into that decision.
I spoke to a number of brokers who also weighed in on current market conditions. Sotheby’s International Realty agent Stacey Caen said she feels the city is in the process of a 10-15% market correction and that historically, once the market finds its footing there will be a period of pricing stability before the next up-cycle begins.
She said she and her business partner Joe Lucier are recommending that their buyers to be judicious in their purchases but to make deals while sellers are more receptive to negotiating than they have been over the past decade. She also noted that brokers with experience in detailed valuations are more important than ever for buyers and sellers looking to transact with confidence.
“AAA properties are still attracting premium value,” she said. “Custom packaged luxury properties in top locations are still commanding top dollar.”
The market is also somewhat segmented now into various sub-markets, Coldwell Banker agent Joel Goodrich said. He told me that currently, the $10 million segment is slow while the $5 million to $10 million range market on the north side of town is much stronger, as is the $2 million to $5 million range in Pacific Heights and the surrounding areas. Buyers from out of the area are also looking.
“Empirically, we are starting to see some international buyers back — we have had buyers from India, South Korea, Hong Kong, Vietnam and France,” he said. “We have also had some national buyers from Southern California, Utah and New York.”
KW Advisors broker Jennifer Rosdail told me the preponderance of properties sitting at a price too high for the current state of the market is resulting in some properties selling right away and many that were priced for the market a few months ago just sitting.
“The market right now has become active for properties at the right price,” she said. “Unfortunately, the right price is lower than sellers want it to be.”
Rosdail told me she believes this next week of October will produce an uptick in offers because of the Fed’s hike in interest rates expected at the beginning of November. She added that the last three homes she sold garnered between four and five counter offers.
Other broker teams have reported solid sales this season, such as Compass agent Nina Hatvany, who said her team has closed a lot of sales so far this month.
“The trick has been pricing listings about 10% down from where we would have priced them in the spring and also encouraging buyers to take advantage of the lower pricing now, with a view to hopefully refinancing their more costly mortgages in a few years when hopefully rates are down,” she said.
Statewide, California’s median single-family home price also fell to $821,680 in September, off 2.1% in the month and down 8.7% from the $900,000 high set in May.
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Rick Cunningham, principal of the Cunningham Group in the Los Angeles area, is rebranding his Northern California Keller Williams offices as KW Advisors
The owner of a number of Bay Area Keller Williams Realty franchises is renaming his group, uniting offices in Northern and Southern California under the same marketing umbrella.
KW SF Bay Area offices — located in San Francisco, Napa, Burlingame, Oakland, Los Gatos and Palo Alto and owned by The Cunningham Group’s owner, Rick Cunningham — will now fall under the umbrella of KW Advisors. Cunningham owns about 20 KW market centers in California and Hawaii and just united 15 of them under the new brand late last week.
Nicole Aissa heads the San Francisco area — which stretches from Napa to Palo Alto — while Tina Jones oversees the East Bay and is based in Oakland, Cunningham said.
Cunningham told me he instituted the rebranding — specifically with the name “Advisors” — because he’s being selective about the agents he hires and provides with back-end legal support.
“Consumers now are expecting a much higher level of education, experience and results from their agents,” he told me.
The rebranding of his existing brokerages is also being done because his agents are doing more business outside of their local areas, Cunningham said.
“Real estate is not so hyperlocal anymore,” he said. “I don’t want to call it KW San Francisco when they have clients who are buying second homes in Napa and they think they can’t use their agent. The reality is they can.”
Cunningham, who is based in the Los Angeles area, also said he does billions of dollars of commercial real estate every year for Keller Williams and wanted to make sure his commercial agents also had a brand that worked for them.
He said KW Advisors is very growth-minded right now and that he just took on a new Palo Alto office and is growing by a clip of about 16 agents per month.
In 2020, Keller Williams Realty formed KW SF Bay Area, a collective that brought together agents and operations from KW San Francisco, KW Peninsula Estates and The Cunningham Group’s network of offices from Napa to Carmel. That collective included about 400 real estate agents serving San Francisco and San Mateo counties.
Keller Williams Peninsula Estates was No. 8 on the San Francisco Business Times list of Bay Area residential real estate brokerages List, with $2.74 billion in sales volume in 2021. Keller Williams San Francisco was No. 16, with $1.19 billion in sales volume last year.
In 2004, Cunningham was recruited by Keller Williams Realty as the first core agent/investor of the Hollywood Hills office, and from there he founded The Cunningham Group, a real estate team within Keller Williams.
Headquartered in Austin, Keller Williams Realty is one of the largest real estate companies
in North America and has other California brokerages that are not part of Cunningham’s rebrand.
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Price reductions in S.F. home sales soar more than 100% year-over-year
Active listings keep climbing in San Francisco as sales have dropped since interest rate hikes.
Broker Jennifer Rosdail with Keller Williams San Francisco told me that she foresees a bump in sales activity before the next federal interest rate hike, which is set to take place at the end of the month. She told me she feels strongly that this month, house hunters who haven’t yet secured a home are going to realize rates go up again on July 29 and and start actively writing offers before it goes into effect.
“There’s a lot of the sitting inventory and they’re going to realize they have a lot of choices,” she said.
She told me she’s also recently seen buyers reach for adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) — especially those buyers who know they don’t want to keep the house long term — something she saw none of during the pandemic when interest rates were at historic lows.
“People are starting to go for ARMs again — 5- to 7-year ARMs — because of the interest rates being lower on them,” she said.
On the condo side of sales, Compass Development Marketing Group Senior Director for the West Krysen Heathwood told me sales volume is down and prices are staying steady for now.
“In San Francisco’s condo market there are many qualified buyers looking to purchase now realizing that while interest rates have risen, they are still historically low, and there are fewer buyers vying for the same home,” Heathwood said, also noting that agents are “seeing some buyers who are sitting in the ‘waiting room’ to see what happens next.”
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San Francisco homebuyer pool begins to shrink for low-end properties
Hatvany told me there’s been a change in buyer behavior across all price points but particularly for condominiums as they tend to be lower price points than single-family homes. Recent rate hikes, she said, have meant that buyers are no longer willing to get into big bidding wars to win listings.
“Over and over we are hearing, ‘I don’t want to get into a bidding war’ when last month we had buyers happy to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars over asking price to secure a property before rates went up,” she said. “Buyers are definitely experiencing fatigue from being outbid multiple times, and then the combination of a recent rise in inventory and rates has made them more discerning about what they are willing to ‘pay up’ for, and has caused some buyers to retreat to the sidelines to wait and see if something better comes along.”
Hatvany told me there’s been a change in buyer behavior across all price points but particularly for condominiums as they tend to be lower price points than single-family homes. Recent rate hikes, she said, have meant that buyers are no longer willing to get into big bidding wars to win listings.
“Over and over we are hearing, ‘I don’t want to get into a bidding war’ when last month we had buyers happy to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars over asking price to secure a property before rates went up,” she said. “Buyers are definitely experiencing fatigue from being outbid multiple times, and then the combination of a recent rise in inventory and rates has made them more discerning about what they are willing to ‘pay up’ for, and has caused some buyers to retreat to the sidelines to wait and see if something better comes along.”
KW San Francisco agent Jennifer Rosdail told me she’s been noticing that homes listed below $1 million are selling closer to their listing prices now, and by contrast, those above the $1 milliondollar range continue to experience robust offers over asking.
“Buyer frustration is out there and it’s big,” she said, noting how those with smaller budgets are most affected by the rate hikes. “People starting to worry about interest rates is starting to affect the low-end of the market. … People who could afford $800,000, $900,000 to $1 million are just dropping out of the market.”
Rosdail told me she is seeing the same trend in Oakland and on the Peninsula.
In the East Bay’s Lamorinda region, Abio Properties co-owner Linnette Edwards told me she is witnessing buyers “fence sitting” and dropping out there as well, although she noted that fivebedroom homes with outdoor space are still “selling at premiums.”
She said most homebuyers in the $2 million and over range are not as adversely impacted by interest rates, but that doesn’t mean they’re getting what they want either.
“I have clients who have flown out here for the second time from Boston who can afford up to $4.7 million, and they are frustrated,” she said, noting that competition is still fierce amongst serious buyers with limited inventory and high demand.
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S.F. real estate market sees rise in homes selling well above asking prices
The number of new residential real estate listings in San Francisco is creeping up, a typical feature in the run-up to the spring selling season, but there is no sign yet that the fundamental imbalance betweensupply and demand will significantly change.
Bay Area real estate markets, so far, remain largely insulated from the threat of rising interest rates, inflation and market volatility based on the uncertainty surrounding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Compass Chief Market Analyst Patrick Carlisle said that while some buyers and sellers have been affected by declines in stock portfolios or have paused their plans awaiting more clarity in the international or economic environments, the prevailing dynamic remains one of very high buyer demand with an inadequate supply of homes for sale.
“Depending on the specific market and market segment, some of the statistical measures of market heat have matched or exceeded all-time readings,” he stated in his latest Bay Area report, released this week.
For February 2022 in the city, which saw 290 new units come on the market, the sales-price-to-list-price percentage was 121.6% — the highest since before the pandemic — indicating multiple offers on each listing. The median sales price of $2,390,170 was also the highest for a month since last June.
Currently, the city has close to 1,000 active units now on the market compared to about 500 in early January, a welcome sign for potential buyers competing against multiple offers, especially for single-family homes.
“The inventory is starting to arrive and the buyers are ready for it after being told that interest rates are going to go up,” Keller Williams San Francisco partner Jennifer Rosdail told me. “So, they’re excited to grab something before they can’t.”
Rosdail told me the inventory has been slow to arrive but that it also feels more like a “normal year” compared to the past two, which featured sharper ups and downs. She said that while international turbulence has caused some of her clients to fret over the stock market and inflation, this uncertainty hasn’t deterred them from buying homes in the city.
“A classic hedge against inflation has always been to hold real estate instead of cash,” Rosdail said, noting that her most recent listing in the city got 15 offers and went for more than $400,000 over asking.
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From selling points to a seller’s market — what Bay Area real estate experts forecast for 2022
Jan 7, 2022
To draw up a picture of what’s likely to come this year in residential real estate in the Bay Area, I spoke with several real estate professionals who work in San Francisco, the East Bay and the North Bay, all who concluded that 2022 would see a continued seller’s market for single family home sales.
Broker Jennifer Rosdail with Keller Williams San Francisco told me she foresees that the threat of higher interest rates could to cause more buyers than ever to jump in the pool to compete for what is still a limited supply of homes. She also noted that buyers are coming back to town who saved up money during the pandemic, which could add to the competition.
“I think any gloom and doom people are preaching over these interest rates is just going to cause the buyers to act more decisively because they’re afraid their affordability is going to shrink,” Rosdail told me.
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Agent Advantage: Jennifer Rosdail | Market a House into Something Buyers Want
June 9, 2020
For Jennifer Rosdail, marketing extends far beyond communications. Her marketing philosophy stems around creating a product that the market wants. This involves training and convincing sellers to see your vision as the market expert along with helping buyers understand how they can add value to the house they’re buying.
Agent Advantage: Jennifer Rosdail | Use Newsletters to Grow Referral Business
May 30, 2020
Jennifer Rosdail’s repeat and referral business is over 80%. She keeps up with her clients through a monthly newsletter that covers content from her blog. She started the blog newsletter in 2007 and continues it to this day as a way of keeping top of mind to her clients.
San Francisco housing market off to hot start in 2021
Feb 24, 2021
This is a re-posting of an article written by Ted Anderson of the San Francisco Business Times.
Demand for homes has ticked up in San Francisco this winter with new numbers from January showing just how hot the market has become.
The city is experiencing one of the busiest midwinter selling seasons in history, according to a recent Compass Real Estate report, which showed San Francisco saw a 67% increase in home sales compared to January 2020. Midwinter is typically a very slow period for sales, but the pandemic changed that dynamic with huge year-over-year increases in monthly home sales volumes.
December was also the busiest month of 2020 for closed sales in San Francisco, according to the Compass report, something that has never been seen before.
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Winter real estate outlook for S.F. appears warmer than usual
Nov 13, 2020
The ongoing Covid crisis, combined with other factors, may actually bode well for the city’s residential real estate outlook during what is usually a chilly time of year.
The pandemic upended normal residential real estate market seasonality this year in San Francisco, pushing the demand usually expected in April — normally the hottest month for listings going into contract — into the typically quieter summer season.
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Condos hit by price cuts in San Francisco. Here’s how much they’ve fallen
Sep 28, 2020
San Francisco’s condo market is adjusting to a new normal of lower prices and higher inventory,
Prices are falling and high-rise condos — especially those with no separate entrances, elevators, restricted HOA amenities and no private outdoor space — have been hit the hardest, according to Compass Chief Market Analyst Patrick Carlisle.
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Large real estate firm merges Bay Area offices under new collective
Jun 2, 2020
Keller Williams Realty announced Tuesday the formation of KW SF Bay Area, a new collective bringing together agents and operations from KW San Francisco, KW Peninsula Estates and The Cunningham Group’s (TCG) network of offices from Napa to Carmel.
The new collective will include about 400 real estate agents serving San Francisco and San Mateo counties and will offer agents streamlined operations, communications and marketing to help share more resources and referrals. Senior executive team leader Nicole Aissa will head KW SF Bay Area.
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Judge strikes down S.F. Realtor group’s effort to muzzle new off-market home listing policy
Jun 1, 2020
A San Francisco group of real estate agents trying to block new restrictions on off-market listings has seen their first challenge slapped down by a federal judge.
Top Agent Network (TAN), a members-only platform for real estate agents based in San Francisco, filed a federal antitrust lawsuit earlier last month against the National Association of Realtors, the San Francisco Association of Realtors and the California Association of Realtors over the new protocol — dubbed the Clear Cooperation Policy — which took effect May 1.
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Is S.F.’s real estate market feeling effects of coronavirus scare?
Mar 10, 2020
Realtor Jennifer Rosdail with Keller Williams Realty told me the local market is still busy when it comes to buyers and offers, and that except for hand sanitizer being more apparent as a staging tool, there are few differences so far from the normal hot spring market that kicks off after Super Bowl Sunday.
“Yesterday, I had clients lose out on a home in Glen Park even though they were way over asking price and had all cash and no contingencies,” she said. “I have observed that people who have pulled money out of the stock market are feeling good about real estate.”
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SF residents fight City Hall to get nameless street on maps
May 4, 2019
My thanks to Kathleen Pender for taking notice of and researching the unusual access to 3352 John’s Way.
The band U2 might want to live “Where the Streets Have No Name,” but for some residents of an unnamed street smack in the middle of San Francisco, it’s been hell getting an Uber, a pizza delivery or an ambulance. And it’s especially hard trying to sell a home that potential buyers can barely find.
That’s why some residents — and one enterprising real estate agent — have been trying to get Google, Apple and the city to get their street, informally named John’s Way, on the map. They’ve had some luck with Google and Apple, but you know what they say about fighting City Hall.
The street is really a private dead-end alley in between Market Street and Corbett Avenue in the Twin Peaks neighborhood. The alley has garages and parking spots for residents.
The six residents on the Market side of the alley have Market Street addresses and front doors facing Market. But finding and getting to them is extremely difficult because of a unique set of circumstances. There’s no parking or sidewalks beneath them, and they sit atop a giant retaining wall accessed by a steep zigzag ramp.
It’s much easier to access the homes from the alley, so they use their back doors as front doors. Visitors, delivery people and house hunters would have an easier time finding them if they had a John’s Way address, but they can’t get one because it’s not on city maps.
The homes on the other side of the alley have Corbett Avenue addresses and most of their homes face Corbett, which is easy to find and relatively accessible. But there are two apartment complexes and one home on the alley that have Corbett Avenue addresses but no direct access to either Corbett or Market. Their only access is John’s Way.
Greg Tarbox lives in that home. “It was awkward at first,” Tarbox said. He has found ways to direct delivery people to his home, although some still get lost. Whenever he needed an Uber, he’d give an address on nearby Clayton Street and wait there.
“It’s a unique setting,” Tarbox said. “It’s a little like Barbary Lane,” the fictional street in Armistead Maupin’s “Tales of the City,” he said. “It’s that spirit. People cooperate.”
The alley is jointly owned and maintained by 17 property owners whose land touches it. Each year the city sends one property tax bill for the alley and the owners divvy it up. Unlike the owners of the infamous Presidio Terrace, an upscale private street that was auctioned off by the city for nonpayment of property taxes but later returned to owners, the owners have never been seriously delinquent.
In 1985, John Pletz, an owner who has since died, asked a deputy in the tax collector’s office what would happen if the taxes weren’t paid. In a letter to neighbors he wrote, “As unbelievable as this sounds, he replied, ‘The property will be sold at auction and probably a developer will buy the property and build an apartment or condominium units.’”
View the current listing at 3352 John’s Way here.
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‘Full House’ house debuts, looking nothing like Tanner family home
April 26, 2019
The San Francisco Victorian pictured in the opening credits of “Full House” and its spin-off “Fuller House” is going on the market next week, probably at a price just under $6 million.
If it goes for $6 million, it would set a new high price for the neighborhood, said Jennifer Rosdail, an agent with Keller Williams. “One sold with a ton of renovations for $5.8 million. That’s the highest sale ever in Lower Pacific Heights.”
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IPO millionaires may not be top factor in predicted spring rush on S.F. housing
Apr 12, 2019
San Francisco anticipates booming housing sales in spring, fueled by a stable of new millionaires with fresh IPO wealth, but another variable may also be at play.
San Francisco realtor Jennifer Rosdail said the low interest rate of 3.72 percent right now is really what’s behind the expected uptick in buyer interest. She said last spring they hovered around 4 to 4.25 percent.
So far this April, Rosdail, a longtime agent in the city, said that she’s seen San Francisco houses sell at $800,000 over asking on the high end and all the way down to $75,000 below asking on the low end. She said home sales in the $3 million-plus market are the ones more likely to be affected by the new millionaires coming out of this season.
“I don’t know how significant a couple thousand of millionaires are — we have so many,” she said. “San Francisco is a humbling city to be a millionaire in,” she said.
The San Francisco metro area has more than 314,000 millionaires — the 8th most in the world — and the third most billionaires with 74, according to Wealth-X’s 2018 global ranking.
Rosdail, who remembers interest rates for a 30-year mortgage as high as 6.75 to 7 percent more than a decade ago, said just a one-point increase in the interest rate represents a 20-percent decline in affordability for buyers. She said that at this point in spring, buyers can afford almost 20 percent more than they could in the fall.
“If interest rates went up a lot, that’s the only thing that’s going to calm it down,” she said. “I do believe that’s more important than the new millionaires.”
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Castro Victorian tenancy in common asks $699,000
Oct 17, 2018
While $699,000 gets you a three-bedroom home in Boise, Idaho, it can also net you a one-bedroom abode in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood, arguably a more exciting and colorful locale.
Featuring one bed, one bath, and 588 square feet, 546 Sanchez comes with a renovated kitchen and bath, as well as a terrace with a view and two fireplaces. Period details like crown moldings and ceiling medallion can still be found here.
Sunset home with serious curb appeal seeks $998K
Sep 6, 2017
There’s something special about corner homes in the Outer Sunset. A closer look at splendor of the neighborhood’s Art Deco specimens, specifically, are exposed via a wider stage.
Take, for example, this circa-1940 Art Deco house at 1701 40th Avenue.
Featuring three beds, two baths, and 1,377 square feet, this abode’s exterior, surrounded in part by brick skirting, has benefitted from a fresh look since it last sold in 2005. A new paint job and a new color on the front door (eye-popping yellow) bring cohesion to this home’s facade.
Data, dispossession, and Facebook: techno-imperialism and toponymy in gentrifying San Francisco
July 20, 2017
As Ippolito and Araiza’s mural infers, the gentrification of the Mission is correlative to a real estate marketing strategy that preys upon Mission Latinx culture to boost property value. While this transpired with gusto during the first Dot Com Boom (Graham & Guy, 2002; Mirabal, 2009), it has resurfaced with a vengeance during the contemporary era (Maharawal & McElroy, 2018). For instance, real estate speculator Jennifer Rosdail has rebranded much of the Mission’s geography as “The Quad,” a quadrilateral “meta hood” in which “quadsters” reside. These new Mission residents, Rosdail describes, “work very hard – mostly in high tech – and make a lot of money,” enjoying “the mix of lux and grit” (Rosdail, 2014). By rebranding the historically Latinx neighborhood, one set of cultural geographies is replaced with another. This is premised upon tech speculation, or practices in which future real estate value is premised upon the desires of those imbricated in techno-capitalist economies.
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Hayes Valley landmark Victorian asks $1.95 million
Dec 5, 2016
Once upon a time, the neighborhoods west of Van Ness were full of Italianate Victorians with boxy frames but classy facades.
Then 1906 came along, and most of those Gold Rush and post Gold Rush-era homes went the way of so much rubble and kindling. Another sacrifice to the gods of tectonic upheaval.
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Developments in development: Shifts and uncertainty
November 20, 2016
I must have angered the universe with my last happy-go-lucky, things-are-looking-up column because now there is tension, fear, but most of all uncertainty in the air. By that I do mean the election, but I’m not sure that the election alone is at the center of the unease that seems to have touched the development and real estate world locally.
For one thing, as realtor Jennifer Rosdail reported (prior to the election) on her blog, employment in the region is generally up, but home sales are down. In fact, condo and single family home sale prices have dropped, and sale rates were at a ten year low for two months running.
City helps 2 teacher couples buy homes in SF
Oct 8, 2016
Two teacher couples in San Francisco have managed to do the impossible. No, not score same-day reservations at the French Laundry or walk downtown without smelling urine. Even crazier. They bought their very own single-family homes. In the city. On their meager salaries.
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VIDEO: New program helps SF teachers become homeowners
Oct 9, 2016
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON)—The Bay Area is an expensive place to live making it more and more difficult for teachers to afford to live in the cities they teach in. It has created a shortage of teachers in the classroom and a huge problem for the city of San Francisco. KRON4’s Hermela Aregawi reports in the video report about a new program to help these teachers become homeowners.
francisco teacher to take advantage of the news that he backed a loan to buy a home has moved into her new digs and she tells k. c. b. s.’s making goals be she couldn’t be more grateful if anything at that single family home at play more space and we’ve ever had we had two young can now at his grave and bridget early a social worker at every middle school in the mission said it would not have been possible in the city had for the mayor’s down pena fifties loan program which helps teachers like her along with other public workers like firefighters in the past she and her teacher husband did not qualify theory we made too much money which is %hesitation area and karen disco because i mean we’ve you know can vary for grant now they’re in an outer sent a district home that was going for more than a million king still need to be worked out and there are still very stringent requirements for the program but early daschle afternoon at at the city to work here’s then it’s all been worth it i am i right where i’m i can get it in a cave very eighty l. wherever as we really line people especially people who are like from here is just now idealists k. making full speed t. c. d. investigators
The Walk-Through: a Glen Park home
June 24, 2012
Twice a week, The Chronicle features a local home on the market that caught our eye for its architecture, history or character.Address: 181 Randall St., Glen Park, San Francisco
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S.F. housing costs drive out yet another family
June 25, 2014
In April 2012, I wrote a column about taking my eight-months-pregnant sister on Muni and the rudeness she encountered. Just one well-mannered rider out of dozens…
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How Mom and Dad can help first-time home buyers
July 12, 2014
Unless they are awash in stock options, many people trying to buy their first home in the Bay Area need help from the Bank of Mom and Dad….
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The New SF Real Estate Map Has Some Losing Hipster Cred, Gaining House Value
July 26, 2010
Danny Della Lana, who lives on the west side of San Jose Avenue in what was once considered the Mission District, had just discovered in an e-mail that the new map from the San Francisco Association of Realtors moved him into Noe Valley.
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S.F. increases down-payment loans to 1st-time home buyers
March 16, 2014
Have you heard that the City is willing to help 1st-time home buyers through their MOH programs? My cousin is the cover girl “Melissa” in this article. I mentioned these program to her (I’m the unnamed “Realtor” mentioned in the article). This lead her to purchasing her new home (I served as her Realtor for this too). Are you a first time buyer? Let’s chat.
