The Dumbarton Bridge will be closed to traffic Memorial Day weekend to allow Caltrans and its contractor to significantly advance seismic retrofit work on the bridge, according to bridge officials.
Effie Milionis, a spokeswoman for the Dumbarton Bridge Seismic Safety Project, said that the three-plus-day closure will permit Caltrans to replace a major seismic joint across all six lanes of traffic on the bridge's western side.
The 1.6-mile Dumbarton Bridge, which spans from Menlo Park to Fremont, carries approximately 60,000 vehicles daily. In the event of an earthquake, the seismic joint will absorb and dissipate energy.
Milionis said completing the seismic joint is a significant milestone in the retrofit project, which began in 2010 and is expected to be completed next year.
The bridge will be closed from 10 p.m. Friday, May 25, to 5 a.m. Tuesday, May 29, Milionis said.
Motorists should plan ahead, allowing extra travel time to take alternate routes, including the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge. Suggested detour routes are available at dumbartonbridgeinfo.org.
From entry-level homes to the luxury estates, the Bay Area's housing market gained more momentum in March, according to a number of recently released industry reports.
March home sales in the region were at their highest level for that month in five years, the result of lower prices, low interest rates and an improving economy, according to DataQuick, the La Jolla-based real estate research firm.
Some 7,694 new and existing houses and condos sold in the nine-county Bay Area in March, up 34.9 percent from February and 9.1 percent from March 2011, DataQuick reported. Last month’s sales total was the highest for the month of March since 8,317 homes were sold in 2007.
The strongest sales gains were in Solano, Sonoma, San Mateo and San Francisco counties with 13.2 percent, 12.1 percent, 11.4 percent and 11.3 percent increases, respectively, from March 2011.
“This is the time of year when buying patterns usually start to normalize," said John Walsh, president of the research firm. "And while the changes we’re seeing are incremental, they’re incremental in a positive direction."
Having said that, DataQuick cautioned that there continue to be potential bumps along the road to a normalized market. Walsh said he's watching closely the number of distressed properties coming onto the market, as well as the ready availability of mortgage financing - or a lack thereof.
The median price paid for all new and resale houses and condos sold in the Bay Area last month was $358,000, according to DataQuick. That's up 10.2 percent from February, and down fractionally from $360,000 in March 2011. The decline on a year over year basis was the smallest since October 2010.
The luxury end of the market also turned in a strong performance in March:
- In Marin County, both sales and the median sale price of million-dollar homes rose. A total of 48 high-end properties changed hands, up from 44 in February and 33 in January. The median sale price of a luxury home also soared 15.3 percent from the previous month to $1,525,000.
- In Silicon Valley, 110 homes sold for more than $1.5 million in March, nearly double the 58 transactions in February and up from 86 in March 2011. Of the total sales, there were 50 multi-million-dollar transactions compared to 36 sales over $2 million during the same period a year ago.
- In the East Bay, luxury sales soared 23 percent from a year ago and more than doubled February's totals. Some 111 million-dollar properties changed hands, up from 49 in February and 90 in March 2011.
- And in San Francisco, a total of 55 homes sold for more than $2 million during the first quarter of 2012 compared to 50 sales during the same period a year ago. At the same time, the median sale price rose 2.7 percent from last year to $2.8 million.
The market will continue to face some headwinds in terms of the economy, distressed properties and even mortgage financing. And it's likely that the economies of Europe and China will continue to factor in to our recovery. But it’s clear that locally, we are headed in the right direction regarding housing. Our biggest challenge isn't a lack of demand; it's not enough homes to sell. So if you've been thinking about listing your home, there couldn't be a better time than now.
In a Northern California first, work is under way to install double carpool lanes in both directions on a freeway.
The new lanes will be built along a three-mile stretch of Highway 101 between Highway 85 in Mountain View and Embarcadero Road in Palo Alto.
Along with merging lanes also being built, the new look will turn this section into one of the widest in the region, with 12 lanes. And all the extra asphalt also offers a glimpse into our commuting future.
The widening sets the stage for more toll lanes, including a second set of carpool lanes up and down 101 from Morgan Hill to the San Mateo County border.
In the next year or two, the eastbound Interstate 580 carpool lane in the Tri-Valley will be widened to include two toll lanes, also known as express lanes. And by 2015, a second set of carpool lanes could line Highway 85 through the Almaden Valley area of South San Jose.
Currently, there are double carpool lanes only on the approaches to the toll plazas at the San Mateo and Bay bridges, but none on area freeways except for short stretches where two carpool lanes merge at interchanges.
"All else equal, two lanes per direction makes for a better (toll) lane than one per direction," said Bob Poole, transportation director of the Reason Foundation think tank. "You can pass slow vehicles, be more flexible in case of a breakdown or accident, etc.
"And you can charge a lower toll if you have two lanes to accommodate paying customers instead of one."
Highway 101 ranks as one of the toughest commutes in the South Bay, and the stretch from Shoreline Boulevard north to Palo Alto is perhaps the nastiest. As the economy improves and more drivers join the commute, traffic jams will only get worse.
But a second set of carpool and merging lanes could ease the frequent lane changing that contributes mightily to slowdowns on this freeway. Motorists often slow to speeds under 20 mph as they approach their exits, leading trailing drivers to slam on their brakes.
"It's scary," said Megan Vaughn, 29, of San Jose. "I've seen people in the carpool lane literally stop when trying to move over for their exit. I hope a second carpool lane would bring an end to this."
Added Ed Mullen, a 51-year-old accountant from Mountain View: "The ride home is usually heavy or stop-and-go. A lot of the time the HOV lane is only moving slightly better than the rest of us, so I would guess there are enough frustrated drivers that would pay to move a little quicker."
Despite a decline in overall carpooling nationwide over the past two decades, diamond lanes on some Bay Area freeways -- including 101, I-80 and I-880 -- are filling up. It's common, engineers and commuters say, to find carpool traffic barely moving faster than lanes filled by solo drivers.
Bound by federal mandates to keep carpool-lane speeds flowing at 45 mph or faster, traffic planners say they have few choices to ease commutes and raise the money to pay for more road work. They can require carpools to contain three people instead of two, or they can add a second carpool lane.
"Increasing the occupancy requirement may be the logical solution if adding a second carpool lane is inappropriate," said Caltrans' Joseph Rouse, who oversees carpool lanes in the state. "However, going from two-plus to three-plus (occupants) may reduce vehicular demand by 75 to 85 percent. Such an adjustment may be too severe if
only a 10 percent to 20 percent reduction is necessary to maintain free-flow conditions."
As usual, Southern California is ahead of the Bay Area in testing the new approach. There are double carpool lanes on I-5 for a couple of miles south of I-405 in Orange County, and on I-110 in Los Angeles from I-105 to south of downtown Los Angeles. And there are projects under way to add double carpool lanes on I-10 and along more of I-110 in Los Angeles.
There are also two express lanes in each direction on Route 91 in Orange County, with an extension planned into Riverside County. And there are two express lanes in each direction on I-15 north of San Diego.
Not all freeways will get a second carpool lane, usually because there isn't room to add more than one. That's the case on I-880 through San Jose, where a carpool lane is being added, and on I-80 east of the Bay Bridge.
The widening of I-880 in the South Bay will run from Highway 237 almost to 101, with major changes scheduled for the Brokaw Road interchange. A carpool lane will be added on the southbound onramp and the merge lane extended 700 feet.
On the northbound side, the ramps will be shifted 70 feet east and there will be two lanes to turn left and two more to turn right. The tight, curvy two-lane ramp to north 880 will be smoothed out.
The Bay Area is seeing more improvement than other markets nationwide, but its lack of inventory is a problem, according to Rick Turley, president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage for the San Francisco Bay Area. Turley recently told Silicon Valley agents they need to educate their clients about the real story behind their local markets.
"We have a dearth of listings everywhere. Inventory is the lowest it's been in four to five years in every county," Turley told members of the Silicon Valley Association of Realtors.
Turley said the market is heating up but hampered by very low inventory, which have resulted in numerous multiple offers. Places like San Francisco have a mere three months supply of inventory. A healthy market has at least four to six months supply of inventory, said Turley.
"Inventory is what is going to put a cap on what we do this year," said Turley.
Turley also observed that the Facebook factor and improved employment picture in Silicon Valley has led to a shift in buying patterns of San Francisco's younger buyers, who now prefer properties in the Mission District, Potrero Hill areas, places that are closer to their employers in the valley.
The lack of inventory in the Bay Area has much to do with confusion among consumers, according to Turley. He suggested more one-on-one conversations with clients to let them know that while it is a good time to buy a home, it is also a good time to sell a home. With the low inventory and growing demand, Turley noted "sellers have an advantage not just in price, but in terms that can be favorable to them." Some buyers are proposing free rent-backs, waiving contingencies and are even willing to purchase homes as is, he said.
Turley's remarks echo those of the California Association of Realtors, which has indicated home buyers in most of California's markets are experiencing multiple offers, even for distressed and foreclosed properties. According to the state group's data, sales of bank-owned homes are closing in an average of less than 60 days, and often above the list price, without government intervention.
New research into the world's top startup hubs shows once again why Silicon Valley remains the global hub of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Startups here raise more money, have a bigger ecosystem to tap into, are more successful, create more jobs and are more likely to be designed to change the world than simply make money.
So says the Startup Genome Project, a research effort begun last year that aims to help make startups more successful.
The results of the comparison of the world's top startup locations was published Wednesday on TechCrunch.
It's interesting to note because there has been a groundswell of stories recently talking about whether startups really need to be located in Silicon Valley.
While the advantages here are shrinking a bit, they are still formidable.
Key points:
— The support system for startups in Silicon Valley is three times bigger than New York City, 4.5 times bigger than London, 12.5 times bigger than Berlin, and 38 times bigger than Boulder.
— That raises the likelihood of success. Silicon Valley startups succeed (defined as reaching scale stage) 22 percent more than they do in New York City and 54 percent more than in London.
— There is more money raised by startups here, 2 to 3 times more than anywhere else.
— Startups create more jobs here: 11 more than in New York and 38 percent more than in London.
— The reason for starting up a company in Silicon Valley is 30 percent more likely than anywhere else to be trying to change the world. New Yorkers are 50 percent more likely to be primarily trying to make a good living and Londoners are twice as likely to be looking to flip their business for a good profit.
— Don't bother coming here is you aren't ready to work hard. Silicon Valley startup crews put in 35 percent more hours than those in New York. Average work day here is 9.5 hours, versus 8 hours in London and 7 in NYC.
— Valley startups are ready to turn on a dime. So-called "pivots" where the original business model is tossed for a new one happens 45 percent more on average in Silicon Valley than in New York City and 33 percent more than in London.
There are more conclusions that can be found at the Startup Genome blog, which you find by clicking here.
But in the end, it would appear that Silicon Valley is unquestionably the place to be if you have an idea for a startup that you think may change the world. But be ready to work hard and get ready to adapt quickly.
The 10 most active startup ecosystems in the world, according to the research, are:
1. Silicon Valley (actually more like the Bay Area since they throw in San Francisco and Oakland, along with the San Jose and Palo Alto metro areas).
2. New York City.
3. London.
4. Toronto.
5. Tel Aviv.
6. Los Angeles.
7. Singapore.
8. Sao Paolo.
9. Bangalore.
10. Moscow.
Other U.S. cities that made the list include Seattle at No. 13, Chicago at No. 15, Boston at 18, Austin at 19 and Washington, D.C. at No. 24.
It seems like every day I see national headlines decrying the “struggling” housing market and questioning when things will finally turn around. And then we get to work and read the reports from Bay Area cities showing sales jumping and multiple offers for many if not most homes in a number of areas, and I wonder if we’re on the same planet.
The disconnect between the Bay Area housing market and what’s being reported on a national basis is getting stranger every day. In other parts of the country, agents and government officials are trying to figure out creative ways to rid their markets of a huge backlog of housing while buyers show little interest in jumping in to help. Then there’s the Bay Area, where the housing market is just the opposite.
Take, for example, a few of the reports this week from local agents on the frontlines:
- From Marin: “Multiple offers continue to be the name of the game, but the difference from the past markets is we are now seeing multiple offers in all price ranges, not just REOs and Short Sales.”
- One $1 million-plus Mill Valley home in Strawberry garnered 11 offers last week, and another priced at $1.35 million had six offers. Both are rumored to be in contract for almost $300,000 over list price.
- “Buyers are getting frustrated over not getting the property in multiple offer situations, even when going substantially over the list price.”
- From Los Altos: “We are selling more than we are listing in most price ranges. We had a healthy increase in the high end this past week with a $12 million and $7 million sale, several sales above $3 million and a dozen over $2 million.”
- “Inventories are at historic lows and the market continues to heat up!”
- From Walnut Creek: “We’re seeing multiple offers on most every listing that comes on the market. A condo in Walnut Creek received seven all cash offers!”
The same stories are being echoed in all parts of the Bay, from San Francisco and the Peninsula to San Jose to the East Bay, and not just the more expensive markets. Buyers are pounding the pavement, cash in hand and looking for good properties to buy – now, if not sooner.
Given the surging demand for housing you’d think sellers would be rushing to list their home, right? Guess again. The inventory of homes for sale is the lowest it has been in years, maybe even a decade, according to long-time industry observers. The result is that buyers are fighting it out for the few homes on the market listed by savvy sellers.
So what’s keeping the other sellers away when homes are going for great prices once again? Two things, both of which could come back to bite sellers who try to time the market:
1. A misunderstanding of the state of the housing market.
Perhaps they are reading the national headlines and still believe the market is in the doldrums, prices are still going down, and they don’t want to sell at bargain-basement prices. If so, they’re missing an incredible opportunity. We’re having a honest-to-goodness house party with lots of anxious buyers. But somehow, sellers never got their Evite.
2. They’re waiting for the Facebook IPO.
The thinking goes that once Facebook goes public, hundreds of employees will receive lucrative stock options which – eventually – they will be able to cash after the lockup period and then rush out to bid up prices for local homes. Wow, talking about betting on the come.
I’m not questioning the “Facebook effect” on the Silicon Valley housing market. Far from it, I think it certainly will have some impact on pricing at some point in some communities in the heart of the valley. But this strikes me as something like trying to time the stock market. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been able to get that right. And I don’t think many others have as well.
The fact is that the real estate market has always come down to two simple factors: the law of supply and demand, and consumer confidence. Right now, both of those are telling me it’s a sellers’ market in the Bay Area. Consumers are feeling pretty darn confident as the economy picks up steam and the stock market presses higher. And the scales of supply and demand are tipping heavily in favor of sellers.
Smart, strategic sellers get that, and they’re making their moves now – not six months or a year from now. They’re the ones receiving multiple offers over their asking price because there just isn’t a lot of competition for buyers’ attention. They’re out there now, well before everyone else joins the party, tipping the scales back in favor of buyers once again.
If you are planning to sell your home in 2012, contact Elena or Michael Talis at 650.766.6100 for professional advice and consultation.
Those of us that have lived in the Bay Area for years know that this region has always been a little different than the rest of the country. And most of us are glad that’s so! The state of the housing market is one more example of the Bay Area running counter to national norms.
Anyone who watches the network news or reads a national publication can’t help but come away feeling that every housing market in the country is suffering equally, thanks to a glut of inventory and a lack of qualified homebuyers. And while that’s true in some outlying areas of the Bay, it’s generally incorrect in most of our region.
To the contrary, we continue to see growing demand by very serious buyers looking to purchase homes. And while some are scouring the landscape for bargain basement distressed properties, many are seeking good, well-maintained homes at fair prices. And there continues to be a very strong demand for properties in the middle and upper ends of the market, including million-dollar homes.
The real problem we’re facing here in the Bay Area isn’t a lack of buyers; it’s a lack of sellers. Many homeowners who would like to sell their homes have been sitting on the sidelines, still believing that the market is in the depths of a recession. They still fear that they will have to take drastic price cuts in order to sell.
I’m afraid that the news hasn’t gotten out to them that things have changed for the better over the past year or two. Sellers no longer must sell their properties at fire-sale prices to get buyers attention. In fact, fairly priced homes that are well maintained and in good neighborhoods are not only being sold fairly quickly these days, but in some cases with multiple offers.
What makes the Bay Area different from the rest of the country, which is still battling a very sluggish housing market? It starts with our strong economy.
As a result of vibrant high-tech, biotech and social media industries from Silicon Valley up the Peninsula to San Francisco, the Bay Area is home to some of the best-paid knowledge workers in the country. These are well-educated engineers, programmers, financiers, and other highly educated professionals with money to invest and a desire to own a home. Add to that the supporting cast of back-office and headquarters jobs that have been created by thriving tech companies over the years and it’s easy to understand why demand for the Bay Area’s limited housing has never been stronger.
Local Market Monitor, a national firm that analyzes housing markets for the banking industry, recently issued a three-year forecast of the best and worst housing markets in the country out of the 100 largest markets that it covers. Ranking second in the nation – the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara housing market.
A story on the study in MarketWatch noted that home prices in Silicon Valley “are close to a bottom…and there’s already a good recovery underway in the job market, driven by high-tech manufacturing and technology services. Income levels are high, and population growth is slightly above average.”
During the housing boom (between 2002 and 2007), home prices rose 43% followed by a 21% drop, the report showed. “The San Jose recovery is clearly connected to the high-tech sector...and during the recession, 30,000 tech jobs were lost, but 16,000 have been regained since 2009. These are high-paying jobs that affect the housing market,” Local Market Monitor added.
While no one’s predicting an immediate return to the red-hot housing market of years ago, clearly things are looking up for much of the Bay Area.
For sellers who have been holding off listing their properties, I would strongly urge them to reconsider. Right now the math is in a reluctant seller’s favor. Interest rates remain near historic lows, the economy is gradually improving, and the Bay Area has more than its share of anxious buyers trying to purchase a home – but not enough homes to meet that demand.
The sum of these conditions mean that the balance between supply and demand is actually tipping in many homeowners’ favor, as hard as that is to believe after what we went through in recent years. This could very well be a surprisingly good time to sell a home, before everyone else catches on to the real story of the Bay Area housing market.
A gentle reminder – the time change is coming up. Don’t worry, though. This one is the cool time change that gives you an extra hour of sleep, unlike its evil, sleep sucking stepsister in Spring. This weekend, at 2:00 AM on November 6th, Daylight Saving Time will end, and revert back to Standard Time. You’ll need to wind back the clock one hour, going back in time (incredible!) to 1:00 AM, at least for all of your old-fashioned gadgetry that won’t do it automatically. If you live in Arizona or Hawaii, just ignore this article. You guys are some of the lucky few that get to avoid this hassle altogether, joining Asia (no, not you Iran, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia), most of Africa (apologies to Morocco and Namibia), and a little over half of South America (sorry Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, and southern Brazil – you’re stuck time traveling with the rest of us). The southern part of Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and Canada round out the time changing party. No word on whether or not the penguins in Antarctica bother.
Confused yet? That raises the question – why do we even bother with Daylight Saving Time in the first place? Is that extra hour of daylight shifted to the afternoon from the morning all that important? The problems with the system are obvious – people coming in an hour late or early to work or school because they forgot to change their clocks, lost sleep, and messed up sleep schedules that leave a good number of us feeling drained for months. So, what do we get out of the deal? Do we get anything out of the deal?
A few people in the past seemed to think so. The idea might have started with Benjamin Franklin. Ever keen to be early to bed and early to rise, Franklin noticed that the Sun was getting up before he did, and (possibly half kidding) wondered publicly about how much more could be accomplished with that lost hour. Granted, this was before electric lighting. The man had a point.
No one got serious about the suggestion until World Wars I and II, when both sides of the wars enacted Daylight Saving Time at different points in order to cut down on energy consumption, rerouting resources into the war effort. It was thought that by tacking on an extra hour of daylight in the afternoon, less electricity would be needed overall. For a while, they were right.
Today, things are less certain. Studies have been done both supporting and debunking the use of Daylight Saving Time as a means of cutting energy consumption. One thing that doesn’t need to be researched, though – that lost hour sleep doesn’t really go over well with anyone. You can check out a little bit more about those studies in this article, detailing both sides of the argument.
So, once again, don’t forget – this week, set your clocks back one hour for the end of Daylight Saving Time. After all, the only thing worse than coming to work an hour late because you botched the time change is coming into work an hour early.
|
