Among the scions of the real estate industry presenting at the Fisher Conference (see my previous post) was none other than Frank Nothaft, Chief Economist and Vice President of Freddie Mac. He had a doozy of a slide set. Here’s one my favorites. More to follow.
The chart shows that nominal (ie. not inflation-adjusted) prices hadn’t [...]
Is Buying a House a Good Investment?
April 30th, 2010 · 2 Comments
Tags: Economy · single family homes
Noe Valley: The Condo/TIC market
April 1st, 2010 · No Comments
At long last, here’s the promised data on Noe Valley condos and TIC’s.
First, a look back (in anger?) at the make-up of Noe Valley sales in 2009.
Note that there were more than twice as many condos sold as TICs, and more homes sold than condos and TICs put together. (What’s a TIC? — Check out [...]
Tags: Condominiums · Data · Noe Valley · Tenancy In Common · single family homes
Noe Valley Still Goin’ Down?
March 11th, 2010 · 2 Comments
Back in May 2009, I showed that Noe Valley was not immune from the slump in prices affecting the rest of the city, despite suggestions to the contrary from real estate agents, mavens and media.
Have things gotten any better? Well, no. And maybe.
Here’s a chart showing percentage change in single family home prices for the [...]
Tags: Market news · Noe Valley
Looking Back at 2009: Half-Empty or Half-Full?
February 5th, 2010 · 3 Comments
Less than two months into the new year and a brand new decade and already 2009 may seem as far away as a bad dream – assuming you still have a job.
It’s hard to remember just how close to the brink of catastrophe we seemed to be just a year ago. Major financial institutions – [...]
Tags: Data · Market news · single family homes
New Year’s Greetings
January 4th, 2010 · 2 Comments
Another glorious winter’s day in San Francisco. My family and I biked over the GG Bridge to Sausalito and then took the ferry back to Fisherman’s Wharf. Thirty-five years in this town and I’ve only done that ride twice. The previous time was a week ago, to celebrate my 10 year old son’s new birthday [...]
TICs, San Francisco’s Involuntary Reflex — Part 3: The Condo Premium Per Square Foot? Or not…
November 6th, 2009 · 3 Comments
Last post, we determined that the current difference between the average (annual) price of a condo and that of a TIC is $86,000, down from a high of $124,364 in 2006. (That’s a 30%+ drop, by the way.) Here’s the chart again (sorry for the funky transparency on the sales volume bars).
That’s useful if you’re [...]
Tags: Condominiums · Data · Tenancy In Common
TICs, San Francisco’s Involuntary Reflex: Part 2 — The Data
November 5th, 2009 · 3 Comments
There are weeks when I look through the new listings on the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) and it seems like there are more TICs for sale than condominiums. Turns out, this just isn’t true. Here’s a chart showing relative sales volumes since 2003 (click to enlarge).
Look at that! Excluding those wonderfully regular dips every Xmas, [...]
Tags: Condominiums · Data · Tenancy In Common
Noe Valley By the Foot
October 4th, 2009 · 2 Comments
As I mentioned in my previous post, I’ve had several questions about per square foot prices recently. There’s no doubt that it’s a very useful metric, for the obvious reason that it allows you to get closer to an “apples to apples” comparison of the value of two different properties that are different in size. [...]
Tags: Noe Valley
Focus on Noe Valley
September 16th, 2009 · 3 Comments
It’s been a few months since I took a look at my own stompin’ ground, Noe Valley, and how prices have been doing compared to the city as a whole. We dispensed with the notion that Noe Valley was somehow “immune” some time ago. Sadly — at least for home-owners — and happily for buyers, [...]
Tags: Data · Market news
Homes vs. Condominiums: How much extra do you pay?
August 9th, 2009 · No Comments
Recently, I blogged about the fact that condominiums seemed to be holding up better than single family homes in terms of their decline from their all-time highs.
At the same time, I noted that there was only about $100,000 difference in median value between condos and homes. That seemed like a small delta and I was [...]
Tags: Condominiums