The Nation’s Hardest Workers Call the Bay Area Home

San Francisco ranks as the hardest-working city in America in 2018, according to a just-released report. Fremont and Oakland also rank among the top 10 hardest-working cities in the country. Two separate reports released last fall found that Bay Area workers are America’s happiest and enjoy the best work-life balances. Living in the Bay Area — and especially buying a home — is an expensive...

Real Estate Roundup: The Bay Area Is Adding Seven Times More Jobs Than Housing Units

Here’s a look at recent news of interest to homebuyers, home sellers, and the home-curious. SILICON VALLEY’S JOB AND HOUSING MARKET PRECIPICES WIDEN Silicon Valley’s booming technology sector is creating plenty of high-paying jobs, but the region is nowhere close to keeping up when it comes to creating new housing units. Citing a new report from the Silicon Valley Competitiveness and Innovation Project, The Mercury...

U.S. Home Sales See Biggest Drop in More Than Three Years in January

U.S. home sales dropped by 4.8 percent year over year in January, the largest such decline since 2014. Nationwide, inventory decreased for the 32nd straight month on an annual basis, down by 9.5 percent. The median home price ended January at $240,500, up by 5.8 percent year over year for the 71st straight month of annual gains. The inaugural month of 2018 continued U.S. housing...

Outsourcing Home-Maintenance Tasks: How Much Should You Expect to Pay Each Year?

A recent survey found that the average homeowner pays $2,000 per year to outsource maintenance services such as housecleaning and landscaping. Sixty-three percent of homeowners use at least one recurring home-maintenance service provider. Housekeeping is the most expensive service to outsource, an average of $285 each month. Most prospective homebuyers have considered the major costs of ownership, including the down payment, the monthly mortgage payment,...

Tight Inventory Continues to Drive California and Bay Area Home Prices in January

California and Bay Area home sales declined in January on an annual basis by a respective 2.9 percent and 4.6 percent. The median sales price for an existing-single family home in the nine-county Bay Area was $809,900, a gain of 10.9 percent from January 2017. Home prices in Silicon Valley counties rose by about 25 percent year over year, among the highest rates of appreciation...

California Housing Prices Straining Even Highly Paid Tech Workers

Software engineers at major Bay Area tech companies bring home an average of $210,500 per year, compared with those in Los Angeles, who earn $157,000 per year. Programmers who work at Santa Monica’s Hulu face California’s most challenging affordability conditions, with 44 percent of the average salary needed to purchase the median-priced home. In the Bay Area, the least-affordable housing markets for software developers are...

Real Estate Roundup: Silicon Valley Home Prices Soar in the Fourth Quarter

Here’s a look at recent news of interest to homebuyers, home sellers, and the home-curious. HOME PRICES HIT NEW PEAKS IN TWO-THIRDS OF U.S. REAL ESTATE MARKETS More than 90 percent of U.S. housing markets saw annual price growth in the fourth quarter, with the San Jose metropolitan area leading the country for appreciation. That’s according to the National Association of Realtors’ latest quarterly report,...

International Property Awards Names Pacific Union World’s Best Real Estate Brokerage

Pacific Union is pleased to announce that esteemed global organization International Property Awards has named our firm as 2017-2018 World’s Best Real Estate Agency Over 20 Offices. Based in London and now in their 25th year, the International Property Awards honor the most elite levels of achievement by companies operating in all sectors of the property and real estate industry. The global awards cover Africa,...

San Francisco Again Ranks as the Healthiest U.S. City in 2018

San Francisco tops a list of the nation’s healthiest cities for the second year in a row. The city ranks. No. 1 in the country for both healthy eating habits and green spaces. Fremont, San Jose, and Oakland all rank in the top 25 for health-consciousness in 2018. Access to plenty of green spaces and healthy eating habits have helped propel San Francisco to the...