Month: August 2015

As expected, China’s central bank reacted to Monday’s stock market falls. It cut the 1 year lending rate to by 25bps to 4.6% with immediate effect. It also cut the reserve requirement ratio by 50bps. These measures look like attempting to put out a bonfire with a watering can. They are […]

Along with tech workers and foreign buyers, the most oft blamed entity for San Francisco’s crazy rent is rent control. To some, this seems illogical: How can stabilized rents lead to higher rents? To others, rent control is the reason market rent is so high in the first place. Arguments on both…

Though San Francisco’s average one bedroom now rents for $3,500, not every American city asks so much for so little. In fact, the average rental price for a one bedroom in Sacramento is $900; in Charlotte, N.C., it’s $980; in Albuquerque, N.M., it’s $580. But in most major American cities, rents…

Once part of the Hills Brothers (of coffee-making fame) estate, 14700 Manuella Road offers Provencal-style charm in the Los Altos Hills. Though its price tag and rather illustrious history rarify it, the home somehow still seems gracious, quiet, and unpretentious. Yet the property has its bragging…

At this point it takes a lot to shock locals when talking real-estate trends or the rental market. (How does it keep going up?!) We’ve seen it all: record-high rents, teeny tiny apartments with ginormous price tags, Craigslist ads offering shared living space for the cost of a studio AND labor.  …

It’s been quite a year for renters in the USA: a rough one. Zumper’s National Rent Report for August, 2015 confirms that nationally, rent in major major cities is climbing: “The past year saw a perfect storm for rising rents across the United States. As more millennials entered the workforce, and…

When I drive my car, and it’s time to stop at a gas station for a fill up, location and price are everything. Either there is a gas station on the way to where I’m going (in which price isn’t as great of a consideration), or I go to a […]

With our plethora of Victorians, Deco isn’t a common architectural style in San Francisco. But we do have a few incredible examples, and 99 Ord Street is one. Recognized by the Art Deco Society of California for historic preservation, the Taravellier House by Fabre & Hildebrand (whose work can also…