The median price of a home for sale in San Francisco has dropped recently, but it’s up compared to this time last year, according to real estate analyst firm Redfin.

Redfin said the San Francisco median price is $1.488 million, a decline of more than 5% from November to December.

Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather said the holidays slow down buying and selling, adding long-term perspective is important.

#New: Bay Area housing prices.
Median home price (change from last year):

San Francisco: $1,475,000 (+10%)

San Jose: $1,300,000 (+23%)

Source: @Redfin

— scott budman (@scottbudman) January 14, 2022

“I wouldn’t read too much into the monthly decline,” Fairweather said. “I think the important thing is that home prices are up 10% from this time last year. That’s the measure that I think reflects how the market is heating up a bit.”

Redfin said, depending on how mortgage interest rates go, it expects that heat to keep going up.

The housing market is sending some mixed messages to those trying to make it in the bay. The latest housing report shows homes may be getting a little more affordable. NBC Bay Area’s Janelle Wang spoke to realtor Lisa Blackwell for some clarity.

The post Median San Francisco Dwelling Value Down Just lately, However Up In comparison with Final Yr – NBC Bay Space appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Keyan Karimi

Many Americans are looking to move: Indeed, a record 32.4% of Redfin.com users looked to move to a different metro area in January, which is up from “a previous peak of 31.5% in the first quarter of 2021 and significantly higher than before the pandemic,” the site revealed. And the data showed that San Francisco was the No. 1 destination users were looking to leave. It’s a trend that has been happening for a bit already, other research shows: The number of people leaving the Bay Area jumped 21% from March 2020 and September 2021, according to a report from University of California researchers. In this story, we talk to one of those people who left the Bay Area, and share tips on what to consider if you’re looking to move too. Check out the lowest mortgage rates you can get here now.

When 30-year-old start-up investor Keyan Karimi’s Silicon Valley office shut down due to COVID-19 in March 2020, he went to visit his parents in his hometown of Atlanta. “I was spending time with them and it made me realize something had really been missing from my life. It had been almost 10 years since I spent more than two weeks with my family since I’d gone to college out of state, worked in Dubai and then California,” says Karimi.

With work-from-home becoming the new norm, Karimi began to consider a move. A Zillow search for affordable historic homes in Atlanta didn’t reveal any promising prospects, but when Karimi zoomed out, he noticed a cluster of red dots hovering over Savannah, about 3 and a half hours away. “That led to a visit, since I’d never been there, and I started looking at houses,” says Karimi.

Though he had been renting an apartment in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood while commuting to Silicon Valley, Karimi knew he’d found his next home the minute he walked into a historical row house in downtown Savannah. “Downtown Savannah is actually quite expensive and in the last year it’s really exploded. The value of homes in my neighborhood have gone up 45%, which means my taxes have increased and my cost is actually now a little more than what I paid in rent,” says Karimi. Still, he says it’s like comparing apples to oranges, since he had a junior one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco — and he’s now in a row house duplex with a courtyard and a garage.

Looking for a mortgage? See the lowest rates you might qualify for here.

What it really comes down to for Karimi is the way his life has improved since leaving the tech capital. “I love the walkability, even though San Francisco is considered a walkable place, you still have to walk from neighborhood to neighborhood. Here, it’s block to block and anywhere you want to go out or eat is all in one neighborhood,” says Karimi. This, he says, is one reason Savannah frequently lands on lists of the best cities to visit in the United States.

He was also surprised to discover how much the south had to offer businesswise. “Seeing companies relocating and starting here was really surprising. The population from all the universities has an appetite for innovation, technology and building the community up,” says Karimi. And, that’s made it easier for him to continue to work remotely. “I partnered with some entities here … try to bring an element of Silicon Valley tech as it applies to logistics, and I launched an initiative where we’re going to bring that to some of these companies,” says Karimi. Now, with these projects on his docket, he has even more of an excuse to stay in Georgia permanently.

Of course, he misses many of the people he knew in the Bay Area. “It’s just a different level in San Francisco. No matter where you are in the world, the best talent and the smartest people are drafted by companies to Silicon Valley. Living and working there is something I wouldn’t trade for anything,” says Karimi.

The post Why I ditched San Francisco for Savannah, the place the median dwelling prices simply $285K appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

Bentonville, Arkansas

Getty Images

The number of people leaving the Bay Area jumped 21% from March 2020 and September 2021, according to a report from University of California researchers. We talk to one man who left about why he did it. (Thinking of ditching your pricey city too? Check out the lowest mortgage rates you can get here now.)

Life as a CEO in San Francisco became increasingly stressful for Phil Libin, founder of the app mmhmm and former CEO and executive chairman of software company Evernote. After 15 years of city living, Libin decided it was time to wait out COVID-19 somewhere peaceful. So he packed his bags, told all of his employees they could work virtually forever and headed east to Bentonville, Arkansas — a place he’d passed through once or twice before, that’s known for its artsy vibe, beautiful outdoors and as the headquarters of Walmart.

“I thought I’d go somewhere for a few months, so I got an Airbnb and then decided to stay,” says Libin, who hasn’t looked back on leaving the tech capital. The thing he misses the least? Traffic. “In San Francisco, I was Ubering everywhere. I looked back at my calendar and realized I was spending almost three hours every day in a car, going to the office or from meeting to meeting,” says Libin. Now, he works from home, or a few local places within walking distance. “My life here feels much more integrated. Things are much cheaper and money goes much further,” says Libin.

He has a point: According to Realtor.com, the median sales price of a home is just over $400,000, compared to $1.5 million in San Francisco. And overall San Francisco is 147% more expensive than Bentonville, according to Sperling’s Best Places, with home prices being the biggest factor in that.

Phil Libin

While in San Francisco, Libin thought he had a high standard of living – “I was the CEO and I had a pretty good quality of life because I spent a lot of money,” he says – but he says his standard of living in Bentonville is actually much higher. “I have a higher quality of life and 100% of the people that work with me could afford to live the way I am,” says Libin. (Libin lets all of the mmhmm employees live wherever they want, and he says that about half of them who were in the Bay Area ended up moving.) “They can afford to eat at the same restaurants and be members of the same clubs, says Libin.

Now, instead of living in an overpriced condominium, Libin has bought land and is planning to build a house. “I was in SF a few weeks ago for the first time in a year and I was shocked by what I used to put up with. I had forgotten about sitting in traffic. I would sit in the car for 90 minutes all the time and I thought it was okay. I never want to ask someone to do that,” says Libin.

Of course, the restaurants and culture of San Francisco are hard to beat, but it’s easy enough to travel from Bentonville, Libin says. “There are direct flights … It’s actually easier to fly domestically from here than SF because the airport is smaller and there’s no traffic. If I have to fly internationally to Asia or Europe, it adds a hop, but it’s worth it,” says Libin.

The post ‘I used to be shocked by what I used to place up with.’ Why this CEO left San Francisco after 15 years for Bentonville, Arkansas, the place the median residence prices nearly $400K appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

A recent housing market analysis of house prices in the San Francisco District showed an average sales price of a little less than $ 1.5 million, which is more than $ 1,200 for every square meter of property purchased. This corresponds to a price increase of more than seven and a half percent in the last four months and almost five percent compared to the prices of the last three years.

The supply does not significantly exceed the demand either, which could lead to a further appreciation of home prices. Last month 628 new properties came onto the market and 618 addresses were sold in the same period. That means first-time home buyers, as well as those currently looking for a more affordable apartment, may struggle to find an apartment that is in their price range.

Some interpret these numbers to mean even worse things to individual buyers than they originally saw. For example, the number of homes sold each month fell by a little less than a quarter in the last financial year. While some have suggested that this is merely indicative of a pandemic-era buying pattern, others have suggested it may indicate that the median price level has finally moved away from the average consumer.

Find out more about an area before buying

Consumers are increasingly turning to statistics when planning to buy a home in a new neighborhood. While the prevailing belief has been that high property values ​​indicate a good place to live, this no longer seems to be the way many potential buyers think. Excessive real estate values ​​are being linked to a new breed of pseudo-urban poverty, in which people buy houses they simply cannot afford and continue to buckle under the burden even though they should be able to earn enough to live on.

The dependence of vehicles on slower roads has also become an important issue for many buyers. If you want to live in an area that gives you the freedom to use public transport in any form, you have to pay for this privilege. In terms of taxes that finance the operation of transport systems, this may be understandable, but increasingly in the form of higher up-front costs that do little to benefit the city as a whole.

It’s likely that people who find that these issues are becoming a problem in one place they might otherwise have bought a home will look elsewhere. For some, this may mean getting off the San Francisco Metro entirely, while others instead start looking for hidden gems in the immediate area. Those who have properties in the area may put them up for sale, although developers are unlikely to show significant interest.

How buyers adapt to changing conditions

The sudden rapid growth of sites like Know Your City and various apps pointing out different facts about specific areas seems to suggest that people are actually shopping a lot more than they have in the past. Given the current work situation in San Francisco, there is a great possibility that this could eventually lead to a greater shortage as people flee to suburbs to avoid higher costs that they can no longer handle.

On the other hand, the data collected by these services also seem to point to a future downward trend. As the two best financed properties find it increasingly difficult to buy real estate, they may simply refuse to buy an existing home or condo. Assuming this actually happens, prices can drop drastically to create increased demand.

That would set the cycle back a bit and could even make the average cost of certain other products and services in the notoriously expensive bay a little more affordable.

The post Median Sale Costs Depart Out a Majority of San Francisco-area Homebuyers appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.