Building frenzy

When I first moved to the city in the 90's I lived in SOMA, on 3rd and Folsom. Back in the day, I made sure to stay north of Harrison and east of 5th, one of the "undesirable" parts of town. There was one exception of course: clubbing on Saturday night. The area has undergone a dramatic transformation over the last ten years. The redevelopment agency has big plans for a brand new SOMA/South Beach/Mission Bay, including 5,000 new residential units, many of these market rate condos. You can thank Willie's administation for finally figuring out that the best way to make the city affordable is to increase supply. Simple market economics.

A fellow broker has a good blog of the new condo developments, www.sfnewdevelopments.com .


Political Recap
Daly's ballot proposition requiring disclosure of evictions during sale of property passed in June by a few thousand votes.

Mikarimi's bill restricting the landlord's ability to take away "priviledges" (eg parking space, smoking, storage space, etc) passed the Board of Supervisors.

Peskin's ordinance, which would change this Ellis Act by calling for a significant cash payout for all tenants to be evicted from rental units due to an Ellis-ing of the property, was struck down by a Superior Court judge.

Party like its Summer 2005

Well, if your broker hasn't told you yet, the market peaked last summer. But don't tell that to all the bidders on a charming Bernal Heights fixer on Eugenia last month. My client who does fixers was interested so I dropped by the open house. Should have guessed by the 30 people who showed up that this one was going to turn into a bidding war. Listed in the mid-500's the comps came in at 850-900K, fully remodeled. Structurally sound, it needed a full interior finishing (sheet rock for the walls, kitchen, bathroom, refinished floors, etc.). Looked like the owner started to redo the inside and just stopped. The listing agent received 37 offers. The winner was a buyer represented by a Coldwell Banker agent. The winning price: 877K. Not much of a margin there.