Who's Going to Buy the Rare Edwardian with Killer View?

If It Were My Listing I'd Add "Oh-So-Rare"

I very rarely do this--plug someone else's listing--but my colleague Fritz Hochfellner has 157 Hagar Ave. on the market right now and it didn't get an offer this week. Here's why you should mention it (or forward this! See below) to friends and colleagues thinking about getting into Piedmont, because someone will smartly purchase this home during the holiday lull (I'm in town and working, by the way.....):

1. An arts-and-crafts home with a "killer" Bay view is really really hard to find in Piedmont. Think about it--many of the Edwardian homes downtown had relatively low Bay views when they were built, but the view was encroached upon as homes downhill were built out. And further up the hill were cow fields back in 1910. Just a few homes--my own included--are Edwardian and sport truly exceptional views. 157 Hagar is another such home. 

2. Also relatively rare for homes of this age are two items: recently updated kitchen and baths (in this case, period-appropriate!), and inclusion of a family room--not may homes back in the day had family rooms! 

3. As you know, Piedmont is a great place to live, and this home has all the wonderful lifestyle benefits of a central Piedmont home--from walkability to school, play dates and casual carpool to SF; to after-school care across the playground; to easy access the town pool, TaiKwonDo and ceramics classes at The Rec; to quick rides to OAK and SFO; to great meals on Piedmont Ave., College Ave., and Oakland's Uptown; to easy access to freeways in all directions. You see from the photos at 157hagar.com that this home includes all the period details you might expect. It's three bedrooms/two baths on the main level, and has a gorgeously updated suite on the entry level as well.  About that main level--this home was artfully organized to take full advantage of the view. As a result, the main level, with all the public rooms and three of the four bedrooms, is upstairs--what we call a reverse floor plan. At the street are the spacious entry area, the family room and that great guest suite, office, or master suite. Easy peasy--when guests arrive at the house, you let them in and "take them up" to the main level, including the enclosed room-sized space jutting out over the entry porch, where you can offer them drinks and a seat. The public rooms enjoy what is probably a four-bridge view with the master suite facing the South Bay and probably the fifth bridge (I admit I haven't counted). Needless to say, there is East Bay light drenching the entire home. And finally--so you know I'm covering the pluses and the minuses--portions of the home are not currently bolted to the foundation, and it has an attractive asbestos-shingle exterior. I'd advocate bolting asap (as would your insurance company) but that's a very straightforward task. A Jamie Pearl estimate for seismic retrofit is pending, and I understand it's under $10,000. You could also remove the existing shingles and revert back to a traditional brown shingle exterior, or stay with the currently well-encapsulated shingles for several more years. In either case, the tasks and charges are straightforward, and do not involve cooking in the basement for three months! Note you're trading a large flat backyard for a killer Bay view--but there's just nothing like the view and there are plenty of places for kids to play downtown. Given these items, I think the nearly 3500 sf house was well-priced to start with at $1.695M (a tad less than $500/sf, when the average for Piedmont was $550/sf this summer, without the killer view!). If one could get it for a bit less, any bolting and shingle costs could be covered, and you have a central Piedmont classic with the oh-so-rare "killer" view for well under the average price (/sf) for a Piedmont home. The smartest buyers buy during the holidays..... How's that for a great holiday present? And speaking of holidays, enjoy yours!

The Not So Open Kitchen After All....

I guess it had to happen eventually. Hemlines go up and down, brass goes "in" and "out," and the Wall Street Journal reports that designers are increasingly enclosing kitchens again.

Not one to be at the cutting edge of fashion (she says in her holiday red-and-green thrift store turtleneck, black poly vest and pants others would use while horseback riding--the dog and I are anxiously awaiting the end of the downpour), I was struck by a town home up in Hiller Highlands that had a recent complete kitchen renovation, yet the owner did not take down the upper wall between kitchen and living room.  I guess she was the smart one!  Maybe to come are moveable kitchen islands with "blank" walls attached; position it in the classic island location demarcating the shift from kitchen to living area in your downtown loft, and it blocks the view of dirty dishes and such.

The illustration in the story that makes no sense to me is the wall of glass between kitchen and dining.  You get the same dirty-dishes view as before, plus a large piece of glass to clean that's forever marred by atomized grease.

Move-Down Graciously

I was talking to a colleague yesterday about a household planning to move-down while kids were still in public schools, and today's New York Times had a story about exactly that--a family with two tween boys moved from their 3,000 sf home into a spacious mid-century comprised of only 1,300 sf.  Yes, the new house has many built-ins freeing up floor space and sight lines.  But fundamentally they realized that they "lived" in the kitchen and family room of their old house, and really needed half of the square footage of the old house.  (Dad points out that they had a five-bedroom house:  One bedroom was a playroom, one a home office, and the formal living room?  "[T]hat was where the dog lay on the couch, that was his room.”)

They sold the old house, bought a mid-century around the corner for half the price, then put a not-trivial $300,000 into the new house.  Maybe $100,000 went into the bank for college, but dad points out that the savings in cleaning time (they do their own), taxes, and utilities are sizable.  

So move-down moves are not just for boomers!

The Price/Commute Relationship

My buddy Scott Bernstein in Chicago has long been an advocate of location-sensitive mortgages--won't your overall costs go down if instead of paying the monthly fees associated with a car, you took public transit (or even cheaper, our casual carpool)?  And if so, can't you afford a more expensive mortgage payment?  Fannie Mae did a pilot several years ago in which borrowers could borrow more than the ratios might have suggested, if they lived in public-transit land.   [I didn't realized they dropped the program, but back in those days, everyone could borrow more than the ratios suggested.....].

So why raise this now?

First, the NYT did a story on the idea, and second, I'm always intrigued about how households intuitively adjust home prices based on these factors.  Our schools are a bit better (according to US News) than the public schools through the tunnel, but our home prices are stronger in part because of our demonstrably shorter commutes to the City.  People are willing to pay more to enjoy that second latte in the morning with kids, or to get home to the soccer game more conveniently on those spring evenings.

And when you can save over $12,000 on average over 15 years by using casual carpool in the a.m.--I just did the math--moving to Piedmont seems like a really smart idea!

Piedmont Real Estate Update--3Q12

For the first time in a few years, we saw not only an increase in velocity in this year's spring market, but also an increase in prices.  That trend endured through the third quarter, where the average sales price of a Piedmont home was $1.663 million or $537/sf.  The average price was pulled up by some high-priced sales, though the median too rose from $1.257M to $1.357M between 2Q12 and 3Q12.

The typical home sold for 2.5% over the asking price in an average 23 days, with a median days on market of only 13 days--reinforcing the velocity of the quarter's market activity.  In contrast to other parts of the East Bay, where volume has dropped significantly, the number of Piedmont sales has been quite steady these last few third quarters, and surprisingly, activity remained steady after school started.

Prices ranged from $580,000 to $6.55 million; two of these were distressed sales.

The California Association of Realtors reports that home prices are up about 15% year over year through September, 2012; those in Alameda County are up 7.5% and San Mateo is pushing the region-wide average up at 21.7%.  Median times on market and the proportion of inventory that remains unsold both are declining as the market enters the recovery phase. Multiple offers continue to be the norm in Piedmont up to about $2.2 million.

If you're planning to make that move in the spring, give me a call now to begin the process.  I can link you up with a great realtor wherever you might be heading, I can pass on a collection of material about streamlining the moving process, and of course can provide advice about cost-efficient steps to prep your home for market.

If you're thinking about buying in Piedmont, don't forget to ask me for my list of offer strategies--beyond price--that make your offer more attractive than the competition.