The San Francisco Real Estate Blog



San Francisco Real Estate Blog. It's every bit as interesting as Curbed, the New York Real Estate blog.
-- Max Black - Prairie Fire












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July 2007




July 22, 2007

Here's a presser from HGTV:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
³MY HOUSE IS WORTH WHAT?²
Is Coming to San Francisco!!

My House Is Worth What? is a top-rated series on HGTV that began airing in
August 2006.

Finally, viewers will get the information they¹ve always wanted:

How much is my house worth?

With the current ebb and flow of the real estate market, many homeowners
want to find out the value of their home. Is it beneficial to sell or
renovate? Did that past remodeling project really increase the home¹s
worth? My House Is Worth What assesses home values all over the U.S. and
educate homeowners about their home¹s potential worth. Along the way you¹ll
get a whirlwind tour of cities and towns across America and find out about
the different housing markets.

In each city real estate experts will provide homeowners with their
expertise and evaluate each home¹s worth by looking at the local market and
community. Homeowners will invite viewers and a local real estate expert
into their homes and show us around, explaining why they bought the house
and their plans for it. Best of all, we¹ll learn what the house is worth
and the considerations that affect its value.

We are currently looking for homeowners who are interested in finding out
the value of their home and sharing their story with viewers. We¹re looking
for homeowners who¹ve lived in their houses at least 1 year, and who have
made some renovations to the home since moving in. Homeowners chosen to
appear on the show would receive a free evaluation of the current market
value of their home by a local real estate expert. Homeowners would be
needed for one day of taping between the week of August 13, 2007.

For more information, please contact Claire Feeney at
claire_feeney@pietown.tv or apply online at:

http://www.pietown.tv/shows/myHouseIsWorthWhat.html




July 23, 2007


In Pictures: Least Affordable U.S. Real Estate Markets - Forbes.com

Hooray for us!




July 24, 2007

BeyondChron: San Francisco's Alternative Online Daily News » San Francisco’s Planning Gridlock

ccording to a recently issued report from Mayor Newsom’s “SF Stat” project, in the last six months of 2006 it took 287 days for an application for a construction project in San Francisco to even be assigned to a planner. It took over 500 days for initial environmental studies to be completed, a period that precedes the often lengthy public hearing process. Since these figures include small 2-3 unit projects, the larger for- profit and nonprofit projects can take two years just to receive the basic environmental review. Mayor Newsom vowed to bring efficiency to the Planning Department when he ran for mayor in 2003, but his own statistics show the problem has worsened despite the overall construction slowdown. It’s no wonder San Francisco is reaching the point where only luxury housing developers can afford to build, and where nonprofit groups get less bang for the housing dollar due to costly procedural delays.
The anti-capitalist, soak-the-rich politics that dominates San Francisco is most famous - and effective - at producing unintended consequences. Generally consequences most damaging to exactly those such politics professes to help.




July 29, 2007

LIVING THE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE / FORECLOSURES ON THE RISE: As the housing market softens, a combination of consumer naivete and aggressive lending means owners with subprime loans are increasingly getting sucked down a financial black hole

To many people in the affluent Bay Area, losing a home to foreclosure sounds like a Depression-era relic or a Rust Belt phenomenon. Our real estate prices have defied gravity for so long; our job market is so strong; our cachet as a place to live seems so obvious. How could foreclosures happen here?

But in recent months, the Bay Area has proven to be home to numerous victims of the subprime loan debacle. Just like elsewhere in the country, people here with tarnished credit or limited funds bought houses that proved to be beyond their means, often putting little or no money down, and borrowing money through exotic, expensive loans that were virtual time bombs set to soar to unaffordable levels after an introductory period.

Aggressive mortgage brokers, voracious lenders and naive consumers combined to create an unstable situation.

I understand the sort of story the Chron is trying to present here: basically, it boils down to evil capitalist lenders, brokers, and real estate salesman victimizing the helpless little guy.

But what about this guy?

Cil told the broker he could only afford $2,200 a month. He makes $2,600 a month as a painter for the Berkeley Unified School District, but is accustomed to picking up extra jobs to supplement his income so he figured he could stretch for a bit.

...Cil bought a three-bedroom home in Vallejo for $450,000 with no down payment. The mortgage brokerage acted as his real estate agent. He said he was told his monthly payments would be $2,600 a month. The day he signed the loan papers, he found out the payments would be $2,900 a month, not including taxes and insurance.

He was told his mortgage payment alone would equal his entire take-home pay, and he went ahead and signed anyway. Doesn't he bear any responsibility at all?

Everybody professionally connected with the looming real estate debacle is going to be vilified except the "poor, innocent" buyers. But I think we have to admit to some culpability in that area, as well.