San Francisco Real Estate Properties

Need I remind you to take your camera with you after sunset this week?

If you recall, last month in my article entitled “Did You Know San Francisco Celebrates the Moon?”, I said that Thursday, October 25, 2007 will once more be the perfect photo opportunity for us to take pictures of the Hunter Moon over San Francisco.

This is the last time this year that we will be able to take pictures at a decent hour from our every own San Francisco neighborhood street corners of the moon.

On Thursday evening, the moon will be rising at 5:51 P.M. while the sun will be setting 6:20 P.M. and dark at 7:17 P.M and a full Hunter Moon at 9:52 P.M.

Have fun. I’ll share if you share.

If the steady stream of visitors at my Open House on Sunday on Telegraph Hill in North Beach 

was any indication of how the real estate market is in San Francisco, maybe Buyers are finally realizing that it may be a really good time to get back in .

The old adage “Location, Location, Location” has now been replaced by “Price, Condition, Location”.  And the Buyers out on that warm sunny afternoon checking out the inventory knew the new mantra. 

 

Maybe these potential Buyers all came up the Hill to see me on Sunday at my Open House because of reading the Ben Stein article Gloom Sayers Should Look Up in the Sunday New York Times while slipping a café latte out in front of Caffé Greco  before strolling up to  Caffé Trieste  to chat with the die hard locals over an espresso.     Maybe it was then that these potential Buyers on that Sunday morning thought to themselves, “Let’s give it one more try.”  If they were really going to be a part of this neighborhood, they wanted to own apart of it too.   

So I imagined, out in front of Caffe Trieste, they got down to business circling the open houses in the Sunday Chronicle’s Open Home Guide.  Having done this drill before, these Buyers knew to look under both North

Beach and Telegraph Hill in the Guide before heading out by foot to find their dream home in paradise on another wonderful sunny afternoon. 

In the North Beach section of the Guide, there were 8 properties that were open for viewing that ranged in prices from $539,000 for a one bedroom condo to $1,799,000 for 2 units on  Washington Square.  

And in Telegraph Hill section of the Guide, there were 7 properties open that ranged from $419,000 for one bedroom Tenants-In-Common (also known as a TIC, I’ll explain this type of ownership in another article) to one of those “ essence of San Francisco” view homes that I was holding open for $3,695,000 (4+ bedrooms and 4.5 baths with a rare 2 car garage on Telegraph Hill) with fabulous views of Nob Hill, Russian Hill, and the Golden Gate Bridge (similar to the view I have in one of my sanfranciscorealestateproperties.com website’s rotating header pictures). 

Continue on to “Part Two- Wait & See or Get In Now?” to determine what is right for you. 

While Westerners may talk about the “man in the moon”, the Chinese speak of the “woman in the moon”.

As our days are getting noticeably shorter with the Autumn Equinox now behind us, there is good reason why every San Franciscan takes notice of the moon.  Both September’s Harvest and October’s Hunter’s full moons rise in the East roughly at approximately the same time the sun sets in the West and vice a versa in the early morning. What a perfect time for every San Franciscan to celebrate the Chinese “woman in the moon”.  

 

On the 15^{t h} day of the 8^th month of the Chinese Lunar Calendar, the bounty of the summer harvest, the fullness of the moon and the immortal moon Goddess, Chang O (who lives in the moon) is celebrated in different parts of Asia with festivals of many names: the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Moon Festival, and/or Moon Cake Festival.

One of two auspicious San Francisco festivals in Chinatown each year (Chinese Lunar New Year being the other) is the highly celebrated Annual Chinatown Autumn Moon Festival Street Fair and one not to be missed next year.  

Walking down Grant Street, one can easily imagine being at any one of these Asian festivals with the excitement of dragon dancers performing to the beat of the drums and gongs.

 

And listening to the unique sound of a Chinese Opera in concert on the street.  

 

And the sound of Chinese vendors calling out 月饼, 月饼  (moon cakes, moon cakes) on the street, as they sell the traditional festival food, the moon cake. The moon cake is to be eaten outside under the Harvest Moon with good friends and family, looking up at the rising “woman in the moon”, as the moon cake symbolizes a “Chinese Thanksgiving” of sorts as the bounty of the summer harvest ends. 

 

 

Mark your calendar now for another San Francisco photo-op as the October Hunter Moon rises on Thursday, October 25 just as the sun is setting at 5:51 PM and look for the “woman in the moon”.

 

 

At sun rise on Saturday morning…

We were taking our dog on a walk down to the San Francisco Bay, along the Marina, to watch the sun come up when I noticed across the way, there was an event being set up on the Marina Green. 

 

I thought we must come back later in the day to check it out. 

 

We also noticed that J/105 sailboats from as far away as Maine were tied up in front of the St. Francis Yacht Club with their flags and the 2007 Rolex Big Boat Race Series pennants fluttering a waiting the weekend racing events to commence. 

By mid afternoon we were walking around the Palace of Fine Arts to get to the Bay… 

 

And from the path leading to Crissy Field and the Golden Gate Bridge, we watched the events of the 2007 Rolex Big Boat Series on the water. 

And passing the yacht club docks, we could see another event floating in the air at the Marina Green.

This is a yearly tradition, “Family Fun Kite Festival”.

 

And across the way, the boats were returning.  

And back full circle by the end of the day.

Just a typical Saturday in San Francisco! 

A little known fact about our Peyton Place on Marina’s lagoon:

I can remember back when the San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts Lagoon in the Marina had at least 6 clipped-winged swans.  Several male swans from time to time would act more like ”speed boats” racing across the lagoon in hot pursuit for one of the female swans during the mating season.

Over the years, the flock has both multipled and shrink.  From time to time for the safety of the female swans, our swan steward has had to find other habitats for several male swans .

 

You can find the Judy Whilt, our resident swan steward, more commonly known as the ”Swan Lady” early most mornings as she walks around the lagoon attending to the swans.  Judy Whilt can tell the swans apart. She knows their ancestry and calls them by name.  Today there remains on the lagoon - a mother swan with her son, and her two daughters from several of her previous years of mating.    

A walk around the lagoon may seem pleasant enough for the casual observer, until one observes a “speed boat” race become a “drag race” with the mother swan and a daughter shoeing away her other daughter away from her advancing brother.  According to the “Swan Lady”, the 2 female swans have become jealous of the male swan’s (the mother’s son) attention of other female swan. 

Oh, the Peyton Place saga continues for those in the know on Marina’s lagoon.

 

The Tourists are here for one last summer fling and so are our summer’s inventory stock (homes and condos, co-ops, and lofts) still for sale!

This is the week for writing an offer on a great neighborhood home or a super condo, co-op or loft somewhere in the city and getting it accepted (maybe even below asking) before our remaining summer inventory stock gets old and/or forgotten. San Franciscans getting back home from vacation will eagerly await the anticipated fall preview of new inventory and will get serious. Sellers will be attempting to get their property on the market and sold by the Holidays. Our Buyers will want to be entertaining in their new home before the end of the year.Tourists visit all year round and fall in love with San Francisco.

While they are here they start dreaming about coming back here as job transferees or buying a second home in the city…so Open Houses over a holiday weekend such as Labor Day are always a great way for them to see the inside of homes in our charismatic neighborhoods before heading home to start packing!

While most of California and the Bay Area’s real estate markets are seasonal/weather-related and centered around school schedules…San Francisco’s real estate market is centered more around when holidays and vacations begin and end.

Anticipating one of San Francisco’s high seasons about to begin just after Labor Day weekend, perhaps more San Franciscans will be thinking about staying in the city to enjoy this upcoming long holiday weekend with the tourists and take in an open house or two since the Bay Bridge will be closed from Friday, August 31st at 8 PM through Tuesday, September 4^th at 5 AM .

In the homes that are held open this coming weekend, September 1^st and 2^nd in San Francisco, you will find a motivated Seller and Seller’s agent …hoping their property to be sold before the end of summer.