San Francisco Commercial Real Estate News: “The Scoop”

This chart illustrates the difference between an investment made on January 1, 2000 in one of the major U.S. stock indices and one made in either a San Francisco house or condominium. It’s simply a sample analysis to show how real estate usually appreciates over the longer term: numbers may change dramatically according to the period used in the calculation.

Since it is based upon an all-cash purchase, if one made the calculation based upon a 20% or 25% down-payment, the return on investment on real estate purchased would soar into the hundreds of percent.

Even in periods when the stock markets generate a good return on investment, one should note that significant capital gains taxes apply to stocks, but primary residences occupied for a minimum period of time, are exempt from capital gains taxes for the first $250,000 - $500,000 of gain depending on whether the purchaser was one or two persons.

San Francisco real estate has usually proven to be an excellent investment over the longer term due to the advantages of leverage, the incredible tax benefits of home-ownership in the United States, and local demographic and appreciation trends.

We’ll have to wait until 2017 to see how the stock markets fared vs those who purchased homes during the 2007 peaks in real estate prices…

Our Thanksgiving time tradition has been thwarted in 2009 by a lack of gorgeous old stoves. So this year it’s the (semi) recent reduction (listed for $2,565,000 on 9/17, reduced to $2,398,000 on 10/13) of a renovated “green” kitchen…

While September’s S&P/Case-Shiller index for San Francisco showed a nominal decline for the top third of MSA properties (cost basis over $577,214) from August to September, the latest First Republic Prestige Home Index for the San Francisco MSA (the same…

On the heels of yesterday’s height of the fire sale flames post with respect to The Infinity, we turn our attention to One Rincon Hill. So far the lowest priced two-bedroom sale we have identified on a price per…

“Purchases of new homes in the U.S. rebounded more than anticipated in October [up 6.2 percent to an annual pace of 430,000] as buyers rushed to take advantage of a government tax credit before it expired…Home values may remain under…

Of 83 new listings in San Francisco over the past week, 30 (36%) are either bank owned (16) or seeking a short sale (14). One such listing is for Watermark (501 Beale) #1D. Purchased for $725,000 in January 2007…

Mission Walk will begin accepting applications for 66 below market rate (BMR) condos at 11AM on December 5, 2009. Despite an oversubscribed lottery last year, seven (7) three-bedrooms and fifty-nine (59) two-bedrooms remain available. This time around, “applications will…

As the pace of existing home purchases in U.S. picks up and the latest Case-Shiller Index twenty-city composite ticks up, a plugged-in tipster points us in the direction of a rather sobering animation of the rising unemployment wave spreading across…

A plugged-in reader reports: Lowest price sold 2/2 at Tower II is $535,000 for 1,187 sf. Mid 2009. All 1/1 are now gone and it is unlikely to find any 2/2 left at under 700k - at least not from…

According to the September 2009 S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, single-family home prices in the San Francisco MSA gained 1.3% from August ’09 to September ‘09, down 7.8% year-over-year and down 38.6% from a peak in May 2006, but up…