NoPa Farmer's Market begins trial run on July 13th

From The Tablehopper:

...a ~NEW DIVISADERO FARMERS' MARKET~ begins a three-month trial period on Sunday July 13th! Rad. It's through the Pacific Coast Farmers Market Association, who also do the weekly Fillmore market. The NoPa market will be hosted in the parking lot at Divisadero and Grove—yes, the lot by the old Brother-in-Law's BBQ pit, and the medical Mary Jane trailer. (Now you can get a different kind of herb.) Everyone in the neighborhood, and nearby, please come out and support this market! Sundays 10am–2pm. Divisadero St. at Grove.

The neighborhood has been working on this for quite some time now (it was originally going to be in the Panhandle @ Ashbury Street, but too many folks complained about potential traffic and parking problems- imagine that!).

Congrats to the organizers for getting it done, and I wholeheartedly echo Marcia's sentiment: please support this farmer's market, and it'll be more likely to return next summer!

Discussion Tuesday on Proposed Divisadero Transit Changes

One of the transportation elements, and possibly the most controversial (due to the parking restrictions) of the very impressive Divisadero Streetscape Renewal is up for discussion this coming Tuesday. The city is inviting anyone with an interest to come hear the proposal and weigh in - or forever hold your peace.

Improving transit service along the street is one of the goals of this project. The 24 Divisadero bus line currently averages only 5.4 mph in this area due to traffic congestion, so part of the overall proposal includes a part time transit lane in the southbound direction from Fulton Street to Oak Street. To create space for this lane, which can also be used by taxis and right turning traffic, no parking would be allowed Monday to Friday on the west side of the street from Fulton to Hayes between 4 and 7pm. The existing tow-away lane from Hayes to Oak would be extended one hour.

The proposal is to install the transit lane this year to see how it works before the streetscape improvements occur in 2009. We will monitor how the change affects transit and traffic, and feedback w ill be solicited from people in the area so that the design can be modified and improved as necessary. We understand that there are tradeoffs involved with this proposal and want to work with you to determine the best design.

We invite you to a meeting to discuss the details of the proposal and to answer any questions you may have.

The meeting will take place at:
Club Waziema, 543 Divisadero Street
Tues June 10, 5pm to 6:30pm

SFMTA Notice [SFGov]
Divisadero DPW Great Streets project and MTA Traffic Study Update [SF DPW]
Divisadero Streetscaping to begin in Spring 2009 [SFHomeBlog]

The Giant Pool of Money - The Hands-Down Best Explanation of the Credit Crisis

I've read more articles and descriptions of the Sub-Prime Mortgage Mess and current 'credit crisis' than I care to admit.

It wasn't that I was looking for answers myself, per se. And I always felt I had a fairly good handle on what went down from having witnessed it, more or less, from my front row seats.

Really, I kept looking because I was searching for someone, intelligent - neutral and capable of telling the story in its entirety in order to better explain the situation to my clients. Mostly because they were getting a lot of sound bites with very little substantive answers.

There was a Money magazine editor who tried - and he did a pretty good job. A NY Times article came out last year that was also really good, a bit technical, but fair I thought. Almost all the blog postings I came across that attempted it ended up with extreme views on either side, 'greedy mortgage broker' this and 'evil stock broker' that, fueled by the 'always deceptive real estate agents'...

...(Cue the angel music)- then along came Ira Glass. My hero!

All joking aside - this week's free download of This American Life narrated by Ira Glass, entitled 'The Giant Pool of Money', single-handedly explains, in layman's terms, what happened, why it happened, and how it affects everyone - not just those who are homeowners or those who are facing foreclosure. I have to say, there wasn't any description or story included that I disagreed with, and more to the point I learned several things that I previously did not know.

I highly recommend taking the time to download and listen - you can also subscribe to the podcast for free at the iTunes Store where they post a new podcast every Monday. It is well worth the time regardless of whether you are a past, present, future or never-to-be homeowner.

And ultimately, the current credit crisis has ended up impacting everyone. More so than I even realized before listening to this podcast myself.

Read more about the episode here.

Download the MP3 of the podcast here.

To Rent Control or Not to Rent Control - That is the Question - Prop 98 Heats Up

From today's SFGate,

Proposition 98 was written as a restriction on eminent domain that would prohibit the government from taking property for the benefit of a private party. Opponents say it would do far more: define "private" and "take" in terms so broad as to effectively overturn the state's approach to managing development and affordability.

The clause attracting the most attention is one that would ban government-imposed limits on what landlords can charge tenants. The change wouldn't affect existing leases, but once renters move out, property owners in cities with rent control laws, such as Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco, no longer would have to limit price increases on those units. [more...]


Differing views on measure to end rent control [SFGate]
How Rent Control Drives out Affordible Housing [CatoInstitute]

Individual Tax Bills for Tenancies in Common One Step Closer

As we first reported back in September of last year (courtesy of the 'head's up' from Gordon over at Plan C), it looks as though Phil Ting from the San Francisco Real Estate Assessor office is looking to make good on his offer to help clarify the oft confusing, record keeping nightmare facing many Tenancy in Common owners come tax time.

As it stands, there is one stunning tax bill sent out to all Tenancies in Common, regardless of how many individual units exist within the TIC, or how long the TIC has been in existence. That tax bill, in it's simplest form, is split by the individual owners based on their percentage of ownership of the Tenancy in Common. The trick begins once an owner sells, or remodels - thereby triggering a reassessment (aka increase) in property taxes - the increased portion of the tax bill then becomes the responsibility of the offending owner whether they are the new kid on the block or someone looking to update.

Now, take a six unit TIC that's been around for oh, I dunno, say 10 years, which has seen several resales, a few remodels, and voila! - Dante's Hell of accounting.

To stave off any confusion, Ting plans to send out notices in July to all known Tenancies in Common, along with the yearly notice of assessed value, clarifying the city's policy on separate assessments for TICs and how to request one. It's important to note that simply getting a separate tax bill does not exclude every owner of the TIC partnership from being liable for both their share as well as the whole, in the event one owner falls behind. Thus reiterating the importance of a great TIC agreement and reserve account.

S.F. may clarify TIC units' tax liabilities [SFGate]
Calling ALL Tenancy in Common Owners [SFHomeBlog]
Mapping San Francisco's TICs [SFHomeBlog]

A Tale of Two Cities - A breakdown of Active Listings in San Francisco

Tuesday Tour and Tax Day prompted me to run a few numbers on the Active Listings in San Francisco. The total number of active real estate listings, not pending or contingent, and excluding any of the numerous new development listings that are not currently in the multiple listing service, totals 1545.

What caught my attention was the fact that close to half of all listings in San Francisco (42% to be exact) are in Districts 9 and 10 whereas only 58% of all active listings are in the entire rest of the city Districts 1-8.



On some levels the contrast is not as sharp as it initially appears, only in so much as Districts 9 and 10, which include South of Market, Potrero Hill, Bernal Heights, Mission Bay, Excelsior, Bayview, and Hunters Point take up geographically a large percentage of the actual land mass of the city and county of San Francisco, so one would expect there to be more listings.

Originally, I was looking to find, out of all the Active listings, what percentage had gone through price reductions (roughly 5%). However there was such a huge difference in the number of price reductions on a District by District basis that I ended up snooping further (District 9 had by far the most at 7% vs more or less 4% on average for the rest of the Districts in the city).
What do I make of it?

Looking for the best negotiating room in San Francisco....head South. The Northern portions of the city are still seeing multiple offers for move-in condition well priced product. If you're a Seller and you need to sell in South of Market - price it appropriately (well that goes for all of SF really, mistakes are just going to be more forgiving in the traditional neighborhoods).

S.F. OKs plan for 6,000 housing units

From today's SFGate,

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved two plans Tuesday that would add high-rises and thousands of residents to the upper Market Street area.

The first plan is a sweeping rezoning of the so-called Market-Octavia area, which stretches up both sides of Market Street from Ninth Street to Noe Street. The effort is nearly eight years in the making and was inspired by the demolition of the Central Freeway and its ramps extending north and west from Market Street following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

The city Planning Department sought to remake the area with an emphasis on walking and public transportation by concentrating new housing close to major transit stops. The zoning allows developers to construct buildings that pack more residential units into a project, including boosting tower heights from 20 stories to 40 stories on some parcels near the intersection of Van Ness Avenue and Market Street.

Officials estimate the plan could mean an additional 6,000 housing units in the Market-Octavia area. [more...]

S.F. OKs plan for 6,000 housing units [SFGate]
Progress on Octavia Boulevard housing? [SFHomeBlog]
RFPs issued for Octavia Boulevard housing parcels [SFHomeBlog]
Market-Octavia plan mired in red tape [SFHomeBlog]

Sex in the City - San Francisco Real Estate Condo Rules

This question came from the current Davis-Sterling newsletter (titled 'Renter Headaches'), a legal update written for homeowners associations.  For some reason (I can't think why), it caught my eye.  More importantly, it reminded me that I haven't yet clued those of you who own, rent, or invest in California condominiums into this valuable resource yet.

QUESTION: We have an owner who has been observed engaging in sex with a female guest at the pool. Can we immediately suspend his pool privileges, or do we have to schedule a hearing prior to the suspension?

ANSWER: You cannot suspend privileges without a hearing.

There are a myriad of reasons to stay informed, and while most associations endeavor to be reasonable it is important to know both what your Associations rules are, and what is and is not legal in enforcing them.

Many people don’t realize that homeowners associations can, and sometimes do, initiate and foreclose on a property for non-payment of HOA dues. Rules an association adopts can impact not only the pets you can have, but the length of time you can sign a lease as well as if you can even lease your condo at all (some associations have a maximum of 75% owner to renter ratios). Is it legal to ban smoking in individual condominium units, not just in the common areas? It is, and the entire city of Belmont recently did so. Here in San Francisco, at the Bridgeview in South Beach (400 Beale Street), the homeowners narrowly defeated a proposal to ban smoking on private patios.

The newsletter also features some great real estate humor...

To sign up for the newsletter or simply to access their previous newsletter articles, some of which are amusing, all of which are highly informative go to http://davis-stirling.com/newsletter.html.

Divisadero Streetscaping to begin in Spring 2009

A HUGE project is going to hit Divisadero Street next spring, with repaving happening from Castro to Sutter, and a large-scale redesign of sidewalks and medians from Waller to Geary.

The project will add width and trees to the medians, new streetlights, wider sidewalks, better bus stops, and corner 'bulbs' that will make for a more pedestrian-friendly experience in this now-hot neighborhood street that is full of great restaurants and shops.

See the Department of Public Works site for more details, or this Powerpoint presentation that has great mock-ups of the streetscape work to be done, and some examples of other streets that have had similar work done in recent years.

SF Department of Public Works [official site]
Divisadero Streetscape Project (PDF) [SF DPW]

Here goes my pet peeve again San Francisco Case Shiller Index

So I woke up this morning to NPR singing that the new S&P/Case-Shiller Index is out and San Francisco is down over thirteen percent?!!!  My heart skipped a beat for a second because I was half asleep and I had a mini panic attack thinking 'When did San Francisco drop so much when I wasn't looking?  That hasn't been my experience in this market where did that number come from?' 

Then I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and woke up to remember (and this will always frustrate the life out of me),  it's not San Francisco County they are speaking of, my favorite 7x7 square mile bit of California.  It is the dreaded/oft misstated San Francisco BAY AREA which includes Oakland, Fremont, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo and of course San Francisco.  All of which are different markets with very different average sales prices and very different price appreciations/depreciations.

  

Don't get me wrong I'm all for keeping an eye on numerical trends - GENERALLY.   It's just it makes my life difficult when I get clients that believe they are going to be able to write an offer 13% below asking on a single family home, that in fact is getting multiple offers.   Details media!  The devil is in the details.

So what is the true San Francisco proper (meaning SF county) S&P/Case Schiller index?  God I would love to know.  They do have that information - I did call a poor soul at Fiserv Inc, the parent company of the Case-Shiller Index, today out of pure curiosity, but it's available on a subscription basis only for industrial clients - and for the $3500/mth subscription cost I figured I would let my curiosity die on this one....

What I did sniff out is the huge discrepancy in depreciation between the price tiers even within the SF Bay Area index.   For example the low Tier (under $545,294) went from 269.67 in Jan. 2007 to 192.12 in Jan 2008 - a 77.55 difference; whereas the high Tier (over $794,192) changed from 182.06 in Jan '07 to 175.75 in Jan '08 only a 6.31 difference.   And since those numbers are proprietary to the Case-Shiller index I thought I would pop in a little memo on how they calculate them from their press release. 

 

The S&P/Case-Shiller Composite of 20 Home Price Index is a value-weighted 

average of the 20 metro area indices. The indices have a base value of 100 in January 2000; thus, for 

example, a current index value of 150 translates to a 50% appreciation rate since January 2000 for a 

typical home located within the subject market.