Though I’m not certain that “knocketh” is actually a word, I’m going to run with it. I have bigger fish to fry. What could be more important than being 100% accurate with my grammar you may ask? Well, how about not missing out on an excellent buyer’s market? According to DataQuick, San Francisco Bay Area median home prices dropped by 41% to $375,000 in comparison to same time numbers from last year. Although prices fell in all counties, San Francisco price drops were the lowest at 12%. Compared with counties like Contra Costa or Solano which experienced 44% and 39% drops respectively, our city is still doing well all things considered.

There has been an increase in short-sale and foreclosure sale activity in the city as well, though it is still not a significant player in what is driving our local market. With many economists predicting our economy to experience its worst year since 1991, you can bank on more bad news in 2009. As unemployment approaches 8%, and local layoffs increase, it’s clear we are far from being out of the woods. This recession is global, not just local, and recovery will be slower than originally thought.

So, where is the opportunity? There are many throughout the bay area, but San Francisco stands out above many others. According to Forbes.com, a recent study by the Urban Land Institute asked 700 real estate professional to rank their top picks for cities to invest in. San Francisco was ranked number two, just behind Seattle. As the report sites, one of the major strengths of San Francisco is its limited amount of land and the fact that it hasn’t been over-developed. It is a simple factor of supply and demand.

So, what’s going on locally? Let’s look at single family home numbers for some indication. As the city has many micro-climates for real estate, I could not report all data in this limited report. I did, however, examine a few representative regions within our city. We will look at District 2 (Sunset District, Parkside, Golden Gate Hts.); District 7 (Marina, Cow Hollow, Pacific Hts., Presidio Hts.); and District 9 (SOMA, South Beach, Mission Bay, Bernal Hts. Potrero Hill, Central Waterfront).

So what does this all mean? It spells opportunity. As I have said before, we are not likely to be at our “bottom” yet in San Francisco, but we are close. It would be a wise move to take advantage of a market that clearly favors buyers, with near historical-low mortgage rates would it not? Combine with this the fact that this same market just so happens to be strongly positioned for rebound, and you have yourself a winner!

As we head into the dog days of summer, it is a fitting time to look back on where we are in our San Francisco housing market. In talking with several colleagues over that past few weeks, it was apparent to all of us that our year started with more steam and market activity than we are seeing now. It seems that a combination of new lending standards and market uncertainty are continuing to ...more.

Signs and symptoms are two terms thrown around quite casually in colloquial language, so much so that the average person is likely to think they are interchangeable. Quite the contrary, in medicine, a sign is ...more.

A south side: Every old-school town seems to have one. My mind conjures images of Rocky Balboa on an early morning training jog through Philly, South Side Italian market. On Chicago, South Side sprawled the world famous Union Stock Yards , the area still home turf for the Chicago White Sox. The Boston southies are known throughout the country for their ...more.

And we're off! After an interesting December which showed mixed results based on price point, the San Francisco real estate market is heating up quickly despite nippy temperatures in the 40's as of late. Our weekly sales meeting last Wednesday at the Lombard St. McGuire Real Estate office was a wonderful omen for ...more.

In the event of a water landing, an aviation euphemism for a "crash", to avoid becoming disoriented, pilots are trained to follow the bubbles to the surface. The bubbles each become meaningful indicators-guiding the downed crew to safety. While our San Francisco market has by no means crashed ...more.