I was tipped off Monday about an influx of out of town agents into San Francisco... Seems the better than expected real estate market in San Francisco is attracting agents from the Peninsula... City agents I spoke with tell me they are doing more and more deals with agents South of the City. One broker told me in the last few months the trend has really become more pronounced.... All of this has been described as good news by agents with who do business exclusively in the City. As it was told to me, clients of Peninsula agents pay too much for listings and they underprice the listings they get in the City...
Stick to what you do best...
If you need more proof the market is going strong, consider this:.
Photo thanks for Zephyr Real Estate
Two condos on Beaver street now pending both went well over asking with multiple offers... The Zephyr Real Estate listings I’m told had a combined 18 offers... While I’m not a liberty to discuss the final prices, it’s safe to say the sellers have no complaints.
Another sign of the market’s strength... Monica Pauli’s listing at 1900 Green Street.... The $3.495,000 came on the market Wednesday and is already pending... And yes, it was multiple offers and never even had a brokers’ open
If you have any tips, news or big listings coming up, drop me a note at:
Jeff@realestateconvergence.com
When El Cerrito septuagenarians Claude and Nina Gruen finally decided where they wanted to spend their golden years, nothing prepared them for the reaction they would get from their five sons.
"Our sons were not happy we decided to sell the family house," Nina said. "They're grown men, in their 40s and 50s, and they were all upset."
"Some just came out and said, 'Why the hell are you doing that?' " Claude said.
The parents patiently explained the appeal of a San Francisco penthouse condo at the SOMA Grand, next door to the new Federal Building on Mission Street. They still loved to work, and now would no longer have to suffer through a commute to their Howard Street office that used to take 20 minutes but began to last as long as 75.
They could walk to the Symphony, Opera and Ballet. A concierge would give them easy access to restaurants and other services. The sketchy neighborhood offered them almost twice the square footage they could afford at more upscale projects, such as the Four Seasons and the St. Regis. And the energy of the city would keep them vibrant "until we get dragged out feet first," Nina said.
In an effort to confirm a rumor I called around to various real estate offices in the City... Not a single agent answered their phone...When I reached a receptionist and asked to speak with a floor agent, I was transfered to voicemail...
You wonder why some agents succeed... They answer their phone.
So here’s my first tip: Answer your phones.
Here’s a second tip: you only need one phone number on a business card... And it has to be your cell phone. And if you don’t have a cell phone, you really need to figure out what you long range goals are...
I don’t want to get another business card that lists: office phone, home phone, cell phone, direct line and fax... If the idea is to give the appearance that you’re always reachable, it’s not working.
On the subject of business cards, two Marin agents I have spoken with are firing the first shot in what I’m calling the Business Card Rebellion... Their goal is to bring the business of real estate in line with the rest of the business card world... That means: No more photos on business cards. I have never understood why agents put photos on business cards. You don’t see business executives or TV reporters or lawyers pasting their photos onto their cards.
An agent who works for a big fancy brokerage told me she was advised to put a photo on a card because it’s less likely the card will be thrown out.
But that hasn’t stopped me! I throw ‘em out and I bet potential clients do too.
Chelsea E. Hardesty stepped up Tuesday and decided that she would not only take the photo off her upcoming website, but keep her business cards free of head shots too. Abbi Fox also has joined the revolutions.
If you have any insight, I would love to hear about it....
This week the paper looks at what you get for $2.5 million... Featured are Novato,Ca., Gloucester, Mass and Chicago... Everything always looks more glamourous in the NY Times... If you’re interested in the complete photo spread you can find it under a small small “More Photos” button under the middle house on the NY Times website
Wondering what Zillow has in mind for a second act?
Starting today Zillow is offiically in the mortgage business. Their latest online service is called Zillow Mortgage Marketplace....
In words of Zillow....
"Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. We’re excited to be branching out into a new aspect of homeownership—mortgages! Zillow Mortgage Marketplace brings borrowers and lenders together in an open, anonymous, and free marketplace where good customer service wins. Borrowers can create anonymous loan requests that provide more control and less hassle. Based on the borrower’s information, an unlimited number of customized loan quotes from confirmed lenders are sent to the borrower’s private account on Zillow. Borrower’s can easily compare quotes from multiple lenders—down to the estimated monthly payment. If you’re in the market for a new loan—purchase, refinance, home equity—be sure to check it out!"
Read what Zillow's hometown paper has to say
The Sacramento SPCA...is seeing a dramatic jump the number of animals being surrendered by owners who are going through foreclosure...During the last four months of 2007, the Sacramento SPCA took in 176 dogs and cats from people who said they were surrendering them due to "moving," said [Director Rick] Johnson. That is 100 more than the same four months in 2006. Johnson doesn't see the situation getting better any time soon.
This is weird. I never considered it at all, but it does make a horrible kind of sense. People living in homes are usually able to have pets, but if they are forced to move to apartments, far too often the rules forbid pets.
Without making any judgments on the housing problem itself, imagine how it must feel to lose your home and a beloved pet at the same time.
"There are areas in some parts of the country where property values are quite low, and there are no large-scale expectations of them going up. They don't know that they will ever recoup those costs," and so the lenders never re-take title to the properties, allowing them to become derelict." (emphasis added)
There you have it: Abandoned, Non-REO Foreclosures.
The local market conditions are what seems to determine the abandonment decision. In a region where the job and real estate market is doing anything better than "a little soft," I would surmise that abandonment makes no sense at all.
However, at a certain point, in a weaker region, with declining neighborhoods, certain lenders might make the decision to simply walkaway from a large swath of (potential) real estate holdings, on the simple basis that it might be cheaper to do so.
There are very significant costs to this. Consider what the potential impact of these property abandonments by the lender means:
- Total write off of the loan; - Boarded up homes / neighborhoods; - Loss of tax revenue to the local school district or town; - Long delays before the local town, municipality, or state can take possession due to tax arrears.
Thus, these incomplete foreclosures/abandonments can have very significant impacts.
If this becomes widespread, we could be in the process of creating an entire new universe of suburban slums . . .
Actually, I suspect we would end up creating an entire new universe of legal restrictions on just how a lender can handle an REO, or how rapidly a state actor can take possession. (via Instapundit).
Back when I was in college and brought a girlfriend home to meet the parents, inevitably she’d want to take a trip to the Esprit Outlet in the City, the only one in the country.
Today, the first two model homes, at what was once the Esprit Clothing headquarters and outlet store, open their doors for previews to the public.
The Esprit outlet has turned into new home development.
According to the site, the new Esprit Park is all about being green and sustainable.
"Homes on Esprit Park have been designed and constructed on the philosophy of building community by optimizing opportunities with design excellence as a standard," says Loring Sagan, principal of design for Build Inc. "The homes integrate the historic character of existing materials with new, modern functionality while engaging environmentally thoughtful and sustainable measures. Some of these are recycling preexisting materials back into the design, such as retaining brick walls and timber beams of the 100-year-old building and installing tankless water heaters and radiant floor heating systems, along with insulated windows."
Prices range from the low $600,000s to $1,595,000. Already 21 homes of the 142 homes in the development are under contract with a three percent nonrefundable deposit.
If you don’t get the Sunday New York Times you probably missed the Spring issue of Key, the NY Times real estate magazine. It’s published twice a year.
The magazine’s high-end real estate ads offer great insight into what’s hot in print marketing for homes.
As for the articles, the writing is top notch as always.
Among the many stand out articles is “Holding On: Why haven’t housing prices dropped as far as you would expect in some big cities?”
Trulia is announcing this evening its latest effort in the company’s stepped-up relationship with Google by combining Trulia’s best features with Google Maps Street View.
If you have never seen Street View, the application shows you the street views of San Francisco and 30 other cities... It’s the same thing you would see walking around.
· literally walk around the neighborhood without leaving the couch
· See how far kids have to walk to the bus stop
· Check out nearby amenities
· see the size of the street (especially for people relocating and don’t know which roads are 2/4/6/etc. lanes
Pre-Marketing: It's the new dirty word in real estate marketing.
This week I was exposed to the growing resentment by agents regarding the
new listing tactics some agents are taking.
Pre-marketing is when an agent positions him or herself to have an inside
track to buyers. They tell potential clients they have a list of people who
want to buy homes through a network of agents.
In the past agents would refer to these as pocket listings or give them a
few days before posting to the MLS. But the difference now, I've been told,
is agents are now convincing sellers that pre-marketing is the only way to
go.
Sellers choose to go with these agents because they believe their homes will
be sold before they even go on the market. That's not illegal, it should be
noted. Agents that use this marketing tactic do have listing agreements and
the signed paperwork necessary from having to put the property on the MLS.
With that paperwork in hand, the agents then reach out to their "top secret"
list of agents. Some call it the "top agent" list; others just referred to
it as their "network."
Sellers are led to believe this will allow their agent to shop the house
around without putting it on the MLS where it can sit for weeks. If the
agent's "network" fails to find a buyer, then and only then does the house
go on the MLS..
One agent told me the problem with that theory is everyone has already seen
or knows about the listing. The only one left with the impression it's a
secret is the seller.
The problem is the pitch to sellers really doesn’t hold up. The “lists” quickly make the rounds and within a few days or in some cases hours, everyone knows about the listing. And to be completely honest, I’ve even gotten a few of the lists, and could easily get hold of one by simply asking a few friends.
If you need more proof of how prevalent this has become, check your office mailbox, your email or Craig’s list. More and more these days you’ll see the words, “Not on the MLS.”
How big of an issue is it? The folks that work out of the Marin Association of Realtors actually spend a portion of every day calling agents who post just these types of listings on Craig’s to let them know they have to have an agreement from sellers not post to the MLS or face a fine.
Two top agents in the City summed it up this way to me. No one wants the stench of failure hanging around their home. Especially a trophy home they bought at the top of the market and now are looking at taking a loss on after commissions and paying off the home equity line.
Sellers they say are worried about the market. They are doing, as one agent said, “their best to deny it’s become a buyer’s market”
While some houses in the City still sell within days of going on the market, and end up with multiple offers, it’s the fear of not selling that is keeping homes off the MLS.
The bottom line is this, when you start messing with the free market place, you’re not going to like the outcome. Ask anyone who made sub-prime loans what they're doing these days.
Three weeks ago -- March 23 to be precise -- I posted on this blog about
three homes that should have sold in a heart beat.
All of them are priced in what every one calls the current sweet spot
for homes sales: between $1.7 million and $3,000,000.
All of them are in the premier school districts, something Trulia
pointed helps maintain a homes value.
And each of the homes was notable for one reason or another, but all
of them are the sort of homes that parents of five-years-olds gravitate to
when they leave the City.
Here's why each of them should have sold by now...
$1,749,000
Sycamore Park, Mill Valley - One of Marin's most desirable neighbor
hoods, nice yard and great schools
$2,950,000
The Catalog House, Mill Valley - Named after the endless number of
Catalogs including Pottery Barn that use the house as a backdrop.
Every detail of the house is flawless.
$2,995,000
View House, Tiburon - A good view never fails to attract a crowd, but
a house with a 260 degree view that stretches from the Bay Bridge
across San Francisco beyond the Golden Gate to the hills of Marin
should have sold. Not to mention a pool and fantastic deck.
I spoke to the agents representing the properties and they all tell me
business has been brisk, disclosures have been requested but no offers.
The news today isn’t the best.
I’ve just made the rounds and from what I heard from some of the Bay Area’s top agents, “Spring has sprung." The Spring rush is over, and get ready for the Summer slowdown sooner than later. For now things are dead.
A bit harsh, but that’s what I’m being told...
One agent who works in the rarified air of the elite City top sellers has told me she’s advising her clients to wait till next year already. Because as they put it. “Things are not going to be moving.” “There’s not going to be a big September, the buyers aren’t going to be there.”
The City was best described to me this way...
--If it has a view of the Golden Gate, it’s hot.
--If it’s a condo between $1,050,000 and $1,300,000 it’s dead.
--Condos in Pacific Heights priced below $1 million are in demand.
Sellers still seem to be out of touch with reality...One condo seller who did get multiple offers decided not to take any of them because the offers failed to reach the goal the seller had set of $30,000 over asking...Sellers are just holding out for more and it just isn’t there...instead they’re letting offers just sit....
Sellers are are being advised to follow the old cliche: The first offer is probably going to be your best offer.
Buyers are nervous too. It’s an election year, money is tight and the tax man cometh. But most agents I spoke with also blame the all the bad press. It’s hard to buy when all you hear is the bad news, they say.
So who is buying? Those with CASH... Everyone seems to tell that exact same story... Back in early March Eva Stoyanov of the thesfteam.com reported on her discussion board she was seeing the same trend -- a lot more cash offers... The buyers in this market are renters, people who don't have a house to sell and those who want a home as opposed to folks who just want to flip the home as an investment.
Buyers are making it a habit to coming in under asking ... If your home is on the market three weeks don’t expect anything but low ball offers. Homes that sit give off the scent of “there must be something wrong.”
The new buyers are the ones that sense the shift, that they’re in a position to take advantage of, yes you heard it here first, A BUYER’S MARKET.
There I said it. Now you can officially say it’s a buyer’s market. You can quote this blog.
Many Bay Area home prices will likely be lower in two years, the country's second-largest mortgage insurance company reported.
The Walnut Creek-based PMI Mortgage Insurance Company released its quarterly risk index, analyzing year-end federal data and ranking metropolitan areas on the likelihood of prices dropping. Fourteen of the high-risk areas were in California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona.
"We basically assess risk at every metropolitan statistical area in the country and whether that risk will be higher or lower in two years," said Nate Purpura, spokesman for PMI.
In the highest-risk rank was the Inland Empire of Riverside and San Bernardino counties (93.2 percent) and greater Las Vegas (91.9.) The East Bay (63.8), Orange County (80.6), Los Angeles (77.2), San Diego (72.7) and Miami ((61) were also included.
Over the past few months I’ve noticed agents jumping from the bigger and better know brokerages to some of the smaller, boutique firms.
I’ll be honest, it didn’t make a lot of sense to me at first. But today I happened to be at one of the aforementioned boutique firms when a fairly notable agent came walking in. He was there to talk about switching offices. But he wasn’t the first big-name I’d seen at this office because agents with Frank Howard Allen and Pacific Union had been stopping by too. The agent I saw yesterday said he felt the real estate was shifting and the boutique firms were better positioned to respond.
I’m hearing that a lot from agents. Just recently two office managers for prominent
brokerages said the same thing. One broker even said that the folks in charge are tired of carrying a lot of “dead wood.”
That’s because their corporate offices were pitching a new business model to them based on ditching branch offices for one central office, a small support staff and a conference room. The office would be for agents to pick up documents and forms and talk with a broker if necessary. The broker said offices just aren’t necessary because anyone should be able to do business from their homes.
So as bigger offices buy up the smaller players, more folks are jumping ship to a boutique. And that means boutiques are growing too.
Over in Marin, folks like Vision Real Estate and Morgan Lane are expanding. Morgan announced recently its fourth office would open in Mill Valley and Vision now counts four strong with offices in Corte Madera, Santa Rosa, Mill Valley and San Francisco.
I'll be the first to admit finding good news about the real estate market these days is getting tough... And no one wants to hear the market is improving more than a potential buyer waiting for a sign that the market has rock bottom.. while I can't say if that has happened... here's a little ammo to say things might be coming around... if you're a buyer
4 bedrooms, 3 baths and a must have kitchen... And not to be forgotten, a spectacular City view.... And I should mention there’s a useable yard.... Something folks in Marin can’t always find.
The Center for Housing Policy has released its list of most expensive and least homeownership markets as well as the most expensive and least rental markets...
I know the results will come as a shock to most of you(said with dripping sarcasm), but the information makes for a nice lunch time conversation.
SAN FRANCISCO, April 17 (Reuters) - The mortgage credit crunch drove March home sales in the San Francisco Bay area down to a 20-year low while the region's median sales price sank 16.1 percent last month from a year earlier amid weak demand, a report said on Thursday.
Since September, home sales in the San Francisco region have hit record monthly lows amid tight credit for prospective home buyers, a response to turmoil in mortgage markets arising from the
SAN FRANCISCO -- The Bay Area's teeter-totter relationship between the rental and sale housing markets extended into the first quarter, with apartment prices rising as the real estate slump continued to thwart would-be buyers.
Average asking rents climbed 8.8 percent over the first quarter of last year to $1,578, as the occupancy rate nudged up 0.6 percent to 95.8 percent, according to a report by RealFacts of Novato, which analyzes data from apartment buildings with at least 50 units. Since 2004, regional rent has risen 23.7 percent.
for the complete story click here
Any real estate agent in the business now and every real
estate agent who hopes to still be in the business a year from now,
must understand internet search to be successful.
Understanding search means you get the big picture. You know what
buyers and sellers are looking for when they get online. And you know what
you should be doing to find them and have them find you.
So on Monday I'll post exclusively to this blog the top real estate search
terms of the past month. My goal in sharing that information is to help
everyone understand their impact on your Google AdWord buys, how the
keywords on your website are impacted and what adjustments you should be
considering to your website to attach more business.
The folks at Hitwise compiled the list for us. Hitwise is an online audience
measurement firm that provides insights on how 10 million US Internet
users interact with more than 1 million websites, across 165+
industries.
I'll have part one of the series Monday morning so come on back.
To succeed in online marketing as a real estate agent, you need to know the most
searched-for real estate terms. Understanding search is key to making it in
the online business of real estate.
Real estate has moved online. And the nice thing about the Internet is that
by its nature it is a pretty fair playing field. The real challenge, though
is getting found.
Here's how I can help you with that quest this week. I am going to devote a portion of this week's blog to understanding search. I will base each day's entry on
data I have received from research firm Hitwise on real estate search terms.
Why is search so important? Because nearly every potential buyer or seller
going to turn to a search engine at some point during their home search. And
if you know which words they are plugging into search engines to find homes,
you'll be better positioned. We'll get to what those words are in a minute,
but let me explain why they are so important.
A good web site is built on key words, typically three to five
words that form the foundation of your site's theme. By theme I
mean the words you want potential buyers and sellers to find you by, but
also the words you want Google to use when it ranks the sites in its
results.
The way you get found on search is by optimizing your site. The first thing
Google looks for is what's in your title bar. The title bar is the area on
the top of your browser that displays the keywords your website hopes to be
found by. On this blog you'll notice the key words are, "San Francisco Real
Estate Blog"
In all browsers the words should display on the very top of the browser. Go
ahead and check your own site and see what it says.
All week long I'll post the top 50 most searched for real estate terms,
revealing 10 new ones each day. Tomorrow, I'll start to explain how to use
these terms to your advantage.
Below are the 40-50 most search real estate terms in the past four weeks.
The information comes from online audience measurement firm Hitwise. A big
shout-out here to Bill Tancer from Hitwise, author of the forthcoming book Click.
40. Weichert
41. Zip realty
42. Foreclosed homes
43. Prudential real estate
44. Realtors.com
45. Har.com
46. Long and foster
47. realtors
48. keller williams realty
49 homes.com
50. John I scott
One of the services my company Real Estate Convergence provides is in
helping realtors optimize their Web sites for better search.
Some folks celebrate their last home mortgage payment by setting fire to their loan agreement. Lately, some people behind on their mortgages are simply setting fire to their homes.
In what appears to be the latest symptom of the nation's mortgage meltdown and credit crisis, insurers, law enforcement officials and state agencies nationwide report a jump in home and automobile fires in the last year believed to have been set by owners unable to pay their debts. The numbers are small, but they're leading the insurance industry to scrutinize more closely what seem to be accidental blazes.
Existing-home sales edged down in March, remaining within a narrow range of sales activity that has persisted since last September, according to the National Association of Realtors®.
Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – were down 2.0 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate (1) of 4.93 million units in March from a level of 5.03 million in February, and remain 19.3 percent below the 6.11 million-unit pace in March 2007. A rise in condo sales in March was offset by a drop in single-family sales. Regionally, sales rose in the Northeast and West but fell in the Midwest and South.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said the market is performing unevenly. “Though mortgage rates are at historically low levels, some borrowers are facing restrictive lending practices in declining markets,” he said. “At the same time, many buyers continue to bide their time with a large number of homes to choose from, while other potential buyers remain on the sidelines.”
The national median existing-home price (2) for all housing types was $200,700 in March, down 7.7 percent from a year ago when the median was $217,400. Because the slowdown in sales from a year ago is greater in high-cost areas, there is a downward pull to the national median with relatively higher sales activity in low-cost markets.
A mix of market conditions continues around the country, but areas showing healthy price gains include Des Moines, Iowa; Austin, Texas; and Durham, N.C.
Today I want to show you how good web design uses keywords to help Google find and rank your site.
In the Google search box type, “san francisco real estate.”
Unless something changed overnight, here’s what should have come up number one.
San Francisco Real Estate & San Francisco Homes For Sale — Trulia.com
Find Homes For Sale in San Francisco. Search San Francisco, California real estate, recently sold properties, foreclosures, new homes, school information ...
www.trulia.com/CA/San_Francisco/ - 239k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this
On your computer in the search results you should be seeing what I’ve pasted and copied above. Now, on your computer click on the word cached. I’ve highlighted cached here so you’ll what to look for on your computer.
If you click on “cached” in your results a new page opens with a technical-looking paragraph on the top of the page and a shorter sentence below that which reads, “these terms have been highlighted, San Francisco Real Estate.”
What you’re seeing now is what Google actually sees when it spiders, or checks your site for content and rankings.
The words in various colors are the keywords that were found by Google, meaning these are the key words that delivered Trulia the number one spot on Google for “San Francisco real estate.”
Trulia carefully choose the words you’re seeing on its site to help achieve that placement. Very little of Trulia’s top ranking is random. It comes from thoughtful search engine optimization of Trulia’s site.
And it’s hard to miss Trulia’s use of the words real estate and san francisco.
There are a lot of factors that go into Google’s decision-making process for searches, but our experiment should give you some insight into how keywords are used for search results.
On Wednesday we’ll look at how to apply this to your site.
Now you should start to see the importance of searched terms.
Below are the 39-30 most search real estate terms in the past four weeks.
The information comes from online audience measurement firm Hitwise. A big
shout-out here to Bill Tancer from Hitwise, author of the forthcoming book
Click. For more on Click, click here.
30. ziprealty
31. century21
32. coldwell banker real estate
33. www.zillow.com
34. apartment guide
35. keller williams
36. www.remax.com
37. land for sale
38. realestate
39. apartments.com
Findings include 50 percent of Americans believe the dream to own a home is attainable... Nice to hear, but sadly 50 percent of home sellers in the Bay Area have no interest in selling their homes at attainable prices.
Other findings include:
The internet is the end and be all for home buyers of all ages...
People are spending to much of their monthly income on housing...
31 percent believe their homes are worth more than it was a year ago...
If you’re looking for the complete listings of findings, click here
It seems these days buyers are taking on more of the, “It’s a buyer’s market” attitude...
According to agents I’m hearing from, counter offers are getting tougher to come by...
Agents tell me buyers are not only low balling offers, but not following up with counters... One agent said he got multiple low ball offers yesterday, and when he countered in writing no one responded... Being the good agent that he is, he picked up the phone... All of them told him that was their best offer, take it or leave it.
How do you want people to find your website? What keywords do you want them to enter in Google for a real estate search?
Chances are when home buyers start a home search online, they won’t be entering your name directly into Google. If they knew your name they’d call you be instead.
So, consider how you want prospective new clients to find you. Because that’s what search is all about. Getting your name in front of new buyers and sellers who don’t yet know your name or number.
Consider for a minute what they’ll probably enter into the search box. Ask your friends what they might enter in a search bar if they were searching for a home. This will give you a good idea of what the average person might do. So use those words and see if you site shows up.
If not, it might be time to consider what keywords your using.
A lot of agents are spending a lot of money on their web sites, but is anyone really finding finding their sites? You might think people are finding you, but you need to look under the hood and make sure your site has a proper tune-up. Because we often are misinformed about our own Web sites. As an example, an agent once asked me to review her sites statistics. She was under the impression that about 90 visitors were coming to her site a day.
But when we examined her Web analytics, it turned out to her site was drawing a measly one visitor every three days.
The good news is you can lure more visitors if you know and use the right keywords in your site. Tomorrow I’ll explain how to find a niche that works for you and your site.
Below are the 20-29 most search real estate terms in the past four weeks.
The information comes from online audience measurement firm Hitwise. A big
shout-out here to Bill Tancer from Hitwise, author of the forthcoming book
Click. For more on Click, click here.
20. hud homes
21. mls listings
22. remax real estate
23. rent.com
24. apartment finder
25. century 21 real estate
26. foreclosures
27. houses for rent
28. remax realty
29. homes for rent
It seem the San Francisco Chronicle has buried the lead again.
Seeing that it’s in the paper’s own best interest to sell more papers, and that nothing sells papers faster than big scary headlines, I would like to offer the key missing fact from the story: Foreclosures quadruple in state, Bay Area.
The missing piece is: “On a loan-by-loan basis, mortgages were least likely to go into default in San Francisco, Marin, and San Mateo counties.” - DataQuick
The above quote was taken from the exact same press release the Chronicle was quoting for their story.
But as I have pointed out on this blog before, most folks aren't having their homes
foreclosed.
So let's not get too up in arms about the foreclosure announcement because
the reality is the deadwood needed to be cleared out. The free market demands it, and the free market is getting what it asked for.
I don't know a single agent who, in private conversation, hasn't said at some point that prices couldn't keep going up like this.
A landlord couple have been charged in San Francisco with waging a campaign of terror against their renters in a South of Market building, including cutting out the floor supports at one apartment after the tenant went to court to keep from being evicted, authorities said Wednesday.
Software engineer Kip Macy, 33, and real estate agent Nicole Macy, 32, who have addresses in Sausalito and Incline Village, Nev., were arrested Tuesday and charged with felony stalking, felony residential burglary, conspiracy and other counts in the bizarre case of apparent landlord rage. They posted bail after their arrest and could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
The charges stem from tactics the Macys allegedly used after they bought a six-unit, three-story apartment building on Clementina Street for $995,000 in 2005 and started eviction proceedings against the five tenants living there.
All this week I’ve been posting about the how search terms in real estate come into play in the real world.... Below is a real world example of search playing out...
The following was taken from the Hitwise blog:
Internet Searches Match Decline in Housing Prices
Legend has it that Bill Tancer (my boss) bought and sold his last house using Hitwise search data. After reading yesterday's Wall Street Journal article about the continued decline in home sales and the stabilizing of housing prices, I checked Hitwise data to see what our data says about demand for homes for sale.
The following chart compares the share of US Internet searches for "houses for sale" (the highest volume non-branded search term relating to real estate) compared with the median monthly house price by month for the past twelve months based on data published by the National Association of Realtors. (Note the search data is based on a rolling four week average of the share of US Internet searches for the final week of each month)
I ran a correlation analysis and found a very strong (.92) correlation between the median house price and the monthly share of US Internet searches. This is about as close to a perfect correlation as I've seen and it got me pretty excited. (Yes, I am a geek.) The correlation is unlikely to be as tight over a longer stretch and I would like to extend the analysis back 24 or 36 months. (If you know of a source for monthly median house price going back further than 12 months, let me know.)
Even if this is over only one year, it is interesting to see how closely online demand (as measured by searches for "homes for sale") and housing prices correlate in the past year.
This tells us that internet searches for "homes for sale" match the decrease in offline demand for homes for sale which has caused prices to decline. We've done some work in the past looking at how internet usage data can be used as an economic indicator. This is a one small piece of that pie.
So, how do things look for April? I looked at the weekly share of searches for "homes for sale" for March and so far in April. Things are flat. The downward slide in prices and demand may have ended but we are unlikely to see a recovery just yet.
Below are the next group of most searched real estate terms in the past four weeks.
The information comes from online audience measurement firm Hitwise. A big
shout-out here to Bill Tancer from Hitwise, author of the forthcoming book
Click. For more on Click, click here.
11. Coldwell banker
12. Apartments for rent
13. www.realtor.com
14. mls
15. Remax.com
16. realtor
17. For sale by owner
18. hud
19. houses for sale
20. hud homes
Need proof the City is still hot. .. Nick Cooper of Vision Real Estate I just heard put into contract 2353 Greenwich in three days.
3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1500 square feet and a yard.... According to those in the know, the place went for well over asking on multiple offers... list price $1,395,000,
I don’t know how they market homes in New York, but $75 million should get you more than six photos because that’s all there is. I’ve seen townhouses in San Francisco for $750,000 on the MLS with 45 photos.
photo credit:sotheby's
I’m not buying the tradition explanation that the house id full of rare art and putting pictures online would invite thieves. Because from looking at the front door, no one is getting by without a key....
Sweet condo in Alamo Square on Golden Gate Ave. Just listed
This beautiful flat has all of the wonderful attributes of the Victorian Era: soaring ceilings,softwood floors,crown moldings, ceiling medallions, wainscoting and grand rooms. Front parlor with fp, pocket doors leading to a 2nd parlor, 3 brs, lg full bth with marble floors, powder rm, formal din rm with fp, eat-in-kitchen with cherry cabinets and lovely deck. Terrific closet space throughout. Extra storage rm. 1 car deeded parking. Close to all shopping,park and Hayes/Fillmore.
