Ho! Ho! Ho!

Lock, Stock and two weeks left in 2013…

First and foremost: Ho! Ho! Ho! Newsletter readers. This week’s edition will take a look at recent sales and closes in SF and news. Have a Ho! Ho! Ho! Holiday and see you in 2014!

2013 has been quite a year and 2014 is looming large. The Fed is beginning its tapering of its bond purchasing program which means that mortgage rates will soon be going up too. While rates are thought to remain historically low throughout 2014 remember that even just a 1 percent increase in rates could mean $100,000 in diminished buying power and higher income requirements. So the time to act is now… well, January will probably be the time to act as there’s not a whole lot out there this time of year to the public.

But for us realtors it’s a surprisingly busy time of year as we try to get our listings ready for the new years (note all of the painters and porta potties around town) and as we try to find out who has what coming on the market in an attempt to get those properties to our clients first. And don’t forget folks with tax reasons to close a transaction before the end of the year too.

Speaking of taxes, the best things buyers can do now is to get all of your tax documents ready to file ASAP so as soon as you get your 2013 tax statements you can file. This will help you get financing approval faster, which could be the edge that wins you a property in a bidding war.

Even more so than last week…. You may notice porta-potties all around town. These may indicate sellers scurrying to get their listings ready for January. It happens every year (and earlier) when a push of new listings come onto the open market. Some properties are indeed new and others are recycled from 2013, but either way, it may be new to you. Get yourselves ready to get looking if you’ve been coming up short recently.

Also, this time of year sees buyers scurrying around to pick up some holiday bargains and/or scurrying to beat a calendar deadline and make a property purchase before the year is over. And you’ll see agents scurrying around asking each other about what’s coming on the market. This is the time of year where your agent’s network may provide the magic lead that leads to being able to buy that great property that no one else knows about.   

 

This Week’s Opens

I’ve culled through the list of the 85 open houses this weekend and my picks are contained in the linked pdf you’ll see here and below. Remember for a complete listing of this weekend’s open homes can be found here at www.sfopenhomes.com. It’ll be light this week and next week too.

 

This Week’s Closing Highlights

Over the past 7 days (Dec 14-21) we saw the following:

  • 59 single-family homes closed this week in SF, averaging 103% over list price, being on the market for an average of 28 days, with a median sale price of $956,000. The highest over list price percentage was 148 percent over for the fixer over in Sunnyside at 650 Joost Street that closed for $636,000 with an initial list price of $429,000. A stunner of a home Eureka Valley that is a newly built net-zero passive-built luxury view home on 4 Levels with 4 Bedrooms, 5.5 Baths and 2 car detached garage with a landscaped garden with fantastic downtown views sold off-market for $4M this week. The highest sale was $8M in Pac Heights while the most affordable was a 1200 foot home with 3 beds and 1 bath on Ingalls in the Bayview for 110% over its list price of $399K selling for $441K.
  • 68 condos & TICs sold this week. The most modest condo sale was one in Candlestick point that sold for $365/sqft closing at $360,000 for a 2 bed/2 bath condo at about 960 sqft while the top mover of the week was at 3861 19th Street, which was a chic, well-remodeled condo near Dolores Park listed for $1.1M sold at 141 percent over its list price at $1.56M or $1362/sqft for this 2 bed, 1 bath home just under 1150 sqft.