I post this article today not because it even mentions San Francisco, but because it is refreshing to see two things: first, that Kelly Zito put together an article that really focused on local economies (rather than her usual statewide doom and gloom pieces), and second, that she didn’t have anything negative to say for a change.

When Laura and Patrick Melendy bought their turn-of-the-century cottage in Point Richmond last year, they hoped it would hold its value if the market cooled.

So far, so good.

Even as recent, rising interest rates and an increasing supply of homes for sale has dampened price growth for the overall Bay Area market, values in certain areas are still surging.

Not surprisingly some of the biggest jumps around the region in the last year have come in desirable spots such as Burlingame and Danville, where posh homes and strong schools abound. But others are in sections of Oakland and San Jose better known for rundown properties, slack test scores and, in some cases, higher crime rates.

What’s the attraction? In a phrase, affordable prices. [more...]

And what’s important here is that real estate is VERY local. It’s not something that can be editorialized based on something that a hot-head from UCLA spouts every couple of months. It’s about families seeking affordability, and about finding ways to own their homes.

I don’t doubt the list of comments that will cry ‘gentrification’ or ‘evictions’ in response to this post, but that’s not my point today. My point is that you cannot look at real estate on a macro level.

In San Francisco, this means getting down the the neighborhood level, even beyond the sub-district level (we have 10 districts and 86 sub-districts on the San Francisco Association of Realtors map), and understanding what makes those economies work.

Glen Park used to be ‘too far away’, until folks realized that there’s a BART station in the middle of a quaint commercial district. Now you pay a huge premium to be walking distance from the village core.

Or Potrero Hill, where one side has breathtaking views and great restaurants and the other side has violence and shootings (but also fantastic, breathtaking views). Both sides are in the same sub-district, but they are two VERY different economies.

Kelly, thanks for digging a little deeper today. It’s not so much about the mostly-positive spin of your article (for a change!), but because you spent the time to give your readers a little closer look at how real estate is really functioning in 2006.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 7th, 2006 at 2:26 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.