PriceChopper: Jackson Square One Bedroom Gets Sent to the Chopping Block

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Wednesday, January 2, 2013, by Sally Kuchar Was: $699,000
Now: $649,000
You Save: $50,000

We featured this property on our weekly Open House Report, but unfortunately that wasn't enough to entice a buyer. The 1-bed, 1-bath, 909-square-foot condo at 733 Front Street in Jackson Square has been on the market since early December, and took a price chop of $50,000 on December 26. By way of Redfin agent David Pemstein we learn that It's a "Very large 1 bedroom and nice bathroom. Very sleek and modern design. Fitness room and roof deck with amazing view of East Bay." Readers, what's the problem? It's a boutique luxury building with 69 condos, and there's a door person during business hours. Monthly HOA dues are $651 and only leased parking is available for an additional $350 per month.
· 733 Front Street, #201 [Redfin]
· Weekend Open House Report: One Bedroom Edition [Curbed SF]

733 Front Street, San Francisco, CA

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Auction Block: Would You Like to Own a Prime Piece of Clint Eastwood's Tehama?

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Friday, August 19, 2011, by Sally Kuchar In the 1960s, actor Clint Eastwood starting shelling out dough for plots of land in Carmel that eventually became a development project known as Tehama. Shoot forward to today, and fancy folks are more than willing to write a check for several million dollars so that they can snag a slice of Tehama and call it (vacation) home. Especially celebrities! They love it there. But not all is good in ultra swank Tehama. One of the area's prime lots—a 15.4-acre hilltop building site—is hitting the auction block. The property was previously listed for $3,450,000, but will be auctioned off with an opening bid of just $1,750,000. Local brokers are concerned that this will put a damper on Tehama's reputation for being a magnet to the rich. They'd prefer the seller, Gateway co-founder Norman Waitt, to wait it out and go through what they believe are the proper channels to secure a sale. Unfortunately for them that doesn't seem too likely, as the property is fit to go to auction on August 31. Do invite us over for a picnic.
· Tehama Carmel [official site]
· Auction Prompts Concern at Eastwood’s Carmel Development [WSJ]
· Carmel Auction [Sheldon Good & Company]
· Snag a Piece of Clint Eastwood's Wild West at August Auction [Curbed National]

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PriceChopper: Pearly Pad Gets Sent to the Chopping Block

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Monday, April 11, 2011, by Sally Kuchar Was: $789,000
Now: $769,000
You Save: $20,000

Earlier this year, unit #302 in 1083 Clay was put on the market with an asking price of $789,000. The curvy unit has one bedroom and one bathroom, and clocks in at a little under 1,000 square feet. Shoot forward 81 days and it's taken a chop of $20,000, bringing down the asking price to $769,000. The Nob Hill abode has monthly HOA dues of 681.61 and there's 1-car parking in the garage. What'll it take for this pretty condo to find a buyer, dear readers? Aren't the 11-foot ceilings and sunken living room enough?
· 1083 Clay #302 [Redfin]
· Nob Hill Pearlescent Pad [Curbed SF]

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Gifting: Meet the Knife Block That Will Make Valentine's Day a Cut Above

× Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox. Friday, February 11, 2011, by Sarah

Today's Valentine's Day gift guide over on T Magazine's The Moment blog includes this The Ex Five-Piece Knife Set With Unique Holder, which is available for $69.99 on Amazon. The body of the "unique" little guy comes in a fiery red, too. Amazing!

· The Other Valentine's Day [The Moment]

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Rising Mortgage Rates Block Refis

As the yield on the 10-year Treasury hits a six month high, you can almost hear all the doors slamming over in refi land. While you'd think most borrowers had already refinanced their loans to take advantage of the recent record-low interest rates, many have actually not, and their opportunity is fast falling.

Refinance applications have fallen steadily since the first week in October, as mortgage rates began to rise.

Now a $500 billion block of loans has become "clearly not refinanceable" according to Deutsche Bank.

"The mortgage rate for a high concentration of 30-year borrowers clusters just below 5.00 percent...as the 30-year Freddie Mac primary survey rate increased from the low of 4.17 percent on 11 November to 4.46 percent on the latest reading, the average refinancing incentives for these borrowers has dropped from 76 bp to 47 bp, putting them at a brink of break-even refinancing spread."

There are currently $10.5 trillion in mortgages outstanding, and there have been about $2 trillion in refinance activity since the beginning of 2009, according to Inside Mortgage Finance. So one in five borrowers have refinanced. Why so relatively few, given the historically low rates this year?

"Because underwriting is much tougher than it has been in several decades, there is no non-prime market, one in five borrowers are underwater and unemployment is close to 10 percent," instructs Guy Cecala of IMF.

Still, I'm sure there are a fair number of borrowers who could still have taken advantage of lower rates and improved their finances some, especially given the government refi programs designed to help underwater borrowers.

As rates go up, those programs will likely become less effective.

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