• Calif. median home price – January 08: $430,370 (Source: C.A.R.) (note: compared to $475,460 last month)
• Calif. highest median home price by C.A.R. region January 08: Santa Barbara So. Coast $1,135,000 (Source: C.A.R.) (note: compared to $925,000 last month)
• Calif. lowest median home price by C.A.R. region January 08: High Desert $234,310 (Source: C.A.R.) (note: compared to $244,330 last month)
• Calif. First-time Buyer Affordability Index – Third Quarter 07: 33 percent (Source: C.A.R.) (note: compared to 07: 24 third quarter)

Mortgage rates – week ending 01/24:

• 30-yr. fixed: 5.48%; Fees/points: 0.4% (note: compared to 5.48% and 0.4% points last report)
• 15-yr. fixed: 4.95%; Fees/points: 0.4% (note: compared to 4.95% and 0.4% points last report)
• 1-yr. adjustable: 4.99%; Fees/points: 0.6% (note: compared to 4.99% and 0.6% points last report)

- California Association of Realtors & Freddie Mac

Check our monthly sales updates to compare San Francisco real estate prices versus the state of California as a whole! We also provide weekly updates on this blog as well as our website.

- Janis Stone

• Calif. median home price – December 07: $475,460 (Source: C.A.R.) (note: compared to $488,640 last month)
• Calif. highest median home price by C.A.R. region December 07: Santa Barbara So. Coast $925,000 (Source: C.A.R.) (note: compared to $1,075,000 last month)
• Calif. lowest median home price by C.A.R. region December 07: High Desert $244,330 (Source: C.A.R.) (note: compared to $262,650 last month)
• Calif. First-time Buyer Affordability Index – Third Quarter 07: 24 percent (Source: C.A.R.) (note: compared to 07: 24 third quarter)Mortgage rates – week ending 01/24:
• 30-yr. fixed: 5.48%; Fees/points: 0.4% (note: compared to 6.14% and 0.4% points last report)
• 15-yr. fixed: 4.95%; Fees/points: 0.4% (note: compared to 5.79% and 0.4% points last report)
• 1-yr. adjustable: 4.99%; Fees/points: 0.6% (note: compared to 5.51% and 0.6% points last report)

- California Association of Realtors & Freddie Mac

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.

It looks like buyers are starting to wake up. Maybe it’s because the stock market is picking up steam, maybe it’s the sunny weather or maybe it’s just a change in attitude. Personally I think it may be that the constant drumbeat of negativity from the press has finally drained everyone’s emotional reserves, and people are realizing that it is just not that bad to be living in the United States… no matter WHO is president!

At today’s meeting there were a lot of new listings being announced as coming on the market in the next few weeks, so things could really start to heat up.

Here are the numbers posted this week: 2/27/08:

• 6 new listings (average price $1,334,000- low $549,000, high $2,800,000)
• 13 ratified sales (pending) (average price $1,132,615- low $395,000, high $2,895,000)
• 7 closed sales (sold) (average price $2,402,500 – low $690,000, high $8,500,000)
• 1 reduced price (price $1,699,000)

- Mick Orton
Marketing Director

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

Economic news was sketchy again this week, with housing-related headlines continuing to point out the scary negatives. Fortunately, we continue to see a surprising amount of interest from buyers who are deciding to take the plunge. Really, the deals that are out there are getting to be irresistible, and with mortgage rates starting to creep back up (though still at near historic lows) buyers are recognizing that now really just may be the best time to buy.

Sales are increasing in all price ranges in many areas, and it is perhaps the passing of the economic stimulus package that is spurring these buyers into bringing their checkbooks with them when they’re looking at properties. Buyers are also being properly educated by the real estate industry and doing their research – not just being scared by skewed headlines. Now they’re jumping in while the deals are out there. We are also starting to see homes that have been on the market for quite awhile starting to get multiple offers and selling. First time buyers are also finding affordable, desirable homes in lower price ranges and through REO sales – and they’re buying them. It is not uncommon now to see multiple offers on REO’s…

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.

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

Economic news was sketchy again this week, with housing-related headlines continuing to point out the scary negatives. Fortunately, we continue to see a surprising amount of interest from buyers who are deciding to take the plunge. Really, the deals that are out there are getting to be irresistible, and with mortgage rates starting to creep back up (though still at near historic lows) buyers are recognizing that now really just may be the best time to buy.

Sales are increasing in all price ranges in many areas, and it is perhaps the passing of the economic stimulus package that is spurring these buyers into bringing their checkbooks with them when they’re looking at properties. Buyers are also being properly educated by the real estate industry and doing their research – not just being scared by skewed headlines. Now they’re jumping in while the deals are out there. We are also starting to see homes that have been on the market for quite awhile starting to get multiple offers and selling. First time buyers are also finding affordable, desirable homes in lower price ranges and through REO sales – and they’re buying them. It is not uncommon now to see multiple offers on REO’s…

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.

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.

“AH SUGAR…AH HONEY HONEY” The Archie’s made this the top song of 1969, and in fact, it was the only song recorded by a fictional band to ever reach #1. And like a child who has been overloaded on candy, Bonds have been “bouncing off the walls”, and appear all “sugared up”.

Bond prices and home loan rates swung wildly all of last week. Mortgage Bonds bounced around so dramatically, that home loan rates changed as much as a quarter percent during a single day, on two separate occasions last week. After all the exhausting action, home loan rates worsened by about .25% for the week overall.

Bonds hate inflation because over time, it erodes the purchasing power of the fixed rate of return they provide. And when consumer inflation was reported at its highest level in years, Bonds were hit hard. But some weak data on both Housing and Manufacturing, along with some sweet comments from the Fed, helped pour some sugar on Bonds as they rallied back and improved…

Read the entire report here.

- Foster Weeks

Yahoo Travel says this about the Wok Wiz Chinatown Tours and Cooking Company:

Acclaimed chef and cookbook author Shirley Wong Torres offers an insider tour of Chinatown. You can take a tour that stops at markets and restaurants known only to Chinatown experts. In addition, specialized tours focusing on the food and history of Chinatown can be arranged. Tour dates and times vary, call ahead for information and reservations.

Neighborhood: Chinatown

654 Commercial Street
San Francisco, CA 94111-2504

+1 650 355 9657
wokwiz@aol.com

Open Hours Tours: 10a-1:15p M-Su

http://www.wokwiz.com

- Christine Serventi

Previous things to do:

Find other things to do here.

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

It has been a big week for real estate news. The National Association of Realtors, DataQuick Information Services, Standard & Poor Case/Schiller, the Mortgage Bankers Association, and even Zillow.com, among several others, bombarded us with indexes, surveys, lists and reports. Filtered through the media, the headlines were, of course, mostly negative – but there were nuggets of positivism in many of the articles. You just had to mine deep within the articles to find them. Lawrence Yun, Chief Economist for the N.A.R. expressed it best by saying, “Those pessimistic thoughts are being driven by media outlets that tend to cherry pick data and experts to perpetuate the story that the economy is heading into recession.” He also stressed that, despite the value of national housing data, all real estate is local and consumers should base their decisions on local trends.

The biggest positive news nugget was that President Bush signed the economic stimulus package into law. One component of the package includes a temporary (through December of this year) increase in the conforming loan limit set by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA. The change increases the limit from $417,000 up to as much as $729,950 based on the median price of a given metropolitan area and local market. This is a great bonus to buyers in the greater Bay Area where our median price maxes out the new limit easily in many areas.

The anticipation of this truly necessary change in the conforming loan limits is, I believe, what has spurred so many buyers to be out looking at our more than 460 open houses with such gusto. Every single office reported successful opens this week. People were “out in droves” in Castro Valley. 85 groups visited a new Berkeley Hills listing. . .

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.

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.

“CUTS LIKE A KNIFE, BUT IT FEELS SO RIGHT” Bryan Adams And financial pros will tell you it’s wise to never try and catch a falling knife. Seems like decent advice in general – but in the financial world, it means that when the price of a Stock or Bond is in the midst of a severe decline, be very cautious about stepping in to buy…even if it feels so right because the price starts to look cheap. That’s because when prices declines sharply, it often gets even worse, making it hard to call the bottom. That’s why many investors, who attempt to buy on the way down, say the feeling cuts like a knife. And over the past week – Bonds have been dropping much like a knife, and home loan rates have risen by about .25% across the board.

And speaking of sharp objects, Cupid’s arrows might have been flying around everywhere last week – but little love came calling for the Bond market. First, Retail Sales for January were far better than expected – which was good news for Stocks, but as money flowed into Stocks, pulled money out of Bonds and caused Bond prices to move lower. Next, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke gave it to us straight from the heart, as he testified that the Fed would keep the door open to more rate cuts, which worried Bond Traders about the risk of more inflation ahead. And unlike the media seems to believe, cuts to the Fed Funds Rate generally cause home loan rates to rise, not decline. Why? Because Fed Rate Cuts can spur on more inflation, as it becomes less expensive to finance business and personal purchases. And as a result, inflation erodes the value of the fixed return provided by a Bond – so in the face of inflation, Bond prices fall, and home loan rates rise…

Read the entire report here.

- Foster Weeks

Yahoo Travel says this about Strybing Arboretum & Botanical Gardens:

This is a living museum in Golden Gate Park that is home to a wide array of rare and exotic plant life from around the world. Visit the 70-acre garden and explore seemingly endless trails past duck ponds, an arbor, herbs, flowers, blooming trees and redwoods, and smaller, specialized gardens with names like the Garden of Fragrance. Also on hand is an education center that provides different gardening, horticulture, botany, and environmental classes for adults and children, plus a horticulture library and bookstore. The public is allowed to stroll through the garden anytime, although they are asked to keep on the paths.

Neighborhood: Golden Gate Park

9th Avenue at Lincoln Way
San Francisco, CA 94122

+1 415 661 1316
library@sfbotanicalgarden.org

Open Hours 8a-4:30p M-F, 10a-5p Sa, Su
http://www.sfbotanicalgarden.org/

- Christine Serventi

Find other things to do here.