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THE BUZZ BLOG
November 14, 2018JUST SOLD for $3.5million: Haight Ashbury Painted Lady
I call this landmark Haight Ashbury Victorian the “Prettiest Listing I’ve Ever Had.” Originally a grand mansion, today it’s a 4-unit building, with a lavish owner’s unit, a ...
November 9, 2018Happy Peanut Butter Lovers Month!
It’s good with breakfast, lunch, dessert, in smoothies and even cocktails! To celebrate, here is a recipe for my absolute favorite peanut butter cookie, the Peanut Butter Blossom. Enjoy! View th...
November 7, 2018The San Francisco Luxury Home Market
In these charts, various price thresholds will be used for the “luxury home” designation, depending on when the chart was first created, if different property types are being combined, or the angl...
November 6, 2018How Far Does $6,500 Go In Renting in San Francisco These Days
If you have somewhere around $6,500 in your pocket every month to doll over to the landlord for rent, then—in a variety of neighborhoods in San Francisco—this is what you’ll get for your money. ...
November 5, 2018Famous SF Restaurants: Blum’s
Located in Macy’s on Union Square 1955-1970 In the summer of 1965, 13-year old Betsy Block’s favorite thing to do each weekend was eat dessert at Blum’s (“never lunch, only dessert”) and see...
November 2, 2018Happy National Deviled Egg Day!
What would a cocktail party be without this easy little, paprika sprinkled favorite?...
October 31, 2018High Altitude $20,000 A Month Condo in San Francisco
It’s a sort of castle condo in the San Francisco sky. Measuring in at 3,750 square feet and covering two floors this condo is not only sky bound, but pretty much stratospheric in terms of rent. Try ...
October 19, 2018Office Leases in San Francisco in 2018 Break the Ceiling
Back in 2017 the record for large office leases was broken when 20 were signed and office tower space was filling up fast. It was predicted that the age of very big office leasing was finished in SF. ...
October 14, 2018$1 Billion Warriors’ Center Featuring Popular Local Restaurants
Warriors’ balletic basketball and award-winning local SF food go together like passes from Draymond Green to Steph Curry. A perfect 3 pointer. With the Golden State Warriors’ Chase Center dribblin...
October 12, 2018LIRA: Low Interest Rates Addiction LIRA: Low Interest Rates Addiction
Have we been suffering/benefiting from Low Interest Rates Addiction – or “LIRA” – for too long? This week, the US Equity Markets dropped notably, with the DOW down 832 points (...
October 11, 2018San Francisco Early Autumn Market Report
Due mostly to seasonal issues, median sales prices typically drop in Q3 from Q2 peaks, and did so this year as well. The median SF house price was up 15% and the median condo price was up 4% from Q3 ...
October 6, 2018Iconic San Francisco Ferry Building Has Proud New Owners
Must feel pretty good to be able to outright buy one of San Francisco’s most beloved landmarks, the SF Ferry Building, with its iconic Port of San Francisco signage, and wedding cake clock tower. Th...
October 4, 2018The Multi-Unit Residential Property Markets of San Francisco, Alameda & Marin Counties
The big political issue facing the market is CA Prop 10, which, if passed in November, repeals the limits on local rent control laws enacted in the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act. This would almost...
October 2, 2018CoreLogic S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index Update
The CoreLogic S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index does not evaluate median sales price changes, but employs its own proprietary algorithm to measure home price appreciation over time. Since its in...
October 1, 2018Rain Could Be Finally Coming to Very Dry San Francisco
A welcome prediction from the National Weather Service is for the possibility of rain in San Francisco in these last days of September and first days of October. The city hasn’t seen rain in since t...
September 27, 2018A Brief Primer on San Francisco Real Estate
This week when I was managing the front gate for our listing on Polk Street, I noticed the three buildings across the street represented three very different kinds of housing styles. So I made a quick...
September 26, 2018The Fed is Expected to Raise Interest Rates Today
DID YOU KNOW? The Fed is expected to raise interest rates by a quarter point today and indicate it plans to keep hiking them in what many expect to be a hawkish message for markets. Wall Street econom...
September 21, 2018SF’s Cool Urban Park On Top of New Transit Center Hot Real Estate
San Francisco has got a new urban park – 5.4 acres of trees, shrubs, flowers, grass, walkways and waterways on top of a roof five stories up. That’s a pretty big and a very cool rooftop sitting pr...
September 14, 2018SF’s Financial District Home to First Women-Only Coworking Space
Last month I wrote about the hot competition among coworking space companies in San Francisco, and their pitch battle of amenities offered to attract in clients. Coming up in October in the Financial ...
September 11, 2018San Francisco September Newsletter
September is typically the single month with the highest number of new listings coming on market in San Francisco, a big spike in inventory which fuels the relatively short autumn selling season. Ver...
September 7, 2018Just Listed: 1013 Cabrillo Street
Set near the edge of the world’s greatest urban park, this is the home where you’ll dig for treasure in the back yard, test Grandma’s secret recipes in the sunlit kitchen, and build small but pe...
September 6, 2018$3,000 Gets You What in SF Rentals Right Now, This Week?
Three thousand dollars a month for apartment rent is certainly not cheap in any city, but in SF it’s only going to go so far. However, surprisingly (depending on your neighborhood, of course), it ca...
August 31, 2018Coworking Spaces in San Francisco Competing With Big Amenities
San Francisco’s coworking scene is undergoing a makeover as competition heats up between companies vying for the coworking market. Coworking is when workers from different companies work independent...
August 24, 2018Making Laundry Sexy Again
How Laundry Rooms soothe and restore It was the first room to the right just inside the front door. She walked in and twirled around like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music. Visions of fitted sheets ...
August 22, 2018SFRealEstateBuzz Makes Some News
Our most recent sale, referenced above was a modest bungalow in the Outer Sunset. It went for a lot more than asking because it was in a highly sought after neighborhood with a heavy beach vibe, had a...
August 20, 2018Robots Working in Restaurants in the Bay Area
Robots are part of the SF Bay Area food scene. Not the foodie scene. But definitely the food scene. Check out a scene on Telegraph Ave in Berkeley recently where a DoorDash robot at two feet tall was ...
August 17, 2018Four Charts About San Francisco Luxury Home Sales
The second quarter of 2018 saw the highest quarterly number of SF homes selling for $2 million and above – probably because quality family homes in good neighborhoods easily sell in the $2-2.5...
August 16, 2018Just Listed: 1500 Diamond Street
Your back bedroom opens onto a flowering garden, while at the front a sky lit kitchen and open floor plan take in a shimmering downtown skyline. Head up to the yard with your coffee and your eye will ...
August 15, 2018San Francisco Real Estate Market Report
We are pleased to announce that Paragon Real Estate has joined forces with Compass in order to deliver a new level of support and service for our clients. Founded in 2012, Compass is a real estate te...
August 13, 2018SF’s November Ballot Includes Tax For Large Companies to Help Homeless
San Francisco’s City Election committee recently approved a ballot measure up for vote in November 2018 that will address the city’s homeless situation with a tax on the city’s largest companies...
August 9, 2018Props and Shout-Outs This Week
Our business is built on referrals from old clients and fellow agents outside San Francisco. This week’s hat tips go out to Colleen Larkin of Thornwall Properties, Julie Cuellas at Red Oak...
August 7, 2018New Hotel in SoMa Touting Top Chef, Rooftop Bar
San Francisco has its share of panoramic rooftop views along with mixologist drinks, and it doesn’t hurt to add another one at the soon-to-open Virgin Hotel with 194 rooms in SoMa, at 250 Fourth Str...
August 3, 2018Does anyone else remember the Wild Mouse ride at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk?
When I was a kid it was the only ride there I didn’t like. My hip sockets always took a beating in those tiny metal cars, and I never walked away without bruise or two along my swimsuit line. Th...
July 31, 2018This Week’s Hot ‘Dog’ Links
It’s a well-known fact there are more dogs than kids in the city these days. Whether you are a long time resident or new to San Francisco, we’ve compiled these links to show you the most dog frien...
July 31, 2018Renting Is Now Cheaper Than Buying in San Francisco
The sizzling buying market in SF has now turned another real estate law of gravity on its head: it’s now cheaper to rent than to plunk down the monthly mortgage on a house or condo in the city. Acco...
July 26, 2018The Fascinating Etymology of SF Neighborhood Names
San Francisco is the city of colorful, charming neighborhood names, the more edgy colorful the better it seems. As in Dogpatch, which origins is not exactly known but it’s speculated that it was a n...
July 23, 2018Stuff to Do In the Last Weekend of July 2018
It’s always a pleasure to sip some good coffee at a good café on an interesting SF street and take a look at what’s coming up for a weekend that happens to be the last weekend in a month—in thi...
July 23, 2018Seasonality: How Market Dynamics Change by Season
Seasonality typically affects inventory levels, buyer demand and median home prices, often in very significant ways – as is illustrated in the following charts. However, it is not the only fac...
July 21, 2018From Luxury to Ultra-Luxury Condos in SF
Luxury has a certain ring to it in the condo world, and sparks up visions of design and amenities that include, …well, everything you can think of. However, luxury is not enough these days in San Fr...
July 19, 201860,000 New Residential Units in SF Mapped Out
San Francisco has a pretty big pipeline of new residential unit projects coming into the city—either as approved and being built or in the approval or proposal stages. These projects represent a sig...
July 18, 2018SF Multi-Unit Residential Income Market
The Multi-Unit Residential Property Markets of San Francisco, Alameda & Marin Counties This report generally separates out the 2-4 unit and the 5+ unit apartment building markets, since they typi...
July 16, 2018Hotel Room Boom is Upon San Francisco
San Francisco—one of the most visited cities in the world—is in the midst of a hotel room boom after several years of slack growth hotel-wise. The largest room increase was back in 2008 with the I...
July 13, 2018The Symbiotic Affect of a Hot Job Market in SF and Rising Home Prices
The ecology of San Francisco includes more than its Golden Gate Park and small park flora, and trees along streets and rooftop and inner courtyard gardens. It includes a less helpful symbiotic relatio...
July 12, 2018What Costs How Much Where in San Francisco
Median sales price is that price at which half the sales occurred for less and half for more. Average dollar per square foot reflects the livable interior space of a home and does not include garages...
July 11, 2018San Francisco—a Great City of Adventurous Alleys
A story out of sfweekly.com took on the cultural, cartographical importance of alleys in San Francisco, which is a city chock full of such, as it turns out. Anybody who regularly drives around and thr...
July 9, 2018Office Rents Are Rising in SF for First Time in Two Years
In the rising tide of prices in San Francisco you can now see office rents among the boats being lifted up. It’s been over two years since such increases were visible. Now, as of the second quarter ...
July 9, 20182018 YTD: A Wild Ride for San Francisco Real Estate
By any measure, the heat of the San Francisco market in the first half of 2018 has been among the most blistering ever. Probably only 3 or 4 other periods over the past 50 years have seen a comparabl...
July 6, 2018Local Architects Sculpting San Francisco’s Skyline
Architect firms local to the Bay Area are up front and center in the structural designing and interior designing of some of our most notable and prized local buildings, both here in SF and over to the...
July 2, 2018Is Home Cooking Going Extinct – Replaced by Ordering Online
Home cooking can be enjoyable—even contemplative—a way to relax and connect with things important about being human, being a couple or being a family. Yet, for many it is a responsibility, a chore...
June 30, 2018San Francisco Professional Workers Looking For Work-Life Balance
What are employees looking for in their work culture and environment in San Francisco, and, indeed, the entire Bay Area and across the country? The stereotype is lots of free food (healthy as an opt...
June 26, 2018Slowing Rent Growth in San Francisco – Why?
The rate of rent growth in San Francisco has been dropping pretty significantly since 2015. And that is a puzzle, considering the super expensive buying environment in SF. Over the past three years th...
June 21, 2018Eat Your Way Through All The New Restaurants – SoMa and Mission Bay.
The numbers are a bit surprising, but for a foodie town like San Francisco, maybe not. Despite all the high costs and pretty daunting permitting processes to jump through new restaurants and cafes cro...
June 19, 2018Win the Ugliest Dog Contest Up in Petaluma This Saturday
Hey you with the ugliest dog in San Francisco, and you know who you are. Your dog is toothless or hairless or has a shockingly scrunched up face that you love to death, or hanging skin and a corkscrew...
June 17, 2018Record Fast Time For Sales of Homes in San Francisco
Fast times are here in San Francisco – if you’re selling your house. In fact, across the entire Bay Area the sale of a home is so fast from listing to closing that our SF Bay Area holds the fastes...
June 15, 2018The Most Expensive Construction Projects in SF Now
San Francisco’s pretty skyline—even with fog moistly rolling in—is being remolded as we speak, so to speak. There are cranes all over the place, and a few big-ticket projects have come online, l...
June 13, 2018Pacific Heights Dream House Goes for $1.6 Million Over Asking
Now there’s a cosmic coincidence. A Pacific Heights home was asking $8 million, and just sold for $9.6 million, $1.6 million or 20 percent over asking. That number $1.6 million is also the average p...
June 12, 2018San Francisco’s Toilet Kiosks to Get Jetson-like Makeover
Say “ciao” to the old SF green JC Decaux public toilets. They’re going, well… “down the toilet.” Swooping in from a sort of Jetson’s futuristic techno and environmentally-friendly blend ...
June 8, 2018A Marriage Made in Heaven? – Work Plus Living In Same High Rise
Well, it’s probably the easiest home to work commute, outside of just working from inside your home. Just walk to work on the same floor you live on in a high rise—at least that’s the new idea f...