About San Francisco County, CA

Bernal Heights Home Sales Remain Strong!

Sales have been steady this year. We started 2009 slow as was the case in many areas of San Francisco but as we entered the spring and summer seasons things began to pick up. Typically, there would be be a few sales in the million dollar range throughout the year. In fact, I had the last million dollar sale in 2008 when I sold 160 Manchester for $1,165,000. It's a spectacular house. As the leading Bernal Heights Realtor, I have my finger on the pulse of this neighborhood.

We made an impressive rebound to strong levels. I recently sold 77 Winfield for $1,059,000 another impressive home. It was in contract before the first open house. Since May of this year properties in Bernal Heights have been experiencing strong interest and have sold more quickly than in many other neighborhoods in San Francisco. I don't see this trend slowing for several reasons but one main reason is that Bernal Heights has been going through a gentrification that has a long way to go. This outstanding neighborhood with some of the best weather and views in San Francisco sells at a discount to a few other desirable areas. Bernal Heights is this hidden secret neighborhood that once discovered is considered an amazing find.

I do a lot of farming (marketing to owners) here. Inventory levels are low, the demand is strong, and unless something changes I believe that there will be little to choose from in the near future. We have been noticing this decrease in supply throughout San Francisco. Pure economics implies that when supply drops and demand remains stable or increases, prices should begin to climb. Stay tuned as I will be reporting more in the coming weeks. At this point I don't see a lot of inventory coming on.

I'm in discussions with a few home owners, as I always am, about preparing their homes for sale. At this time this leading indicator suggests there won't be much coming on in the near future. There are a few homes in my pipeline. I'll keep you posted. I'm the real estate agent in the know. In short Bernal Heights Home Sales Remain Strong!

I'm Frank Castaldini, the Leading Bernal Heights Realtor and Trusted Advisor!

Picture of 77 Winfield in Bernal Heights. The Cressmans live there since 1993. I assist them in preparing this great house for sale. Once they located the replacement home out of the area we were ready to go to market and it sold before the 1st open house. Proper preparation and market knowledge made this happen fast.

San Francisco and Bay Area Multi-Family Residential properties offer many compelling reasons for investment, especially in today's market. San Francisco is a global gateway city, appealing to the international communitee. Not only for the people who want to live in our city, but for international business, finance, trade and culture. Owning apartments buildings in the city and surrounding area can be very lucrative and compelling.

Shelter is one of the necessities of life, and as Americans shift back to a more sustainable lifestyles, we see apartment building starting to make more financial sense. Apartments traditionally keep up with inflation better than other forms of real estate and offer the owner great economies of scale and stability by placing multiple streams of income under one roof.

Multi-Tenant Residential for Sale:

Multi-Unit Residential under $1,000,000

Multi-Unit Residential $1,000,000 - $2,000,000

Multi-Unit Residential from $2,000,000 - $5,000,000

Multi-Unit Residential over $5,000,000

Visit our website at SpinnakerRealEstateGroup.com to learn more about us and our company. The website offers everything you need to buy or sell real estate in San Francisco from:

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Browse by Condominiums & TIC's

Browse by Multi-Tenant Residential

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Tenant Evictions in San Francisco

Condo Conversions

TIC information

REO and Foreclosure

No matter who attends the BSR conference, we always seem to find a balance between the people who legitimately wish to improve sustainability, not just for their company but the planet, and those who set out to further their profits by subtle or blatant greenwashing.

During the Thursday morning breakfast, Zhang Yue, chairman and CEO of China-based Broad Air Conditioning woke the crowd up as he spoke through an interpreter. A few minutes before that, I found myself asking a colleague “Who is this guy?” After 10 minutes, I changed my mind. More people should listen to this guy. True, I haven’t done due diligence on his company but if his company does half the things that he says they do then I’m on board. Yue created China’s first “non-electric chiller” and insists on showing consumers how triple paned windows will reduce their need to use air conditioners. Consider that their business revolves around making air conditioners.

Even the fact that his sustainable company philosophy has dropped his income from the top five richest people in China to the top 500 doesn’t bother him. He’d rather save the planet and make slightly less. Although he became the first CEO to fly regularly on a private corporate jet, he soon realized how detrimental his private jet trips were on the environment, so he changed his corporate jet policy to use it only in special situations and now he normally flies commercial. Maybe the Big 3 (or is it Big 2?) CEOs can get a clue.

The conference not only offers big speeches but interactivity as well. One Thursday morning session tackled the topic of Sustainability of a Budget: Sharing Cost (and Risk) through Government Partnerships and included a diverse panel including Shari Berenbach of Calvert Social Investment Foundation, Sanjay Raman of Howcast Media and Michael de Soyza of Dialog Telekom. After some eye-opening discussion about how PPPs can combine with private companies can increase their impact on social and environmental issues, the attendees broke into groups. We then brainstormed in breakout groups (our group contained people from Visa, ESPN, USAid) about how to create a partnership with various issues and tasks. It’s surprising how many dynamic ideas can be created in 15 minutes.

Yeah!!! Good news for our very pricey market place. It's incredibly challenging to find a single family home in San Francisco in the low-600's (there are more choices if we're talking condos); this $729+ number makes sense for our market. Most of my 2009 buyers have been getting into the market because of FHA loans. They are a complicated loan but provide an opportunity for buyers who have at least a 3.5% down payment.

Here are the details as provided by the S.F. Association of Realtors:

President Obama has signed a resolution passed last Thursday by Congress extending the current limits for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans through 2010.

The conforming loan limits determine the maximum size of a mortgage that Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can buy or guarantee. Non-conforming or jumbo loans typically carry a higher mortgage interest rate than a conforming loan, increasing the monthly payment and negatively impacting affordability.

Currently, as a result of the economic stimulus plan, the conforming loan limit is $417,000 for most areas in the U.S., but $729,750 in high-cost areas, including many in California. The loan limits were set to expire at the end of this year, and could have been lowered to $625,500 for high-cost areas. If the current loan limits had been reduced to $625,500 for high-cost areas, lenders likely would have had to adjust their loan underwriting standards to align with the new limits, to ensure the loans can be purchased or guaranteed by Fannie, Freddie and the FHA.

Higher conforming loan limits are especially critical for California, where more than 80 percent of all loans are financed by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or FHA, and will help maintain the positive signs we are emerging in California’s mortgage market.

While home prices in California have declined, the demand for housing has not. The market has been dominated by first-time home buyers who have faced a shortage of financing opportunities. The loan limits are set at 125 percent of local median home sales prices, up to a maximum of $729,750 in high-cost areas, including many regions in California.

Sales in move-up and high-end markets have been constrained this year; the loan limits extension will help qualified home buyers in these markets to move forward with their purchases.

RainCamp is Coming To San Francisco

The ActiveRain RainCamp Tour is Official!  Our first ever RainCamp in Seattle was sold out in just two weeks.  Now there's a demand by many of our members and non members to bring RainCamp to cities all across the Country.  As you can imagine, this is a huge undertaking for our staff and team. There are so many details that go into setting up this event, but our members and guests are not only worth it, they deserve it.

The "Rainergy" and "Buzz" that comes from a RainCamp is like no other event I've ever experienced.  You have to witness it for yourself to understand and grasp the full value and impact it will have on you, your Business, your relationships in your community, and the industry.  Here's what a few of the folks from RainCamp Seattle had to say:

RainCamp is coming to San Francisco on December 2nd, 2009 for a full day packed with great content, presentations, and some of the most useful and applicable ideas and processes that you can implement immediately into your Social Media, Networking, and Blogging Business Strategy and Plan. The Location and Venue we've selected is once again a "Top Notch" off the hook spot.

How is RainCamp different from other Conferences?

• Assess how you stack up in the modern market.
• Listen to people that are practicing what they preach, and having outstanding success doing it.
• Learn the methodology of a newer agent who has leveraged the Internet to become a 'Mega Producer'.
• Walk away with executables you can put into action immediately.
• Hard core real estate technology education. This is not a fluff event!!

What Do You Get?

Date: December 2nd, 2009

Time: 9:00am - 4:00pm
(registration 8:00am)

Location: Mission Bay Conference Center at UCSF
1675 Owens Street, Suite 251, San Francisco 94143
GOOGLE MAP |  Yahoo Map | Mapquest Map | Microsoft Map

Facility: Wireless Internet Access and Power Available

 RESERVE YOUR SPOT NOW!

There will be approximately 140 seats setup classroom style (with tables) reserved for attendees with laptops.  It is all open seating so those seats are first come first serve the day of event.  We are limited to only 500 seats max capacity, so register right away. There will be On-site paid parking available, street parking and/or complimentary shuttles from the BART and Caltrain stations.  If you're wanting overnight accommodations, here's the Unique Venues Site.

RainCamp tickets are available NOW at a retail price of $159. However, we have reserved 50 tickets for our "early adopters" at a price of $99. This is a great value, so make sure you register today before they're gone, it will sell out.

"When is RainCamp Coming To Your Town?"  We'd love to come to every Major City, and may do so eventually, but currently we are starting in San Francisco, then in no specific order, we'll be in Miami, Washington DC, Dallas, New York, Atlanta, Arizona and more.  I'll be announcing those date and locations soon.  We're still working out all the calendar and venue details.

This is our last West Coast event planned for a while, and we are really looking forward to coming to the "City By The Bay" and bringing the "Rain-Storm" with us.  Just like in Seattle, we'll be hosting another exclusive "VIP" event/gathering after RainCamp, we'll have more details about that coming up later.  It's going to be a day you'll never forget, I hope you can make it to join us.  We put a ton of heart, soul, preparation, and passion into RainCamp, and we don't want anyone to miss out.  So RSVP NOW! :-)

Check out the RainCamp.com Blog.  Also follow the twitter stream using #raincamp.

Photo Source: UCSF Mission Bay