Sunday, April 27, 2008

What's The Diff? Spring 2008


So I'm perusing one of my favorite real estate blogs TFS (no, I don't get paid to plug it, I really do like it) and I stumble across this whopper in the comments:

"I feel sorry for people who were tricked into renting for the past 5 years while SF prices continue to go up."

That kind of broad, categorical, arrogant, and self satisfied comment deserves a reply that can match it ounce for ounce with pure snark. In other words, this was custom made for a blogger like me.

As always, I spent less then 20 minutes on the research here. That's cause Redfin rules and makes a wiseass post like this totally easy. I've just included one example property from a variety of neighborhoods, but if I wanted to get all nerdy about it, I could probably go bezerk and do a gigantic mega post on all the properties that have experienced depreciation since their last sale within the past five years (there are TONS of them), but I don't have that kind of time. Oh how I long for some kind of Redfin/MLS/Trulia/HotPads/PropertyShark API that would let me crunch the numbers without having to do this by hand... (yes I am a full on geek), but I think all the sites who make a living collecting this kind of RE information probably aren't particularly interested in giving data access to people who might want to poke holes in the overly optimistic SF market. If I'm wrong though, and you are one of those sites, please feel free to contact me! :)

And to all the unlucky folks who are owners/former owners of these properties, my heart goes out to you, sincerely. The real estate situation in SF has been pretty stupid for a while, and you got caught up in it. That sucks, and being made a public example out of is probably adding insult to injury, but real estate is a public business and that's the breaks.

So without further ado, here is the Spring 2008 version of our popular recurring feature: "What's The Diff?"

Mission Massacre
1485 Valencia
list: $579k
last sale 2004: $679k
diff: -$100k
* This property is a single building that apparently converted to two TIC's. As such, the listing price ($579k) is for one TIC, while the entire building was sold in 2004 for $679k. Apologies to all concerned for the error. This is what 20 minutes of research on Redfin buys you I guess.

Sunset Savaging
2100 27th ave
list: $674k
sale price 2006: $805k
diff: -$131k

Miraloma Park Mugging
24 Coventry St
list: $699k
sale price 2007: $754k
diff: -$55k

Bernal Depths
826 Peralta
list: $649k
sale price 2005: $655k
diff: -$6k

OH NOES!!1! in Noe Valley
169 Grandview
list: $699k
sale price 2005: $699k
diff: -$51k

Not So Excellent Adventures in Excelsior
940 Cayuga Ave
list: $580k
sale price 2005: $720k
diff: -$140k

That's it for now. Heading down to Crossroads Cafe to drink some coffee, hang with my friends, and let the kids play outside for a while.

I'm back...

Since Alex at the wonderful TheFrontSteps.com has gone back to his main blog, and while TheFrontSteps.org (a concept I think is brilliant) awaits the changes neccesary to become a more useful site from a blogging perspective, I have decided to restart the engines here.

To bring everyone up to speed: I'm a potential buyer with a family in tow. I'm currently preapproved for a loan that would allow me to purchase a median priced home in San Francisco (~$800k), which I guess puts me in the top 12% of income for the city. The problem for me is I can't really afford either the downpayment (I'm aiming for 10%) or the monthly nut on a median priced home, so I'm focused on homes that are priced less then the median price, hence the name of the blog: submedian.

I would ideally like to find a reasonably priced 3br 2ba SFH with a yard, so if any realtors have any pocket listings out there they want to run by me, I'm all ears.

This isn't my main gig, so postings, if they happen, will likely be on Sunday mornings. Like today. And right on schedule I have a post coming up momentarily...