March is a Busy Month for Buyers and Sellers. Are You Ready?

Are you ready for the springtime real estate rush?

March is one of the busiest months of the year for Northern California homebuyers and sellers, as winter recedes and families start making plans for the future. Whether you’re looking for a new home or preparing to put yours on the market, it’s important that you’re ready for busy times ahead.

BUYERS: IS YOUR PAPERWORK IN ORDER?

Homebuyers in Pacific Union’s Bay Area and Lake Tahoe/Truckee regions aren’t likely to face the frenzied competition that marked our real estate markets in recent years, but multiple offers are still routine for attractive properties.

In order to give your bid a fighting chance, you must have your paperwork ready and financing in place. Most importantly, determine how much of a down payment you can afford and how much you can spend on monthly mortgage payments.

Make notes about the features that are important to you in a new home, and do  homework on the neighborhoods that most interest you. Your real estate professional has a wealth of knowledge about local communities, including schools and nearby amenities, as well as the inside story on local homes on the market.

SELLERS: FIX IT AND CLEAN IT

A thorough spring cleaning takes on added significance when you’re preparing your home for sale. You want the house and surrounding property to shine like never before in order to quickly attract the best possible offer.

Washing windows and walls isn’t enough. Replace missing light bulbs and worn fixtures, paint dingy surfaces, and replace worn carpeting. (Some real estate professionals say painting and new carpeting are the cheapest improvements with the biggest payback.)

Get rid of clutter in your home. Prospective buyers love to open cabinets and closets, and sparsely filled storage spaces look bigger than those that are packed full. Consider renting a storage unit for items that aren’t essential to your daily life.

Some sellers keep family photos on the walls and personal mementos and heirlooms on display, thinking they help make a house look homey. But real estate professionals will tell you they’re a turn-off for buyers, who want to imagine their own belongings in place — not yours. Take them down.

Outside, the same rules of fixing and cleaning apply. Prune trees and bushes, rake the yard, and add mulch to flower beds. Perhaps the home’s exterior doesn’t need a new coat of paint, but a few hours with a power washer could make a world of a difference.

Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, sellers should determine how much money they need to get out of their home and set the sales price accordingly. Pricing is a delicate matter, though, and includes outside forces such as neighborhood dynamics and the local economy. Your real estate professional can tell you more about such matters, including pricing data for comparable homes nearby.

Spring is always an exciting season. Good luck with your real estate adventure!

(Image: Flickr/Scott Maxwell)

Article and photo sourced from:  http://blog.pacunion.com/march-is-a-busy-month-for-buyers-and-sellers-are-you-ready/

Mourad: A Welcome Addition to downtown San Francisco

The interior of Mourad. Photo: Russell Yip/The Chronicle

By former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown:

I stayed in my neighborhood the other night and went to Mourad, the new restaurant opened by Mourad Lahlou in the Pacific Telephone building — and it turns out to be really good.

Diners can either go for the $150 nine-course tasting or an a la carte menu that’s in a fairly straightforward format.

Duck Liver with Pistachio, Herbs and Cocoa Gel is seen at Mourad. Photo: Russell Yip/The Chronicle

We had 11 items among four of us—oysters with preserved lemon, eggplant with cucumber and pepper marmalade, chicken wings with persimmon and mustard and duck liver with cocoa, pistachio, turnip and Satsuma mandarins.

They served our appetizers in two waves. Then we had two entrees: snapper with saffron ($34), and beef with fregola, nettle, celery root and mushrooms ($36).

They also sent us all five desserts on the menu and they were excellent.

I always like to eat at the bar and I’ve already been back, but just for cocktails. It’s a better space than where I live at the St. Regis, and it’s only a block away.  I saw at least four couples from the St. Regis residence there. We are all longing for a neighborhood restaurant that’s not fast food or Ame, which is in the hotel. I think Mourad may become the neighborhood restaurant, and with the upcoming reopening of the modern art museum, the restaurant will be the first choice for dining after viewing the exhibits. I think the location is probably better than anyone originally anticipated.

The restaurant is pretty, and it’s pretty interesting the way architect Olle Lundberg has done it. Lahlou obviously brought all of his personal and kitchen help from his other place, Aziza on Geary, because there was nothing that indicated this was a brand new restaurant.

It was a pleasant dining experience and the restaurant is big so you can actually have a conversation that no one can record without being aware they are recording it. In my opinion, Mourad is a welcome addition.

Article and photos sourced from:  http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.com/blog/2015/02/27/mourad-a-welcome-addition-to-downtown-san-francisco/

Sunday Streets on the Embarcadero: this Sunday 3/8/2015

http://www.sundaystreetssf.com/embarcadero-3815/

About Sunday Streets on the Embarcadero

** Daylight Savings Time starts on Sunday March, 8. Don’t forget to move your clock ahead one hour so you don’t miss any of the excitement and fun at Sunday Streets.**

Sunday Streets on the Embarcadero is the annual season opener. It is one of the longest Sunday Streets routes, opening over three miles of streets along the waterfront for residents and visitors to enjoy.  Coinciding with Sunday Streets, Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39 will host a variety of family friendly activities. Northern California residents can join PIER 39′s free “locals only” discount program, Local Advantage, and receive exclusive discounts at participating PIER 39 businesses year-round. Check out their website for more information. (If you are trying to access Fisherman’s Wharf and/or Pier 39 by taxi, the pick up and drop off area will be on Grant Avenue, between the Embarcadero and North Point).

The Sunday Streets Embarcadero route includes the northbound lanes of Embarcadero from Powell St to King St, King St to 3rd St. The route ends at Willie Mays Plaza, at ATT Park. There are tons of activities all along this route, so be sure to download our route map so you can scout out those activity hubs.

Activities and more

The waterfront has many great destinations to explore during Sunday Streets. From Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39, to The Exploratorium, to Willie Mays Plaza at AT&T Park, you are sure to find something that excites you on this route. Check out the Exploratorium’s Science of Sharing exhibit, locals get discounted tickets, so what better time to go than during Sunday Streets! Stop by Pier 27 for Free Bike Repairs by Sports Basement, Acrobats from Circus Center, and more! And don’t miss the chance to learn hip hop dance moves with The BBoy Connection at Willie Mays Plaza. Click here to download the activity guide listing all the fun things happening at Sunday Streets.

How to participate

Volunteer

Each Sunday Streets is made possible with the support and dedication of dozens of volunteers. From event prep and neighborhood outreach to staffing the event, there’s something for everyone. Click the links below to sign up for any of these opportunities:

• Sunday Streets on the Embarcadero: Sunday, March 8, various 2.5-hour shifts between 9:30 a.m. & 5 p.m.
• Volunteer Orientation: Monday, March 2 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.
• Sign Posting: Wednesday, March 4 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. & 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.
• Monthly Volunteer Movie Night: January, March 21 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

For more information about volunteering visit the volunteer page on this website or email Joelle at volunteer@livablecity.org.

Host an Activity! All activities that take place at Sunday Streets are offered at no cost to participants, and are led by community organizations, local merchant or neighborhood groups, individuals and Sunday Streets partners who graciously donate their time to make each event so special. The deadline to host an activity at the Embarcadero Sunday Streets is February 18, 2015. For more information about hosting an activity, click here.

Getting there

The Embarcadero Sunday Streets is one of the most accessible events in the city. We strongly encourage biking, walking, or taking public transportation to get to Sunday Streets when possible.

MUNI:  For trip planning and other Muni-related info, go to www.sfmta.com. Bikes are allowed on front racks of buses. The Embarcadero is well served by many downtown and crosstown MUNI routes, including the following:

• F Market streetcar
• Muni Metro to Embarcadero (Lines J, K, L, M, N, T)
• 10 Townsend
• 19 Polk
• 30 Stockton
• 45 Union-Stockton
• 47 Van Ness
• 49 Van Ness-Mission.

BART: Take BART to the Embarcadero station. The Embarcadero station is just a few short blocks from the middle of the Sunday Streets route at Harry Bridges Plaza and the Ferry Building. Bikes are allowed on BART trains at all times. For trip planning, go to www.bart.gov. For more information about bikes on BART, go to www.bart.gov/guide/bikes.

CALTRAIN: Coming from the South Bay? Take Caltrain to the station at 4th and King. The Sunday Streets route is just one block away at 3rd and King Streets. Get the schedule at http://www.caltrain.com/ and information about bikes on Caltrain at www.caltrain.com/riderinfo/Bicycles.html.

BIKE: Get in the spirit for Sunday Streets by biking there! Go to:  www.sfbike.org to download a bike map to help find a flat, bike-friendly route from your area or the nearest transit stop to Sunday Streets. Got a long way to go? Shorten the trip by taking transit part of the way. Muni buses have bike racks for 2 bikes, BART and Caltrain both allow bikes on board.

By Car:  Should you chose to drive, be aware that the Sunday Streets route is towed of all vehicles beginning at 8am (even if you’re just stopping for a moment for a cup of coffee). Check out SFPark.org and parkme.com to identify available parking lots and spaces nearby. Additionally, parking may be available at these locations near the route:

• Pier 39 Parking Garage at 2550 Beach St
• Embarcadero Center Garage at 3 Embarcadero Center
• AT&T Park – Lot A at 1101 3rd St

By Taxi: If you are arriving by taxi, please note that the pickup and drop off area for Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 39 will be on Grant Avenue, between the Embarcadero and North Point.

Detour and Parking Changes

The Sunday Streets Embarcadero route includes the northbound lanes of Embarcadero from Powell St to King St, and King St to 3rd St.

The Sunday Streets route is towed of all vehicles beginning at 8am. No stopping/parking is allowed on the route between 8am and 4pm (even if you’re just stopping for a quick cup of coffee, your car may be towed). Streets begin closing to vehicle traffic starting at 10:30am, and will remain closed to vehicle traffic until 4pm.

Northbound traffic should use alternative routes (such as Van Ness Ave, Polk St, or Franklin St) to access the Marina and Fisherman’s Wharf.

Southbound lanes of the Embarcadero will remain open to vehicle traffic.

The Least Expensive SF Neighborhoods to Buy a Single-Family Home

The median sale price for houses in San Francisco is up to $1.1 million, according to a recent report from Paragon Real Estate. But the report also shows that, much like the city’s famous microclimates, San Francisco is actually made up of dozens of micromarkets, where the difference of a few blocks can mean the difference of millions of dollars in the median sales prices.

In Pacific Heights, for example, the median home price was about $4.1 million, versus just under $2 million a few blocks south in Lower Pacific Heights. Neighboring Presidio Heights, on the other hand, had the highest median house price in the city with $6.125 million. Paragon looked at sales between August 16, 2014, and February 15, 2015, to have a large enough sample set to determine these median figures, but the report cautions that some neighborhoods still had very few sales during this period, “which may produce anomalous results.”

While sales like those in the above neighborhoods brought the median up, there were also many neighborhoods where median single-family home sales were far below the citywide median. For the most part, these homes were located in the city’s southeastern quadrant, where neighborhoods like Mission Terrace (940K), Sunnyside (860K), Excelsior (709K), Outer Mission (782K) and Portola (751K) were purchased for well below the citywide median.

Oceanview, Bayview and Visitacion Valley were the city’s least expensive neighborhoods, with median sales in the mid-600K range. The slideshow above shows a recent two-bedroom, two-bath flip in Oceanview. The 735-square-foot cottage with three decks and fantastic views recently received a revamp with new flooring, a new kitchen, and new paint inside and out. It sold for 649K in January after listing for 669K in November 2014. (Pre-flip, it sold for 585K.)

On the west side of town, there were also some bargains. Outer Richmond is still just below the median with a $1.05 million median, while Outer Sunset (850K), Outer Parkside (835K) and Parkside (950K) were still well below the citywide figure.

There are actually very few neighborhoods where the median home price matched the citywide median of $1.1 million, but a few came close. Miraloma Park was just over with median of $1.137 million. Inner Parkside had a median of $1.150 million, just above the citywide number. (The photo gallery below shows a recent Inner Parkside sale that comes very close to both the neighborhood and citywide median.)

The above medians are all for single-family home sales, but Paragon did break down condo sales as well. In some neighborhoods, like Yerba Buena and South Beach, median condo prices nearly matched the citywide single-family median. And in neighborhoods like Russian Hill, where the condo median was $1.5 million, and Noe and Eureka Valleys ($1.3 million), the condo median went well above the citywide median for single-family homes.

Paragon notes, “The sale of new-construction condos in 2014 and early 2015 significantly increased median and average values in certain neighborhoods such as Potrero Hill, Duboce Triangle, Hayes Valley and Mission Dolores.” But, even with the new inventory, the median sales for condos in all of those neighborhoods—except one—are all below $1.1 million. At $1.225 million, Hayes Valley condos beat the citywide median, and as more and more new construction units come online, we may see more of this trend.

Emily Landes is a writer and editor who is obsessed with all things real estate.

Article and images sourced from:  http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2015/02/26/the-least-expensive-s-f-neighborhoods-to-buy-a-single-family-home/

WildAid's Newest Campaign: Pangolins

March of the Pangolins from WildAid on Vimeo.

Native to Africa and Asia, pangolins are often referred to as "scaly anteaters." They're highly secretive, yet have the unfortunate title of world's most-trafficked wild mammal. In China and Vietnam, pangolin scales are coveted as traditional medicine and the meat is considered a delicacy.

WildAid is planning a new campaign to reduce the consumption of pangolins and diminish poaching impacts. You can help by watching and sharing this short video on pangolins. And check out this extraordinary feature in National Geographic by photographer Paul Hilton, on assignment for WildAid to cover the shadowy world of pangolin poaching.

Will you support our efforts to bring this message to the masses? Click here to make a gift and select "pangolins" in the program option of the donation page. This ensures your contribution will go directly to WildAid's pangolin campaign. (Pangolin photos: Paul Hilton/WildAid)

San Francisco Shows Highest Annual Home Price Gain For Second Straight Month

The San Francisco metro area has once again put up the largest annual home price gain in the U.S., according to the most recent numbers from a prominent real estate index.

The latest S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, which run two months behind, say that single-family home prices in the San Francisco area increased by 9.3 percent in December, the most of any of the 20 major U.S. metro areas included in the report. San Francisco returned to the top of the Case-Shiller index for the first time in 18 months in November, when prices rose by 8.9 percent year over year.

As was the case in the two preceding months, home prices in San Francisco grew at about double the national rate in December. Case-Shiller’s numbers put the U.S. annual rate of home price appreciation at 4.6 percent in the final month of 2014.

Although existing home price growth and sales across the country are at their normal levels, David M. Blitzer, managing director and chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said that he believes the housing recovery is “faltering,” a by-product of sluggish construction and new-home-sales activity.

“Before the current business cycle, any time housing starts were at their current level of about one million at annual rates, the economy was in a recession,” Blitzer said. “The softness in housing is despite favorable conditions elsewhere in the economy: strong job growth, a declining unemployment rate, continued low interest rates, and positive consumer confidence.”

According to MLS data, the median single-family home price increased year over year in every one of Pacific Union’s Bay Area regions except the Mid-Peninsula subregion, which saw a slight decline. Home prices topped the $1 million mark in our Contra Costa County, Marin County, Mid-Peninsula, San Francisco, and Silicon Valley regions as 2014 came to a close.

The chart below provides more information on annual Bay Area home price changes. Also, be sure to check out Pacific Union’s fourth-quarter 2014 real estate report for more in-depth sales data and information on how we define our regions.

(Image: Flickr/Bhautikjoshi)

Article and images sourced from http://blog.pacunion.com/san-francisco-area-leads-us-home-price-growth-second-straight-month/

Five New Restaurants to Check Out!

Sunset Reservoir Brewing Company/Facebook

 

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A Sunset brewpub, a Castro Asian-fusion spot, a funky Oakland burger joint, and more.

Outer Sunset: Hilary Cherniss, of the Sunset's popular Devil's Teeth Baking Company, has debuted a new brewpub, Sunset Reservoir Brewing Company. Russian River alum Aaron Weshnak is brewing the five housemade beers, which include a wheat beer made with Devil's Teeth sourdough yeast, and there's a full menu of everything from roast chicken to pasta bolognese to a burger. It's intended to be a family-friendly place, and kids are welcome. Status: Open. 1735 Noriega St.

Mission Bay: Oda, a new cafe from a Kosovo-born owner, has opened at the 1500 Owens complex at UCSF. Sandwiches, salads, pizzas, and flatbreads are among the cafe offerings, and there's wine and draft beer in the evenings until 8 pm for the after-work crowd. Status: Softly open. 1500 Owens St.

NoPa/Western Addition: Bar 821 has gotten an interior and offering refresh, with a new second bar in the back of the space and plans for the largest amaro offering in the city. They've added more seating, but promise not to overly disturb the bar's reputation as a nice place for a cheap beer. Status: Open. 821 Divisadero St.

Castro: ManDu, an Asian street-food joint, has taken over Barracuda Sushi's former home in the Castro. They specialize in fusion fare like chicken wings with pickled ginger aioli, roti with curry dipping sauce, Korean tacos, and miso-marinated ribeye with caramelized onions. They also have soju cocktails with housemade fruit purees. Status: Open. 2251 Market St.

Uptown Oakland: Ultra-retro burger stand Giant Burger has been taken over and refurbished as Space Burger, with burgers, fries, shakes, and a few new additions like pulled-pork and portobello mushroom sandwiches. It'll only be there for about 18 months, though, as the lot it's on is set to be razed and turned into housing. Status: Open. 2150 Telegraph Ave.

Article and Photo sourced from:  http://sf.eater.com/2015/2/27/8122109/new-restaurants-bars-san-francisco-february-2015