Pace Yourself: Walks in The Bay Area
As I sit here today, I can hear the wind howling outside my window. The fog has settled over the Inner Sunset, while the rest of the City—Noe Valley, Potrero Hill, and even the Outer Sunset—are all basking in blue skies. Yes, it’s yet another classic San Francisco summer! Honestly, that’s one of the many reasons I love living here. I’m not a fan of hot weather; it makes me feel like I’m going to melt, which keeps me indoors. But the cool coastal air here? It lets me enjoy everything the City has to offer without breaking a sweat.
600 Goats Invade San Francisco!
OK… so maybe it isn’t an invasion, maybe they were invited. And maybe they’re not all over San Francisco, but confined to a hillside that’s part of the Laguna Honda Hospital Campus in San Francisco’s Forest Hill neighborhood.
A Castle in SF's Ingleside – Complete with a Drawbridge!
Some people say your home is your castle and they mean it figuratively. These folks say it, and mean it literally. The blog posts haven’t been as frequent as I’d like lately, and it’s because I’ve been busy. Like “working 15-19 hour days and sleeping 5 hours a night most nights” busy. It’s a good thing I love this San Francisco realtor gig I’ve got going, or I would have SURELY lost my mind by now. 😉
Mortgage Rates Going UP and How it Affects Your SF Home Purchase
Per the folks over at Daily Real Estate News mortgage rates are heading upwards. And while rates are STILL historically low, the increase in rates CAN affect your purchase power significantly. How significantly, you ask?
San Francisco Real Estate – Spring Market Outlook from Zephyr Real Estate
In case you’re a regular reader here at the blog, you probably have noticed the ridiculous lack of steady posts over the last several weeks. Things in the SF real estate market have been anything but slow, and Zephyr has the scoop:
Could You Find Your Next San Francisco Home While Grocery Shopping?
The real estate technology market has been flooded in recent years with “location-based” applications to help buyers find properties in their area. With little variation, they all work in about the same way:
A San Francisco Studio Condo for $220,873!
Some of you may have heard about the San Francisco’s Below Market Rate Housing Program. It allows would-be homebuyers with income that is somewhat restricted to actually buy a home of their own.
San Francisco – Spring has SPRUNG!
My favorite sign of spring in SF is always forget-me-nots! Of course, with that comes a busy spring home buying season. I was busy with sellers and buyers since January, but it seems things are ramping up to get even busier, which may mean less blog posts here.
$18,000 in Free Money for San Francisco Home Buyers
You read that right! First time home buyers that get into contract before May 1st and close between May 1st and June 30th get a big fat tax credit!
I could rehash the details, or I could give you the skippy straight from the horse’s mouth (and by horse, I mean the San Francisco Association of Realtors.) You’re getting the latter:
March 2010 San Francisco Housing Sales Data is Here!
Yet again, Luba’s San Francisco Real Estate Blog brings you latest San Francisco Real Estate market report here. (You can also view previous market updates by selecting the archives on the upper right portion of the screen). Heres’s a little glimpse of the report:
Spend Less Green to Go More Green in San Francisco
Good news my earth loving, tree hugging, composting, recycling, reusing San Franciscans!
From the San Francisco Association of Realtors:
Dolla Dolla Billz Changing the San Francisco Real Estate Game
So sales of homes in San Francisco are well, moving like hotcakes, at least relative to the last year or two. Socketsite reported that “recorded home sales volume in San Francisco was up 50.6% on a year-over-year basis last month“ and that “median sales price in March was $675,000, up 11.0% compared to March ’09 ($608,000) and up 7.6% compared to the month prior.” Not enough evidence for you that we may have seen the bottom of the market? Well, how’s the evidence that multiple offers are on the rise again? Out of the last 8 offers I’ve written for clients, 7 properties received multiple offers.
More News on San Francisco Pay to Play Condo Converstion Policy
So I got a GREAT email from Plan C. And while I usually love to add my two cents, they pretty much said it ALL for me. So here it is, verbatim, for your condo conversion supporting pleasure:
PG&E – San Francisco's Big Bad Wolf
I hate meter reading day. In fact, my alarm just went off to notify me that it’s time for me to call PG&E and give them my gas & electricity meter reading.
But, I hate meter reading day. Sometimes, I forget. And the rest of the time, it’s just a pain in the ass.
Unfortunately, my meters are located in places where PG&E can’t see them from outside my house.
So when I heard about PG&E Smartmeters, I was SUPER excited.
But the wind has been taken out of my sails somewhat. Seems PG&E’s mew smart meters aren’t that smart. They’re full of errors. BOOOOOO!
Gangs of San Francisco (On a T-Shirt)
Gangs of San Francisco is a one man operation out of San Francisco’s Outer Richmond. A work in progress, it is run by me, Laureano Faedi. A self taught maker of things, I do all the design work, silkscreening, shipping and research. Having migrated to the Bay Area from Buenos Aires 30 years ago I have found San Francisco to be one of the best cities in the world to live in. This project serves as an outlet for my learning of it’s history as well as a way to teach myself silkscreening. I hope that not only will people enjoy my products but that it might also inspire them to learn more about the city.
Connect with Luba's Real Estate Blog on Facebook!
I’m sure you’re noticed the blogging here has been getting less and less frequent. And had as I try to keep up, life sort of keeps getting in the way of posting.
But – I’ve realized that’s not really a terrible thing.
Testing, Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3
So the blog has been dead. Some folks didn’t notice, some folks did, and others missed it so much that they sent me nasty emails expressing their displeasure that this San Francisco real estate agent needed a break.
Landlords – Get Your Calculators, Tenants – Get Your Checkbooks! San Francisco Annual Rent Increases Announced
It’s that time of year again…. rental property owners in San Francisco get to hear how much they can increase their tenant’s rent. Depending on the amount you might be paying in rent, this might mean having to cut back on 1 latte a month, or maybe several lattes a month.
Google Waves "Good-bye" to Real Estate (But I'm Still Waving "HELLO!")
Just about this time last year, Google jumped onto the real estate band wagon.
All the other cool kids were doing it, and since Google DOES do lots of things better than their competition, many Realtors in San Francisco and well beyond wondered if this would impact the way buyers searched for properties online.
Great Highway is still Closed and it's Still Summer in January
It’s another beautiful day at San Francisco’s Ocean Beach!
The sun is still shining and the clean-up on the Upper Great Highway still has the road closed to automobile traffic.