Two bills addressing homelessness now law
On Aug. 27, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law two bills — AB 2835 and AB 3057 — to further address the state’s homelessness and housing problems.
AB 2835 allows homeless people who have been placed in hotels or motels that have been turned into shelters to remain there longer. Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel (D-San Fernando Valley), author of the bill, said it would provide “much-needed stability to kids and families experiencing homelessness while also cutting red tape and saving taxpayer resources.”
AB 3057 streamlines permitting processes for local governments to create more junior accessory dwelling units (basically, a small “granny flat”). That bill’s author, Assemblywoman Lori Wilson (D-Solano County), said “this bill makes it faster, cheaper, and easier for families to create additional living spaces within their homes, helping to address our state’s housing shortage.”
In other gubernatorial housing news, in August Newsom included San Francisco in his list of 20 communities in the state to get some of the $789 million being doled out through the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Grant Program. San Francisco’s 85-unit development at 160 Freelon Street will receive $41 million, and the 89-unit Sunnydale Block 7 will get $29 million.
Fun metric of the week
If you or a loved one happens to be a real estate agent, Detroit’s the place to be. That’s according to a report this summer from Clever Real Estate that ranked 50 U.S. cities on a variety of metrics. The worst city in the nation to be a real estate agent? San Francisco.
The report used 14 weighted rankings that included affordability (weighted five times, which clearly would in itself knock San Francisco down the list). Commission rates, property days on market, time needed to obtain a license, and other factors. According to Clever, “San Francisco Realtors experience … high competition, the fewest sales per agent, and the second-longest amount of time needed to afford a home, making it the country’s worst city for agents.”
Interestingly, political environment toward agents was not one of the metrics.
Renting in the city
In San Francisco, the median rent (including all bedrooms and property types) is $3,375 a month, according to Zillow’s Rental Manager. That’s down $172 from last year at the same time, and it is $1,275 higher than the national median rent.
And though the median rent might be $3,300 plus change, the top rental in the city comes in at $30,000.
Newsom receives slew of new housing bills
YIMBYs in the state racked up some legislative wins this season. The state legislature passed a number of new bills related to housing and sent them to Gov. Gavin Newsom for his signature. They include SB 312 (that fixed an issue with SB 886), which grants a California Environmental Quality Act exemption for student housing projects; SB 937, which delays payment of development fees to local governments until the issuance of occupancy certification; SB 951, which limits the powers of the California Coastal Commission to delay projects within permitted uses; AB 1840, which allows loan applicants in the California Dream for All Program cannot be disqualified due to their immigration status; and other bills.
Legislators now await the governor’s pen.
Let’s get wonky
Single-family housing sells for higher prices than do condos, correct? Everyone knows that. Well, numbers are funny things. There are lots of market reports from different sources (Zillow, Realtor.com, Compass, and others), and their calculations of median prices and other metrics can differ a bit depending on what they include in their reports and perhaps other factors.
Just taking Coldwell Banker for an example, we see that the median sales price in San Francisco for a single-family home has been around $1.5 million (compared with an “average” sales price of just over $2 million). For condos (and TICs and co-ops), the median price is $1,249,000 (and the average is $1,296,149), according to Coldwell Banker .
But the average price per square foot (PSF) for a condo is $1,026 in San Francisco. So you’d expect the single-family price PSF to be higher, right? Wrong. It’s $1,006. Not a big difference, naturally, but an interesting number to look at. Condos don’t always hit a higher price PSF in Coldwell Banker’s charts, but they do so often enough to qualify as an interesting metric of value.
