I came across a site recently that not only provides a database of available rental units for many US cities, but also has nice, easy-to-read charts on rental trends for specific areas. Unfortunately, you can’t get very precise in terms of zip code or neighborhood, but it certainly give you a good sense of rental trends. And trends, as we all know, are what it’s all about!
Welcome to RentBits.com:
I’ve added them to my blog-roll.
Several readers and clients have asked me recently about price per square foot metrics. Certainly, if you’re trying to figure out how much a home is worth, it helps to get a sense of value by knowing what houses (or condos) are going for in the area on a per square foot basis and multiplying that by the size of the house in square feet. Elementary my dear Watson.
However, others have been curious about whether there might be a discontinuity between the median price of homes and the median price per square foot, and what that might mean, especially in the context of how much each has fallen from its all-time high. So I decided to take a look. ...
I really couldn’t find a suitable graphic for a falling shoe….
Thanks to my reader JC for pointing out the San Francisco Chronicle’s September 21 article on the $30 billion or so in “option ARMS” that are going to reset, starting in 2010. These are not the subprime ARMS that caused the derivative markets to unravel, the ones that closet reactionaries are still all too eager to blame on the avaricious poor (now is that an oxymoron?) who signed up for them.
No, these are the the loans that the relatively well-heeled and savvy took out to buy their higher end homes. They appreciated the “options” an option ARM offered. Like being able to pay just the interest for the stated fixed period of the loan — often 5 years — rather than paying down the principal as well. Or even paying less than the interest due and rolling the balance into the principal, just like those negative amortization loans that got us into so much trouble in the 1980s. (We really never learn, do we.) ...
It’s been a few months since I took a look at my own stompin’ ground, Noe Valley, and how prices have been doing compared to the city as a whole. We dispensed with the notion that Noe Valley was somehow “immune” some time ago. Sadly — at least for home-owners — and happily for buyers, Noe hasn’t bounced back over the last few months, even though city-wide median prices have improved.
Bear in mind that “Noe Valley” means a very small area. What’s more, there were only 7 sales in August, down from 14 in May and June, and 22 in July. Sure, there’s been a bit of an improvement over the previous month, but there’s still an 11% difference between how far prices have fallen for the city as a whole (19%) versus Noe Valley (30%). ...
Walking my dog, yesterday afternoon and I was brought up short by this beautiful wreck around the corner from where we live.
Light and shadow from the rafters seemed to make the windows glow like cardboard cut-outs.
Here’s the scoop: Listed in mid-May for $799,000, sold on June 25 for $700,000. 1360 square feet of original detail. $515 bucks a foot.
I quote from the listing: “All inside doors, most hardware, some light fixtures appear original and possibly pre-1900.” ...
Back in February I posted about two $2.1 million homes offered for sale in my ‘hood. 731 Douglass had 3,000 square feet of good, livable space and the sorts of finishes and flourishes you’d expect. But it had no back yard and was located on the fairly busy corner of 24th Street and Douglass, with a Muni stop and Noe Valley Courts’ sand-pit within spitting distance of the front windows.
Meanwhile 110 Hoffman, offered at just $2,000 less than Douglass, had a little less space and a vertical, less user-friendly lay-out. But, location it had in spades, on one of Noe’s best and quietest streets. Plus it had a spacious back yard with a lovely mature tree. ...
Every time there’s a housing slump, there’s discussion about whether the top end or the bottom end is fairing better or worse. Here’s a June 2009 article from The Examiner, declaring that luxury home prices in SF are picking up. And here’s a report published by First Republic Bank, which puts out a so-called “prestige home index,” for various cities in California, stating that luxury home prices in San Francisco continue to fall. Here’s the accompanying chart from First Republic. ...
There’s been a fair bit of discussion on various real estate blogs about the state of foreclosures in San Francisco. Here’s a picture of SF, courtesy of Hotpads, on our little patch of heaven.
Core SF neighborhoods seem to be doing OK, though worse than “average” — not defined by Hotpads as best as I could tell. Outer neighborhoods are not doing so well.
The big surprise is the amount of red over in Marin, including toney areas like Sausalito and Mill Valley. Frankly, I’m skeptical; it just doesn’t add up. There’s not a lot of information on the free part of their website on their methodology though I believe they’re using data from Realtytrac, which has its own fee-based foreclosure radar website. If I come up with better information I’ll update this posting. ...
