Good news, home sales in San Francisco has risen 18% from January 2009 for Single Family homes. The findings from the local market report I get each month issued jointly by the Rosen Consulting Group and the San Francisco Association of REALTORs also noted that “Sales at the high end of the market continued to be dominated by all cash or large down payment transactions.”

I can attest that I’ve come across a number of all cash buyers at the low end of the spectrum in both the East Bay and within entry level Studio/1 bedroom condos in the city, but hearing that the high end of the market is also experiencing this trend is surprising, and I wouldn’t expect to see this trend continue much longer.

High down payment buyers understand that is the “safest” way in order to make your monthly mortgage payments easy on their pockets and won’t allow them to get into the foreclosure situation so many people have been a part of the past two years.

They also found that “at the current sales rate, the months of supply inventory for single-family homes dropped to 3.5 months from 5.8 months while the months of supply inventory for condominiums show a more substantial decline during this time, dropping to 4.1 months from 9.5 months in January 2009. Rosen Consulting Group believes this to be another positive sign in the market.”

Today’s San Francisco Examiner has an article about how the city of San Francisco is mailing fines to property owners who “fail to register vacant or abandoned buildings.”

I bet you probably didn’t know about this little rule from the city did ya?

“Under rules introduced late last year (2009) by city leaders in an attempt to reduce neighborhood blight, a property owner is required to pay a $765 annual fee to register a vacant building and maintain it in a secure and good condition”.

Source: SF Examiner

Anyone of you have a lot of clutter in your home? Want space back from all the old television sets, computers, or electronic devices that you’ve always said you were going to get rid of, but didn’t know how or where to?

Well, the city of San Francisco Clean City program is having another one of their E-Recycling events this Saturday from 9-2pm. This is a great time to clear out all that old equipment, while doing so in a safe and environmentally-friendly way. Best of all, it’s FREE – no charge to get rid of your old electronic equipment!

Sadly, the only things that “Clean City” program can’t accept are appliances of any kind or microwaves or the boxes you use to bring the electronic equipment.

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School
350 Girard St

9:00am – 2:00pm

• Drop off free of charge any of the following items:
• TVs and Monitors – Cell Phones – Telephone Systems
• Computers and Laptops – Fax Machines – VCRs and DVD Players
• Scanners and Printers – Ethernet Cables – Any other Electronic Device
• All networking equipment

So where exactly do you live in now?
See that map on your right? Well, that’s the “old” general map that divides the major neighborhoods in San Francisco. Our city comprises of 10 districts, with somewhere between 70-80 subdistricts – crazy isn’t it?

The San Francisco Association of REALTORS is about to come out with a new neighborhood map this summer that will be more ‘in-depth’ and finally acknowledge many of the more famous and even some of the more unknown boutique neighborhoods in the city.

How does this affect you? A lot, really, I mean it.

Example – you like in San Francisco is the Outer Richmond neighborhood. Single Family, well kept, updated 3bd/1ba home which on average starts at $820,000. Let’s say your home in the Outer Richmond is two blocks north of Geary Blvd, in a small 4 block sub-neighborhood called Lincoln Manor, the same 3bd/1ba home isn’t $820,000, that average really is $950,000. Get the point?

Interested in finding more about the subdistricts or wanting to know exactly what neighborhood your home, owning, investing, or renting in now is located at, give me a call (415-680-8031) or email to find out!

It’s been approved – the city of San Francisco has begun to rezone the southeastern part of the city where the Mission, Potrero Hill, East SoMA, and the Central Waterfront meet as I had posted in last September with Draft Proposed Zoning Map in Eastern SF. This is a large project by every mean as it’s been said that this will re-envision the southern part of the city for the next 20-odd-so years.

It’s going to affect the big sectors in housing (construction, creation, and affordability for low-income), give jobs for those in the construction industry; while indubitable create new jobs that will create new businesses and industries within the neighborhoods.

San Francisco is not known as a “family” city, much less a city for the “middle” class. There’s only two classes – the poor and the less poor in the eyes of residents. In a city with no room for expansion outwards, we’ve become a city that expands ‘upwards,’ and it’s no surprise. Look at Hong Kong or Tokyo.

The Eastern portion of the city have been zoned for industry use only, which was similar for Mission Bay until that area was rezone for high-rise commercial space which is what you’ve seen with all the luxury condominiums. That area is changing and is becoming a small city within itself, and if the rezoning of the South Eastern neighborhoods follows, we may see a continued expansion of San Francisco in the 21st Century.

The proposed plan says that it will support about 51,000 PDR (Production, Distribution and Repair) jobs and will help grow the economy of the neighborhood. Residential, commercial, retail, and office spaces will be built and it will hopefully, generate opportunities for the middle-and-lower-middle class residents.

Stay tuned for more information about the development of the Eastern sector of the city or if you would like additional information now, contact Michael Ta, 415_680_8031 or Michael@PropertySolutionSF.com.

Source: Eastern Neighborhoods Community Planning

Source: SFGate’s Opinion and Map of Eastern Plan