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.

The economic shakeup doesn’t seem to be hurting the overall prices of real estate in San Francisco, at least not at this time. Let’s hope that continues!

Here are the numbers for this week, 10/8/08:

- Janis Stone

Referring to today’s market update by Coldwell Banker’s President of San Francisco Bay Area, Rick Turley, we respectfully disagree.

The recent $700 billion bailout of companies that had no business lending to some people in the first place is a bad deal for everyone. True, the National Association of Realtors supported the bill, but only because it helps (in the short term) the real estate industry. But we fundamentally disagree about what government is supposed to do.

Apparently congress and the president of the United States seem to think that government is supposed to INSURE that everyone succeeds, even when they make bad decisions. Not so fast. Real life rewards the winners and punishes the losers, and people should learn from their mistakes. This bill does just the opposite.

With pressure from President Clinton, Fannie and Feddie both took on home loans they knew could never be paid back. Some were and ZERO interest and ZERO money down! In fact, some of the loans were to people who did not even have a job. Now the rest of us have to pay for that decision? I guess technically since we had to borrow from a budget that is already in a significant deficit, NOBODY is actually having to pay for it, but you get our point.

Bottom line is this. Real estate is risky in the short term. For years lenders had in place guidelines upon which to accept or deny people looking for credit to buy a home. It worked well. Suddenly government decides that everyone is entitled to the American dream of home ownership and look where we are! Now as a result of the bailout, the stock markets are suffering… and not just us, but everywhere.

It’s time to take a look at who orchestrated this mess and do something about it. Sure, George Bush is the president, but we also have a lot of Democrats in the house and senate who are just as culpable. In fact, watch the debates tonight and see if John McCain doesn’t name names. Afterall, he was sounding the warning bells about Fannie and Freddie several years ago.

- Janis Stone & Mick Orton

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.

Here are the numbers for this week, 10/1/08:

Seems like with all the turmoil around the lenders this week that nothing would be selling. However, business is steady, and will probably continue to be so now that the government has settled on a “rescue” package.

• 7 new listings (average price $2,536,000 – low $655,000, high $3,250,000)
• 3 ratified sales (pending) (average price $585,667 – low $449,000, high $788,000)
• 2 closed sales (sold) (average price $2,742,500 – low $2,485,000, high $3,000,000)
• 1 withdrawn – $2,250,000

- Janis Stone