Happy Thanksgiving….may you experience the inner peace and joy through the spirit of the holiday as our nation, families, friends and neighbors reflect on our blessings and share expressions of gratitude.

All the Best,

Lance

Well, the market is moving. But, it’s particular about how its moving is more to the point. The statistics are in now through the month of October and the supply budged up just slightly county-wide for condos and houses from the month before. The condo inventory really shot up a couple of months back going from 4 months supply to 6 months. That proves my instict and what I’ve heard from other agents and brokers that the condo market it ’spotty’. It all comes back to location, views, etc.

The single family home market for over $2million in the central part of San Francisco has looked like a roller coaster graph over the year. It’s still the same showing a drop from 15 months of inventory down to 3.7 months. I suspect there is more to that than meets the eye and will report back on what I find. I did find out that 21 Fountain priced at over $2.7million has received two separate offers but the seller was not able to come to terms with the buyers.

21 Fountain Street, San Francisco

On the other end of the spectrum is 1148 Dolores down from $2,999,000 to $2,699,000 and falling by the day. At this point, I believe this house should sell around $1.8mil-$1.9mil. The response of buyers to the house is that it is in too noisy a location and the house is a fixer. 

1148 Dolores, San Francisco

Over in Pacific Heights there is a very, very high-end developer spec of 4 TIC units asking just under $12million for the four. The finishes are amazing and the locaction dazzling however the TIC market is dead in all price ranges. With conventional rates so low and the prospect of becoming a condo an increasingly faint vision I don’t know why anyone would go that route especially at the high-end. It’ll be interesting to see what happens but my guess is that the owner will end up moving in himself. 

All the Best,

Lance

New to the market, we’ve just listed a spacious contemporary downtown view condo in the Buena Vista neighborhood at 119 Divisadero. It has an open floor plan with those desirable Eastern downtown views over the Bay and into the East Bay hills toward Mt. Diablo. There are views into Angel Island and Marin from the living room.

119 Divisadero in the Buena Vista Terraces

Check out more details here on our website.

All the Best,

Lance

Downtown View from 119 Divisadero

The current market is performing uneven across real estate segments and this is creating value in some segments and areas more than others. In the residential arena, single family homes are the strongest segment. The condo market is spotty – which is creating value in certain locations and types. The small multi-family buildings are struggling with very few sales this year (read this as ‘opportunity’). And, small and mid-size commercial properties are struggling – this due in large part to the lack of available traditional financing (another area of opportunity).

I have been breaking these segments down and discovering layers of opportunity present. The lack of traditional financing has forced prices down and return rates up. This is a perfect opportunity for all cash buyers or asking the seller to carry paper. Within the small and midsize commercial, are a subset of commercial properties that were converted to residential with attractive, desirable elements back when the market was ‘go-go’. Now they’re stuck with the commercial designation and dropping the price to get out – great opportunity for creatively approaching these sellers.

The small and mid-size multi-family is also ripe for picking up some nice properties. We’re representing an out of state buyer on a 4 unit building that is in short-sale. There are other properties in this category that would be attractive to local and out of state investors willing to be creative in approach.

It’s one of those markets that the media is ‘down on’ but in reality is offering a lot of opportunity to those willing to dig a little deeper. Do you have comments on these types of properties? If so, let me know.

All the Best,

Lance