| New Listings Not Yet On Market | January 31st, 2008 |
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$849,000 Pacific Heights condo. Quiet block 2br/1ba/1pkg. 2 level unit with private garden and storage. $889,000 Sausalito townhome. 2br/2ba/2pkg. Stunning remodeled townhouse at the Willows. End unit, Over $150,000 in improvements/ Loft/office with custom built-ins. +/- 1622+/-sq ft. $1,079,000 Redwood Shores single family home. 3+br/2.5ba/2pkg. Gorgeous, right on water. $1,995,000 St. Francis Wood House 4br/2.5ba/1pkg. Two story traditional home. |
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$+/-700K Bernal South Slope House. 2br/2ba/1pkg. Beautifully remodeled / Sunny bright rooms/ Granite & stainless kit/ hrwd flrs/ fireplace/yard/ bonus room down. . Walk to Cortland shops & restaurants & farmers market. | Update on Possible Increase of Conforming Loan Amount | January 29th, 2008 |
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Currently the bill can only allow the conforming amount to go up during 2008– there are no current plans to extend the change into 2009. If/when the House approves, the Senate will review next week and we expect the final bill to be completed for approval by the President by Feb 15th. There is some concern being expressed in the Senate about the increase in the conforming loan limit. There is the possibility the increase may not go all the way up to $729,750. Predictionists expect som increase in the conforming loan limit, but it is not clear right now how much that increase will be. Some FAQs: When? If all goes as planned and the President approves the bill on 2/15, we believe that mortgage bankers/originators would be able to start making loans almost immediately after bill is signed into law. How Long? While the current version limits origination period to 2008 only, most feel that once the program gets going its going to be hard to stop. Most investors want any program to be longer term to ensure liquidity. |
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The House is set to vote on economic stimulus plan today (1/29). This includes provision to increase the conforming loan amount to $729,750 in 2008 (up from| Coming Soon– One Bedroom Condo in Unique, Historic Park Hill Building | January 26th, 2008 |
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A Few Fast Facts about the Park Hill Condominiums in San Francisco: 1. Park Hill’s buildings were once a hospital and convent built by Orthodox nuns. The project is now on the state’s registry of historic buildings. 2. The original architects were Baker and Bidwell. Between them they also designed Coit Tower, the San Francisco Art Institute on Russian Hill and Temple Emmanuel at the edge of Presidio Heights. 3. A third building on the property is a chapel which has been left largely intact. It’s worth a visit just to see the rose window. 4. Converted to condos in 1986, most of the units are one-bedrooms. Some two bedrooms sit either end of the hospital building with dramatic views, and there are a handful of small loft units at the site’s southwest corner. 5. The convent building appears briefly in Hitchcock’s Vertigo, as the sanitorium where Scottie (played by Jimmy Stewart ) recuperates from his nervous breakdown |
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See featured listings for more details. . . more photos will be up by Tuesday.| A New Path to Possible Condo Conversion for your TIC | January 26th, 2008 |
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Following is an article from this week’s San Francisco Business Times: Activists Push to Junk Condo Conversion Lotto Amid surging demand to convert San Francisco residences to condominiums, two political groups are pressuring city lawmakers to raise the annual limit on conversions or abolish it altogether. The groups, which lobby on housing issues — Plan C San Francisco and the San Francisco TIC Coalition — will kick off their campaign Feb. 6 during the city’s annual condo conversion lottery. The city uses a lottery to determine who can convert housing units to condos and since 1994 has capped the number at 200 each year. Lottery entrants who don’t win may register again and are entitled to additional tickets for losing years. Would-be homeowners have argued that the cap should be lifted or scrapped. Plan C and the TIC Coalition are hoping to draw renewed attention to their issue with a rally at City Hall and by organizing an estimated 6,000 TIC owners citywide to pressure the Board of Supervisors. “These are all good San Francisco citizens who are just looking to stay here and be homeowners,” said Radhi Ahern, a member of the San Francisco TIC Coalition and real estate broker. “There is so much negativity put upon loss of rental stock whereas we never see the human side of families trying to stay in San Francisco (as homeowners).” The two housing groups point out that the applicant pool for conversions continues to rise, meaning longer waits and lower odds of being selected in the lottery. The number of units applying for conversion has risen 75 percent since 2003 to 1,736 last year. The condominium conversion process generally proceeds like this: Apartment buildings or duplexes first become so-called “tenancies in common” where renters buy their units or new buyers occupy those units. TICs are risky financial arrangements because the building’s tenants jointly own the building, meaning if one owner defaults the other owners must make up the difference. The resale value of TICs also is generally lower than that of condominium units. TICs enter the city’s condo lottery to convert to condominiums, a less risky investment in which each unit is individually owned and has its own mortgage. Homeowner groups argue that allowing more condominium conversions would be a welcome development for many first-time home buyers in a city where one-third of the population owns a home, well below the national average. The Plan C and TIC Coalition efforts likely will run into strong opposition. Tenants’ rights groups said they fear eliminating the condo conversion cap will lead to spikes in evictions of renters to make way for wealthier people who can afford to buy. “It’s definitely important to maintain (the cap),” said Ted Gullicksen, a spokesman for the San Francisco Tenants Union. Recent legislation has favored tenant activists. City supervisors passed legislation in 2006 that blocks condo conversions if property owners evicted someone who is elderly, disabled or seriously ill. Meanwhile, past efforts to allow some property owners to avoid the lottery have failed. In 2005, supervisors killed proposed legislation that would have allowed two- to six-unit tenancies in common that were occupied by their owners to turn their units into condominiums without going through the lottery. The sponsor of that proposal, Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier, estimated it would have affected less than 1 percent of the housing stock in the city. |
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As more and more San Franciscans become TIC owners, they are becoming a collective force to be reckoned with. I wouldn’t hold my breath – but I estimate that 5-10 years out TIC homeowners will become such a large bloc of voters that they will be able to significantly influence changes in our current rent control and condo-conversion laws in San Francisco–| Financing Incentives Offered at The Hayes | January 25th, 2008 |
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With rates dropping, you could conceivably get into one of these homes with a mortgage payment running under 5%.
The project touts international finishings, with Italian tile, German cabinetry, and French fixtures. The buildings shape allows for more corner-oriented floor plans (i.e. more light) bay windows and private balconies. The central location is excellent. If you want to be steps to a cool commercial district, check out Hayes Street between Franklin and Laguna. If an easy commute to the Peninsula or East Bay is important, Octavia Boulevard will whip you onto the freeway in a heartbeat. Please call 415-577-0809 to arrange a preview – I can also fill you in on how a loan buy-down works and tell you other ways to take advantage of The Hayes’ sale incentives– |
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The Hayes, a new condo development at the corner of Page and Octavia is offering four months free mortgage payments, along with a buy-down to get your interest rate lowered by a full point.| Conforming Loan Limits to Rise??? | January 24th, 2008 |
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The Senate and White House still must sign off on the proposed stimulus plan, which also includes tax rebates for Americans. Right now the higher cap would only apply for one year. The National Association of Realtors, one of the country’s most powerful lobbying groups was a key player in getting congress to consider this cap increase. Other groups representing bankers and home builders were pushing hard for this increase even before the mortgage meltdown began. A higher cap on the conforming loan limit is designed for an expensive housing market like San Francisco. The $417,000 loan limit has curtailed our ability to get the best rates available– this new limit makes the monthly mortgage payment on any purchase below $781,000 far (far) less expensive. |
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CNNMoney.com reported today that the government’s ambitious economic stimulus plan may raise the conforming loan limit by up to 50% . This would allow buyers to have significantly lower rates on loans up to $625,500!| Are You A District 5 or a District 7/8? | January 23rd, 2008 |
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Whenever I meet with a buyer for the first time I review the “Magic District Map” of San Francisco put out by the San Francisco Association of Realtors (SFAR). I call it “magic” because it breaks the code for the way SFAR has numbered our City’s neighborhoods into 10 districts, the Richmond in District 1, to the Daly City border neighborhoods in District 10. Within each district are a number of small neighborhoods which are given letter designations. 5a, for example, is Glen Park, while 5b is the Haight Ashbury. In our office, when we talk about a buyer, we often use district nomenclature to describe them– i.e. “He’s a district 7-8″ or “She’s a 5 and parts of 9.” CleanOffer, a private MLS Search Tool I make available to my clients, allows them to skip the exercise of identifying districts by number/letter. Instead, they can search neighborhoods by clicking them on a map. I need to give you permission to use the search tool– you can sign up for it by clicking on the “CleanOffer” logo on the left hand side of your screen. CleanOffer members can also track pending and sold home information. |
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| Pocket Listings | January 23rd, 2008 |
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$649,000 / South Beach / Portside / One bedroom plus study $829,000 / SoMa penthouse near Financial District $1,550,000 / South Beach / 2br/2ba / Premium building |
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Following are a handful of properties that are being quietly offered for sale. There are no immediate plans to place them in MLS:| New Listings Not Yet On Market | January 23rd, 2008 |
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$899,000. Lone Mountain/NoPa border. 2br/2ba condo flat with 1-car side-by-side pkg. $899,000 South Beach at The Bridgeview– 2br/2ba $949,000 / Nob Hill / Two bedroom Victorian TIC $949,000 / Central Richmond 3BR/2.5BA Condo $1,100,000 / South Beach at the Embarcadero Towers /2BR/2BA $1,795,000/ Corona Heights on Roosevelt Way/ 3BR/2.5BA |
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$769,000 / SOMA right next to Financial District– Very large two level, loft-style townhome| San Francisco Market Trends Report | January 20th, 2008 |
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CleanOffer, the private MLS Search Service that I offer my clients, has been kind enough to deliver a San Francisco Market Trends Report that recaps 2007. It is also available in a PDF format |
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