When a producer of HGTV's House Hunters told me I was "a walking sound-bite" during our TV shoot last year, I wasn't sure whether it was a compliment or not until my friend & AP journalist said the same thing yesterday on my Facebook page after I was quoted in Monday's San Francisco Chronicle article by Carolyn Said: "Yes, yes, Noe Valley, say eager S.F. home buyers" about tech workers buying homes in Noe Valley & environs. According to my friend, "it means you're coherent, you use telling vocabulary and you don't go on forever."
I'm still not so sure they don't mean that I sound like a real estate-bot but hey, I'll take the compliment!
Oh right, you are probably more interested in the news article on the local SF real estate market than you are in my personal musings and desire for the spotlight....so here you go. I'll start with my quote! 😉
The private bus routes sponsored by tech firms are a draw, said Zephyr agent Danielle Lazier. "We see a lot of first-time buyers from tech companies who still want to have a city lifestyle; they don't want to live in the suburbs, but they work down south. What I notice is when people from Google, Apple, Yahoo and Genentech come in for a first meeting, we literally draw a line in the city because of the commute. Noe Valley is at the top of the list, then Bernal [Heights], Mission, Dolores, Cole Valley."
The numbers tell the story. The median sales price in San Francisco has tumbled to $653,000, down 22 percent from its 2007 peak of $840,000, according to real estate information service Dataquick. That's a far less dramatic slide than most other California cities. But in ZIP code 94114, which includes Noe Valley and the Castro, the median sales price for single-family homes now stands at $1.332 million, only 5 percent below its 2007 peak of $1.406 million.The median condo price is $820,000, down 8.5 percent from its 2007 peak of $896,000.
"It's not completely bulletproof, but it's more stable than other areas," Lazier said. "Not everything sells over asking price the way it used to."
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/Yes-yes-Noe-Valley-say-eager-S-F-home-buyers-3343363.php
