San Francisco, California has recently been voted the nation’s most walk able city by Walk Score, a web site that assigns grades to addresses based on the proximity of amenities surrounding them. With rising costs of gas, New Condos in San Francisco could mean a lower cost of living for those that are able to take advantage of the convenience of the city’s public transportation accessibility. As seen in the picture below, most Californians in surrounding areas are paying well in excess of $1000 dollars a year on transportations costs. Residents of San Francisco are also claiming a better quality of life by having the ability to visit local markets, eateries and coffee shops by taking a stroll through the neighborhood. This luxury also attributes to the populations physical fitness placing San Francisco in the top ten fittest cities in the United States in 2007.

I was watching the construction the the new Trump towers in Chicago on the discovery channel in HD last night and I noticed that they are going to every extent to modernize and make that development the most appealing to new consumers and home buyers by importing new italian granite and multimillion facade work. The development is absolutely stunning but it lit a fire in my mind and took me in a direction that I normally wouldn't go. While modernization and new technology is the standard at the moment, I reflected on how cool the combination of old architecture and new renovation made for a really unique and beautiful condo development. The San Francisco condo market is seeing exactly this happen. The residences at Jackson Square is a fine example of a unique San Franciscan landmark become a very desirable residence. With only 12 units available, it definitely falls into the category of a boutique development with a touch of classic flair. Your typical old landmark of this caliber would originally have many rooms -- Jackson Square  renovated these spaces to create open expanses and gave it character by adding light wood tones to compliment the antique brick.

We have seen the New York luxury condo market make impressive gains in 2007 while the rest of the country struggles.  The high end luxury condo market continues to hold strong as prices and demand continue to be through the roof.  Major metropolitan cities have the benefit of being a great investment target for international investors, but the fact remains in the luxury market that affluent people are still willing to buy regardless of “national” market trends. 

Banks are taking the opportunity to lend on $10 million mortgages because they can then bundle and sell those high end mortgages to the open market to make up for all the defaults and foreclosures on the lower end.  San Francisco condos in the luxury sector seem to be following the same trend.  Sales for the 4th quarter have outpaced the 3rd quarter in the high end market by almost double.  Average price per square foot keeps going up and is now at $1,200 while time on market has gone down to an average of 45 days!

Buyers in the high end San Francisco condo market want great views and 24 hour concierges.  And they are getting it all!  In most of the other markets across the country regardless of how many incentives and amenities are thrown at the buyers, values continue to fall.  Many experts say 2008 will be no different for most of the country.  The real naysayers think 2008 may not even be the bottom, be we won’t get into that!  Most of us are hoping for a turn-around towards the end of 2008. 

As some of you may know, www.newcondosonline.com has the exclusive feed on several city.com websites. We have just launched a new feed design and all feeds are sending a lot of traffic to NCO and our clients.

Check it out here:  http://www.sanfrancisco.com/realestate/   We have some brand new feeds in 4 new cities launching soon so stay tuned. www.newcondosonline.com now represents 28 new condo developments in San Francisco.  A very popular community on NCO has been Symphony Towers. With units starting from only $380,000 this is a perfectly prices project for this area and is gaining a lot of interest in NCO. San Francisco tends to be a market that runs in cycles in the real estate market. However, the market is still staying fairly strong and prices have not really dropped off. There are a lot of great opportunities and incentives being offered right now in the San Francisco condo market.  Check out all of them here:http://www.newcondosonline.com/california-condos/san-francisco-new-condos 

According to DataQuick, California home sales were down 32.8%  from June 2006 to June 20007.This made June 2007 the slowest sales month for California real estate since 1995. In our microcosm of San Francisco, though, the story has a more positive rub. Condo shoppers like condo statistics, so let’s get to it. Keep in mind when you read this data that I extract it from the S.F. MLS and it will not include new construction sales or contracts written. In regards to condo sales there were  217  units sold in 6/07 in San Francisco  vrs. 206 units in 6/2006. Inventory is down a bit as well. In 6/06, we had 2.4 months supply of inventory (MSI)  compared to 6/07 when we had an MSI of 2.0. In 6/06 there were 755 condos for sale and 206 sold for an avg. sold % of  27.28%. In 6/07 there were 635 condos for sale and 217 sold for an avg. sold % of  34.17%. What is even more interesting than this is our condo market median sale price. In 6/06 our median price was $782,000 and our average days on market (DOM) was 29. In 6/07 our median price was $825,000 and our DOM still 29.

Well, while the two founders of New Condos Online are off to the City that never sleeps for a massive PR tour, I am off to the Real Estate Connect conference in San Francisco. There will be many technology companies in the Real Estate field attending the show and I'm stoked to meet some people and generate some relationships. I'm also going to be touring many of the San Francisco condos that we advertise on our site. There is so much development going on in San Francisco - so I'm excited to see all of the new construction going up in one of the best cities in the country.

More and more San Francisco residents are seeing the light, so to speak, about the advantages of urban living that high-rise condos offer.  Developers are outfitting new condominium towers with all the amenities that lead towards a true live, work, and play environment.  Areas like Soma, Mission Bay, and Jackson Square are being redeveloped to offer high-end luxury condos with fantastic finishes and even better views. Studies show that condo buyers in San Francisco want to do more research online before contacting an agent and engaging in the purchase process. 

I was in San Francisco last weekend on a business trip that proved quite auspicious.  I visited some friends and had some meetings.  I must say that San Francisco is quite an amazing city!  I went to some delicious restaurants, saw that thing called the Golden Gate bridge and of course, San Francisco condos.  I was there for the Haight St fair – which was an experience, to say the least.  The aroma of a particular plant was omnipresent.    The weather was perfect the whole weekend – sunny skies with a crisp breeze in the air.  The pollution was minimal for a California city.  People were friendly and eclectic and love Barry Bonds.  If you East Coasters ever decide to make the move out West, I would first say check out San Diego and then a close second would be San Francisco. Don't worry about the cost of living - you're young once.  Enjoy it!

We all know that Buyers don't want to buy until the market bottoms out. In San Francisco, new condo buyers have been waiting a long time for prices to drop like they have in many other areas of the country already. Many buyers now have no sense of urgency and are willing to keep looking, hoping that persistence will yield a better deal. Reduced asking prices have become commonplace, with anywhere from 20 to 50 percent of listings in Bay Area counties reporting price cuts. In the Bay Area, new home sales are down 59 percent for April compared with a year earlier. Absorption, or average sales per month per project, was 1.736 condos and homes, compared with 4.707 condos and homes in April 2006.

One of the best ways to purchase a new home in this type of market is to start researching pre-construction condo developments You will normally see significant discounts if you can get in during phase I of new sales for developments like this. www.newcondosonline.com has a vast number of these great investment opportunities in the form of San Francisco new condo developments. Check out The Hayes, Renaissance, and Soma Grand as prime examples of how to get in early as a new condo buyer to avoid excessively high new home costs, especially in a market as pricey as San Francisco.

I just spent my memorial day in San Francisco with some friends from college, and being in the new housing industry, I couldn’t keep my eyes from venturing skyward at each spot I visited throughout the city. From what I saw, San Francisco is about to have a major surplus of housing – including condos, townhomes, and lofts. The city has a lot of cranes in operation right now, I personally counted 8 of them on a boat tour of the bay yesterday. Some of the fantastic looking developments going vertical right now include: Soma Grand, a brand new 22-story residential tower at the nexus of San Francisco’s vibrant arts, entertainment and shopping districts, Heritage on Fillmore Condos, located in the heart of San Francisco's Historic Fillmore Jazz District with One-, two- and three-bedroom condominiums are available in this unique thirteen-story building, and The Hayes, which is currently offering new home buyers two years of paid HOA as well as a new refrigerator, washer and dryer.

NCO is proud to announce 88 South Broadway. These amazing new luxury condos are situated right on the peninsula in Milbrae California.  For those that aspire to a better way of living.  88 South Broadway offers seven distinctive two bedroom and two bath floorplans.  Airy, spacious rooms and gracious styling that makes you feel at home.  From soaring ceilings to premium appliances and gas fireplaces, these luxury homes are designed to celebrate life.  And it is all right here.

With spacious units from 1300 to 1900 sqaure feet and 105 units to chose from, 88 South Broadway is an amazing condo community,

Located in Millbrae, the charm of small town living meets sophistication.  The Burlington plaza heralds greeting from neighborhood shopkeepers.  The delicacies of fine dining meld with the fresh air and invite you to explore, shop and dine.  In fact, you are only a short walk to the nearby BART and Caltrain station.  88 South Broaday offers home buyers a great alternative to high-end San Francisco condos!

More biotech companies are moving inside the city limits.  Previously, the biotech companies set up shop in the East Bay areas and South San Francisco areas.  Now more venture capital firms are pumping over 30% of their funds into the biotech industry.  More commercial developers are supporting the growth inside San Francisco city limits as well.  Mission Bay, a new 303 acre development area is expected to capture the majority of the new biotech growth starting with the new UCSF satellite campus.  Mission Bay will bring thousands of new jobs and very high property taxes for the city. 

The companies moving inside the city will benefit from the transportation hub and close proximity to UCSF, Stanford, and UC Berkeley.  These institutions will supply thousands of jobs to fill the hundreds of thousands of square feet planned to be absorbed.   The companies filling these spaces are veteran biotech companies as well as start-ups leasing 1,000 square foot spaces on UCSF campus.

“How’s the bay area housing market?” a friend asked me yesterday. As a Realtor, I’m quite used to having this question posed. The answer, these days, however, is far from simple. I can’t even give an accurate answer using a city as a whole. Just as many of our bay area towns have micro-climates, they too, have micro-economies. To examine a few localities, let’s look at the total number of homes sold, comparing March 2006 with March 2007.Contra Costa County was down 31.2% in volume and Marin was down 24.7% year to year. As I am a San Francisco Realtor, I was glad to see this data search revealed that the San Francisco sales volume was actually UP 1.4% from 631 units sold in March 2006 to 640 units sold in March 2007.

When we drill deeper and start examining San Francisco by zip code it gets even more interesting. Where zips 94110(Bernal Heights/Mission District) and 94102 (Civic Center/Hayes Valley) were down  -17.1% and -13% respectively, zips 94109(Russian Hill) and 94123 (Marina) were up 27.0% and 17.4% respectively in median home price. In fact, comparing two neighborhood real estate markets within San Francisco can often become a tale of two cities.

In a comparison of two popular parts of town, I ran data comparing MLS District 7 to an equivalent sized portion of MLS District 9 (D9) : SOMA, South Beach, and Mission Bay District 7 (D7) consists of Pacific Heights, Cow Hollow, The Marina,  and Presidio Heights. In this comparison, only condos were examined as Pacific Heights has a large inventory of single family homes and our sample portions of D9 have virtually none. What is important to pay attention to is not necessarily volume, but RATIOS.

The statistics generated were for the past 6 months of sales unless otherwise specified.

 

San Francisco's arts, entertainment, and shopping districts welcome a new 22 story condo tower called Soma Grand.  The new luxury residence will also offer hotel services by Joie de Vivre Hospitality.  These new San Francisco condos will offer floor plans from one to three bedrooms.  There will be 246 homes staring from the low $500,000's.  The completion date is scheduled for later this year. 

The condo market is definately alive and kicking in San Francisco. Heritage on Fillmore is a new and unique development in The Historic Fillmore Jazz District that is slated for completion in May of 2007. Residences will range from 744 SF to 1,513 SF and prices start at only $500,000.00.

This new development has been on our site for less than a week and has already garnered much interest from our users. I'm not surprised. The amenities of this new condo development include: a 24-hour doorman, private parking, the Jazz Heritage Center art gallery as well as a screening room!

You can learn more about Heritage on Fillmore and other San Francisco Condos on www.NewCondosOnline.com.

 

Intracorp strikes again with Arterra in San Francisco.

The project is 269 units starting in the low $500,000's and located in Mission Bay in San Francisco.  This unique and amazing project is scheduled for completion in March 2008. Arterra features amenities to help make your day-to-day life richer and more convenient. The sophisticated lobby welcomes you and your guests in grand style, juxtaposing the warmth of recycled and sustainable materials with the elegance of expansive glass walls overlooking a serene park.

There is also a breath taking rooftop sundeck with views to the south, west, and north to downtown. Please call for more information  or visit the project