Big news for both renters and landlords in Oakland—the City Council unanimously approved an ordinance banning landlords from inquiring about potential tenant's criminal history or rejecting them based on having a criminal record. Berkeley is planning to vote on a similar measure in February.
Long but necessary list of exemptions include: single family homes, duplexes, triplexes, in-laws with the owner living on the property, tenants looking for a roommate, and government-subsidized affordable housing. Supporters say this will help to ensure those with criminal records have an equal chance to secure housing and successfully reintegrate themselves back into the community. Landlords have 6 months to adapt to the law, or they'll be fined up to $1000 for each violation. We all hear it time and time again. "Rent is so expensive in the Bay Area!" But just how expensive? Well, rental website Zumper actually reported that rent prices broke all-time high records not once, not twice, but SEVERAL times in 2019! According to Zumper, the median price of a one-bedroom apartment in SF this past June was $3,720. According to another rental website, Adobo, a one-bedroom in SF was going for even more, topping out at $3,904 just last month.
The good news is that the current SF one-bedroom median price is now estimated to be lower, around $3,490. And by good, I mean actually-just-medicore news because wow, that is still a ton of rent money. Wouldn't you rather just use that money to build some equity in a home across the bay and take advantage of all the tax write-offs instead? Asking as a (knowingly) biased real estate agent. Ever since leading tech companies Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google all landed on the West Siiiide (did you say that in your best Tupac voice?), affordable housing has been nearly impossible to find. Recently these companies vowed to find solutions to this issue in their local communities. But are their efforts enough? Some say nah.
Despite the billions of dollars they've pledged and initiatives they've started (Amazon literally opened a homeless shelter on their downtown campus), many folks feel that it might be too little too late. With homelessness rising and diversity dwindling in these communities, a lot of people believe that the money being thrown at the problem just isn't enough. Is there a better solution? That’s yet to be seen. But hey, this is a start. A few months ago, health insurance company Blue Shield of California moved 1,200 of their employees from their old building in San Francisco to a 24-story high rise a few blocks away from the Oakland City Center BART Station. And it appears this is just the beginning. There's a whole movement happening—companies want to be based in Oakland.
Kaiser Permanente plans to build a $900 million headquarters, BART plans to create a new headquarters, and tech companies Square and Credit Karma have already signed major plans to expand their SF-based offices to The Town. And let's not forget to mention the most important development of all: FOOD. The new launch of Oakland Assembly, a 14,000 square foot, two-level market hall located at Jack London's waterfront will bring in star chefs who will be sure to fill your bellies while emptying your wallets. All of these developments have made one thing abundantly clear: Downtown Oakland is about to see one of its biggest building booms in decades, and I'm here for it. In 2017, Business Insider writer Sam Dogen (also renowned author of my favorite finance and real estate blog Financial Samurai) became a stay-at-home dad after he sold his SF rental property for $2.75 million, leaving him with a $1.8 million profit after paying off the mortgage, taxes, and fees. Umm, can we say GOALS? Now a couple years later, he wants to buy property in SF again. Why now, you ask? (Or maybe you didn’t ask and I’m gonna tell you anyway?)
Well, Dogen says property prices in the US have softened and mortgage rates have collapsed. All while rent prices continue to rise! Plus he thinks the fact that 2020 is an election year, the stock market is thriving AF, and the amount of foreign buyers has dramatically decreased, all point to now being a good time to start looking into purchasing. He listed about 87** other reasons if you’re interested in reading all of them (**ok fine slight exaggeration, but honestly, there were a lot and they were all pretty convincing). *Disclaimer: Every economist, journalist, and psychic will have varying degrees of optimism and pessimism about where the housing market is going—up, down, all around. If you want to compare different points of view and form your own educated prediction, here are a few other market forecasts to satisfy your inner nerd: Realtor.com, Redfin, Forbes, Freddie Mac, and Zillow. Inquiring minds want to know. To answer our burning questions, Estately mapped out the relative cost of living near BART, compiling the average sale price per square foot for all the houses, townhouses and condos that have sold within a one-mile radius of each BART station over the past six months.
(If squinting at the blurry numbers on the map is hurting your eyes too, click here for a larger view.) Here are the ten “most expensive stops” and relative commute times to Downtown San Francisco (defined as Embarcadero station): 1. Embarcadero – $1,191 per square foot (0 minutes) 2. Montgomery Street – $1,149 (2 min) 3. Powell Street – $1,099 (4 min) 4. 24th Street/Mission – $1,001 (9 min) 5. 16th Street/Mission – $998 (7 min) 6. Civic Center – $994 (6 min) 7. Millbrae – $854 (25 min) 8. Glen Park – $817 (11 min) 9. SFO – $735 (32 min) 10. Rockridge $704 (20 min) And the ten least expensive: 1. Pittsburg/Bay Point – $219 per square foot (62 minutes from Downtown San Francisco) 2. Richmond – $258 (35 min) 3. Coliseum – $270 (20 min) 4. North Concord/Martinez – $306 (56 min) 5. Concord – $317 (43 min) 6. Hayward – $347 (32 min) 7. South Hayward – $356 (36 min) 8. San Leandro – $366 (24 min) 9. Bay Fair – $376 (28 min) 10. Castro Valley – $406 (32 min) BART is also extending from Fremont into Silicon Valley, where new housing, commercial and retail developments are already being planned around the future South Bay BART stations. Home values nearby will probably increase, along with the number of commuters crammed into a sardine can of a BART train. (Twin Peaks, that is.)
Good news for buyers: the hottest housing market in the country might finally be cooling off. According to Redfin, home prices in San Francisco declined last month for the first time in four years. The median home price in the area dropped 1.8% in March from last year to $1.04 million. Quite a big difference from last year when prices in the market averaged 15% growth. Sales also took a hit, sinking 22% in March -- which normally marks the start of the busy home-buying season. While it's still a seller's market in San Francisco, homes are sitting on the market longer and inventory of unsold homes is at its highest in four years. Economists and housing experts credit the shifting real estate climate to Wall Street's recent volatility, overvalued tech companies, and slowing interest from overseas buyers. Oh, that's it? Apologies in advance for the buzzkill, but according to a new Charles Schwab survey, to be considered "wealthy" in the Bay Area, you need a net worth of at least $6 million. A net worth of $1 million is the baseline for being "comfortable." That's all, no big deal.
Charles Schwab surveyed 1,000 Bay Area residents aged 21 to 75 in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, SF, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Solano counties. The survey asked what residents considered enough money to be "wealthy" vs. "comfortable." They believed $2.5 million was the average needed to be wealthy in other parts of the country. The survey unsurprisingly found that locals are shocked by the cost of living here. 86% said the cost of living is "unreasonable" and 55% said living in the Bay Area makes it "difficult to reach their financial goals." To counteract these depressing stats, the majority also believe this is a prime place for career growth and innovation, and the Bay Area's economy is better than the national one. While SF is notoriously known for its rapidly rising home prices, the city's neighboring towns have far exceeded its growth. Between January 2010 to December 2015, home prices rose more than 70% in some SF neighborhoods, according to Zillow. But in Palo Alto between Stanford and Google, prices climbed 104% - and 101% in CEO tech haven. Let's see what the rest of 2016 brings.
On a scale of 1-10, how depressingly familiar does this traffic look? With all the awards and recognition the Bay Area could've gotten, we managed to claim the bronze medal for Worst Traffic in America with an average of 75 hours wasted in traffic in 2015. Yay, go us. And here you have your worst traffic corridors of 2015. Now you know exactly where and when not to drive. Unfortunately, BART is not much better. With the Bay Area's population growing by 90,000 in just one year, it might be time to work from home. Oh, and speaking of home, you can find your next one here: http://www.michaelato.com. How convenient!
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