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Industry News
posted by Tom Vargas - Tuesday, May 15
Housing at Mayfield mall site dumped for offices
Property's new owner will remodel former mall as office campus, dropping already approved 260-unit housing plan
From the article:
After almost a decade of contentious planning and untold millions to design, the 27-acre housing community planned for the Mayfield Mall site has been ditched for a $90 million deal to re-use the existing buildings as an office campus. Citing the demand from tech companies for an office campus near a Caltrain station, Rockwood Capital and Four Corners Properties have paid $90 million for the 500,000-square-foot building at 100 Mayfield Avenue that once housed the region's first indoor mall, built in 1966. It was set to be demolished this year but instead the property will undergo a renovation and be renamed "San Antonio Station."
posted by Tom Vargas - Tuesday, May 15
Bringing East Garrison back to life: Developer moving forward
Gesturing over the East Garrison landscape where hundreds of thousands of soldiers prepared for war, Jim Fletcher laid out the battle plan for developing the planned community like a practiced field commander.
From the article:
During a tour of the Fort Ord planned community on a bluff overlooking the Salinas Valley, the Union Community Partners vice-president offered an on-site preview of plans for the sprawling community and showed off the progress made over the past year since a new development agreement with the county was finalized last summer. The master development group took over the 1,400-unit project from East Garrison Partners after it fell into foreclosure in 2009, paying about a third of the $70 million in development loans.
posted by Tom Vargas - Monday, May 14
Signs of recovery in new-home market
From the article:
Residential real estate professionals are buzzing about signs that the market’s long deep freeze is finally coming to an end. More families are touring model homes. More are buying new homes. Prices are rising without dipping back down. And the inventory of lots is decreasing. One recent deal that illustrates the trend: A group of investors purchased 110 acres with 533 approved home lots in west Roseville, demonstrating the investors’ confidence that the market will rebound and they can more than recoup their cash investment.
posted by Tom Vargas - Monday, May 14
Bay Area home inventory plunged in April
From the article:
Inventory and new listings for homes in the Bay Area fell sharply in April. New listings for single-family homes in Santa Clara County plunged 22 percent to 1,266 in April 2012 compared to April 2011, according to MLS Listings’ new market indicators report. Inventory was also down — sinking 39 percent to 2,552 compared to April 2011.
Meanwhile, Santa Clara County’s median price jumped 9 percent to $639,500 in April 2012 compared with $585,000 in April 2011 in a textbook supply-and-demand response to the low inventory and anemic new listing levels.
posted by Tom Vargas - Monday, May 7
Developer presents new version of San Leandro Crossings project
From the article:
It was a proud day four years ago when the city approved the plan for San Leandro Crossings, its first large-scale venture into transit-oriented development, or "smart growth." It involved an initial 300 apartment units going up adjacent to the downtown BART station and was the result of years of planning and community involvement that included a 25-member citizens advisory panel that set a model for inclusive brainstorming in the future, said Vice Mayor Michael Gregory. It had its detractors -- particularly residents who didn't like the sound of the 100 affordable housing units included in the plan. Early public meetings had some attendees booing presenters, but supporters also came forward, and the project was eventually unanimously approved by the City Council.
posted by Tom Vargas - Monday, May 7
California controller seeks return of redevelopment agency property
From the article:
Last November, San Jose gave the Oakland A's an option to buy downtown land for a new ballpark. But the deal wasn't intended simply to boost the stadium plan; it also aimed to protect the land from the state, which was seeking to nab the assets of city redevelopment agencies in order to plug its budget holes. Now it appears the move may have come too late. Other cities around the Bay Area made similar maneuvers to keep threatened projects alive, and they all may find those redevelopment-related deals in the state's cross hairs as officials argue over the effective date of the law passed last year that ultimately killed the agencies.
posted by Tom Vargas - Thursday, May 3
Shapell Homes to build 50 homes in Orinda
From the article:
Shapell Homes announced plans to build up to 50 luxury homes in Orinda in a new subdivision known as Wilder. The 1,600-acre area is the first planned neighborhood community to be built in Orinda in more than two decades and will feature 245 single-family homes, trails and paths, a swim and recreation center, five community fields, and 1,300 acres of protected open space. The master developer is Brooks Street. Shapell plans to start its portion with two homes that will measure 4,175 and 4,487 square feet.
posted by Tom Vargas - Wednesday, May 2
Long Climb Pays Off for Builders at NoCal’s Mountain House
Later this month, Mountain House, a 4,784-acre master planned community in Northern California’s San Joaquin County, plans to offer another 100 to 200 lots to builders. That lot offer is coming after first-quarter sales at Mountain House’s seven projects hit 88 homes, versus 17 sales in five projects during the same period a year ago. That increase is noteworthy for a community that during the depths of the recession got labeled as having the worst negative equity in house values of any community in the country.
From the article:
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and Shea Homes, which respectively own and manage 2,400 acres of this property acquired from Trimark Communities in 2005, would like to bring in a fourth builder to join Shea, Meritage Homes, and Standard Pacific, which have models on site and have been constructing homes there. The builders and developer are hoping that Mountain House’s recent sales resurgence isn’t just another false dawn like last year’s Spring.
posted by Tom Vargas - Tuesday, May 1
Planners to take up Napa Pipe as housing allocation plummets
From the article:
The Napa County Planning Commission may reach a decision on the Napa Pipe project Wednesday, but Napa residents could be forgiven if they’re already looking at what happens next, when the Board of Supervisors votes on it. In the month since the commission last met about Napa Pipe on April 2, two major developments can justify the speculation: Three supervisors who are running for re-election this year stated their positions on the project at a candidate forum, and the latest housing allocation numbers for Napa County’s unincorporated area have dropped precipitously from past heights to 74 units.
posted by Tom Vargas - Monday, April 30
Shea buys into San Mateo's Bay Meadows
From the article:
Stockbridge and Wilson Meany Sullivan have sold a parcel at Bay Meadows to Shea Homes Shea Homes, the second homebuilder to commit to the San Mateo horse racetrack-turned-transit-oriented development. Shea Homes will build the 93-unit Landsdowne community, a development overlooking a 12-acre park that will feature eight floor plans and a mix of two-, three- and four-bedroom homes. Unit size will range from 1,150 to 2,200 square feet. The price was not disclosed, but brokers in the market said the deal was likely north of $200,000 per buildable unit, or $18.6 million.
posted by Tom Vargas - Friday, April 27
Redwood City is alive with the sound of housing construction
Almost 1,000 homes are either being built, have been approved for construction or have been proposed, according to city documents.
From the article:
Most of the homes are or will be priced at market rates, and about half are rental units. Blake Lyon, the city's acting planning manager, said the growth spurt can be attributed to a number of factors, including a concerted effort to encourage more housing. City officials identified areas that would be appropriate for new and in some cases denser housing, then approved a downtown plan and zoning revisions to allow that.
posted by Tom Vargas - Friday, April 27
The Regional Outlook - South Bay-Spring 2012
Employment Rock Star
From the article:
The South Bay/Silicon Valley region continues to add jobs at one of the fastest rates in California. February 2012 labor market data from the state’s Employment Development Department (EDD) showed the San Jose Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) adding jobs for the seventh quarter in a row. In the last twelve months the region added 25,500 positions, more than any other region in California. From the third to fourth quarter of 2011 total nonfarm employment in the San Jose MSA grew by 1.3%, and in the first two months of 2012, it increased an additional 0.6%.
posted by Tom Vargas - Friday, April 27
Beacon Economics-The Regional Outlook - East Bay Spring 2012
Home Prices Sluggish But Worst Is Over
From the article:
Home prices in the East Bay – and the rest of the Bay Area – continue to struggle to build upward momentum. This is not a localized trend as the state overall faces similar troubles. Moreover, in virtually every California county and metropolitan area, home prices are now above the bottoms reached in the last few years. Sales are slowly improving and defaults and foreclosures maintain their downward momentum since the peak of the housing crisis.
posted by Tom Vargas - Friday, April 27
Stunned Home Buyers Find the Bidding Wars Are Back
A new development is catching home buyers off guard as the spring sales season gets under way: Bidding wars are back.
From the article:
From California to Florida, many buyers are increasingly competing for the same house. Unlike the bidding wars that typified the go-go years and largely reflected surging sales, today's are a result of supply shortages.Nearly 83% of offers that Redfin agents have made on behalf of clients in the San Francisco Bay area this year and 71% in Southern California have had competing bids. Redfin represented a buyer that made the winning bid on a Gaithersburg, Md., home earlier this month after agreeing to adopt the dog of the seller, who was relocating and looking to find a new home for "Buddy," a white toy poodle.
posted by Tom Vargas - Monday, April 23
Lawler: Early Builder Reports Point to “Pretty Decent” Spring
From the article:
D.R. Horton, the largest home builder in the US, reported today that net home orders in the quarter ended March 31, 2012 totaled 5,899, up 19.3% from the comparable quarter of 2011. The company’s sales cancellation rate, expressed as a % of gross orders, was 22% last quarter, down from 25% a year ago. Home closings totaled 4,240, up 20.6% from the comparable quarter of last year, while the company’s order backlog on 3/31/12 was 6,189, up 17.2% from a year ago.