San Francisco housing

MB and I went out this weekend to look at houses. Now that we both know we are staying in San Francisco for the foreseeable future, we want to find a bigger place and stop paying for two houses. I own my loft in SOMA, and MB rents her flat in North Beach. Unfortunately, the housing market in the U.S. SUCKS lately. We are a little sheltered from this in San Francisco, but it’s still a massive complication.
In S.F. I think house prices have come down about 5-10% depending on neighborhood. In the SOMA (South of Market) area, there has been a glut of new loft and tower condo units coming on the market, which is definitely hurting my sales ability. On the positive side, my neighborhood is seeing increased building and new restaurants coming in, which will make it a more attractive place to live – in a couple years. 🙂
So it looks like the sensible solution is likely to rent my place out, and find a place MB and I can rent together while the housing situation resolves a bit. Then we can think about purchasing. So this weekend, we looked at some new lofts, some old houses, and some in-between units – both for sale, and for rent – to gain a greater understanding of the market.
What I learned was… WOW, it’s all super damn expensive still. The houses and lofts that were for sale all felt about 20% overpriced to me. The rents are also pretty damn high. So it’s a good news / bad news situation for me when I think about renting or selling my place.
The good news is, there are a TON of sites on the Net now that help with anything related to housing. Sites like Trulia and SocketSite, SFRentStats, Craigslist… they all make this investigation a bit easier.
It should be a fun adventure. 🙂