Category: Surreal Estate

In what is sure to be a treasure trove of entertaining follow-up posts, the City of San Francisco recently filed a lawsuit against local landlord Anna Kihagi, for allgedly waging “a war of harassment, intimidation, and retaliation using unlawful, unfair and fraudulent practices” designed to force out long term tenants, “to make room for new tenants who pay market rent,” in defiance of “numerous state and local laws protecting these tenants and capping rents”

As has historically occurred in a soaring market, the number of fault-based evictions has skyrocketed in recent years, as the value of market rent exceeds legal transactional costs. And in contrast to landlords who at least operate under the pretext of grievous lease violations – like hanging laundry out to dry – Ms. Kihagi is accused of “interrupting mail service, interrupting gas, electric, water, and cable service, backdating correspondence and notices, failing and refusing to cash rent checks, falsely claiming that rent payments were untimely, violating tenant privacy, sending harassing text messages, abusing the landlord’s right of access by failing to give the required notice before entering, even yelling and screaming at tenants.”

Not to be outdone, Kihagi is suing the City for “targeting her in part because she is a female, African American immigrant who owns property”.

While there has been some disagreement over the exact value of San Francisco’s comical monthly rental rates, San Francisco Business Times is confident in declaring that a citizen of San Francisco needs to earn at least $201,171 per year to live here. It goes on to paint a similarly rosy picture of salary minimums for the rest of the Bay Area (six figures or better to open). This may explain the recent interest in “group housing” for young professionals, which is a viable option so long as no one gets married or attempts to host a dinner party.

The “Mission Moratorium” failed to pass last week, despite majority support in a 7-4 vote by the Board of Supervisors. (As an emergency measure, it needed 9 votes to pass.) However, it will have a second chance when resurface this November at the ballot box. The proposed ballot measure would create an 18-month moratorium on market rate developments (with an optional 12-month extension at the discretion of the Board of Supervisors). It would also require the City to develop a “Neighborhood Stabilization Plan” by 2017, which would institutionalize this affordable housing agenda for The Mission.

SocketSite recently dismantled the methodology relied on in SF Gate’s “borderline reckless” reporting of a $4,255.00 San Francisco median rental rate last month based on Zillow figures for houses and condos (not “apartments”). Pitting Zillow’s data against Zumper’s, Curbed SF finds a way that they can both be right.

The short version is that the prices are different because math. Unlike home sales, which are listed in an MLS and recorded in public record, there is no reliable data on apartment listings or rentals. As a result, Zillow uses an algorithm that tracks the data that is available (condos, houses, TICs, etc.) and treats those listings as substitute goods for the renting of apartments. The algorithm tracks changes in price over time, and – even if the actual numbers are not accurate – at least everything is in the right proportion.

There were only about a dozen McDonald’s restaurants in San Francisco at the beginning of the year. Back in January, the Van Ness location shut down to make way for a thirteen-story mixed use building. Last month, City Attorney Dennis Herrera complained to McDonald’s Corp. about the Haight Street location (where the meals come with psychedelic drugs instead toys). And this month, CBS News reported that the location on 16th and Mission closed abruptly, with the McDonald’s on 3rd and Townsend soon to follow.

Meanwhile, what SuperDuper lacks in childhood nostalgia, they make up with four beers on tap.

SocketSite properly digests the data relied on in a recent SF Gate article about rising San Francisco rents, noting that, not only does the Zillow report (that SF Gate relied on) use estimated, rather than actual rents, but it also only included data for houses and condos – not apartments – in determining that median rents for one-bedroom rentals in San Francisco reached $4,225.00 per month by May.

Last month, SocketSite concluded that the average asking rent is a much more “reasonable” $3,458.00. Curbed SF recently tracked data from Zumper.com, which it notes are based on asking prices, not what tenants are paying, and found that the median for a one bedroom apartment is also about $3,500.00 per month.

San Francisco Business Times reports on two projects by developer Artthaus to build group housing, with plans to build a 131-unit building in The Mission and a 36-unit building in SOMA. Group housing, which generally offers a small private room (200 sqft in this model) and shared kitchen space, is aimed at younger professionals. (We spend all of our time working anyway, so who needs a private kitchen.)

With a large supply of young workers with a lot of money (San Francisco’s current unemployment rate is below 4%), there would seem to be high demand for these less conventional rentals. Although, San Francisco Business Times also points out that builders have another incentive: group housing is currently excluded from the City’s inclusionary housing program

San Francisco Business Times reports on a major step forward for the sluggish project to develop housing at Treasure Island. Last week, the Navy transferred ownership of 290 acres (or about half of the landmass) to San Francisco. While some have been worried about radiation contamination, the proposed 8,000 housing units would be, like… right next to the Financial District.

While some do not expect the “Mission moratorium” to pass, developers are taking the matter seriously. SocketSite reports on a project at 2000-2070 Bryant Street project racing to beat the legislation, in the event that it passes.