02 Nov

Six Bay Area Restaurants with 3 Michelin Stars

By Michaela To In East Bay, Food, San Francisco, Things to do / No Comments

Quince’s recent promotion to three Michelin stars means the Bay Area now ranks with New York as one of the country’s top high-end gastronomical destinations. Three stars, in Michelin speak, means “exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey.” The other Bay Area restaurants with equally high praise are Saison, Benu, Meadowood, Manresa, and The French Laundry.

And some more fun foodie facts for you (according to SF Eater):

San Jose Now Has a Michelin Star: Jessica Carriera and David Costa’s Adega has become the second Portuguese restaurant in the states with a Michelin star (Aldea in New York is the other), and the only San Jose restaurant with a star.
The Oakland Outlier: Commis, James Syhabout’s acclaimed tasting menu spot, remains the only East Bay spot honored with the guide’s signature accolade. It has two stars.
The Total Star Count: San Francisco now has 54 Michelin stars total. New York has 75. Chicago has 22, and the newly launched Washington, DC guide has 12.

In case you want to check a few of these off your list, here’s a map of all 54 Bay Area Michelin star restaurants. Enjoy!

19 Aug

The Bay Area’s Best Bad Neighborhoods

By Michaela To In East Bay / No Comments

Rumor has it on RealtyTrac that some of the best up-and-coming neighborhoods are in the East Bay. Instead of looking for the nicest neighborhoods, real estate investors and first-time homebuyers are looking for the best up-and-coming neighborhoods that might be considered bad but are recovering and have the potential to grow in value.

“Many down-and-out neighborhood housing markets across the country are on the rebound thanks to a confluence of market forces working in their favor,” Blomquist said in a RealtyTrac blog. “Tight inventory of homes for sale combined with a dearth of new home building is convincing buyers and investors to reconsider buying in what they once might have considered ‘bad’ neighborhoods.”

RealtyTrac looked at several factors in more than 3,500 zip codes nationally, including the number of construction loans, which finance both residential and commercial projects; the profitability of house flipping; the percentage of millennials in the neighborhood; and the quality of a neighborhood’s best school. (In this case, the researchers focused on finding neighborhoods where the best school was ranked below the state average. Improving schools are often a lagging indicator of an improving neighborhood.)

29 Jul

New Treasure Island Development

By Michaela To In New Development, San Francisco / No Comments

After almost two decades of laborious planning, back and forth negotiations, and long legal battles, the beginnings of the newest SF neighborhood is finally taking place in the middle of the bay. All 405 square feet of man-made Treasure Island and adjoining Yerba Buena Island are in the works of redeveloping an additional 8,000 new homes, 500 hotel rooms, 300 acres of parks and open space, 140,000 square feet of retail and 100,000 of office space to be built over the next 20 years at a cost close to $5 billion.

The development has already started this spring, and the first housing projects will start construction next year with new residents moving in within 2-3 years. Phase 1 of the project includes up to 2,100 housing units. At a time when job and population growth continue to keep pushing rents and home prices higher, these thousands of homes should bring some relief to residents. Plus, it’s a chance to build an entirely new community and neighborhood from the ground up.

18 Jul

How Pokémon is changing real estate

By Michaela To In Current Events, San Francisco, Uncategorized / No Comments

In just a week’s time, a little app called Pokémon Go has become somewhat of a global phenomenon, resulting in millions of people aimlessly stumbling around trying to catch imaginary creatures on their phone screens.

According to Bisnow, “In the simplest terms, Pokémon GO uses your phone’s GPS and clock to detect where you are and makes Pokémon “appear” around you so you can use your phone’s camera to “catch” them. As you move around, different types of Pokémon will appear depending on the area. The idea is to encourage people to travel around the real world, interacting with it in what is known as an augmented reality game. The app’s popularity and potential for driving foot traffic is unprecedented.”

So what effect does this have on real estate?

Businesses are now using Pokémon as bait to drive more traffic to their stores.

Pokestop

Pokemon for customers

Pokémon pub crawls and meetups are now a real thing. Over 5,000 people RSVP’ed for the mass street and bar crawl of Pokémon enthusiasts through San Francisco alone.

Craigslisters have already begun using their proximity to gyms and PokéStops to lure potential new roommates. Two San Franciscans have an available room near an “awesome Pokemon spawn area!”, while an East Bay apartment is making an attempt to attract potential renters with “so many pokestops and pokemon in so little time!”

Real estate agents are including it to drive foot traffic to their open houses. Jay Glazer, a Manhattan realtor, added to his $1.5 million listing: “I’m fairly certain there is a PIKACHU at this open house, don’t miss it.”

Even home listings are using pokestops as selling points to potentially raise the value of the homes.

On the other hand, there are still some very opposed to the craze. One listing in Mary Esther, Florida, states clearly at the top, “**There are ZERO Pokemon Go features**” (It has yet to be confirmed how many offers they received and whether that statement affected the home’s value in any way.)

It might seem silly to use PokéStops as a criteria in choosing where to live, but if there really are rare pokemon around…how can you turn that down?

08 Jul

Obama a future Bay Area techie?

By Michaela To In Current Events / No Comments

Obama will soon be leaving the White House, which means he’ll need a new job. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Obama said, “Had I not gone into politics, I’d probably be starting some kind of business. The skill set of starting my presidential campaigns—and building the kinds of teams that we did and marketing ideas—I think would be the same kinds of skills that I would enjoy exercising in the private sector… The conversations I have with Silicon Valley and with venture capital pull together my interests in science and organization in a way I find really satisfying.”

Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, aka the self-proclaimed center of the VC universe, was quick to jump at this opportunity. A few things on Obama’s resume that stood out to them:

Able to motivate people better than anyone else.
Has enough perspective to invest in those who don’t fit the Silicon Valley mold.
Has a track record of big wins and epic fails. Both are needed to be successful.
Able to sit through long presentations, remember countless names and faces, and kiss crying babies. Perfect skill set when working with founders.
Has the world’s largest and most reliable network. (Verizon does not.)

It’s still too early to tell what Obama will do after he leaves office, but he has always been an advocate of the entrepreneurial culture. And he will probably need a new place to live. The Bay Area in all its tech glory seems to fit the bill perfectly. How his potential move may affect Bay Area home prices is still TBD.

01 Jul

How does Brexit affect home affordability?

By Michaela To In Current Events, Interest Rate, Lending / No Comments

Mortgage rates have been at record lows in recent years, but they just made a sharp plummet after news of Brexit. U.S. mortgage rates are heavily influenced by world events, especially ones that cause uncertainty. And there is nothing quite as uncertain and unprecedented as Britain divorcing itself from the EU. Financial markets have been taking a plunge, and everybody is running around like chickens with their heads chopped off, unsure of what to do next.

The lack of an economic direction has prompted investors to put their money into safer investments like mortgage-backed securities (MBS). And when investor demand for MBS goes up, interest rates go down. The result: rates are taking a nosedive straight into the ground.

That’s good news for homebuyers! Everyone thought rates would rise to at least the mid-4s by the end of this year. Instead, they have dropped to the mid-3s. Which actually makes homes more affordable. A refinance applicant saves about $60 per month, per $100,000 borrowed, for every 1% reduction in rate. A home buyer can afford a home that costs 10% more. In other words, borrowing money from the bank is crazy cheap right now!

More on how Brexit affects other aspects of the housing market here.

Author: Michaela To