Real Data SF

The Dirt on San Francisco Real Estate – (Broker, Cal. Dept. Real Estate License No. 773349)

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Double Dip — Again?

August 27th, 2010 · No Comments

Woke up this morning to NPR announcing that new home sales were the lowest they’d been in 15 years.  The housing market is already in a double dip, with some additional price declines  on the horizon, though we’re near the bottom.  As for the broader economy, we’re skating awfully close, but nobody really knows yet [...]

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Tags: Economy · foreclosure

Alphabet Soup Revisited: What Shape Will the Recovery Take?

April 19th, 2010 · No Comments

Back in the still-uncertain days of September 09, every market pundit had his or her own letter for what shape the recovery would take. I blogged about Ben Bernanke’s “U,” Liz Ann Sonders‘ “V,” and Nouriel Roubini’s “W” here. Though one could argue the jury is still out, I think it’s fair to say that [...]

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Tags: Economy · Loans · interest rates

The View From Space: 2010

January 11th, 2010 · 2 Comments

The View from Space – 2010
Ken Rosen is a smart guy.  He’s the co-chair of the Fisher Center of Real Estate and Urban Economics at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and the investment adviser of choice to some of the biggest players in real estate, from banks to insurance companies to REITS. [...]

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Tags: Economy · Market news

A Faltering Housing Market?

November 29th, 2009 · 1 Comment

George may have left office a year ago, but there appears to be a growing consensus that the likely shape of the recovery will be a “W.”  How appropriate, if you believe that we are reaping the bitter fruit of his administration’s policies.
A front page article in the Business Section of last Wednesday’s New York [...]

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Tags: Economy · Market news

Fears of a New Chill In Home Sales

October 29th, 2009 · No Comments

That was the title of an October 27 article in the New York Times, and, as one of my readers and clients pointed out, it’s what I’ve been tentatively suggesting as a possible scenario for this winter. See here, for example.
And, ironically, the gloomy head-line announced yet another “positive” month of data from the Case-Shiller [...]

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Tags: Data · Economy · Market news

Waiting for the Other Sheep To Drop… Or Not

September 24th, 2009 · No Comments

Does anyone really know what’s going on?  Despite the gloom and doom of my recent posts (Waiting for the Other Sheep to Drop, Alphabet Soup:  What Shape will the Recovery Take?), the latest publication of the Conference Board’s Leading Economic Index (LEI) on Tuesday trumpets:  “Fifth Consecutive Increase!”  The LEI is supposed to predict economic [...]

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Tags: Economy

Surprise! Condos are Holding Up Better Than Homes

July 22nd, 2009 · 7 Comments

For the quarter century (gulp!) that I’ve been involved in real estate, the conventional wisdom has always been that condo values generally do worse in down markets than homes.  Why?  To be honest, I’m not sure, but I think it’s because it’s easier to overbuild the condo market than the single family home market.  It [...]

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Tags: Condominiums · Data · Market news

More Grim News on Housing

March 9th, 2009 · 3 Comments

Saturday’s NY Times proclaims “A Gloomy Outlook for Home Sales’ Big Season.” The headliner, by the way, was “Job Losses Hint at Vast Remaking of U.S. Economy.” Is it really any wonder we have difficulty sleeping a’ nights?
Here are some of the cheery highlights:

One out of every seven apartments and houses in the US [...]

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Tags: Economy

The View from Space — Part 3: Above California

December 3rd, 2008 · No Comments

The forecast for the California Housing Market

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Tags: Economy · Market news

The view from space — Part 1

November 25th, 2008 · 5 Comments

Ken Rosen is a smart guy.  He’s the co-chair of the Fisher Center of Real Estate and Urban Economics at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and the investment advisor of choice to some of the biggest players in real estate, from banks to insurance companies to REITS.
Once or twice a year I [...]

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Tags: Economy