Scooter Tutor

Ramesh is a good friend of mine whom I've played squash with over the last 25 years. He gave up banking to be a tutor in San Francisco. One of the characters of the City....


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The most expensive city in America is ..........San Francisco?

Rates across the country have sored and leave San Francisco in first place.


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Americas Cup - the impact on SF's economy and waterfront

The San Francisco Bay will host the 34th America's Cup in 2013 with preliminary rounds for the Louis Vuitton Cup in summer/autumn of 2012. This will create a huge construction program which in simple terms is a mammoth undertaking. The first of which would be the transformation of Pier 27 which will be "America's Cup Village". “It will be a gathering place where race fans can view the tournament, shop, and eat" according to Eric Young for the San Francisco Business Times.

The San Francisco economy will be given a possible multi-billion dollar influx in spending. Over 8,800 new jobs will be created in order for America’s Cup to be ready by the deadline required. Also "America’s Cup has set a goal of using San Francisco based small businesses 30% of the time in contracts of at least $150,000". Great for the City and its residents.

The America's Cup - America's Cup race course revealed Seen Above

Whopping Effect

"The event will cost a whopping $300 million, $32 million of which will be raised by the nonprofit America's Cup Organizing Committee on behalf of the City. But according to the San Francisco Examiner, members of the committee have kept quiet as to how they plan to raise such a sum, and some City officials show little concern. "That's always been an overarching concern," Supervisor David Campos told the Examiner, noting that taxpayers would be forced to pay the leftovers should the committee fail to meet its fundraising goal.

It hasn't exactly been smooth sailing for the America's Cup executive team either. Last month, the San Francisco Business Times reported that even CEO Craig Thompson left the organization as a result of "lackluster financial performance, Richard Worth chairman of the America's Cup Event Authority, will replace him." Click Here for more on the CEO shake up.

To read More on the Topic Click Here

Projected Plans for the City 1

Projected Plans for the City 2

Team Member Spotlight: Sabine

One of our interns, Sabine from Austria, shares her experience and take on what student housing could offer her and her fellow peers...

My name is Sabine and I am a student of a language school, located here in San Francisco. I’m staying here in San Francisco for 6 months and I’m living with a host family, a house with 10 other students. I really enjoy my time with my host family because of the people. However the lodging situation isn’t what I presumed it would be. 

At one point, some of my peers and I thought about renting and sharing an apartment. Unfortunately, we never ventured to this step, because we didn't have enough information about how it works. We didn't really know where we should search for an apartment, in which neighborhood we should rent, mostly we didn't know if we were even allowed to rent an apartment in the USA, because we were all students from abroad.

It would have been really helpful if our school could inform us about apartment rental, because I know that a lot of students aren’t satisfied with their current options.

More Student Housing Information 
www.l38group.com/studenthousing

Bay Area Tri-County Market Overview

Optimism pervades the multi-family market in the Bay Area Tri-County

Looking ahead to 2012, Latitude 38 Group has identified excellent investment opportunities in the Bay Area Tri-County and has put together a market overview showing the major trends in this area.

Renter demand in San Francisco, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties continues to grow intensively, fueled by booming tech-sector job creation. The limited supply of housing in preferred urban neighborhoods has led to increasing demand in nearby communities in the Peninsula. Because of their proximity to the tech-startup companies, demand in Santa Clara and San Mateo County has been affected most positively. 

Rising rents are attracting investors targeting apartment properties.

In recent years transactions and sales velocity across both counties have built momentum, bringing cap rates close to those in the city.

This has created an opportunity because prices still have not reached pre-recession levels and therefore new development has been delayed. Find out more:CLICK HERE

Head to www.l38group.com for more in-depth look at the multi-family market. 

800 Market sells for $1100/ft.....now that's frothy

San Francisco is now moving past the 06’ – ’07 pricing – exciting but somewhat of a concern as there is millions of square feet of available space. It does however bode well for property owners in San Francisco and to some extent Silicon Valley but don’t go any further – there is a cliff.

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An Oasis Surrounded by a Sea of Misery

San Francisco is certainly an odd ball city, however as far as investment in real estate is concerned, it is cookin’.  While there are still a lot of issues, the economic boost from social media, biotech, clean tech, especially in South of Market (SOMA), are creating a new bubble. Or in other words LaLa Land, frothy investment market, overheated environment, crazy numbers – whatever else you would like to describe it, it’s here ….again.

$160B Distressed Commercial Property Hits Close to Home

The unfortunate downfall of the Lembi Family's 8000 unit portfolio has created a lot of activity in San Francisco. With around 1500 units sold off, 1200 units with loan modifications, there could be as many as 5,300 units freeing up in 2010.