Guess What: SF’s Rents are the Highest in the World

Highest monthly rental payments not just in the U.S., but the world—that’s the conclusion of a recent study done by Nested. Which, of course, means that our beloved SF is the highest in the nation as well.

The study focused on square footage rentals in a number of the most expensive U.S. cities, along with 33 London boroughs, 15 U.K. cities and 72 cities in other countries globally.

Nested used current market listings for a square foot pricing of rentals in the cities, establishing a minimum square footage space as being for one person and a maximum square footage as being for four for family listings. They also included a minimum salary as an indicator of relative affordability from city to city.

Based on these factors the minimum salary for an individual to live by themselves in the San Francisco is $86,000. For a family it is $163,000. In San Francisco we pay an average of $4.95 per square foot to rent a home. New York comes in second at $4.75 per square foot. Hong Kong is the most expensive city to rent in outside the U.S.

Metallica Rocker Keith Hammet’s SF Home Up for Cool 16M

At 54 Keith Hammet is a rock icon and iconoclast—established over decades as the hard-riffing lead guitarist and songwriter for Metallica. And like many rockers who project an image of edginess and rebelliousness on stage and in parts of their public lives his tastes in his home life are staidly and beautifully contemporary-modified classical. This month Hammet’s Sea Cliff Avenue home went on the market for a head-turning $16 million. The home is a stunner, reflecting the lifestyle of a bestselling author or a professor with big bucks rather than a rocker. It boasts views of China Beach and the Marin Headlands that’s are among the best ocean panoramas in the city.

The home was built in 1922 in the neoclassical style with four bedrooms, five bathrooms settled into 4,180 square feet of interior space, with a wall surrounding the 6,760 square foot lot. A finely manicured garden is ensconced on the grounds. Some of the appreciable aesthetics of the home is its custom ironwork, original fireplace and crown moldings.

The house was last sold in 2005 for $5.7 million.

New SF Private-Public Housing Fund Helps Rescue Affordable Housing

Affordable housing is an ongoing concern for San Francisco authorities and residents—particularly in light of SF’s very competitive real estate market and how many home residences are going to be needed over the next twenty years.

Now, a nonprofit fund has just been formed to provide loans to affordable housing developers so they can buy land and buildings already occupied by long-term tenants who face eviction. The newly created San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund is beginning with close to $50 million in commitments comprised of $10 million from the city, $7 million in philanthropic grants and nearly $30 million in private investments due in by the end of 2017. The anticipation is that the fund will have $200 million in funds over the next few years.

Essentially, the fund provides nonprofit developers the serious monies to compete faster against real estate private bidders looking to pick up properties to bring onto the mainstream and luxury home markets.

Rebecca Foster, director of the fund, said: “We need to start deploying capital yesterday to buy these sites. We need to be closing on loans, tons of them, and fast, and we’re ready to do it.” Foster said the fund’s goal is to preserve (or create) 1,500 affordable units over the next five years.

New Means to Curb SF Traffic Being Rolled Out

A few days ago I wrote a blog about San Francisco being the best US city to live in without a car. But, of course, there’s a lot of room for improvement, as we all know our cultural-and-work popular city is still swollen with traffic and can be frustrating to navigate. Wired.com reports that urban planners are saying that the only real traffic-lessening cities are those that are declining in the Rust Belt, whereas cities that are thriving are facing serious and growing congestion.

Just recently the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a new ordinance requiring new residential or commercial projects to have more no-car-use incentives and alternatives. The intention is reduce the number of car trips taken by SFers and the length of the trip.

Beginning in March 2017 developers building in more free parking for a project are required to encourage alternatives to cars for getting around. The way this is being done is through a point system. If you’re putting in 20 parking spots then you need 13 points of Transportation Demand Management offsetting. For instance the developer can facilitate car sharing services (6 points), offer bicycles for use for residents (1 point), setting aside space for on-site day care (2 points), and many more options. Estimates are that the program will see serious benefits ten to twenty years out.

America’s First Transgender Neighborhood Planned in SF’s Tenderloin

It’s historic (as much of San Francisco history is in being a pathfinder in social/civil rights issues): the first transgender neighborhood in the nation is being developed through a collaboration between District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim and the developer Group i—which is the company currently developing the 950 Market space. The neighborhood will be created in the Tenderloin, certainly an important contributor to SF’s groundbreaking community and literary history.

The legislation is looking for a part of the Tenderloin area to be renamed the Compton’s Transgender, Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual (TLGB) District. It is eponymously named for Compton’s—the eatery at which the first transgender civil rights demonstration in the US occurred. If Supervisor Kim’s bill is passed it would create the first legally established transgender district not only in the US, but in the world.

Kim said, “The lower Tenderloin is the most important neighborhood in America for transgender history, culture, and civil rights. By creating the Compton’s TLGB District we are honoring this vibrant community built by transgender people, and are sending a message to the world that trans people are welcome here.”

SF & Other Bay Area Real Estate Markets in Country’s Top Ten

SF in the top ten real estate markets in the US? There’s no surprise there. It would be logically expected in our market of low home/condo inventory and high buyer demand. According to the realtor.com Hotness-Index that covers national real estate sales over specific time periods the number 1 area in the country in January 2017 is the San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward metro region. Number 2 is our neighbors in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area. So, we’ve got numero uno and dos all tied up.

But that’s not all. Other northern California neighbors of ours are also dominating the top ten list. What is number 3 on the list? Vallejo. Yes our cousins just a quick drive to the northeast. Sacramento is number 6. Yuba City is number 7. Stockton is number 9, and Fresno is number 10. That is 7 out of 10 of the hottest markets in the entire country right here in our backyard.

What’s going on? The chief economist for realtor.com, Jonathan Smoke, noted, “Buyers who are challenged by affordability are starting to look to the outlying areas. The average down payment in 2016 in San Francisco and San Jose was $150,000 or more. The average down payment in Fresno and Yuba City was under $28,000. That’s quite a bit of difference in terms of what it takes to become a homeowner.”

Best City to Live In Without a Car: Well—San Francisco, Of Course

Are cars going extinct in SF? No. Not quite. But our city is the closest you can get to futuristic cities where cars as we know them would not exist. According to Redfin, San Francisco is the at the top of the heap of cities with a population of 300,000 or more for it’s The Best Cities for Living Without a Car list. Once again, our fair city beats out our cousins in Los Angeles and New York for the top spot.

The Redfin list is distilled down from Walking Score, Transit Score and Bike Score rankings. Redfin defines this as “These are places where you could forgo having a car and still be able to get around town in a variety of ways, whether it be by foot, bike or public transit.”

Now, for full transparency, we didn’t score first in any of these 3 Scores. We scored 2nd in all of them. But our aggregate score put us at #1 in the country. And as we all know SF is a great city to walk or bike around, and our public transit and pedestrian-accommodating projects have been an intense focus in the city lately, and will be into the future.

Top Ten Public Elementary Schools in San Francisco, And Country

Quality of local education is certainly an important factor in determining a real estate purchase or rental. Certainly this is true in San Francisco—even though the number of families with children in the city is shrinking due to the high cost of buying a house that accommodates children. See our January 30th 2017 blog on reports that only 30% of 3-bedroom homes in SF are occupied by families.

For those with children in SF the educational opportunities are rich and varied. Public elementary schools are just as important as high schools in the education process, and there are over 60 schools for first to sixth graders here in San Francisco. Some are focused on art, and others utilize language immersion approaches.

Niche (ranking and review company) just released its annual ranking of the US’s best schools. Over 30 of SF’s public elementary schools made the list, receiving an A or A- in school grading. Grades are based on academic achievement, teacher availability, school resources, student quality of life and student body diversity.

Check out the top ten SF public elementary schools here at bizjournals.com.

Today Is Opening Day of SF Beer Week: 9 Days of Golden Brew

It’s not exactly Octoberfest in the beer and mustarded pretzel halls of Munich, but it is our own San Francisco version of Februaryfest. Feb 10 marks the kickoff of a fun, celebratory, yeasty SFBW festival that will provide craft beer lovers, family members and even kids something to get jazzed about.

The city is chock full of artisan beer brewers and houses and if you factor in Anchor Brewing Company which started the craft beer revolution here in always-creative SF then the city is ground zero for the artisan beer explosion in the US.

So much to choose from. Over at Anchor Beer you can enjoy the original California craft beer while operating a vintage printing press or dig into some crafty wood working. Part of the Beer Week is enjoying other crafts, so jump in, have some great suds and pick up some craft to give it a go. Over at the ThirstyBear Organic Brewery they’ve brought in Flamenco dancers to pair the chef’s tapas, and the brews with toe-tapping songs and dance. In one of the city’s privately owned open-to-public spaces local art is paired with Fort Point Beer Company’s show-offy brews.

And since Valentine’s Day is Tuesday, Feb 14, you can turn Februaryfest into a romantic interlude celebrated with intimate talk and flights of creatively crafted beer. Over at Mangnolia Gastropub there’s an annual Oyster & Beer Valentine Extravaganza which features their Oysterhead Stout brewed with whole Hog Island oysters tossed in the brew. Aphrodisiac beer anyone?

Check out much of the fun stuff here.