Lush photography book illuminates S.F.’s neon history

The City’s neon is slowly disappearing, according to creators of the new picture book “San Francisco Neon: Survivors and Lost Icons.” 

"Even in the five years since we started work on the book, dozens of neon signs have been removed from the city's landscape. It's our hope that this book will serve as a catalyst for San Franciscans to preserve legacy neon signs,'' says photographer Al Barna, who self-published the book with graphic designer Randall Ann Homan. 

The handsome 7- by 9-inch hardcover volume is more celebratory than it is elegiac. Each page is a beautifully reproduced photograph (most are full color), accompanied by subtle notes with relevant information: the address of the sign, the photographer, the year photo was taken. 

Subjects of the 200 images range from the magnificent to the mundane. Signs of hotels, motels, pizzerias, bars, movie theaters, shoe stores, cafes and restaurants are pictured. Many are illuminated, some are not. Some, such as the spectacular “City of Paris” sky sign now atop Neiman Marcus, are famous. Many are unassuming, such as the “quiet through tunnel” sign at the entrance to the Stockton tunnel.


Succinct commentary – written by Tom Downs, author of “Walking San Francisco,” Eric Lynxwiler, a neon expert and architecture historian, as well as Barna and Homan – accompany about 45 of the photos. About the “quiropractico” sign at 2533 Mission St., they say, “There is no evidence of any chiropractors on this block today, but this seems to be the last surviving bilingual neon sign in the Mission District.” 

Or at Sunset Shoe Repair, on 621 Irving St.: “Once it seemed that every neighborhood in San Francisco had a neon shoe repair sign in the shape of a giant shoe hovering over the sidewalk. Now there are only three extant shoes, and the neon is gone on all three.”
A handy photo index by neighborhood is helpful for those who want to find the signs on walking or driving tours. Color coded, it even indicates whether signs are working and illuminated or missing neon tubes and in need of repair. 

In the foreward, Downs passionately explains why neon should be saved, and not in museums or scrap metal yards, but in context. He writes: “It enhances a cityscape, keeps a city’s spirits up in the week small hours and in all kind of weather, casts color on drab pavements, bounces crazy reflections off dark windows, draws the eye upward to where you might not otherwise be looking.”
 
BOOK NOTES
San Francisco Neon: Survivors and Lost Icons
By: Al Barna and Randall Ann Homan
Published by: Giant Orange Press
Pages: 149
Price: $33
Info: http://neonbook.xyz/

Article and Photo Sourced From:  http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancisco/lush-photography-book-illuminates-sfs-neon-history/Content?oid=2915922

Real Estate Roundup: Bay Area Ranks High for Healthiness

Here’s a look at recent news of interest to homebuyers, home sellers, and the home-curious:

SAN FRANCISCO, SAN JOSE AMONG NATION’S 10 HEALTHIEST PLACES
San Francisco and San Jose metro area residents are some of the healthiest in the country according to a recent report, just one more reason that the Bay Area’s population – and demand for housing — should keep growing.

A study by personal-finance website NerdWallet ranks the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metro area as the second healthiest region in the United States, citing a mild climate and a high level of walkability as two factors that help residents stay fit. The company says that nearly 83 percent of San Francisco area residents engage in regular physical activity, resulting in the highest healthy body-weight percentage in the nation.

The San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area ranked No. 7 in the U.S. for healthiness, also with 83 percent of residents taking the time to exercise. NerdWallet points out that with more than 300 sunny days each year, Santa Clara County citizens have ample opportunity to take advantage of the region’s 50-plus miles of trails and 100 parks.

BOOMING ECONOMY A BOON TO YOUNGER HOMEBUYERS
With the national unemployment rate at 5.6 percent in December — nearing what some economists describe as “full employment” — first-time homebuyers are re-entering the picture, according to a Bloomberg News article.

The unemployment rate for the 25-to-34 age bracket was 6.1 percent in November, Bloomberg says, the lowest in six years. Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan told the news service that as younger Americans gain confidence in the job market, more are willing to purchase homes and establish roots as concerns over work-related relocation lessen.

Silicon Valley tech heavyweights — including Facebook, Google, and Apple – tend to hire younger workers, according to the article, putting the median age at the three companies between 28 and 31. Bloomberg says that those three companies alone added more than 21,000 jobs in the first nine months of 2014, likely a contributing factor to the region’s severe housing inventory shortage.

AMERICANS MORE CONFIDENT THAN EVER ABOUT ABILITY TO GET MORTGAGE
More than half of Americans think it would be easy to get a mortgage, in part because of the vigorous economy, but confidence in the overall housing market is still running behind.

According to Fannie Mae’s December 2014 National Housing Survey, 52 percent of respondents said that now is good time to get a mortgage, an all-time survey high. At the same time, the number of Americans that believe it’s the right time to buy a house fell to 64 percent. And while those polled took a sunnier view of the economy than they did in the previous month, wariness persists.

“It is not surprising that the housing sector continues to lag behind the rest of the economy given the long-term financial commitment that getting a mortgage represents,” Fannie Mae Chief Economist Doug Duncan said in a statement accompanying the survey. Duncan noted that while the increase in mortgage confidence is a positive sign, the housing-sentiment malaise could continue until wages see a substantial uptick.

(Photo: Flickr/Mark Sadowski)

Bay Area Home Sales Inch Higher in June

Bay Area home sales inched higher in June while price hikes slowed, according to newly released data from research firm DataQuick – more evidence that our local real estate markets are moving beyond the frenzied activity of the past two years and settling into more normal patterns of steady growth.
DataQuick’s numbers, released Wednesday, line up data found in the June homes sales report from the California Association of Realtors.
DataQuick reported that 7,915 single-family homes and condominiums sold in the nine-county Bay Area last month, up just 0.2 percent on both a month-over-month and annual basis.
June sales were “well below long-term norms,” the firm said in a statement. “Potential buyers are still struggling with a limited supply of homes for sale, prices near or at new peaks, and a still-constricted mortgage environment.”
San Francisco saw the greatest year-over-year increase in June sales volume, up 6.4 percent, followed closely by Napa County, up 6.3 percent.
Sales rose 4.8 percent in San Mateo County from June 2013, 3.9 percent in Solano County, 2.9 percent in Marin County, and 2.7 percent in Contra Costa County. Home sales slipped 2.6 percent in Santa Clara County, 3.3 percent in Sonoma County, and 3.6 percent in Alameda County.
June’s median sales price across the Bay Area was $618,000, up 0.2 percent from May and 11.4 percent from June 2013, the smallest year-over-year increase in 22 months. Last June, the median price was up 33.1 percent from a year earlier.
San Mateo County saw the biggest annual increase in median sales price, with a 14.9 percent gain, followed by Solano County (14.5 percent), San Francisco (13.3 percent), Santa Clara County (12.7 percent), and Contra Costa County (11.1 percent). The median rose 9.3 percent in Alameda County, 9 percent in Sonoma County, 5.7 percent in Marin County, and 5.5 percent in Napa County.
The Bay Area’s median sale price is close on the heels of its all-time high as measured by DataQuick: $665,000, set in June and July 2007. The median then dropped to a low of $290,000 in March 2009.


(Image: Flickr/Woodleywonderworks)

Bay Area a Top Destination for Buyers From China — and From France and Russia, Too

It’s no secret that the Bay Area is a popular destination for international homebuyers, particularly those from China, but two new reports from the National Association of Realtors add tantalizing details.

Canadian residents account for the largest share of international U.S. home purchases (19 percent), but buyers from China (No. 2 at 16 percent) hold the lead in dollar volume, purchasing $22 billion in property with an average sales price of $590,826, according to NAR’s2014 Profile of International Home Buying Activity.

Chinese buyers tended to purchase properties in higher-priced markets such as California, Washington, and New York, according to the report, while Canadians bought in lower-priced markets such as Florida and Arizona.

China was also the fastest-growing source of international transactions, accounting for 16 percent of all purchases in the year ended March 31, up 4 percent from the previous year.

San Francisco was the second-most-popular destination for Chinese homebuyers, trailing Los Angeles but ahead of Irvine, Calif.; New York City; and Las Vegas.

In a separate report, NAR said that San Francisco was also a top destination for buyers from France, Russia, New Zealand, and Singapore who conducted property searches on Realtor.com in May.

Favorable exchange rates, affordable home prices, and rising affluence abroad is driving interest among international buyers.

NAR estimates total international sales at $92.2 billion over the past year, up from $68.2 billion in the previous 12 months. Four states accounted for 55 percent of purchases by international buyers: Florida (23 percent), California (14 percent), Texas (12 percent), and Arizona (6 percent).

Pacific Union has been at the forefront of efforts to smooth transactions for Chinese buyers in the Bay Area. Last year, we launched a groundbreaking China Concierge Program to serve that demographic while also giving our Northern California clients access to a new set of buyers. And in May, Pacific Union rolled out aMandarin-language website hosted in China in order to offer homebuyers in the country better access to Bay Area property listings.

Last year, Pacific Union CEO Mark A. McLaughlin was one of just 10 U.S. executives invited to a series of meetings at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, where he met with some of China’s wealthiest individuals to discuss U.S. real estate investment opportunities.

(Image: Flickr/Reizenbee)

How Close Are Bay Area Home Prices to Precrisis Peaks?

While April median home prices across California and the Bay Area returned to levels not seen since late 2007, they remain well short of prerecession peaks.

But a different story emerges when comparing historical and recent median prices in our individual Bay Area counties. Indeed, some counties have actually surpassed their precrisis price highs, others are nearly there, and still others have a longer road to recovery.

Whether you’re buying or selling a home in the Bay Area, staying informed on both current and past prices can help you decide when to act. Here’s an analysis, based on California Association of Realtors data, that compares April median single-family home prices across Bay Area counties with their historical highs.

Alameda County – At $718,580 the median price in Alameda County is just 0.5 percent short of its all-time high. The Alameda County median peaked in May 2007 at $722,044.

Contra Costa County – Housing prices in Contra Costa County have been rising steadily since January and reached $755,950 in April. The current median price is 18 percent lower than it was in June 2006, when it topped out at $923,855.

Marin County – Marin is one of just two Bay Area counties where the median home price was higher than the $1 million mark in April. Still, at $1,007,580, the current median is 12 percent below its historical high of $1,149,390, set in June of 2007.

Napa County – The median price in Napa County declined from March to April to land at $523, 150. In August 2006, prices in the county hit $729,166, 28 percent above current levels.

San Francisco County – San Francisco home prices actually reached all-time highs in February 2014 but have since slightly cooled to $940,570. San Francisco is one of two local markets where prices have now surpassed their prerecession highs, currently 0.9 percent higher than they were in May 2007.

San Mateo County – San Mateo County bested its previous peak median in March before falling to $1,001,000 in April. The county median is now 2 percent below its October 2007 precrisis pinnacle of $1,020,000.

Santa Clara County – The median price in Santa Clara County reached $900,000 for the first time ever in April, buoying the market 5 percent above its previous all-time high of $865,000, achieved in October 2007.

Solano County – Despite steady growth over the past three months, the median home price in Solano County — $315,150 in April — is still 36 percent less than its historical peak of $492,799, set in June 2006.

Sonoma County – Sonoma County prices have been hovering in the mid- to high-$400,000 range for the past year and closed April at $475,260. Home prices in the county were 27 percent below their January 2006 highs of $650,326.

(Photo: Flickr/Tax Credits)

Strong Economy Keeps Bay Area Home Prices Climbing, Bucking U.S. Trend

Real estate analysts expect the rise in home prices to slow down over the next two years as U.S. housing markets return to a state of equilibrium, but the Bay Area may prove to be an exception.

In a recent survey by Reuters, real estate analysts predicted that U.S. home prices would rise 7.5 percent this year and then slow to 4 percent gains by 2016 — a sharp decline from the double-digit increases reported last year.

The 31 analysts surveyed by Reuters said price increases would slow in the coming months because of strict lending standards, slow wage growth, and a lack of first-time buyers. But while lending standards have indeed tightened in the Bay Area in recent years, income growth remains strong and first-time buyers continue to keep our real estate markets active.

While the rest of the country struggles with a lackluster economic recovery, the Bay Area is charging ahead with explosive growth in tech-related jobs and continued expansion of tourism and export-related businesses. In fact, three counties in the region are, statistically, at full employment, with others close behind.

Tech-industry hiring, meanwhile, has raised the average take-home pay in the region and encouraged a steady stream of young first-time buyers, helping to push home prices even higher.

California home prices jumped 15.6 percent in April year over year, according to a CoreLogic report released earlier this week, while other regions of the country saw more moderate growth. And the forecast calls for more of the same.

The U.S. housing market “is improving slowly, which is good,” Mark Goldman, a real estate expert at San Diego State University, told Reuters. “It should be measured. We don’t want to go back to stupid money,” Goldman said, a reference to the beginning of the Great Recession, when subprime lending helped push home prices to unsustainable heights.

Now, he said, “we are seeing a state of equilibrium. I don’t see any symptoms that would cause housing prices to go up or down significantly.”






(Image: Flickr/Bhautikjoshi)

S.F. skyline of future rises today from 3-D printer

The San Francisco skyline of 2017 is a work in progress - except in the precise resin forms on a newly printed 3-D model of 115 downtown blocks where the dust and noise of today's construction boom is nowhere to be seen.

Instead, nine towers that are in the process of being built are displayed between the Bay Bridge and Mission Street, amid hundreds of other forms within an object that measures 6 feet by 6 feet. The coming attractions range from the 1,070-foot Salesforce Tower, where construction began recently, to the new wing of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, where the steel bones for what will be a 200-foot slab are climbing along Howard Street.

The model was produced as a marketing tool and presents a downtown free of such blemishes as traffic jams and crowded sidewalks. It's the largest such map of San Francisco yet produced and, its creators say, may be the largest and most-detailed 3-D printed map of any U.S. city.

Even so, and even beyond the cool-gadget geekery of a sculptural object that can be updated in a day, the model created by two local firms offers a taste of tomorrow's city - one where the skyline is no longer synonymous with the Financial District.

"San Francisco will always be evolving," said O'Brien Chalmers, president of Steelblue, which produced the model in collaboration with software design firm Autodesk. "The city was different in the 1940s versus the '70s, or the '90s versus today."

Steelblue, which bills itself as "dedicated to communicating space," uses digital architectural renderings and animation to depict how such projects as the Transbay Transit Center will look and feel upon completion. It massaged its accumulation of physical information for the downtown map, including projects in the works. Autodesk then reshaped the data to prepare it for physical form.

Can update endlessly

The difference between the 3-D models and conventional models of wood or plastic isn't necessarily in the detailing - which can be more elegantly crafted when done by traditional methods - but the possibility of endless updates. "As plans change in the city, we can change just as rapidly," Lokitz said. Rewrite the code for a certain block, start the printer. Eight to 12 hours later, plans are idealized reality.

The plan for how to use the model changed as well.
The client was Tishman Speyer, a developer seeking to pique interest in a 26-story office tower taking shape at Second and Howard streets. When the entire structure was leased in April by LinkedIn, the need for marketing vanished. 

The model now is in a retail space on Howard Street that Tishman had intended to use as a marketing center. Its physical scale was expanded south to AT&T Park while Steelblue added to the interactive visuals that can accompany future versions. 

In the unveiling to members of the press, Chalmers used one set of lights to show downtown zoning and another to illustrate the path of the long-gone Embarcadero Freeway. Cultural buildings could be highlighted, or corporate headquarters.

"Every building has its own brand, its identity, its challenges," Chalmers said. "We're trying to tell a story. ... This model was used to convey the big zones" of a central city.

Imperfections remain

The actual printing took place over a two-month period at Autodesk's workshop on San Francisco's Pier 9. Two printers running full time lay down layer after layer of resin just 16 microns thick. The individual blocks were then polished and refined before joining the larger urbanistic collage.
"It's a bit of a process," conceded Justin Lokitz, senior product manager of Autodesk. "You want to get rid of any imperfections."

Inevitably, despite this, imperfections crept in. The clock tower on the model's Ferry Building is out of proportion to the rest of the landmark. Several other towers, less well-known, are out of scale.
Then there's the empty land on Folsom Street owned by Tishman Speyer. It's one block in from the Embarcadero, and high-profile architect Jeanne Gang of Chicago has been hired to fill it with a residential tower.

Chalmers was asked if the 3-D modeling effort has included depictions of how Gang's still-unreleased high-rise might look in context.
"I have no comment," he said with a smile.

Take a look

Building in 3-D: For a video on the production of the model, go to http://bit.ly/1nDwyvZ. 


Article Written By:  John King for the San Francisco Chronicle:  http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/place/article/S-F-skyline-of-future-rises-today-from-3-D-5510749.php#photo-6368695 

Real Estate Roundup: Bay Area Luxury Home Sales Reach Record Highs

Here’s a look at recent news of interest to homebuyers, home sellers, and the home-curious:

$2 MILLION-PLUS HOME SALES SOAR IN BAY AREA
High-end homes throughout the Bay Area sold at a record pace in 2013, according to a recent article in the San Jose Mercury News.


A multimillion-dollar home in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood.

Citing figures from research firmDataQuick, the publication reports that 2,604 homes priced above $2 million sold in the Bay Area last year, a 28 percent jump from 2012 and the largest number since the vendor began keeping records.

Some of these luxury homes are bound to induce a bit of sticker shock. Atherton had the largest Bay Area sale of the year, with one home selling for almost $37 million. A $35 million transaction took place in San Francisco, while the costliest in Palo Altowas $15 million.

Million-dollar-plus home sales were also up across the Bay Area as a whole, growing nearly 41 percent since 2012. Alameda and Contra Costa counties saw the largest increases at this price point: 70 and 63 percent respectively.


U.S. HOME PRICE GAINS BEST SINCE 2005
Home prices across the nation grew year over year for the 22nd straight month and saw the largest gains in eight years, according to CoreLogic’s December Home Price Index.

“Last year, home prices rose 11 percent, the highest rate of annual increase since 2005, and 10 states and the District of Columbia reached new all-time price peaks,” Dr. Mark Fleming, CoreLogic chief economist, said in a statement.

In California, December year-over-year price increases were the second highest in the country, trailing only Nevada. Including distressed sales, prices grew 19.7 percent from December 2012; excluding distressed sales, they increased 16.2 percent.


SILICON VALLEY ECONOMY EXPLODING
The current tech boom is bringing high wages and low unemployment rates to Silicon Valley, so much so that a recent SFGate article claims that its economy has returned to heights seen in the dot-com era.

Using data from Joint Venture Silicon Valley’s annual index, SFGate reports that the region added 47,000 new jobs in 2013. Forty-five percent of households in Silicon Valley now earn in excess of $100,000 a year, and the per capita income is more than $70,000.

While all of those jobs have given the area an unemployment rate of less than 6 percent, they haven’t resulted in home construction meeting market demand. Last year, 33,000 people moved to the Silicon Valley region, yet developers built just 6,500 new homes.


REAL ESTATE MARKETING DRONES SPOTTED IN CONTRA COSTA COMMUNITY
Back in December, we relayed how an Illinois real estate agent had constructed drones for the purposes of taking aerial photographs of his listings. It seems the same idea has taken wing and flown west, landing in the Contra Costa County community of Alamo.

As CBS SF Bay Area reports, Randy Churchill of Dudum Real Estate recently employed drones to help take aerial shots of a $1.5 million home with Mount Diablo views he was preparing to list.

“You get the scale, you get the feeling of the actual home,” Churchill told CBS, estimating that the $500 it would cost him to produce the video might result in 10,000 online views, many via social-media platforms.



(Image: Flickr/Skip Kuebel)

Top 10 Architectural Salvage Yards For Hunting Down Decor Gem

By Courtney Lake

Ole Good Things | Photo via Olde Good Things

We love looking at the beautiful features of historic homes and thinking how we can incorporate the authentic, vintage pieces into our own humble abode. When designers look to replicate these rustic (and oh-so-chic) details in their projects, they turn to architectural salvage yards to find unique elements that turn a cookie cutter house into a dream home. These yards have sourced the globe to bring vintage, antique and one-of-a-kind items to the public. Fortunately for us, there are a number of architectural salvage outlets in California for scoring the perfect find! 

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

1. Olde Good Things

Prop stylists and set decorators have been frequenting this Los Angeles gem for ages. Looking for a vintage lawnmower? Boasting a warehouse of over 100,000 square feet, there’s a good possibility that Olde Good Things will have at least three in stock. While well known for its vast architectural library of amazingly restored and rescued pieces, you can’t miss its unique mix of upcycled furniture and quirky objects d’art. (See opening image)

Gayles Architectural Salvage | Photo via LA Times

2. Gayle's Architectural Salvage

Located in Pasadena, Gayle's has an extensive inventory of architectural salvage antiques include mantels, lighting, iron work, plumbing accessories, builders hardware, and furniture representing the Arts & Crafts, Spanish Revival, Art Nouveau,Victorian and Midcentury Modern periods. However, they are best known for their extensive stained glass window collection. Insider’s tip – be sure to ask if they have anything in storage!

Architectural Salvage of San Diego | Photo via Yelp

3. Architectural Salvage of San Diego

Architectural Salvage of San Diego has been serving the SoCal design community since 1996, providing a grab bag of beautiful architectural elements including vintage stained glass, columns, and kitchen and bath fixtures. The mint green stucco building houses a treasure trove showroom that caters to those searching for vintage door hardware and handles.

Amighini Architectural Salvage Antiques | Photo via Thomas Hawk, Flickr

4. Amighini Architectural Salvage Antiques

A 22,000-square-foot warehouse in Anaheim and a retail outlet in Corona del Mar ensure that you will find whatever new architectural addition you are searching for. Amighini specializes in iron and Deco Vintage furniture. In addition, it has a thriving custom door business that can make reproductions of most vintage doors they have in stock.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

Ohmega Salvage | Photo by Courtney Lake

5. Ohmega Salvage 

This Berkeley institution has three locations: The salvage yard, which has a variety of industrial & residential salvage ranging from light fixtures, claw foot tubs and furniture; a retail site across the street, dedicated to rescued mantels, vintage light fixtures and Victorian oddities; Omegha Lighting two blocks down, the company’s retail space dedicated to restored and vintage-inspired lighting as well as its restoration workshop. Don’t make the rookie mistake and forget to look up – there are inspiring lighting options hanging all around you.

Urban Ore | Photo via Urban Ore's Facebook

6. Urban Ore

Another Berkeley mainstay, Urban Ore has made it its mission to reduce the waste that ends up in landfill. A trip to Urban Ore will enable you to find almost anything you need from building materials to furniture and appliances to jewelry and art or electronics. However, it’s the company’s extensive door and mantle collection that draws most people in. Organized by size, material and type, Urban Ore is a renovator’s dream when on the search for interior doors.

Artefact Design & Salvage | Photo via Dave Allen, Flickr

7. Artefact Design & Salvage

Visiting Sonoma for a wine tour? Make sure to stop by this wine country gem! Artefact Design & Salvage’s showroom is more laboratory than showcase, according to owner Dave Allen. Stocked with Allen’s finds from his travels abroad, and SF-made products like these lamps, as well as his regular salvaging on the East Coast, Artefact also lists a limited number of their salvage items on their online store.

Heritage Salvage | Photo via 365 Things To Do in Sonoma County

8. Heritage Salvage

If you have ever fallen in love with a reclaimed wood piece in Northern California, there is a strong possibility that it has a link to this Petaluma salvage yard. Heritage Salvage is the place to go when searching for reclaimed lumber and barn board. They have extensive working relationships with countless artisans and designers who regularly visit to peruse their perfectly weathered slabs for tables, countertops and flooring.

Whole House | Photo via Yelp user Nikki S.

9. Whole House Building Supply & Salvage

This San Mateo-based company takes salvage to a whole new level. Like the name suggests, Whole House Building Supply & Salvage finds entire houses slated for demolition and gives the public access to whatever reusable materials are on premise. You can walk out with literally everything - including the kitchen sink!

Big Daddy's Antiques | Photo via bdantiques.com

10. Big Daddy’s Antiques

With two California locations (Los Angeles & San Francisco) Big Daddy’s is routinely on the tip of everyone’s lips as a must-stop recommendation if you are looking for unique architectural and salvage finds. A mix of one-of-a-kind antiques and reproductions from European, Asian, and North American markets, the San Francisco store has a beautiful variety of custom seating built on-premise, as well as a well-stocked selection of garden accessories and furniture. The oversized birdcage with live birds only adds to the cool quotient, as does the store’s vast array of signs, vintage books and apothecary

Article & Photo Sourced From:  http://www.californiahomedesign.com/blog/2013/12/19/top-10-architectural-salvage-yards-hunting-down-decor-gemsbottles. 

Freezing temperatures headed to Bay Area

Temperatures in the Bay Area are headed downward.

The near 70-degree weather that warmed many spots over the weekend will be replaced with highs in the 50s by Wednesday, with some areas posting low temperatures below freezing for the first time this season.

"Monday will probably be the last day of the above season norms," said Bob Benjamin, a forecaster with the National Weather Service. "We're probably going to drop almost 10 degrees this week."

A dry cold front from Alaska will move into the Bay Area on Tuesday afternoon, Benjamin said, dropping overnight temperatures in San Francisco into the low 40s.

Many areas outside the city will be much colder, particularly in the North Bay. Lows in Santa Rosa are forecast to hit 31 degrees Wednesday and the upper 20s the rest of the week, according to the weather service.

The cold snap is expected to last at least through the weekend.
Original Article & Video Sourced from:  CBS San Francisco via SFGate:
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Freezing-temperatures-headed-to-Bay-Area-5027587.php

Home Price Per Square Foot: The Bay Area’s Most- and Least-Expensive Cities

For many prospective buyers in the Bay Area, location is the key factor driving a home purchase, whether it’s to live near the office, within the boundaries of a certain school district, or in close proximity to family and friends.

For others, however, a home’s size may be of particular importance – especially for growing families who want to upgrade their space or empty-nesters who no longer need a sprawling house in the suburbs.

We took a look at October MLS data as of Nov. 18 to determine the average price per square foot for single-family homes in our Bay Area regions, as well as towns and cities where buyers paid the most and least for the average amount of space.

We also assembled a list of the 10 most expensive and affordable cities in terms of square footage; scroll down to see the charts.

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY


In October buyers paid an average of $384 per square foot across Contra Costa County, a year-over-year increase of 16 percent.

Homes in Martinez are the most affordable in Contra Costa in terms of square footage, an average of $277 – 28 percent cheaper than the county average. At $280 per square foot, Concord was the only other city in the region under $300 per square foot.

On the other side of the spectrum were Diablo ($574 per square foot) and Lafayette ($514 per square foot) – the two Contra Costa cities where buyers paid the most for space.

EAST BAY

Buyers in our East Bay region shelled out an average of $452 per square foot in October, also a yearly gain of 16 percent.

At $369 per square foot, homes in El Cerrito were the most affordable in the East Bay, 18 percent less expensive than those in the entire region. Homes in Piedmont, meanwhile, ran $615 per square foot, 27 percent higher than in the rest of the region.

MARIN COUNTY


With an average home sales size of 2,185 square feet in October, Marin County properties were the second largest in our eight Bay Area regions. Buyers paid an average of $531 per square foot, 20 percent more than they did a year ago.

Novato was the only Marin County city where homes cost less than $400 per square foot: $347. Homes in San Rafael, Greenbrae, and Fairfax sold for between $435 and $473 per square foot.

In Belvedere, meanwhile, buyers paid an average of $917 per square foot – 42 percent higher than in the rest of the county. Still, it was a substantial price drop from September, when homes sold for $1,410 per square foot.

NAPA COUNTY


In October, the average price per square foot for a Napa County home was $330, short of its 12-month July high but up a bit from the previous month.

Homes in American Canyon boasted the lowest price per square foot of any city, town, or district that we examined — $160. American Canyon was the only city in the Bay Area where the price per square foot was below $200.

On the top end, buyers in St. Helena forked over an average of $729 per square foot in October, 55 percent higher than the county average.

SAN FRANCISCO


With an average price of $737 per square foot, homes in San Francisco sold for 17 percent more than they did last October, when the average price per square foot was $610.

Single-family homes in District 8, which includes the neighborhoods of North Beach, Russian Hill, andTelegraph Hill, were the priciest in the Bay Area in terms of square footage: a whopping $1,476. Homes in District 7, which includes Pacific Heights and Presidio Heights, also broke the $1,000-per-square-foot mark, at $1,147.

San Francisco home hunters seeking the most size per buck should perhaps focus on District 10 in the city’s southeastern corner, where the average price per square foot was $446.

SILICON VALLEY


Our Silicon Valley region showed the largest overall per-square-footage numbers in October, both in terms of average size (2,722) and average price ($946).

Although homes in Palo Alto were an average of 20 percent smaller than those in the rest of Silicon Valley, they commanded $1,152 per square foot: the highest in the region and the second most in the Bay Area. Homes inWoodside sold for exactly $1,000 per square foot in October, fourth highest in the Bay Area.

Homebuyers seeking the most space per dollar should investigate Portola Valley: at $680 per square foot, homes are 28 percent cheaper than the Silicon Valley average.

SONOMA COUNTY


The average price per square foot in Sonoma County showed the largest year-over-year gains in our Bay Area regions, at 21 percent. In October, the average price per square foot was $317, a 12-month high.

Rohnert Park and Windsor were the second and third most affordable cities in terms of price per square foot in the Bay Area, at $240 and $261 respectively. Buyers in Healdsburg paid the second most per square foot in Sonoma County, at $490.

SONOMA VALLEY


Homes in our Sonoma Valley region sold for an average of $448 in October, a yearly increase of 17 percent.

At $414 per square foot, homes in Kenwood were the most affordable in Sonoma Valley. Homes in the city of Sonoma cost slightly more per square foot ($434), while those in Glen Ellen were $776, the most in the Wine Country.









(Photo: Flickr: Jeff_Golden)

October Home Sales Rise in Bay Area, Bucking Statewide Trend

Pacific Union has written several stories recently about the surprising strength of the Bay Area’s real estate markets in the normally slow autumn months. Our optimism is confirmed by the latest sales figures from theCalifornia Association of Realtors, which show that Bay Area home sales rose 13 percent from September to October – in marked contrast with the statewide average, which fell 3 percent for single-family homes.

San Francisco and San Mateo counties posted the highest sales gains, both up 30 percent in a month’s time.

Alameda and Solano counties also saw robust sales, both up 24 percent, followed by MarinCounty (up 14 percent), Sonoma County (up 9 percent), and Santa Clara County (up 2 percent). Sales were down 4 percent in Contra CostaCounty and 2 percent in Napa County.

Comparing October sales data with year-ago figures also shows the Bay Area’s resiliency: While statewide October sales dropped 11 percent from 2012 to 2013, they held steady (up 0.1 percent) in the Bay Area.

Meanwhile, the rapid rise of home prices eased a bit in the nine-county Bay Area, with the median price slipping 1 percent from the previous month but rising 15 percent from a year earlier. Statewide, the median price fell 0.3 percent from September to October but rose 25 percent over a year’s time.

Marin County was home to the highest median sales price in the state in October, at $959,740, followed by San Mateo County ($910,000), and San Francisco ($844,510).

Median sales prices elsewhere in the Bay Area: Santa Clara County ($770,000), Contra Costa County ($740,200), Alameda County ($618,930), Napa County ($497,730), Sonoma County ($469,900), and Solano County ($294,920).

Statewide, the median sales price in October for a single-family home was $427,290.

The CAR figures dovetail with Pacific Union’s own October Real Estate Update, released two weeks ago, which tracks a variety of statistics from more-narrowly focused regions. Our report also noted more-moderate increases in home prices and tightening inventory.

An earlier story, examining data from the CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indexes, noted that three Bay Area regions finished among the top 10 in the United States in terms of yearly price increases.



(Image: Flickr/James Gaither)

July Real Estate Update

Though median prices in many of our Bay Area markets experienced a slight midsummer cooling from June to July, homes are still in high demand, as low inventory levels and above-list sales prices attest.

However, in some markets, prices continued to climb. Median home prices in Marin County passed the $1 million mark in July and are up 21 percent since January. In Sonoma County, median home prices hit $480,000, an increase of 24 percent since the beginning of 2013.

Available properties are still exceptionally slim, especially in San Francisco, where the months’ supply of inventory (MSI) for condos hit its lowest level in the past 12 months. Single-family homes in the city are also hard to come by, with MSI reaching lows we haven’t seen since December. And buyers continued to shell out more than list price in several of our hottest markets, including the East Bay, Contra Costa, and San Francisco.


SAN FRANCISCO, CONDOMINIUMS

Unlike their single-family-home counterparts, median condominium prices in San Francisco continued to rise in July, hitting $879,000, the second largest in a year. Median San Francisco condominium prices rose 6 percent from June to July and 14 percent from July 2012.

With only 0.9 months’ supply of inventory on the market, condominiums in San Francisco are scarcer than they’ve been in a year. This was reflected in the prices buyers paid, which averaged 6.6 percent above list price. Only two months in the past year did average sales prices for San Francisco condominiums fall below asking prices.

The length of time that condominiums stayed on the market was 37 days, identical to June and just a day shorter than May.

Click Link Below to See Larger

http://blog.pacunion.com/wp-content/uploads/MonthlyMarketUpdate_SF_Condos_July13.pdf

Competition for Homes Is Most Fierce in San Francisco

Here’s a look at recent news of interest to homebuyers, home sellers, and the home-curious:

S.F. MOST COMPETITIVE MARKET IN U.S.

The San Francisco metropolitan area is the most competitive real estate market in the nation, with 87.9 percent of all offers on homes facing competition from other buyers, according to a new report from online real estate aggregator Redfin.
Nearly 97 percent of home sales were at prices above their asking prices — an average of 9.7 percent.
Those numbers are far above the average of 21 major metro markets, where 69.5 percent of offers face competition and 49 percent of sales topped their asking prices by an average of 1.4 percent.
But in a sign that the bidding frenzy may have finally peaked, San Francisco’s 87.9 percent of multiple bids is down from a high of 90.8 percent in April. (It eased off nationally too, down from 73.3 percent.)

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HOMEBUYERS, SELLERS OPTIMISTIC

Americans are increasingly confident in their ability to buy and sell homes, according to Fannie Mae’s latest monthly housing survey.
The share of respondents who say now is a good time to sell a home reached a record high of 40 percent, up from 30 percent in April and 16 percent a year earlier. At the same time, the share of those who say it is a good time to buy a home rose 5 percentage points from April to a survey high of 76 percent.
Fannie Mae attributed the rising optimism to reports of strong home price gains.
“Sentiment toward selling a home appears to be catching up with the strengthening housing market,” Doug Duncan, Fannie Mae’s chief economist, said in a statement. “The share of consumers who think it’s a good time to sell a home spiked this month, the largest increase in the survey’s three-year history. This jump may foreshadow a gradual return to more normal levels of housing supply from their lows of recent months.”

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HOUSING FORECAST: ‘LONG-TERM IMPROVEMENT’

In another report, economists at Fannie Mae said the housing market remains one of the brightest spots in the U.S. economy.
“Housing was largely positive entering the spring/summer season, with various indicators such as home prices, home sales, and homebuilding activity showing signs of long-term improvement toward normal levels,” the agency reported in a mid-year economic forecast. “Despite rising mortgage rates during the past month, which have affected refinance originations, affordability conditions remain high and should not present a significant obstacle to potential homebuyers.”
Overall, Fannie Mae said 2013 would see “sustainable but below-par growth as the economy begins its transition to more normal levels,” with “2.1 percent growth over the course of 2013, up from the anemic pace of 1.7 percent in 2012.”

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UNDERWATER HOMES RECEDING
Rising home prices helped carry another 850,000 underwater homes back into positive equity in the first quarter of 2013. That brings the total of borrowers who have regained positive equity in the past year to 1.7 million.
Figures from the research firm CoreLogic show that 19.8 percent of all homes with a mortgage remained underwater at the end of the quarter, down from 21.7 percent at the end of 2012. In California, 21.3 percent percent of homes were underwater in the most recent quarter.
“The negative equity burden continues to recede across the country thanks largely to rising home prices,” said Anand Nallathambi, CoreLogic’s president and CEO. “The recovery is still far below peak home price levels, but tight supplies in many areas coupled with continued demand for single family homes should help close the gap.”



(Image courtesy of 401(K) 2013, via Flickr.)

Bay Bridge Light Show is on the BLINK

After two months of dazzling the waterfront, the $8 million Bay Bridge light show is having trouble turning on its lights.

And turning them off as well.

Bay Bridge dressed up with dazzling Bay Lights display.
Chronicle photo by Carlos Avila Gonzalez

The problem, says Ben Davis, the PR mastermind behind the privately funded Illuminate the Arts project: “Some lights are stuck in the on position — some are stuck in the off position.

“It’s not the kind of thing you can hide.’’

So while most of the 25,000 LED lights continue to dance across the 1.8-mile Bay Bridge western span, hundreds simply aren’t cooperating — disrupting the dusk-til-2 a.m. show’s full effect.

Organizers are scrambling to figure out what’s gone wrong and how to fix it.

The show, created by artist Leo Villareal, uses computers located in the span’s center anchorage to program the dancing effect.

But Davis says the bridge has proved to be a “technically challenging” canvas for the nightly display, given the vibrations from traffic and the salty air.

The malfunctioning spiked in mid-May, and now Davis and his team are trying to determine whether something with the weather was to blame.

As for whether the hiccups will force a temporary shutdown of the light show for repairs?

“It’s unclear yet, so we don’t want to speculate,’’ Davis said. “But so many people have made trips to San Francisco just to see them, we would like to leave them on for as long as possible.’’

In any event, he said, “we will roll out our plan and approach” in the next few days.

In the meantime, the show’s backers are still $1.5 million short of what they need to keep the lights running all the way until their planned March 2015 finale. Davis says they’re still welcoming donations at their website, thebaylights.org.

For more M&R — including the extradition of two “landlords from hell”  and the real story behind Gov. Jerry Brown’s call for a top-to-bottom review of Caltrans — read here.

Article and Photos sourced from:  http://blog.sfgate.com/matierandross/2013/06/03/bay-bridge-light-show-on-the-blink/

Bay Bridge Technicians Listen for Cracking

OAKLAND — Strategically positioned high above the water, in a narrow crawl space between the new Bay Bridge deck and the top of its big pier east of the tower, instruments are listening for the sounds of cracking inside steel anchor rods.

Caltrans placed 10 acoustic emission sensors on select rods in early April after some of the massive bolts -- 3 inches in diameter and 17 to 24 feet long -- snapped and triggered widespread worry about the replacement eastern span's seismic safety.

The instrument records the energy produced when a crack initiates, spreads or moves within the rod, said Caltrans materials engineer Bahjat Bagher, who showed off the testing late Friday. But so far, the rods being tested are quiet, a great relief to the agency.

If the bolts -- fabricated in 2010, two years after the 32 bolts that broke -- were also faulty and had to be replaced, the cost to make the $6.4 billion bridge safe for motorists would rise, and Caltrans would face an even greater hurdle to opening the bridge on time.

A second test for hardness is also showing favorable results, although a third saltwater corrosion test is still to come.

"We are pretty confident that we don't have an immediate failure issue with these bolts, but we want to have a strong level of confidence over the long-term," said Toll Bridge Program Manager Tony Anziano.

It's small a piece of good news amid mounting concerns about the $6.4 billion span's

ability to withstand the next big earthquake. The long, hefty anchor rods tie the bridge deck and pier columns to the shear keys and bearings that help control sway and uplift during a quake.The scheduled Sept. 3 opening is already in jeopardy as the three agencies co-managing the bridge construction scramble to design a structure than can replace the steel rods. A third of the 96 bolts installed in 2008 broke in March.

Caltrans and the California Transportation Commission are scheduled to brief the Bay Area Toll Authority about the best repair option, timetable and costs Wednesday morning.

Tests on the remaining 192 anchor rods in adjacent shear keys and bearings suggest the fracturing problem may be limited to the earlier batch.

Caltrans steel inspector Jason Gramlick on Friday afternoon demonstrated how technicians are testing the hardness of the anchor rods adjacent to those where the bolts snapped. Harder rods could be more brittle and more subject to cracking.

He placed the tip of a handheld ultrasonic contact impedance instrument on the end of a rod, which oscillates a diamond-tipped point against the steel's surface and measures the rate at which the material is displaced.

A broken anchor rod rises up next to still-tensioned rods on a shear key on the new Bay Bridge Friday afternoon May 3, 2013. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group) 

Within minutes,  Gramlick had four readings on the Rockwell C hardness scale, of which the average was 35. 

In contract documents dated from 2005, Caltrans specified a hardness level range of 31 to 39. But this month, the agency dropped the maximum to 35 for all replacement fasteners in light of what happened with the 2008 bolts, Anziano said.

The 2008 bolts had an average hardness of 37, which experts say may have contributed to their failure.

The third test involves placing four rods from the 2010 group into a sealed salt water bath for 25 days. During the soak, technicians will slowly increase the tension on the rods, Anziano explained.

The saltwater test, which will be conducted at test beds installed near the base of the bridge in Oakland, is designed to replicate extreme environmental conditions and see if the rods become brittle and break. Ohio-based Dyson Corp. fabricated all 288 anchor bolts and most of the other 2,018 steel fasteners on the bridge made out of the same grade and type of steel. Vulcan Steel Products in Alabama also made some of the 2010 fasteners.

Caltrans engineers blame the fracturing on a well-known phenomenon where hydrogen atoms invade the spaces between steel's crystalline structure and weaken it. The harder the steel and the greater the tension placed on the bolt, the more susceptible it is to hydrogen embrittlement.

The anchor rods in the shear keys and bearings are tightened to 70 percent of their capacity, the highest on the bridge. Less than half of all 2,306 high-strength steel fasteners on the span are subjected to loads of more than 50 percent, the threshold experts consider more risky for hydrogen assault.

Article, video, & photo sourced from:
  http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_23185230/bay-bridge-technicians-listen-cracking-steel-anchor-rods?source=rss&cid=dlvr.it