Read what Rick Turley, President of Coldwell Banker, San Francisco/Peninsula says in his latest weekly report:

It has been an interesting week. The financial markets reacted severely to the tightening of credit in the mortgage industry. Institutional second loans for purchase (ex: 80/10/10) are predominately gone, and practically overnight. On a national scale, the Fannie, Freddie conforming loans, and FHA, VA remained relatively unchanged, but that doesn’t help us much here where the lay of the land is mainly a jumbo loan arena. To balance the perceived risk from investors who purchase these loans, most interest rates on jumbo loans have increased a full percent or more.

Therefore, it is imperative to thoroughly review and understand the financing qualifications and terms for each potential home buyer. In order for any transaction to be closed successfully, buyers will require a real estate professional that is fully informed, knowledgeable and able to provide expert guidance as it relates to the financing aspects of the transaction. It is also important to ensure that buyers are working with a well-capitalized, established lender such as our partner, Princeton Capital. Our Sellers also need to take advantage of our in-house loan professionals who are prepared to help Listing Agents scrutinize offers coming in on their properties…

Read the entire report here.

- Rick Turley

* For an e-mail alert when this report is updated, send an e-mail to info@SFResidence.com with “weekly market report” in the subject line.

A reader asks: I am trying to understand TIC’s better – If I want to buy into a TIC now, and think I may sell in a few years how does it effect the mortgage (not for individual loans), say for example if the rates go up? Does the new buyer buy into the existing mortgage or does it bump up the rate of the existing mortgage?

Our reply: First of all it depends on the terms of the underlying loan but generally speaking, TIC units get a loan that is assumable. So when you sell to a new person they assume the underlying terms of the existing note. So it does not bump up the rate of the existing loan.

- Janis Stone

See more than 250 different species of wildlife from all over the globe here, many of which are endangered. There are a variety of attractions including childrens’ petting zoo and an insect zoo, an Australian Walk, Penguin Island, a Primate Discovery Center, and the Otter River. It also features a one of the world’s largest gorilla exhibits, a lion house, a feline conservation center, a carousel, and a kiddie train.

Admission: Adults (18-64) $11; Youths (12-17) $8; Children (3-11) $5; Seniors (65+) $8; discount for SF residents; cash only; free first Wednesday of the month.

Neighborhood: Sunset

1 Zoo Rd
San Francisco, CA 94132-1027
+1 415 753 7080
guestservices@sfzoo.org
Open Hours: Daily 10a-5p
http://www.sfzoo.org/

- Janis Stone

Previous things to do:

Parts 1 – 20, Part 21 – Yerba Buena Ice Skating & Bowling Center, Part 22 – 49-mile Scenic Drive, Part 23 – Segway San Francisco Electric Tour, Part 24 – Vesuvio, Part 25 – Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, Part 26 – Wyland Galleries, Part 27 – Metreon, Part 28 – Angel Island, Part 29 – San Francisco Fire Engine Tours & Adventures, Part 30 – Aquarium of the Bay, Part 31 – Haas-Lilienthal House

SFResidence is part of the TRI Coldwell Banker office at 1699 Van Ness in San Francisco which is one of the premier offices in the City and has the market share numbers to prove it. We have some of the top agents selling real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a result, our office posts some impressive numbers.

While we are in the summer slowdown and the fog is back over the City, sales are still happening, though not at the pace of the spring market. Even so, multiple offers are very common, probably because the inventory is so low.

Here are the numbers for this week:8/8/07

• 6 new listings (average price $1,199,500 – low $529,000, high $2,397,000)
• 8 ratified sales (pending) (average price $868,125 – low $530,000, high $1,188,000)
• 8 closed sales (sold) (average price $1,168,225 – low $399,000, high $2,605,000)

- Janis Stone

A reader asks: Do you foresee a change in the market in the next few years with all of the new developments in San Francisco? How do you think it will effect the market?

Reply: Any time there is a large increase in supply and the demand does not increase at the same pace it does effect the market. In San Francisco each area is a sub-market. So the building in the South of Market area the the 3rd street corridor is going to primarily effect those areas, especially the “older” contemporary projects. It will probably not effect the condos in Victorian or older, smaller buildings since that is a different profile of buyer.

Buyers who like the charm of Victorians and older properties usually are not willing to go into new projects. I doubt it will effect the market in established markets of the north part of the City including Pacific Heights, Marina, Cow Hollow, Presidio Heights, Russian Hill, Telegraph Hill and Nob Hill. These areas still lack adequate supply for the demand.

The buyers that I have worked with in the established areas of San Francisco want to live in those areas and are not willing to go to the newer complexes out of these areas. At the same time, the buyers who like the new projects and easy access to the 280 Freeway and the Bay Bridge want to live in that area of town. Here is an article from the San Francisco Business Times showing the residential development pipeline of projects that were under construction, or were approved and in the planning stages.

So far the demand is keeping up with the supply but this is the first time since I have been a realtor that we have seen so many units coming online at the same time. We will have to wait and see.

- Janis Stone

Foster Weeks publishes a weekly mortgage report which is updated every Monday morning. How is this affecting the San Francisco real estate market? Read our weekly and monthly market reports.

Last week’s rates improved slightly even on news about the failure of American Home Mortgage company.

…Good news came in the form of friendly inflation and employment news, which helped rates on conforming home loans improve by about .125% over the course of the week. “Conforming” home loans are those under $417K, and subject to very standard credit, income and asset qualifying, nothing exotic, outside the box or fancy – and there’s a reason those are being singled out here as having improved. More on that later.

A little bad news came by way of the Bureau of Economic Analysis, revising previous personal savings rate estimates higher, but showing that Americans still save less than 1% of their income. If you’re not sure that you are preparing effectively for your future plans, like retirement or sending your kids to college, please get in touch with me, and let’s review your situation to see if I have an idea or referral that might help.

The ugly last week – well, it was really ugly. The media screamed all week about issues in the mortgage industry, particularly impacting what are called “non-conforming” home loans; those that are dollar amounts higher than $417K, or with credit, income or assets not falling under traditional guidelines. Many of those rates got excessively ugly, in many cases, overnight. Why? It’s an interesting story, and not one that even the media seems to understand very well. But read on, as this week’s Mortgage Market View unpacks all the details…and what you can do now to make sure you won’t be impacted…

Read the entire report here.

- Foster Weeks

We received an alert from one of our fellow Realtors about a sudden rise in attacks in the Marina. Here are some simple suggestions from the police:

• Do not fight back – they are very dangerous. Pepperspray, etc…is not very helpful in these cases because it could anger them enough to use their weapons.
• Report anything suspicious immediately. Do not go out alone at night. Do not wear flashy clothing, jewelry or brand name clothing.
• Call our neighborhood supervisor Aliota-Pier at 554-7752 and request more police patrols.

What happened to this once safe area? We are told that supervisor Aliota has lent our neighborhood patrol to the Western Addition. A final word of advice; avoid the Walgreens at Divisadero and Lombard at night. Please be safe. 

- Mick Orton

Read what Rick Turley, President of Coldwell Banker, San Francisco/Peninsula says in his latest weekly report:

An island of good news appeared this week in a sea of negative media regarding weakness in the housing market. The National Association of Realtors’ pending home sales index jumped five percent to 102.4 in June.

The index was created to be a more forward-looking snapshot on home sales than NAR’s existing home sales report, which charts sales at the time of closing. The pending home sales index tracks when a sales agreement is signed, generally a month or more ahead of closing. The nationwide report is good news in that it indicates that home sales could see an increase in coming months. Now we need a few more media sources to pick up reports such as this, and we’re working on that. The important message to a Buyer in one of our micro markets where sales activity is slower is that historically as soon as media picks up that sales activity is stronger – Sellers quickly become less negotiable…

Read the entire report here.

- Rick Turley

* For an e-mail alert when this report is updated, send an e-mail to info@SFResidence.com with “weekly market report” in the subject line.

Neighborhood: Pacific Heights

2007 Franklin Street
San Francisco, CA 94109-2909
+1 415 441 3004
cechase@sfheritage.org
Open Hours: Noon-3p W, noon-3p Sa, 11a-4p Su
http://www.sfheritage.org/

- Janis Stone

Previous things to do:

Parts 1 – 20, Part 21 – Yerba Buena Ice Skating & Bowling Center, Part 22 – 49-mile Scenic Drive, Part 23 – Segway San Francisco Electric Tour, Part 24 – Vesuvio, Part 25 – Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, Part 26 – Wyland Galleries, Part 27 – Metreon, Part 28 – Angel Island, Part 29 – San Francisco Fire Engine Tours & Adventures, Part 30 – Aquarium of the Bay

SFResidence is part of the TRI Coldwell Banker office at 1699 Van Ness in San Francisco which is one of the premier offices in the City and has the market share numbers to prove it. We have some of the top agents selling real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a result, our office posts some impressive numbers.

You could say this was one of our slowest weeks in a long time, however, as summer goes, it is usually pretty laid back with all the people and agents gone on vacations. So the numbers should not be all that surprising. As we move toward the end of August things will start to pick up for our usual fall market.

Here are the numbers for this week:

8/1/07

• 6 new listings (average price $4,679,500 – low $799,000, high $23,000,000)
• 10 ratified sales (pending) (average price $1,372,700 – low $350,000, high $2,380,000)
• 2 closed sales (sold) (average price $927,500 – low $549,000, high $1,306,000)

- Janis Stone