In the Nick of Time - $8,000 tax credit

May's new-home sales in U.S. drop 33% from a year earlier

Sales of new U.S. homes in May were down sharply from levels of a year earlier and also dropped below April's total, the Census Bureau reported Wednesday.

The seasonally adjusted annual rate of new-home sales was down 0.6% from April and fell 32.8% from May 2008, amid a glut in housing. New-home sales in the West, however, were up 1.3% over April's adjusted annual rate.

From April to May, new-home sales increased in all regions of the U.S. except the South, where they fell 8.5%, the Census Bureau reported. But because the volume of sales was much greater there than in other parts of the country, that region's sales decline dragged the national total into negative territory.

Compared with a year earlier, however, May new-home sales were down by double-digit percentages in every region of the U.S.

The median sale price for a new home in May was $221,600, down 3.4% from a year earlier.

Thanks to the LA Times

Home prices down – but not as much as the month before

The slowing pace of decline suggests that the US housing market is moving toward stabilization.

For the first time in two years, a closely watched index of US home prices shows San Francisco posting a month-over-month gain.

The 0.6 percent gain in Bay Area prices is modest, but along with other indicators, it’s a sign that US real estate markets are beginning to move from crisis toward normalcy.

California, after all, has been one of the hardest-hit housing markets in America.

Now the state is showing some signs of improvement, and across the United States, home prices are no longer falling in such a uniform or steep fashion.

Overall, the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index of 20 large US cities showed home prices down 0.6 percent in April – less than the 2.2 percent one-month drop it posted in March. In other words, the market may be starting to bottom out.

Some metro areas are still in much tougher shape than others, with declines in Miami and Las Vegas offsetting the positive news in San Francisco. But the slowing pace of decline suggests that the housing market is taking important steps toward stabilization.

">click here for the complete story from Mark Trumbull

Welcome to the ugly reality of the a recissionreal

The California Association of Realtors just released May figures for median home prices... It's ugly!

San Francisco
$630,000/May 2009
$797,000/May 2008
down 21%

Marin
$630,000/May 2009
$915,500/May 2008
down 31.3%

If you're wondering how the rest of the state fared, click here.

California home sale up, prices down

Home sales increased 35.2 percent in May in California compared with the same period a year ago, while the median price of an existing home declined 30.4 percent, the California Association Realtors (C.A.R.) reported today.

“With affordability for first-time buyers at a record high, sales of existing, single-family homes continued to remain above the 500,000 level for the ninth consecutive month,” said C.A.R. President James Liptak . “Buyers are beginning to realize that the combination of favorable home prices, historically low mortgage rates, and first-time home buyer tax credits, may not align again for many years.

“The sales gains over last year have diminished in recent months,” he added. “This trend is expected to continue through the end of the year, as limited inventory at the moderate and low end of the market constrains sales activity,” he said.

Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in California totaled 556,590 in May at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, according to information collected by C.A.R. from more than 90 local Realtor associations statewide. Statewide home resale activity increased 35.2 percent from the revised 411,770 sales pace recorded in May 2008. Sales in May 2009 increased 2.9 percent compared with the previous month.

The statewide sales figure represents what the total number of homes sold during 2009 would be if sales maintained the May pace throughout the year. It is adjusted to account for seasonal factors that typically influence home sales.

The median price of an existing, single-family detached home in California during May 2009 was $267,570, a 30.4 percent decrease from the revised $384,540 median for May 2008, C.A.R. reported. The May 2009 median price rose 4.2 percent compared with April’s $256,700 median price.

$5,500,000 gets ya a big house these days

One of the coolest real estate websites of all time

I would be hard pressed to find a home owner in San Francisco right now who couldn’t tell me the current value of their home... I would be equally hard pressed to find a home owner who could tell you the value of their home ten years from now. (If I'm wrong you can find me at the Coffee Bean on Market)

But now there’s a website that estimates what your home will be worth ten years from now...

www.smartzip.com

The site currently only give estimates California and Florida... The site rates homes on a scale of one to 100. The higher the number, the greater the home’s potential to go up in value.... The formula is mildly complicated, and if you’re interested in the details, the site spells it out for you.

Homes sales continue to climb

Sales of existing homes showed another gain in May, benefiting from favorable affordability conditions and a first-time buyer tax credit, according to the National Association of Realtors. May’s increase was the first back-to-back monthly gain since September 2005.

Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – rose 2.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1 of 4.77 million units in May from a downwardly revised level of 4.66 million units in April, but remained 3.6 percent below the 4.95 million-unit pace in May 2008.

Real Estate News for the Week of June 23rd

Summer Reading

No question it’s been a slow few weeks in the Bay Area real estate world. But that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been some outstanding writing these past few days that any good agent wouldn't find helpful.

Here are three worth reading.

From the Wall Street Journal

Tips for Selling Your Home to a First-Time Buyer

A federal tax credit of up to $8,000 is nudging many Americans into buying a home for the first time -- good news for those trying to sell one.

Still, selling a home isn't easy in most markets today. To get the typical first-time buyer to bite and submit an offer, a house has to stand apart from the competition -- and there's a lot of it, including foreclosure homes that are selling at hefty discounts.

One big thing working in favor of the traditional seller: A lived-in, maintained home is easier for buyers to imagine themselves living in than a vacant foreclosure. That has great appeal for someone buying a home for the first time, for practical and financial reasons.

Click here for the complete story

From the LA Times

Homeowners should be careful about how they hold title to properties

Reporting from Washington -- The manner in which homeowners hold title to their properties has significant legal ramifications. Consequently, it's not wise to leave this important decision to chance.

Escrow agents will ask how you would prefer the title to read. But often the question isn't posed until you near the close of the sale, and by then it may be too late to give any real thought to your options.

With that in mind, here's an overview of some of the more common forms of ownership.

Click here for the complete story

The Unfortunate Location

A WEEK after he moved into the circa-1800 farmhouse he had always dreamed of owning, David Evans spotted something glinting in his backyard. Within two hours, he had unearthed 19 spark plugs.

The discovery was no surprise. He knew his home had been a junkyard for the preceding 40 years — that’s one reason he bought it.

Without the spark plugs, windshield wipers and rotting transoms that dot his garden — as well as the not-so-appealing fact of having a trailer park and an abandoned gas station as neighbors — Mr. Evans and his partner, Jorge Ruiz, antiques dealers in the small Lowcountry town of Walterboro, S.C., say they could never have afforded the area’s oldest farmhouse.

When the challenging location and troubled economy drove down the seller’s asking price from $296,000 to $170,000, the home was finally within reach, and a few months ago, the couple bought it. A similar house would cost 35 percent more in a different location, according to Charles H. Bridges of United Country Joe Williams & Associates, the broker who sold them the house, which is about 45 minutes west of Charleston.

Houses like theirs are “the petunia in the onion patch,” says Gary Gestson, a broker with Long & Foster Real Estate in Gaithersburg, Md. They are charming and often historic, but bargains because their neighborhoods have long since vanished or become blighted.

Real estate agents warn against buying a good house in an undesirable area, saying location trumps all. But because the price is often so appealing, it is a way for buyers to get some of what they want without spending a fortune.

Click here for the complete story

Required summer reading

It’s been said if you read three New York Times best sellers on any one subject you’ll know more about that subject than 90 percent of the people. Nothing better as they say then impressing the very people you work with and sell to... And lets be honest, you need something to discuss when you’re driving clients around all day...

While I can’t recommend three books, I can recommend two very different books on the same subject, the mortgage mess.

‘Busted’, by NY Times writer Edmund L. Andrews, and ‘Our Lot’ by Alyssa Katz.

Both stories cover the housing mess, but come up with different villains and causes. Busted is slightly more interesting in that it’s the author tells his own story as part of the narrative explaining how he got caught up in the mess...

If you have other good reads, put them in the comments section, and if you have a review of either book, put that in the comments section as well....

Good news for Bay Area home prices

Bay Area home prices rose from April to May, the second straight monthly gain and a surefire sign that the cold-cocked real estate market is finally coming around.

Unless, of course, it's not. The data could just as easily reflect growing distress in the high-end market that is forcing more well-to-do owners to unload their homes, distorting the statistics with discounted but still relatively expensive properties and foreshadowing greater pain to come.

"If you ignore the greater reality and look only at statistics, then you could conclude that we're at least nearing market stability," said Andrew LePage, an analyst with San Diego research firm MDA DataQuick, which compiles the figures. "But given all the forces out there, the mixed signals from the data and the unknowns, it will be at least fall before there's any clarity."

Across the nine-county region, the median price for existing single-family homes stood at $337,000 in May, up 9.6 percent from April but down 37.1 percent from a year ago, according to DataQuick. The market reached its low point for the cycle, $295,000, in March. Before April, prices hadn't climbed from the previous month since October 2007. The March-to-April increase was 14.2 percent.

The median price means that half of the homes sold for more and half for less. A total of 5,655 resale properties traded hands in May, up 27.6 percent from a year ago.

Many real estate professionals attribute the price improvement and increasing sales to growing eagerness among buyers and investors to take advantage of bargain home prices, still relatively low interest rates and government and industry incentives.

"They're confident again and think, 'Boy, when is this opportunity going to come again and also, when is it going to be taken away?' " said Pat Huffman, president of the Bay East Association of Realtors.

LePage and others, however, warn that the rise in prices largely reflects an increase in the portion of homes financed with loans for more than $417,000. Homes that traded at that traditional jumbo mortgage threshold accounted for 25.5 percent of all sales in May, up from 22 percent in April.

click here for the complete story

Joseph Gartland Moore Joins Hill & Co. Real Estate

Hill & Co. Real Estate announced today that one of San Francisco’s most preeminent Realtors, Joseph Gartland Moore, has joined the company. Mr. Moore will continue to represent buyers and sellers of fine homes and investment properties.

Mr. Moore brings with him over 20 years of experience representing buyers and sellers in the finest neighborhoods of San Francisco. His production consistently ranks him among the top 2 percent of agents in the City. Even as his business has grown, he has always been able to provide the personal service, client care, and in-depth market knowledge his clients expect.

Guest Blogger

Top Five Reasons Your House Didn’t Appraise
By Jack McLaughlin

By JMcLaughlin@FHAllen.com

You found just the right house at last. Or you are trying to lock in a low refi rate. You know what the house is worth, but the appraisal comes in well below value: what’s up with that? You are not alone. In today’s tight lending climate, if your house doesn’t appraise, here are the most common reasons.

1. Under the new rules, your lender can no longer select, or even communicate with, the appraiser. They must use an independent – but often bank-owned – appraisal management company (AMC).
2. The appraiser couldn’t find your house. The AMC maximizes profits by selecting the cheapest appraiser, regardless of their location. The appraiser may come from Pleasanton to value your Mill Valley house. And local knowledge, especially in eclectic communities like Marin County, is critical to determining market value.
3. Your lender no longer can perform “value checks,” where appraisers informally pull comps to see if the numbers are likely to work for a client, before the actual appraisal is ordered and paid for.
4. The appraiser was incompetent. AMC requires professional appraisers to cut their fees as much as 50%. Since the best won’t work for less, they hire the new and less skilled appraisers, who may perform less thorough valuations.
5. There aren’t any good comps. With fewer sales, appraisers may need to look in dissimilar areas or go back in time to find similar properties that sold.

Call me if you have a problem. I can likely help you get the numbers up. Jack 415.302.7787

May Housing Starts Jumped 17.2%

Housing starts have never really meant much to those of us here in the City, but there are a great indicator of where the real estate industry is headed months from now... So today's announcement is probably another sign we've reached the bottom...

From the Wall Street Journal

Home construction climbed in May far above expectations, with single-family starts rising a third month in a row and giving more evidence of stability in the housing sector.

Separately, U.S. producer prices posted their largest annual decline in 60 years last month, suggesting that the prolonged recession continues to take pressure off inflation.

Housing starts increased 17.2% to a seasonally adjusted 532,000 annual rate compared to the prior month, the Commerce Department said Tuesday. Building permits rose; apartment construction surged.

The 17.2% increase was much bigger than expected. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires forecast a 7.0% increase to an annual rate of 490,000.

click here for the complete story

Mortgage rates continue to climb in the Bay Area

If you’re like many of us here in San Francisco you’re either refinancing your home, or considering it. I can tell you first hand the process is beyond nutty... My refi is entering its fifth month and I just completed second appraisal...
For those of you still considering the idea of a refi the weekly average rate borrowers were quoted on

Zillow Mortgage Marketplace for 30-year fixed mortgages increased last week to 5.72 percent, up from 5.48 percent the week prior, according to the Zillow Mortgage Rate Monitor, compiled by leading real estate Web site Zillow.com. Meanwhile, rates for 15-year fixed mortgages rose to 5.18 percent from 4.95 percent, and 5-1 adjustable rate mortgages rose to 4.73 percent from 4.62 percent the week prior.

Average Rate Average Rate
Mortgage Type Week ending 6/14/09 Week ending 6/7/09 % Change

30-year fixed 5.72% 5.48% 4.4%
15-year fixed 5.18% 4.95% 4.6%
5-1 ARM 4.73% 4.62% 2.4%

California forgives you for the next 90 days

Today is the kick off for bad idea day... The The California Foreclosure Prevention Act, signed back in February, has officially gone into effect, meaning that servicers with "in-comprehensive" loan modification programs will face a 90-day foreclosure moratorium.

In short, home foreclosures are on hold for the next 90 days forcing banks to work through all options to prevent the homeowner from getting the boot...

Why is it a bad idea? As I see it, anytime you mess with the free markets, which have been doing a nice job of cleaning up the inventory problems, you’re just asking for trouble...

I’m happy to listen to anyone’s opinion... Feel free to list it below

After a severe economic storm of more than 365,000 California foreclosures since early 2007, the state's long-awaited 90-day foreclosure moratorium law goes into effect Monday.

But it doesn't mean foreclosures will stop.

Supporters acknowledge the state is likely to see thousands more foreclosures before the crisis subsides. The law, indeed, goes into effect as lenders are ramping up repossessions following expiration of earlier moratoriums, according to housing trackers.

But the California Foreclosure Prevention Act, passed as Assembly Bill X2 7 by lawmakers in February and signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, raises a new hurdle in the foreclosure process.

Backers say it will make lenders try harder to keep borrowers in homes. Starting Monday, loan servicers must prove to the state they have comprehensive loan modification programs in place – or be denied rights to foreclose on their own schedules.

click here for the complete story

Craigslist

If you're like thousands of agents in the Bay Area, Craigslist is without question your best friend... Free listings, hot links to your website and a place to post properties in dozens of different ways at no cost to you... Which has always left many wondering how Craigslist pays the bills every month... In NY you pay for your listings, and like the rest of the country you pay for job postings... That aside everything on the site is for the most part free...

The NY Times is reporting today that Craig's is on his way to a $100,000,000 in revenue... For the San Francisco based company working out of a basement apartment with just a handful of employees, not to bad...

SAN FRANCISCO — As the newspaper industry and its classified advertising business wither, one company appears to be doing extraordinarily well: Craigslist.

The Internet classified ads company, which promotes its “relatively noncommercial nature” and “service mission” on its site, is projected to bring in more than $100 million in revenue this year, according to a new study from Classified Intelligence Report, a publication of AIM Group, a media and Web consultant firm in Orlando, Fla.

That is a 23 percent jump over the revenue the firm estimated for 2008 and a huge increase since 2004, when the site was projected to bring in just $9 million. “This is a down-market for just about everyone else but Craigslist,” said Jim Townsend, editorial director of AIM Group. The firm counted the number of paid ads on the site for a month and extrapolated an annual figure. It said its projections were conservative.

By contrast, classified advertising in newspapers in the United States declined by 29 percent last year, its worst drop in history, according to the Newspaper Association of America.

Craigslist, based in San Francisco, would not comment on the study. “We are a privately held company and never comment on guesses of our revenue. Nor have we ever commented on any number bandied around in the past,” said Susan MacTavish Best, a Craigslist spokeswoman.

click here for the complete

In the Nick of Time - cheap money

Sellers wake up to a new reality... finally

Trulia, a San Francisco based company today announced that 23.6 percent of current homes on the market in the United States have experienced at least one price cut, totaling $27.4 billion in reductions. The average price-reduced home has seen a listing price reduction of 10.6 percent.

In the Bay Area, 28 percent of the homes on the market have reduced their price by an average of 11percent.

Major metropolitan areas continue to be hit hard by price reductions. Of the top 50 cities in the U.S. based on population, 33 have seen 25 percent or more of home listings reduced in price, higher than the national average of 23.6 percent. U.S. cities that have seen at least 30 percent of homes reduced in price include:

• Jacksonville, Florida – 36 percent
• Tucson, Arizona – 32 percent
• Boston, Massachusetts – 32 percent
• Los Angeles, California – 32 percent
• Columbus, Ohio – 31 percent
• Dallas, Texas – 31 percent
• Honolulu, Hawaii – 31 percent
• Minneapolis, Minnesota – 31 percent
• Austin, Texas – 30 percent
• Washington, DC – 30 percent
• Baltimore, Maryland – 30 percent
• Las Vegas, Nevada – 30 percent

“Summer time is the peak season for buying and selling, and with some of the lowest prices in the last decade, we expect to it be a busy season,” said Pete Flint, Trulia co-founder and CEO. “Everyone wants to think they are getting the best deal available and price reductions are helping to spark a renewed interest in the U.S. real estate market.”

The Foreclosure Effect
The national average for price reductions on current home listings is 10.6 percent, but sellers in the areas hardest hit by foreclosures are slashing prices the most. Detroit home owners on average reduce their homes by 23 percent, while Las Vegas sellers reduce their homes by 16 percent and Miami sellers reduce their homes by 15 percent. Phoenix and Mesa are also experiencing deep price reductions with 13 percent slashed off the original listing price.

Luxury Market Getting Hit Hard
24 percent of homes with a selling price greater than $2 million are seeing price reductions compared to 23.6 percent of homes on the market for the less than $2 million. While the percentage of homes seeing discounts are almost identical, discounts on luxury homes are significantly more with 14.3 percent being slashed off the original listing price compared to only 9.7 percent of homes under the $2 million dollar price tag.

Big house, big views, tiny price tag, San Rafael, CA.

video courtesy of: Video Fishbowl & Photgraphy

Nan Allen - 415.828.1500

San Francisco for $465,000

Carla Winn for The New York Time

Sometimes it takes a fresh perspective to see just how nutty home prices STILL are here in the City... In its weekly feature, "What do you get for..." the NY Times puts out a price and shows what you can get around the country... Today's price.... $465,000

Showing up were:
San Francisco
Richmond, Ky
Shelburne Falls, MA

You don't have to remind me living in Kentucky, or rural Massachusetts isn't high on your lists of places to live... but have a look, and wonder if the rest of America doesn't think we're all crazy...

Granted there is no where else I want to live, but damn, $465,000 goes a long way in the right places still...

click here for the story and photos

Here's a fresh idea... Can you afford that house?

It makes no difference if you are a man or a woman, married or unmarried or in which part of the country you live - a recent poll reveals there is now a new top requirement for Americans when searching for a new home: affordability. A wave of practicality driven by harsh economic times has forced location - the number one home-buying factor in research conducted in the past - to take a back seat in the process, and has created nationwide consensus when it comes to this emotionally-charged activity. These and other new consumer findings regarding home buying were announced today by the real estate search engine Roost.com in conjunction with the roll out of a major update to the company's website.

In an Opinion Research poll that surveyed 1,002 U.S. adults by telephone May 8-11, 2009, 43 percent of respondents across the board - male/female, married/not married, and from every corner of the country - said that finding a home they can afford and maintain was the most important consideration when researching a new home, and was cited significantly more often than the number two consideration, finding a home in the right location or community. This can be compared to a survey conducted by Kelton Research in 2005, prior to the recent economic downturn, in which a full three out of four Americans (72 percent) stated that when looking at available property, the neighborhood was more important than the house itself.

Wondering what's all over your shoes?

If you haven't taken the time to look at what you're standing in lately, let me be the first to tell you... the stuff on the soles of shoes, that's the bottom... if would appear the San Francisco real estate market has hit bottom... it might not be reflected in next month's numbers, but figures just out from NAR would certainly led me to believe we have in fact gone as low as we can... so if you're fence sitting, or waiting for the pebble to stop falling, today is that day... get out there and buy...

here's are the official numbers

Record low mortgage interest rates boosted pending home sales for the third consecutive month, with some benefit now from the first-time buyer tax credit, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

The Pending Home Sales Index,1 a forward-looking indicator based on contracts signed in April, rose 6.7 percent to 90.3 from a reading of 84.6 in March, and is 3.2 percent above April 2008 when it was 87.5.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said buyers are responding to very favorable market conditions. “Housing affordability conditions have been at historic highs, but now the $8,000 first-time buyer tax credit is beginning to impact the market,” he said. “Since first-time buyers must finalize their purchase by November 30 to get the credit, we expect greater activity in the months ahead, and that should spark more sales by repeat buyers.”

The Pending Home Sales Index in the Northeast shot up 32.6 percent to 78.9 in April and is 0.8 percent above a year ago. In the Midwest the index rose 9.8 percent to 90.4 and is 11.1 percent above April 2008. The index in the South slipped 0.2 percent to 93.0 in April but is 3.5 percent higher than a year ago. In the West the index rose 1.8 percent to 94.8 but is 2.9 percent below April 2008.

Tip of the Week

Bueller, Bueller... anyone, anyone

I’ve never understood till today why anyone would want to own a celebrity's home... You pay a premium for it, and chances are you’ll never meet the owner if that’s part of the fantasy...

So after years of mocking celebrity home buyers, I was sad to learn that Cameron Fry’s house has sold, and it was well out of my price range...

It was the first house I can ever remember thinking as a kid was a pretty cool house... Cameron is, or was of Ferris Bueller’s best friend.

Probably a half dozen scenes were shot in the house with the most memorial being the red Ferrari through the glass wall.

The house sold for $2.3 million...
4 bedrooms, 4 baths 5300 sq. ft just outside of Chicago

Click here for the virtual tour

click here for the photo tour

Housing Picture Brightens in California

photo courtesy: Video Fishbowl & Photography

By JIM CARLTON

SAN FRANCISCO -- California's median price for existing homes rose 1.4% in April from March, marking the second consecutive monthly increase in housing prices and prompting some industry officials to declare that the state's long swoon in housing values could be at or near the bottom.

California's housing market is being closely watched as a barometer of the economy -- it is the nation's largest. Prices soared during the boom, but the collapse of housing prices has pummeled homeowners and helped send foreclosures skyrocketing. Any sign of recovery would be taken as a sign that the market is bottoming.
[Cali Homes]

It was the first back-to-back increase in the state's housing prices in two years, following an increase in the median price of homes in March from February. The median price of $256,700 for single-family homes in April is up from a median price of $253,040 in March, according to estimates by the California Association of Realtors.

thanks to the Wall Street Journal
click here for the complete story

I love you and the check is in the mail...

For as long as i can remember California was going to fall in the ocean and San Quentin prison would be turned into a neighborhood of multimillion dollar homes... It was earlier this month that Arnold said he was willing to sell of state's assets to close the growing deficit, causing real estate agents all over the Bay Area to dream of subdividing San Quentin to make room for new homes... Let me say for the record, this will NEVER happen. If for some strange reason did, it would take 25 years to find new homes for the current residents, conduct enviormental impact studies, host hearing over the best use of the land and clear the property... it might even turn out the best use for the land would be to turn it into a park.. so for now enjoy the dream...

it's the Barbary Coast

Familiar S.F. neighborhoods gain new names

It's not the Western Addition - it's NoPa. It's not the Financial District - it's the Barbary Coast. The gritty Hells Angels enclave known as Dogpatch? Now one of America's hottest ZIP codes, according to the current edition of Men's Journal magazine.

San Franciscans love to microbrand their neighborhoods, and at last count Wikipedia listed 109 places to live in the city by the bay.

The continual turnover in names, boundaries and reputations is enough to make an old timer's head spin.

"A confusing and inconsistent mess," according to a 1977 attempt to list 144 distinct neighborhoods in California Living, the magazine of the San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle.

Stepping into the fray, the San Francisco Association of Realtors is coming out with a new neighborhood map this summer - replacing stale names with hip ones, adding enclaves and changing boundaries to try to answer one of San Francisco's most complicated questions:

So, where do you live?

The real estate map, last updated in 2005, is serious business - homes for sale through the Multiple Listing Service are automatically assigned to districts on the map, a factor buyers and real estate appraisers use to help size up a home.

"We worked for four years on this, and we didn't allow changes like 'TenderNob' for the Tenderloin just to change home values - the changes had to reflect a true change and feel of the fabric of a neighborhood," said Matthew Borland, a Zephyr real estate agent who is leading the map redesign.
On the map

Some of the new monikers have bubbled up from popular culture, others have the whiff of real estate marketing euphemism, and some are a return to names that stuck despite trendsetters' efforts to change them.

A section of the South of Market (SoMa) area becomes a new neighborhood called Yerba Buena - a nod to the flourishing arts district of modern high-rises sprouting among the Museum of Modern Art and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Cole Valley will finally make the map, taking a bite out of Parnassus Heights territory. Dolores Heights and South Beach get bigger.

The area around Bayview Park and Candlestick Park becomes Candlestick Point.

"San Franciscans have a culture of individuality. It attracts people who don't want to fit into a mold, so constantly reinventing their neighborhoods is part of that," said Joy Liu, a San Francisco real estate agent for Coldwell Banker.

The Financial District has been renamed Barbary Coast to harken the Gold Rush-era hangout for prostitutes, whiskey and poker.

"We thought it was a fun name that brings the area back to its roots. 'Financial District' says office buildings and doesn't convey much of a residential identity," Borland said.

For Donald Drummond, who opened the Drummond & Associates law firm in the Financial District in 1971, "Barbary Coast" doesn't roll off the tongue.

- thanks SF Gate

click here for the complete story

In the Nick of Time - 3 things ever seller needs to know

Kan ouy cpell?

Nothing I love more than finding random marketing material from the local Realtor in my mailbox...

Last night I found an invitation to a “Special Sneak Peak (sic) Open House For Your (town here) Neighbors!”

The note was full of errors... Everything from punctuation to grammar.

I’m going to say it now, I’m not the best speller either, but I like to think the good folks at Frank Howard Allen would have some double check for these sorts of things...

My favorite error is in the opening paragraph where the agent mentions the house will be “coming on the market very soon.”

Yet on the bottom of the flier it says it will be on the market May 31st.. A lot must have transpired between the first paragraph and the last...

I could personally find 8 errors... Let me know what you find...

So what’s the point of this post? I direct you to Sunday’s New York Times....

The Poet of Property, a story that goes into great detail about hiring professional to do your real estate writing... Enjoy

The Poet of Property
By ERIC KONIGSBERG

THE language of real estate advertising copy in New York is beyond parody: how can you make fun of something that already reads like a satire of itself? Are there really thousands of buildings that can fairly call themselves “one of the most desired co-ops on the Upper East Side”?

Has almost every broker in town really produced “nearly $1 billion in sales throughout his illustrious career working at one of Manhattan’s premier residential brokerage firms and specializing in the sales of some of Manhattan’s most prestigious and highly coveted addresses”?

Still, who among us can resist a good real-estate ad? And who hasn’t had a laugh reading a clumsy attempt to make the uninhabitable sound irresistible? The very plasticity of the form may be why the writers of so many listings fail.

It’s as if the less adroit in the business had reasoned that all hyperbole sounds the same, so why not just take a nap and let your computer write the thing?

There exists, however, a significant portion of New York real estate professionals who hold that while it is easy to write in shelter-speak, it is difficult to do it well. They can’t say exactly what makes a successful ad — but they know it when they see it. And for a lot of those people, Valerie Haboush is the hired gun they depend on to write theirs.

Ms. Haboush, 46, calls herself a “freelance marketing communications writer” — O.K., so the poetry gods were out of magic dust the day she had to think up her job description — and for somebody who works in a competitive field built on exclusives, she is a believer in the “love all, serve all” school of business.

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The good news is...

Existing home sales rose 2.9 percent in April, while home prices slide 15.4 percent nationally...

In the Nick of Time - 15 year vs 30 year mortgage

More good news on housing prices...

Things are getting better... Today's S&P Case-Shiller report has Bay Area home prices down 30.1 percent for a the past twelve months, and down 2.2 percent for March... Which is an improvement over the previous month where home prices were down 3.3 percent... things are coming around... agents tell me everyday that the good neighborhoods are still selling and I'm personally convinced it's these sorts of numbers that are going to be folks waiting for the market to hit bottom to finally get out and buy... I think it's safe to say the bottom is a month away... When the June numbers come in, I'm betting it's going to show the first signs of raising home prices...

Home Prices Continue Downward March

U.S. home prices continued their multiyear tumble in March, according to the S&P Case-Shiller home-price indexes, as the downdraft shows no near-term signs of abating.

Meanwhile, U.S. consumer confidence improved sharply in May, especially in expectations for the economy six months from now, a report released Tuesday said.

For the first quarter, the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index posted a 19.1% drop from a year earlier, the biggest quarterly decline for the reading's 21-year history. S&P Case-Shiller releases 10-city and 20-city indexes every month, but also releases a broader national index every quarter.

Separately, the monthly numbers showed 15 of 20 major metropolitan areas posted price declines of more than 10% from a year earlier, with the Sun Belt continuing to be hit hardest. Nationally, home prices are at levels similar to the fourth quarter of 2002.

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Trulia's Listing of the Week

Practically located in the heart of downtown SF – right along Folsom street. If you don’t have anything big planned this weekend or if you’re shopping in the Downtown area, you have to check out this gorgeous top-floor corner end unit loft. It’s a definite must-see. Located between two parks, it’s a true bachelor pad with two beds, three baths and 1,578 sqft for entertaining! The huge windows offer great views and the gourmet kitchen will bring out the chef-side of you. There’s also a patio, perfect for sunny weekend brunches. Come have a look this weekend and imagine what it would be like to live in such a modern luxury.

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