We’re gonna go out on a limb and say that when 99% of Outer Parkside home buyers (and their Realtors) are shopping for homes at or near Ocean Beach, they’re not looking for “villas”. Maybe “Junior 5s” or “Center Patios”, but “villas”? Seems like a little bit of…shall we say…interesting marketing.

But a Pizza Place On Noriega? Now that’s marketing…it’s a pizza place…on Noriega. Genius!

(Yes, the Pizza Place is nearby this listing.)

-2006 47th Ave, Outer Parkside, $849,000.

What we’d like to show you is something that is still happening, but going unnoticed by both mainstream media, and sidestream blogs…that is that homes are still selling, and they’re selling for realistic prices, in realistic amounts of time.

Take for example this 2 bed, 1 bath, Fuji apple at 2331 42nd Avenue that was purchased back in 2003 for $515,000.

By all accounts this home was (and still is) in need of some repair.

Enter the Macintosh apple: A 3 bed, 1 bath home at 2335 42nd Avenue right next door to our Fuji.

Almost identical homes in very similar condition at the time of sale. (Save for a bedroom off the sort of remodeled kitchen in the Mac, which in our opinion decreased the value because it blocks views and access to a potential deck from the kitchen, and thus our hesitation to compare as a Mac to Mac, or Fuji to Fuji).

This Mac was listed for $688,000 during the holiday doldrums, and the worst economic/real estate situation we have possibly ever seen.

So what happened to this Mac? It was snatched up in 11 days for $710,000.

Is that a 2003 sales price? Not quite.

Make no mistake, it’s bad out there, but not always as bad as you’re continually forced to read. Train wrecks will always get more attention.

-2331 42nd Avenue, 2 bed, 1 bath, $515k in 2003 [MLS]
-2335 42nd Avenue, 3 bed, 1 bath, $710k in 2008 [MLS]

Hello out there, theFrontStep Readers! You may (or just as likely, may not) know my name from my blogs for Redfin. I’ve kindly been invited to write also for theFrontSteps, so here I am, on the steps, with my first blog.

So here’s the setting: last night, 2:00am, sultry night, people walking up from the bars, falling down, giggling. That noise doesn’t bother me much. I’d have to be a hypocrite if I tried to pretend I’ve never, after closing time, made too much noise under someone’s window as I staggered home. But another noise does bother me: some a-hole flooring his car and slamming on the breaks as he reaches the stop sign in front of my house. Then, from fully stationary, he floods the car again, tyring to go from zero to sixty instantaneously. Then he screeches off, circles the block, and comes back to do it again.

But we all live in a city. We can’t really expect quiet, can we? We can hope for it, and maybe in some areas, get it most of the time. But in the end, we’re sharing with a lot of people, some of them loud and possibly crazy. That’s why this new law aiming to curb SF noise interests me.

From the Chronicle:

The “Noise Control Ordinance” [which is already on the books, will now update] for the first time in more than three decades how the city regulates loud noise from mechanical sources like garbage trucks and ventilation systems along with bass and drum noise from nightclubs, which currently have no restrictions……The measure should be in front of the full Board of Supervisors for consideration on Nov. 4.

The current noise laws are essentially unenforceable because the original law, passed in 1973, based regulations on zoning, when there were only 19 types of zones. Today, there are more than 90, according to city leaders. The technology used to measure sound also has changed radically.

The proposed law would allow city inspectors responding to a complaint to measure the base level of ambient noise, which largely comes from traffic, and then sets limits on how much that can be exceeded by both commercial and residential sources.

Geez, SF. Get on that right after you solve the homeless crisis, the budget crisis, and also create world peace.

Still, noise pollution is a much identified problem, a source of health problems serious enough for most major cities to take action against it. Here in SF, for instance, we have Sound Pollution.org (among other such agencies). Surely then we’re better off in quiet nabes.

So where are those nabes? I live in Golden Gate Heights- pretty quiet, but not as much on 9th Ave (my street), where the #6 runs well after 2:00am and, as indicated, post bar stumblers as well as the more dangerous drivers come up regularly. Other streets though, especially those that don’t really go all the way through, are quieter.

North Beach? Um, hell no.

Pac Heights? For sure. If you read Arrian Binnings post, you know that property value really only goes up there. Couldn’t do that without the hush lots of money can buy.

Glen Park and Bernal? They’re alike in that it depends on the street. Coach A’s post on San Francisco Schtuff reminds of of the familial (and thus, pretty sedate) element Bernal offers; however, parts of Bernal and Glen Park are also close to the Freeway and BART, so not sedate at all.

Noe? Same as Bernal. Parts are very tranquil, but overall, proximity to Castro and Mission= noise.

Castro? See North Beach.

Mission? Never quiet.

Diamond Heights/Twin Peaks: pretty quiet. Pretty boring too though.

Ashbury Heights? See Pacific Heights.

Haight-Ashbury? See Mission.

Outer Sunset: Nothing but the sea, the wind, and some drunk guys around pitiful bonfire.

Tenderloin: Lots of noise, all of it scary.

Okay, you see where I’m going with this. If you don’t like noise at all, you may want to consider living in the suburbs. But if you can take a little (or a lot) your perfect neighborhood is out there. Spend a full day and a full night or two in your future nabe, maybe with the city’s new noise reading machine in hand, before you sign on a lease– or, more fatally, a mortgage.

—

Photo credit: Vicpark.com

…there is so much oil on Ocean Beach right now, it is going to take thousands of people, thousands of hours to clean it all up. I just spent 5 hours picking up globs of oil and believe me, the public is needed here. Make no mistake, once you get out here you will realize this an an environmental catastrophe right before our eyes right in our home break. The sooner the oil gets off the beach, the less gets washed back into the ocean and the sooner this will get better. As it is, it’s going to be weeks before anyone can surf out here. So please send a message to surfers to come and help clean up our beloved beach. Here’s how to do it: 1. Wear old clothes and shoes–they will get oil on them and most likely be ruined. 2. Get some latex (i.e., doctor’s) gloves or heavy duty dishwashing rubber gloves. 3. Get a trash bag or, even better, put a trash bag inside of a 5 gallon bucket. 4. Go to the beach and pick up the globs of oil. The globs range in size from smaller than a dime to as big as a jellyfish. The best time to pick them up is when the globs are lying on the wet smooth sand so you can skim the globs together and, because the sand is wet, it doesn’t stick to the oil. So this means the best time is medium high tide dropping through low tide through about medium tide. However, if you can’t make it then, just go any time as the magnitude of this problem is HUGE and there has been a very limited response so far. Thanks for your help in getting out the message. Other activists recommend bringing a kitty litter scooper to pick up the globs of oil. Bring as many kitty litter scoopers as possible! DO NOT PICK UP BIRDS OR OTHER ANIMALS COATED WITH OIL!! BRING A FULLY CHARGED CELL PHONE TO THE BEACH WITH THE FOLLOWING PHONE NUMBER ENTERED : IF ANIMALS IN TROUBLE SPOTTED, CALL 877.823.6926

We have to ask, where do you trash the oil you collect?

As if it isn’t hard enough finding good surf here, and suffering though cold miserable, foggy Summers to arrive at Fall (the best time of year) and we can’t even get in the water.

-Grassroots effort to clean Ocean Beach [Kill the Spill, sfoilspill.blogspot.com]

-SF Gov. Oil Spill Information [sfgov.org, the official stuff]

-Craigslist posting on how to clean up oil [Craigslist]

-Baykeeper.org [website and link from Scott at Redfin...thanks!]

theFrontSteps is not involved in organizing any volunteers and warns that any help you provide is at your own risk. Volunteers at Ocean Beach are reporting health problems: difficulty breathing, burning eyes, sore throats, headaches and dizziness. This is very nasty, toxic stuff that is on the beaches. theFrontSteps is providing this information solely as a service to the community. This type of activity could be illegal, and we do not in any way shape or form take responsibility for your actions.

You put your life savings down [on a home in SF] and pray to [G]od you didn’t buy at the top and your family doesn’t have any life issues such as illness, injury, divorce, death, unemployment, or downswing in business, which results in you losing 60% or more of your down payment after even a 2% depreciation due to closing costs, commissions, taxes and penalties. A modest 6% depreciation could result in you losing everything.

Its an easy decision to make when an upmarket is just beginning and salaries are rising, but when all indicators are trending down it is difficult to escape the feeling that you are playing a game of craps at the highest stakes table in las vegas.

“Da bulls” (not Ditka’s) have been responding a bit more than “da bears” (also not Ditka’s), and there has been some question of “all indicators are trending down”, but a good comment nonetheless and one that really gets you thinking.

To add my two cents. There is absolutely nothing wrong with renting. If you want to buy real estate, there is a whole world of markets for you to invest in. Buy elsewhere, and rent here. Nothing wrong with that.

As an investor, now could be a good time to snatch up some property in markets that are hurting. Buy low, rent high, think long term.

-Done Deal in the Outer Parkside [theFrontSteps]

…in August of 2006 this property was listed at $1,095,000, then in March of 2007 listed at $899,000, now it is listed at $1,295,000. If it sells at $1,295,000, I’m packing up and moving to Mexico, because that would be just plain wrong. It should sell around $775,000 or less. That is a fair price. It has no ocean views, is hardly high-end, literally shares a fence with a school, and could definitely use some “modernizing”. Other than that, it is a great house…

That was then. I’m packing my bags, but not boarding the plane. It just sold for $990,000!!!! This is truly amazing. I can’t even believe it. Not at all. Comps and price per square foot support it (I guess), but it is NOT a “$10,000 shy of $1M” house. WOW! That’s all I can say…wow.

-2342 42nd [MLS]

We’ll kick things off with a little spin on the old debate and do what we do best…that is make it about real estate, stick to the stats, and give you some averages:

Outer Richmond (source: SFAR MLS)

Outer Sunset/Parkside (source: SFAR MLS)

Richmond (SFR Median: source Altos Research, same for Sunset, Parkside graphs.)

Sunset

Parkside

We leave the rest to you. The weather is equally as shitty in both neighborhoods in the summer, so we know you can’t argue about that.

Tell all your friends to come on over to theFrontSteps and hash it out in this thread.

Up next: Hayes Valley or Haight Ashbury

On deck: West Portal or St. Francis Wood

If you’re not familiar with your “districts” here is the best, most detailed map we could find online.

- Pacific Heights or Marina…if you had to choose [theFrontSteps]

-Stump the Stammtisch: Bernal on Fuego or Hielo [theFrontSteps]

The present owner, Tom Lloyd-Butler, first spotted the place after a day riding 20-foot waves on the far side of that road, called the Great Highway. “I was changing, and I looked up and saw this tiny ‘For Sale’ sign,” he recalls. “It was totally different from any other house at the beach…

Like Cosimo in Italo Calvino’s The Baron in the Trees, the [local] architects perched in the branches of the cypresses and pines, observing where the canopy was dense and where it was porous, noting various perspectives and view corridors to the ocean. Then they came down again and, removing only one tree in the process, planted a three-story, 24-by-24-foot steel-sheathed glass pavilion next to the house, tethering it by means of a translucent bridge connected at the second stories.

We were sold even before this article ran…now we get a look inside, and we’re wondering when it will sell again, so one of our readers can buy it and throw a huge Indian Summer beach party for all of us…we’ll bring the limes. 

(More photos in the magazine.  You might want to pick one up.)

-Highway Hideaway [Dwell]

-Aidlin Darling Design [website]

-(Photos: Aidlin Darling Design and Dwell Magazine)

-2342 42nd Ave. [MLS]
-What I liked [sfn BLOG]

I recently bought a house in the outer sunset district (48th and Ortega ) of San Francisco. I am trying to figure out exactly what are the building/remodeling restrictions for my zone. Specifically I am interested in finding out about height restrictions, such as building a third story for an ocean view or adding a roof deck. Is there a height limit? Is there a story limit? etc. I believe my unit to be zoned rh-1 and I also believe the house to be in a coastal zone, this probably has some bearing on the answer. Please let me know what you think or where to go for this kind of info. Thank you.”-rob

———————-
As answered by Sven Lavine of Sven Lavine Architecture

Rob,
The height limit in your district is 40 feet, which technically means you could add a third story. There are some other factors which may be relevant: Are there other 3 story houses in the vicinity? If your proposed addition would be out of character or scale, your neighbors could oppose the project during planning review. If your building is historically registered, a 3rd story will be difficult to get past planning (unlikely in your location). You also need to be aware of the seismic, and structural ramifications of adding a story. Adding a roof deck is easier with regard to planning, but you may need to add structure to support the added load. Single family homes are exempt from Coastal Zone Permit requirements, so you should be OK there.

Most of this information is available from the city planning and building departments, but I would recommend speaking with an architect as the best starting point. Some architects (myself included) will look at your project and give you this kind of feasibility information at no charge. You will need a licensed architect to apply for permit, but more importantly, a good architect will be your proponent, and facilitate the project from start to finish, making sure that you get the home you really want by considering all your needs and wants, and taking all the factors into consideration. Have a look at my article on additionsfrom the sfnewsletter, for more information.
Good luck,
Sven

I recently bought a house in the outer sunset district (48th and Ortega ) of San Francisco. I am trying to figure out exactly what are the building/remodeling restrictions for my zone. Specifically I am interested in finding out about height restrictions, such as building a third story for an ocean view or adding a roof deck. Is there a height limit? Is there a story limit? etc. I believe my unit to be zoned rh-1 and I also believe the house to be in a coastal zone, this probably has some bearing on the answer. Please let me know what you think or where to go for this kind of info. Thank you.”-rob

————————-
As answered by Alexander Clark, sfnewsletter

Rob,

I would advise going down to the Planning Department, stating your situation, and discussing with someone behind the counter. If you go down to the Planning Dept. you’ll get a lot further than going through on-line.

Planning Dept. Website. There is almost too much information there, so I’m sticking with my suggestion of going down to the counter.

Planning Dept is located at 1660 Mission, Suite 500. Main # is 558-6378, Zoning is 5th floor, 558-6350, Planning is 558-6377. You might try emailing david.lindsay@sfgov.org, or calling him at the main number. He was involved in a deal I did a while back and memory tells me he is a decision maker down there.

I would also consult with an architect, and/or contractor as they are usually the ones that push your permits through and know about local ordinances as regards to design and planning. I can recommend a couple if need be.

If you build up and may block someone else’s view, you could run into opposition. If not, I’ll be calling for the surf report.

Please let me know if this information is helpful, if not, we’ll get you more.

thanks,
alex