Noe Valley Voice March 2007
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The Cost of Living in Noe

By Corrie M. Anders

Noe Valley home buyers took advantage of a softer housing market to stretch out the time they took to close escrow in January.

Single-family homes were on the market an average of 99 days--considerably longer than during the hot streak of last summer, when buyers frequently concluded deals in three to four weeks.

Sales data that Zephyr Real Estate provides monthly to the Voice showed that four homes exchanged hands in January, the same number as a year earlier, and that buyers continued to balk at paying above the sellers' asking price.

One of the four homes took 132 days--more than four months--before the final paperwork was signed. While that apparently was an anomaly, Zephyr sales manager Randall Kostick says he expects closings in the range of 45 days to become the norm.

"It's a little bit stressful to close a property in 30 days," Kostick says. "Buyers prefer to have a little more time to breathe, to get their inspections and financing done. Unless the market heats back up, I think 45 days is more likely the number we're going to be seeing."

During the rambunctious market we've had from 2001 to mid-2006, buyers frequently presented sellers with a "clean offer" in an effort to outmaneuver competitors for the same property. They often rushed to secure a loan and skipped the inspections needed to check whether a property had termites, dry rot, a faulty furnace, or a leaky roof.

In today's more normal market, sellers are "willing to accept a 45-day close," says Kostick.

The average cost of a single-family home sold in January was $1,247,000, or 96 percent of the initial asking price. That compared with an average $972,500 sales price one year earlier, in which buyers paid 99 percent of the asking price and closed escrow in 65 days.

Don't give too much weight to those numbers, however. Altogether, there were only eight homes sold.

A three-bedroom, 21/2-bath house in the 1400 block of Noe, between 27th and 28th streets, was the most expensive property sold. Buyers paid $1,865,000 for the 2,300-square-foot dwelling.

Four condominiums sold in January, one more than in January 2006, at an average sales price of $684,250. The priciest condo was a two-bedroom, one-bath unit occupying 900 square feet, in the 700 block of Elizabeth Street. It sold for $815,000.

Noe Valley Home Sales*
Total Sales Low Price ($) High Price ($) Average Price ($) Average Days
on Market
Sale Price as
% of List Price
Single-family homes
January 2007 4 $850,000 $1,865,000 $1,247,000 99 96%
December 2006 8 $1,000,000 $2,125,000 $1,477,813 48 99%
January 2006 4 $850,000 $1,175,000 $972,500 65 99%
Condominiums
January 2007 4 $552,000 $815,000 $684,250 66 100%
December 2006 6 $397,000 $1,688,000 $889,250 54 102%
January 2006 3 $350,000 $1,310,000 $874,333 48 100%
2 to 4 unit buildings
January 2007 4 $850,000 $1,650,000 $1,300,000 46 91%
December 2006 4 $1,075,000 $1,775,000 $1,333,750 53 99%
January 2006 3 $1,300,000 $1,635,000 $1,445,000 46 103%
5+ unit buildings
January 2007 1 $1,900,000 $1,900,000 $1,900,000 11 100%
December 2006 0 - - - - -
January 2006 0 - - - - -

*Sales figures include all Noe Valley home sales completed during the month. In this survey, Noe Valley is defined as the area bordered by Grand View, 22nd, Guerrero, and 30th streets. The Voice thanks Zephyr Real Estate (www.zephyrsf.com) for supplying the data.

Noe Valley Rents**
Type of Unit Number in Sample Range of Rents, January 2007 Average Rent, January 2007 Average Rent, One Year Ago
Studio 2 $1150-$1200 $1175 $998
1 bedroom 18 $1050-$4300 $1852 $1797
2 bedrooms 30 $1750-$3695 $2551 $2323
3 bedrooms 9 $2200-$6700 $4272 $3016
4+ bedrooms 3 $5250-$9950 $6883 $6034

**These rent averages are based on a sample of 60 Noe Valley rental listings appearing on www.craigslist.com January 29 - February 15, 2007.