In Oakland $2 million becomes $1 million
Put bluntly, it was a $2 million house and now it’s a $1 million house. If evidence were needed of just how brutal the impact of the credit crunch can be on some homeowners, consider the case of 1055...
View ArticleSnow Melts Along With Home Prices in the Sierra
I can see seven fluffy feet of snow outside the window from where I’m sitting in a cabin in Tahoe Donner. In a couple of months, when the pleasure seekers have headed home and the snow has melted away,...
View ArticleFive Homes Sold in 20 Minutes
Online real-estate company Redfin sent me a table yesterday showing home sales trends in the Bay Area for the same four-week period in January-February across the past three years. It shows that the...
View ArticleFor the Brave the Deals are There to Grab
Sometimes, when you’re scanning home listings these days, it feels like the real-estate market has reached a state of anarchy. All bets are off as people walk away from homes they can no longer afford,...
View ArticleMore young buyers see the appeal of foreclosures
As people become accustomed to the presence of foreclosed homes on the Multiple Listing Service, they are getting more confident about negotiating the red tape to make offers on them. It helps that...
View ArticleBuy this condo, please?
Joern Blohm One of the Infinity Towers. The glut of luxury condos rising to the San Francisco sky has left many an empty unit. One would have thought the saturation of this kind of real estate had a...
View ArticleCommercial real estate crash hits hotels hard. Does this mean holiday deals...
Priceline We don’t need you, William! With declines in travel, business conventions, and property values, no one should be overly surprised to discover hotels are struggling in California. The extent...
View ArticleCrazy reactions to a crazier market
Patrick Spence The national real estate market has been likened to a roller coaster from hell, strapping down its riders with a cold steel-like grip, rising and then plunging with sickening speed. Not...
View ArticleBuyers become sharks when blood’s in the water
According to common real estate knowledge, the holidays are a bad time to sell a house: the weather is crap, so houses all look dark and cold; people don’t have time or desire to check out open houses;...
View ArticleFlip this house? In this economy? One expert says “Yes”
Many people who bought homes with interest only loans, with an eye on flipping the homes and reaping the rewards, are currently reaping foreclosure proceedings. Yet we all understand that in a...
View ArticleThe least expensive homes in S.F.’s hottest neighborhoods
We often look at the most expensive sales as a bellwether for the market, but it’s equally instructive to check out the least expensive homes for sale. In the city’s hottest neighborhoods, the price...
View ArticleS.F. neighborhoods with the highest and lowest rents
San Francisco’s median rent was a whopping $3,500 a month in the fourth quarter of 2014, according to leasing site LiveLovely.com, the highest in the nation. The median is up only $12 from the third...
View ArticleS.F. becomes most sought-after location for Chinese buyers
Chinese buyers looking to invest off-shore are most interested in San Francisco, according to a report from luxury listing site PropGoLuxury.com, which tracked millions of online searches from Chinese...
View ArticleA secret, second market for high-end homes
Off-market sales have always been a part of the San Francisco marketplace. Some sellers, especially on the higher end, simply prefer the privacy of a so-called “pocket listing” to the exposure of...
View ArticleInsider tips for buyers in S.F. to get the deal done
In San Francisco’s ultra competitive real-estate market, buyers are looking for anything that will give them an edge over the competition. Of course, sometimes that little “something extra” is an...
View Article$9 million for 1899 Presidio Heights mansion with no parking
Back in 1899, when 3636 Clay Street in Presidio Heights was built, most people got around San Francisco via cable car or horse and buggy, so it’s not that surprising that the 8,000-square-foot home was...
View ArticleThe five most-expensive San Francisco sales so far this year
With the first half of the year now behind us, its a good time to look back at the top-five most-expensive sales in San Francisco this year, all of which were over $10 million, are located in Pacific...
View Article2015’s least-expensive S.F. homes
In 2015, 320K could buy you a historic five-bedroom manor in Detroit, a modern mansion in Mexico or a dilapidated cottage on the outskirts of San Francisco. That’s right, in what will come as a big...
View ArticleTiny beachfront cottage goes for $1.3 million—$300K over asking
A turn-of-the-century 873-square-foot cottage directly across from Ocean Beach recently sold for $300,000 over its nearly $1 million asking price. The tiny home has two bedrooms but really seems built...
View ArticleTiny Telegraph Hill TIC sells for nearly $1,700 a square foot
A little over a month ago, we wrote about a teeny tiny TIC in Telegraph Hill that was asking $425,000 even though the studio doesn’t have “parking, a separate bedroom or even an oven.” Just weeks...
View Article
