Bernal Heights

A Tale of Two Markets in Bernal Heights

May 1, 2013 by Matt Fuller, GRI Leave a Comment

505 Anderson in Bernal Heights is a single family home that has been on the market and off the market for the past several years. It provides a great perspective on how the San Francisco real estate market has changed in the past few months.

505 Anderson in Bernal Heights

The home is small – about 750 square feet, doesn’t have parking, but does have two bedrooms, one bathroom, and is a single family home. So, in other words, it has some upsides – single family home. And some downsides – on the small side, no parking.

It was listed in 2010 for $489,000 and then withdrawn after about a month on the market. 2010 = No Sale!

The home was listed for sale again in 2011 for $489,000 and sat on the market for about 3 months before being withdrawn. 2011 = No Sale!

The Bernal heights home was listed again in the spring of 2013 for $499,000. It was the same house, with only minor changes made since the last two sale attempts (new windows and siding in 2012), and plans had been drawn up showing how you could make a larger bedroom and add one car parking.

In 2013 the home was on the market for about 3 weeks, and after listing for $499,000 it closed for almost 125% of the asking price, closing just over $620,000. 2013 = Over Asking Sale!

In a nutshell, I think 505 Anderson is a great indication of how the market has changed in San Francisco. Homes that languished on the market in 2010 and 2011 are now being snapped over for substantially over their previous listing prices. And the only substantial difference is that the market has changed – not the house.

What are your experiences with the San Francisco market this year? Can you think of other homes you saw for sale in the past few years that didn’t sell but ended up doing phenomenally well in 2013? Leave a comment below, I’m happy to do some more research and share what I can about the sales.

Filed Under: Bernal Heights, Blog, Single Family Home

CurbTXT

September 19, 2012 by Matt Fuller, GRI Leave a Comment

Yesterday was broker’s tour, and by the 2:00pm tour block I was famished. So I (very quickly) darted into Precita Park Cafe to grab a healthy snack (you know, like a cookie). While I was there, I stumbled across an advertisement for curbtxt – a service that describes itself as “Neighbors helping neighbors avoid the pitfalls of city parking.”

The premise is pretty simple – register your car with the service by texting from license plate from your cell phone. Then, if someone sees your car when it is in a hazardous situation (during street cleaning, for example), they can notify you through the service that your car is about to be ticketed. And then you can run out and move your car, avoiding an expensive ticket!

CurbTxt advertises itself as both anonymous and free, and also as being only for Bernal Heights residents. And while I know Bernal is special, I’m sure it’s just starting out in Bernal and that there is nothing unique to the geography or inhabitants of the neighborhood that would require you to live in the neighborhood… For it to be effective, you obviously need a critical mass in one geographic area, so it makes sense to roll it out on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis.

The only downside that I see to it is that when you’ve left your car in a situation that will result in a parking ticket (rush-hour tow-away zone, street cleaning, etc.), how frustrating is it to get a text message telling you that you’re about to get a ticket, and you are in a situation (say, working at your job on the other side of the city) where you can do absolutely nothing about it. Is it better to know you’re about to get a ticket, or is it better to just be unhappily surprised when you get home from work/play/vacation, etc?

If you’ve had experience with curbtxt, either good or bad, I’d love to hear about your experience

Filed Under: Bernal Heights, Blog, Only in SF

Stop Reading This and go Outside

May 11, 2012 by Matt Fuller, GRI Leave a Comment

Here’s the weekly neighborhood news wrap in a nutshell:

The weather is perfect – sunny, forecast for the 70′s through the weekend. Not even Siri would argue with me about how gorgeous our weather is. So stop reading this blog and go outside and enjoy our weather. Unless, of course, you are reading this at the park on your favorite gadget. In which case you should put said gadget away and enjoy the weather. I promise it won’t hurt my feelings.

However, if that isn’t enough news for you, then consider this:

Antibiotics for everyone after lab researcher dies, lab shutdown. (Ocean Beach Bulletin)
The de Young has cooler stuff in their basement than you or I ever will. In particular, they found a bunch of old glass negatives. The photos are absolutely awesome and amazing. I only wish the crap I can’t bring myself to throw away was so cool. So thanks, packrat from approximately 100 years ago, for not throwing these out. (deYoung via Richmond SF blog)

The Cliff House, image from deYoung museum blog

For those of you with school age children that haven’t already left the city or sent your children to private school, SFUSD announces their new Superintendent, Richard Carranza. Budget cuts apparently require that his photo on the website be taken with a blurry cam. But hey, at least we get a picture. (via Rachel Norton’s blog)
They’d normally be the coolest pictures of the week, but the deYoung beats out the awesome historic photos of Midtown Terrace/Forest Knolls, including one which seems to refer to a NIKE weapons site that actually was or was planned to be situated in the middle of San Francisco. (via Forest Knolls)
And finally, Bernalwood has cooler pictures on it’s blog of Bernal Heights than you ever will. So don’t even bother trying. (via Bernalwood)

I’m sure I’ve missed 1,000 more cool and interesting things, because that’s just how awesome a city San Francisco is. Have a great weekend!

Filed Under: Bernal Heights, Blog, Forest Knolls, Neighborhood Blogs

Neighborhood Blog Roundup – April 23, 2012

April 23, 2012 by Matt Fuller, GRI Leave a Comment

Happy Monday morning everyone! What better way to start the week than to take a look at what the hot topics have been across the San Francisco neighborhood blogosphere.

While it isn’t a neighborhood blog, you owe it to yourself to go read The Right Direction… aka One White Dude’s Confession – a beautiful reflection on how the neighborhoods where we live and work intersect with our inner thoughts and beliefs (from dogpoet).
Want to know how to drive Eric Mar crazy? The Richmond district blog has two great articles on Supervisor Mar – one featuring a Hustler bus in front of his favorite fast food restaurant, the other a great tip about where to corner the guy when you need to talk his ear off.
Live in Glen Park? Then get ready for the Glen Park Festival this coming Sunday, April 29 (from The Glen Park Association).
Proposals to make travelling on the J-Church muni line slightly less painful. And while you’re there, don’t miss the picture of a plastic port-a-potty engulfed in flames (from Noe Valley SF).
Are you a Sutro Tower fan? Don’t miss Burrito Justice, which loves our looming-like-a-menacing-tower as much as I do!
For those of you familiar with Bernal Heights, you’ll know the neighborhood has a reputation for narrow streets that can be a challenge to navigate. Bernalwood has a cautionary tale (with photos, lots of photos) about just how wrong things can go. Moral of the story: speeding in Bernal is stupid, really stupid. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.
Finally, on the southern side of the city, D10 Watch brings news of the upcoming Quesada Gardens Spring Celebration on May 5th. You’ve gotten plenty of advance notice, so toss it on your calendar and show up prepared to make a $5 donation. The party starts at noon in the 1700 Block of Quesada Ave.

I don’t doubt I’ve overlooked something phenomentally interesting, entertaining, or otherwise blog-worthy (but come on, Supervisor Mar in a hottub is pretty awesome). Leave a comment or shoot me an email with your favorite neighborhood blog!

Filed Under: Bayview, Bernal Heights, Blog, Glen Park, Ingleside, Neighborhood Blogs, Noe Valley, Richmond