Closing: Cooks Boulevard

A reader tipped us to the sad news that after 5 years in Noe, Cooks Boulevard (1309 Castro @ 24th St) is closing. Owner Malcolm Haar says the two-level retail space is too big (and presumably expensive) and the "current situation is not sustainable." Depending on how quickly he can find someone to assume the lease, he may or may not reopen in another location.

A final close date has not been set, but the selection is already looking thin and everything in the store is 20-40% off. If you're planning to stop in, do it soon--and check the Cooks Boulevard blog for updates on a final closing date.

Unrelated (but unfortunate), the front window to the store is also broken.

[Cooks Boulevard: Time's Up: We're Closing]

Teardowns: Prices Dropping?

Check out 469 Valley St: $649k for a total teardown. The MLS describes it as a probate sale and "absolutely uninhabitable under current conditions." But even given the condition we'd expect a bit more, especially because of the potential for views.

Compare it to a few recent sales that were also torn down or majorly fixed:

1409 Sanchez sold in September 2008 for $875k. It returned to the market as an empty lot with approved plans for $1.25M. It didn't sell, and was eventually withdrawn from the MLS.

168 Clipper St sold in 2007 for $800k and is currently slated for demolition and working through the approval process for new construction.

4033 26th St sold in 2007, was raised 2 levels and is now offered as a $2.595M single family home.

Has the market changed that much? Or is the risk to developers just too high, and construction loans that hard to come by? Maybe it's just not Noe Valley enough?

Moving: Artsake

Artsake packed up its brushes and has consolidated into the Just For Fun / Scribbledoodles space across the street (from where they originated 6 years ago). The sign says all the same stuff is available, although we’re skeptical they'll be displayed so well given the already tight quarters at Just For Fun.

Sad to see a long-time merchant get squeezed on 24th Street – and we’ll miss the space’s color on a dingy stretch of 24th Street. As always, we're hopeful the space at 3961 24th St turns into something...useful.

Update: Said space is $3900/month per Craigslist.

Sold: Last Week in Noe Valley Real Estate

3917 26th ST

More homes than usual (for recent times) closed last week in Noe Valley. Garret Goldman provides a weekly listing of housing activity around the City, but to find out the selling price, you have to sign up for his newsletter. We've agreed not to publish sales price information received from Garret, but here's a summary of where the market is right now:

Under asking

• 260 Day St; asking $1,095,750; 80 days on market (DOM)
• 3917 26th St; asking $1,398,000; 173 DOM
• 76 Jersey St; asking $1,595,000; 0 DOM(!)
• 1522 Sanchez; asking $1,595,000; 41 DOM
• 3888 23rd St; asking $1,029,000; 60 DOM (condo/TIC)

Asking or over asking

• 4322 25th St; asking $2,599,000; 6 DOM
• 138 27th St; asking $849,000; 34 DOM (condo/TIC)

[SanFranciscoSchtuff: Seductively Sold LX]
[NVSF: Maybe This Is Why Properties in Noe Aren’t Selling]
[NVSF: Noe Valley Real Estate: Still Rising?]

This Week At The Planning Commission

A weekly look at Noe Valley projects in front of the Planning Commission. Information is provided by the Planning Commission, and taken from its published agenda. All hearings begin at 1:30pm, Room 400 in City Hall.

June 25, 2009

4024 26th Street - Informational presentation on the status of the project.

Really? That's it? Granted the economy has taken its toll (it's been over two months since a Noe Valley project was heard by the Planning Commission), but this is all we got?

The major item on the agenda this week is the long-awaited certification of the final Environmental Impact Report for the San Francisco Bicycle Plan. Hundreds of people are expected to show up for public comment before the Planning Commission is expected to certify the EIR, adopt CEQA and then begin adopting amendments to the Plan. The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition's perspective is here. And here's a list of links on Google for stories about the guy who created the delay.

[NVSF: 4024 26th St, previously]
[Planning Commission: June 25, 2009]
[SFGov: 2009 San Francisco Bicycle Plan]
[SFBC: Citywide Bicycle Network]

Tidbits: More Shuffling On 24th St

We received a tip that Noe Knit will close on June 9th. Slow sales a sign of the times or is knitting once again uncool? Phoenix Books is rumored to be moving into the space at 3957 24th St. No word on what will move into the Phoenix spot. Ideas?

Also moving is Successories. Pamela Winston-Charbonneau is moving her custom jewelry shop out of the back of Lisa Violetto and into the recently-vacated space at 3904 24th St (formerly The Jewelry Box).

Madkat: Gutted. That answers that.

[NVSF: Opening: The Jewelry Box]
[NVSF: MadKat Closed?]

NVMPA: Help the Farmer's Market Help US!

The Tuesday Market Needs Promotion!

Volunteers from the Saturday market went to a great deal of effort to create the midweek, Tues night market to help add life to the merchant corridor during the week. The market is struggling and there is a lot more we can do to support. Just hanging a poster and putting a handout on your counter does a lot. Perhaps it would help if some of us stood out at the Saturday market and talked up the Tuesday evening market. Let's get behind the Farmer's Market efforts to stimulate the Noe Valley economy!

Email to get a pdf of the poster/handouts, or swing by Video Wave to pick some up!

Call with questions or suggestions. Thank you! Gwen 509-6261

Open House Report: 465 Hoffman

It's too late to make the free lunch at today's open house at 465 Hoffman, but @kellyswervegirl sent this report from today's open house: "It's 12:45 pm and I just walked through the place. Stunning, ultra modern inside. Light is just lovely throughout. Yard is concrete & beach sand. Of all bizarre and random finishings to be missing, none of the bathrooms have toilet roll holders. Lots of agents there so far and presumably potential buyers on their way."

We're going to go ahead and guess that "presumably" = "hopefully people will still spend $4M to live in Noe Valley." Thanks for the report, Kelly!

[465 Hoffman - $3.9M]
[NVSF: Hot Properties: The $5M Club]

Maybe This Is Why Properties in Noe Aren’t Selling

Yes, property values in Noe Valley have declined as much as 20 percent in the last year and the housing market in Noe is slower than in 2008. But is it us or do Noe realtors and sellers seem a little complacent after the boom years? We found scenes like this in a 4 block area:

3917 26th St.

Here's an idea: when you represent a seller of a property that has already been featured as an example of a tough market, perhaps you shouldn't block the sidewalk with your flashy Jaguar every week. It sends a bad message about how in touch you are – and means a real buyer has to work that much harder to get in and see the place.

348 Duncan / 1432 Sanchez

Tumbleweeds don’t exactly send the message that this is a hot property – or even one that’s been well-maintained. How about cleaning up the sidewalk so buyers can at least read the sign?

369 Duncan St

Talk about cutting a house’s curb appeal. The trash in front of this house has been there for weeks. We’d expect someone who really wanted to see this property move to at least clean up the old newspapers and spend a couple minutes weeding.

Update: The Front Steps posted some data to show that even our 'down' market justifies cleaning up the property - the median sales price is still over $1.1M.

[NVV: State of the Housing Market: Slow]
[InsideSFRE: Noe Valley Searches for Buyers]
[TFS: Noe Valley Is Not Immune]
[Zillow: Noe home prices]

Closing: Ritz Camera

From Robbie:

Within a few weeks Noe Valley & 24th Street will be losing another business This time the victim of the economic recession is Ritz Camera Located at 3980 24th Street. When I saw the equipment wrapped up and boxes in the window I had to stop in and see what was happening. The store worker informed me that the company was liquidating their inventory--closing approximately 400 stores. The signs will be going up in a few days. They were told they will remain open for about 6 more weeks while the liquidation process starts.

Good catch, Robbie! Let's see how long before "closing 400 stores" is picked up by the MSM.

Update: Turns out the Chronicle had an item on this today: "Right now, most everything is 10 percent off at his store on 24th Street. The liquidation sale is expected to last three to four weeks - at which point, [Glen] Stroud says, he expects to be staring unemployment in the face."

[SFgate: The Bottom Line]
[NVSF: All posts labeled closing]

Noe Valley Real Estate: Still Rising?

There's been a lot of chatter on the blogs today about yesterday's Chronicle article on Bay Area home prices (as well as in the comments on SFGate). The article claims that while home prices around the Bay are declining, Noe Valley is still rising:

One of the few standouts was the 94114 ZIP in San Francisco, home of Noe Valley, where houses go for well over a million dollars, designer strollers clog the sidewalks, posh shops peddle handmade ethnic tchotchkes, and the Google bus regularly cruises the streets.

But even that ZIP didn't enjoy the double-digit appreciation that became de rigueur during the real estate boom. Instead Noe Valley prices were up 6.8 percent year over year, from $893 a square foot to $954.

Socketsite (rightly) turned this into an argument about what constitutes appreciation. But the commenters on Curbed SF get to what we think is the major flaw of the argument about whether Noe is hot or not: 94114 does not make up Noe Valley and only Noe Valley. We'd like to see better analysis using real estate districs - Noe Valley is District 5C and includes 94114, 94131 and even a little bit of 94110. Because without that data, this article tells us nothing about where we live.

Lacking that information, let's take a snapshot of the current market. As we've done in the past, here's what's happened to pricing of existing listings in the last week. Please note that the original price is just that - prices may have changed many times since originally listed (up and down).

Address	Original	Now	Difference
76 Homestead	$2,150,000	$1,950,000	-$200,000
931 Elizabeth	$2,595,000	$1,939,000	-$656,000
619 28th St	$899,000	$829,000	-$70,000
4338 Cesar Chavez	$2,195,000	$1,995,000	-$200,000
579 28th St	$1,049,000	$979,000	-$70,000
363 Jersey St	$1,350,000	$1,249,000	-$101,000

Again, these are listing prices - not actual selling prices. But if nothing else, the data suggest that realtors haven't figured out where this market is going. Either the buyers aren't out there, or they're waiting for prices to come down.

Unless, of course, there's more data from the MLS showing actual selling prices on the rise. Can anyone out there add recent selling data to the mix?

[NVSF: Where is Noe Valley?]
[NVSF: Changes in the Noe Valley Housing Market (10/9/08)]
[SFGate: Home prices down in 90% of Bay Area ZIP codes]
[SocketSite: Don’t Confuse Average Prices And Appreciation]
[Curbed SF: Morning Mortgage Meltdown: Noe Wins]

Changes in the Noe Valley Housing Market

Here's a look at some home price changes in Noe Valley this week. Please note that the original price is just that - prices may have changed many times since originally listed (up and down).

Address	Original	Now	Difference
1013 Castro St	$1,495,000	$1,525,000	+$30,000
3628 22nd St	$2,138,000	$1,864,000	-$274,000
4086 25th St	$2,395,000	$1,849,000	-$546,000
3774 23rd St	$1,495,000	$1,450,000	-$50,000
636 28th St*	$1,950,000	$1,995,000	+$45,000*
429 Elizabeth	$1,649,000	$1,498,000	-$151,000

*actually dropped $200k this week

Signs of the Times

Have economic woes hit Noe Valley -- or is this just a normal trend this time of year? It seems we saw more SALE signs than usual on Church St this evening. Here's a few:



Sales aren't the only indicator. Want to buy a neon beer sign? For only $65 you can complete that basement rec room you've always wanted.


Deep Sushi has added a Happy Hour:


But a sure sign of a business in distress? Deep Sushi has also added a generic ATM.