The real estate market in San Francisco is down around 20% from its high. Our market is made up of primary homes and is near jobs and education. San Francisco has held up dramatically well throughout the current economic climate.

Unlike San Francisco, Sonoma is down by 40-50% from the high. I have had a second home in the town of Sonoma for the last 15 years and have seen its value soar and then fall by half. I have become intimately aware of the market here and have been a source for a large number of friends and acquaintances who’ve bought second homes throughout the years. This is the best buying environment since 1997 and a great move for anyone seeking to pick up ‘value buys’ in the wine country.

Court House in Sonoma's Town Plaza

I currently have a long time client in San Francisco who began looking around outside the City for a place to move. I made her acquainted with the town of Sonoma and she has fallen in love with its charm, weather and proximity to the City and other amenities. The time was right for me as we began talking of her interest so I’m now a member of the North Bay Board of Realtors and have started showing property here. The values are amazing. She will be able to leverage her equity in San Francisco to pay for a large new home (about 20years old and approx 3000sf) on three quarters of an acre about 3 blocks from shopping and a short distance to Sonoma’s town square for $650,000. This pales in comparison to the $1,250,000 her San Francisco place will bring. She’s definitely got the sell high and buy low formula down.

If you’re interested in how this might work for you or what values are waiting for you in the wine country then drop me a line and let’s talk.

All the Best,

Lance

Yes….the buyers are out there looking! I see this every weekend during my open house periods when I see many of the same faces around the neighborhood and City. Folks realize that San Francisco is ‘on sale’ and like every other period when prices were going up no one is just quite sure how long this will last.

It’s always the waiting game here in Baghdad-by-the-Bay. Whether you’re waiting for prices to ‘go up’ or ‘come down’ or mostly just waiting for that ‘one perfect’ house to come up in yourneighborhood. People are waiting…believe me. I see them. A perfect example is our new listing at 249 Page Street. This stellar 3000sf house hasn’t been on the market since 1975 and the owner is retiring to warmer climates (hence our cold summer). Priced at $1,450,000 this house had an all cash offer the morning after the first Sunday open house by folks who had been…yes, you guessed it….waiting.

249 Page Street

Whenever I describe our market to agents from other areas or countries who I meet at conferences, I tell them that buyers here are the ‘long tail search’. Anyone in the tech world will recognize this term and I believe it applies to our home searching as well. This means that there are more words and more specific words entered into the search engine giving a more exact and probably less visited result. So I believe we now have a new descriptive term for our San Francisco home searching….the long tail search. Go to it, but don’t wait too long.

All the Best,

Lance

The dog days of August are upon us or with this foggy weather perhaps I should say the ’snow dogs’ as any elusive sign of summer seems to be waiting to arrive. The current Brokers’ Tours are small as most sellers await the weeks after Labor Day for the traditional spike in sales so we’re currently seeing all the inventory that hasn’t moved as it reaches some equilibrium with the current market or is taken back and held for another day.

The issue we’re dealing with for many clients is property tax assessment appeals. These appeals need to be filed by September 15th for the 2010-2011 tax year so we’ve been providing comparables to our clients. I’ve gotten back one report from a client that received a quick turnaround from the Assessor’s Office and received a reduction of over 10%. Let us know if we can assist you in this process.

All the Best,

Lance

The real estate market ebbs and flows. Earlier this year, the central neighborhoods that are so popular these days had little inventory and fast absorbtion while inventory seemed to sit in the neighborhoods on the North side of the City.

Central Neighborhoods Single Family Home Inventory of $2mil+ Homes

Northern Neighborhood Single Family Home Inventory of $2mil+ Homes

Now…the central neighborhoods have had a build-up of $2mil+ homes that is now standing at a 14 month supply while the Northern neighborhoods (i.e. Pacific Heights) is sitting with only a 3 month supply. It seems there have been a lot of sellers in the central neighborhoods sitting on the sidelines who saw the Spring activity but who were late to the party. Now, we’ll see how things shake out in the Fall market.