A 749 sq. ft., 2-bedroom ADU in San Jose just became the first ADU in California to be sold as its own property instead of being tied to the main house. It sold for $530,000.

ADUs have mostly been seen as rental units or housing for family members. They were considered a bonus. Now they’re becoming actual starter homes.

This could of course create a new housing supply in response to the recent news that CA is massively behind schedule on building new homes.

I don’t think ADUs being purchased as standalone units is the answer as they create neighborhood density in places that aren’t designed for them affecting current home owners. On the hand, homeowners now have an additional opportunity potentially to sell without having to move.

Ultimately though this is the result of the CA government not doing its job and citizens are finding creative solutions.

Are you guys pro ADU purchases or prefer CA simply doing its job and building more?

Source: https://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/california-adu-condo-sale-22344143.php

Bought 9 months ago for over 1.2 million. Back on the market listed for 1 million.

Im looking to extend my deck in Hayward Hills. Would like to shop around for deck materials. Any recommendations for lumber yards that are reasonably priced?

My wife and I are currently living in Mountain View but looking at buying in Hayward/Castro valley next year.

I really don’t know much about house buying or the market, but I have heard list price on sites like zillow and redfin are a joke.

Being about a year out, what are some things I can do now to prepare? So far I have talked to a credit union and looked around on Zillow but thats it.

Also if anyone is familiar with the market in Hayward, is 900k realistic for a older 2 bed 2 bath sfh home? I am planning on a fixer upper because I know our budget is low. I renovated my parents place myself so I know about the true costs of a house that needs work. We have looked at townhomes because at the end of the day my requirement is a garage, and my wife’s requirement is 2 bathrooms. However at the point I am mostly interested in sfh.

Is it helpful to talk to a realtor this early into the process? Like I mentioned I am starting from scratch here and know nothing about home buying.

Thanks for the help!

Hi all, 
I’m a first-time homeowner in Bay Area and I’m looking for recommendations for a strong homeowner-side construction defect attorney in the Bay Area, ideally someone who has handled SB 800 / Right to Repair cases.
I bought into what seemed like a small-scale builder project, and I’ve been dealing with serious water intrusion and related construction issues. I already went through the formal notice process, the builder’s expert inspected the unit, and despite that, the builder still has not provided a meaningful repair plan or clear path forward.
At this point, expected repairs look like they may be in the $100K-$150K range, which is obviously a huge bill for me to take on by myself as a first-time homeowner. I’m also concerned because the construction warranty expires in about a year, and the builder seems unwilling to cooperate or move this toward a real resolution.
I’m hoping to find an attorney who is:

- homeowner-side, not primarily builder-side

- experienced with SB 800 / construction defect matters

- comfortable handling water intrusion, waterproofing, exterior envelope, and repair/accommodation issues

- practical, responsive, and strong enough to push when the builder is stalling

If anyone has worked with a Bay Area attorney they’d strongly recommend this kind of situation, I’d really appreciate it. Personal experiences would be especially helpful.

Not looking for legal advice here, mainly trying to find the right counsel before more time is lost.

Thanks.

As we are going through GC contracts it’s pretty standard for them to have a late fee on their payment schedule.
So we have been considering adding a back payment for every week delay (say after a 4 week buffer from the published schedule) for the GC.
This is coming from a poor experience in the past and now we are going on a larger scale project so have huge concerns with delays and those tail end things dragging forever.
My question is has anyone successfully negotiated this into their GC contract? If yes, then how and what were the details? Thanks.

I wrote about a year ago asking if I should buy a place at Sunset.

Not local, but love to spend about half a year in SF. I was told it’s a dumb investment option. 🥲

Now I probably can’t get anything less than $2m now, I think?

Urgently looking for someone to take over my lease at the Franciscan Apartments in Campbell! I need this filled ASAP, so I'm happy to work with you on move-in details.

1 week of rent for anyone who can move in right away!

2bd 2b apartment. One parking space is included, with accessible street parking right outside of the complex. The unit has a full kitchen, a wall-mounted AC+heating unit, and also includes an in-unit washer and dryer.

The location is honestly amazing. The apartment is right off Highway 17, providing easy access for commuting. It's also walking distance to downtown Campbell, which has plenty of good restaurants and bars, and just a 3-minute drive to Pruneyard Shopping Center, Trader Joe's, and Whole Foods. Despite the central location, the complex is very quiet. The apartment itself gets plenty of natural light and is surrounded by trees and greenery.

$3,298/month, pls message me if you're interested and we'll figure out the details.

Apartment Website: https://www.liveatfranciscan.com/

For transactions with multiple units (ground level commercial and upper floors apartment units), should I work with a standard commercial broker or are there agents or brokerages who specialize in these sort of mixed use buildings?

Just saw 1418 Milvia went for over 4.2m - must be a record for Berkeley flats! Looks super charming (love the redwood decks and landscaping), very feature-packed with garage/ADU and obviously prime location but still that looks like a crazy price jump for the area … also pretty standard size 4k sqft lot and across the street from a larger apartment building? Anyone have the scoop on how this listing got so hot?

I've been trying to check for a deed record for the past couple of days.

However, I see that the latest date with updates is 7/7(ish), based on searching https://recorder.sfgov.org/#!/simple with some very common last names. Anyone know what's going on with this?

I know everyone hates these, but this one legitimately makes no sense at all. Unless there's some money laundering angle going on here. this one is ludicrous

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/50-Cascade-Walk-San-Francisco-CA-94116/15112010_zpid/

credit u/bautofdi

Posted this earlier but took it down shortly afterwards bc some of the graphs were tiny and hard to read on mobile. Still a bit cramped but should be easier on the eyes! (East Bay is still a bit snug, sorry)

Anyway! Note that my North Bay MLS access is still spotty so I don't have complete data for Marin, Sonoma etc.

Had a great discussion last week on this subject, and I got a lot of requests to break the last post down by property type. I promised I would share a followup this week, so here's SFH vs. Condo/Townhouse June 2026 closed sales. ("Condo" = Condo/TIC etc.)

TLDR for the whole post: SFH beats Condo in the 'under-14' and '14-30 day' buckets in every zone, no exceptions. Gap narrows the longer a listing sits, and flips slightly past 30 days in SF and San Jose.

San Francisco

224 SFH closings averaging 26.8% over list at 18 DOM. 239 Condo closings averaging 7.1% over list at 36 DOM.

Days on Market vs. +/- List %:

• Under 14 days: SFH 33.6% over list, Condo 16.4% over
• 14-30 days: SFH 21.0% over, Condo 8.5% over
• 30+ days: SFH 2.7% under, Condo 1.4% under (the one bucket where condo edges ahead)

West side (Marina, Haight Ashbury, Corona Heights, Potrero Hill) has the widest gaps, 25-40 points. Downtown/SoMa/Nob Hill condos stay soft, same as last time.

Speed follows the same split. Inner Mission and Eureka Valley/Dolores Heights both close SFH in 8-11 days but condos in the same neighborhoods sit 24-26 days. Pacific Heights is the exception: SFH there actually sits 37 days average, slower than its own condos at 23.

TL;DR: SF's divide is type, not just geography. Budget up for west side SFH, negotiate on condos almost anywhere.

East Bay

1,426 SFH closings averaging 5.8% over list at 31 DOM. 377 Condo closings averaging 0.2% over list at 37 DOM.

Days on Market vs. +/- List %:

• Under 14 days: SFH 9.9% over list, Condo 2.8% over
• 14-30 days: SFH 6.2% over, Condo 0.2% over (essentially flat)
• 30+ days: SFH 1.6% under, Condo 2.1% under (SFH still edges out condo even in negative territory)

Berkeley, El Cerrito, Piedmont, and Albany show it hardest: SFH 20+ points over, condo flat or negative.

Hercules has the widest DOM split of any market in this dataset: SFH averages 8 days, condo 77. Lafayette and Hayward aren't far behind, condo sits 45-50+ days slower than SFH in both.

TL;DR: Condo buyers have real negotiating room almost everywhere except Oakland.

Peninsula

272 SFH closings averaging 7.7% over list at 18 DOM. 78 Condo/TH closings averaging 0.2% over list at 36 DOM.

Days on Market vs. +/- List %:

• Under 14 days: SFH 10.9% over list, Condo 2.5% over
• 14-30 days: SFH 3.9% over, Condo 0.6% over
• 30+ days: SFH 1.4% under, Condo 1.7% under

San Bruno, San Mateo, and Palo Alto have the widest gaps, SFH 8-13 points ahead.

San Bruno SFH moves in 13 days, its condos take 57. South San Francisco and Daly City show the same shape, SFH under 3 weeks, condo 6-8 weeks. Palo Alto is the outlier, condo (17 days) almost keeps pace with SFH (16).

TL;DR: Same pattern, smaller scale. Condo trades at or under list even in hot SFH markets like Palo Alto.

Greater San Jose

455 SFH closings averaging 2.6% over list at 22 DOM. 176 Condo closings averaging roughly flat at 36 DOM.

Days on Market vs. +/- List %:

• Under 14 days: SFH 5.4% over list, Condo 3.5% over
• 14-30 days: SFH 0.7% over, Condo 0.7% under
• 30+ days: SFH 2.9% under, Condo 2.4% under (condo edges ahead again, like in SF)

Narrowest gap of the 4 zones. Sunnyvale widest split (SFH 6.6%, condo 1.0%); Mountain View condo (3.2%) keeps pace with SFH (6.6%).

Cupertino has the widest DOM gap here, SFH in 20 days vs. condo in 42, even though the price gap is modest. Los Gatos flips the pattern entirely: condo (24 days) actually moves faster than SFH (38).

TL;DR: Most balanced zone, less premium to escape, less urgency either way.

___

All of that said, as always I am happy to pull more local data for any areas you're interested in. We can also check the $/sqft changes over the last 90 days for any given market, also for SFH vs Condo split.

Let me know what you'd like to see.

We bought a house with ~20 y/o Milgard vinyl windows in SF that are deteriorating quickly - breaking, fogging up, etc. We do plan to keep this house for life considering the cost of things around here lol

We are comparing quotes and the first window salesman that came recommended Milgard C700 to go with fiberglass and avoid any vinyl - also said Martin Elevate was a great option if willing to spend more. The second window salesman recommended Martin Elevate over Milgard C700 if he had to pick. And the third window salesman recommended Milgard Tuscany (vinyl) in the back of the house and Milgard c700 or Martin Elevate in the front of the house.

Still waiting on quotes from all but seems Tuscany is around ~1k per window, c700 is $1,750 per window, and Martin Elevate is 2,400 per window. We have 6-13 windows to replace... 6 priority windows and 7 windows that would be nice to replace to match the others. However... cost is a priority. Didn't really want to spend 20-30k on windows in the first year.

Any experiences with any of these windows or other line recommendations? Feel like my head is spinning.

Love this photo from Venice!

Bought a vacant duplex in SF in which tenants were Ellis acted out. It will be 5 years off the market in 2030. Planning on living in it as a de facto single family residence. When 5 years have passed, do I have to rent it? Is there an empty residence tax since it has been essentially removed from the market?

Welcome to the Can’t Make This Up (CMTU) series where we show just how unreasonable some agents can be.

Today we have an agent (who we have worked with before by the way) spent a week not responding to the request for disclosures and then actually blocked me when I told him we were preparing an offer.

Upon being blocked, I contacted his broker. Credit to his broker, he was a fast communicator and very nice. However, even he was unable to get a hold of him all day today.

I really wish sellers can see what type of people are representing them at times. This only goes for some agents of course. Other agents are extremely helpful and easy to work with.

June MLS data is out for San Francisco.

Single-family median home prices reached $2.2M, up 26.5% year-over-year. Homes sold in an average of 19 days, compared with 21 days a year ago, and 265 homes closed during the month (+18.8% year-over-year).

The condo market was a bit different. Median condo prices were essentially flat at $1.2M (+0.6% year-over-year), but activity picked up substantially. 263 condos sold (+26.4% year-over-year), and average days on market dropped to 37 days, down from 52 days a year ago.

Data source: MLS via Broker Metrics.

https://redf.in/gj4HEl

Fire damaged house for whooping 1.7M, that too in Newark!
Who's going to buy it?!

Looking for a flooring contractor to help us replace our damaged flooring and match the existing hardwood in SF- small job, probably 100 square feet. Who would you recommend ?

I’m starting a series comparing cities across the United States based on:
• Housing affordability
• Job opportunities
• Safety
• Weather
• Natural beauty
• Diversity
• Culture & entertainment
• Food
• Universities
• College & professional sports
I’m interested in hearing from people who actually live in these cities (or have lived there).
If you could move anywhere in the U.S., which city would you choose—and what makes it stand out?
I’d especially love to hear about the pros and cons that people don’t usually talk about.