Homes for Sale in the Dana Estates Neighborhood of Concord
The Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) of the CA Legislature has released a recent report on the High Cost of California Housing. The lack of construction in the coastal areas is identified as one of the main causes of the housing shortage that has driven prices up.
The LAO identified four main causes of the lack of construction as:
The redevelopment of the decommissioned Concord Naval Weapons Station is still advancing. This weekend the final three developers are slated to present their plans and to answer questions at a special session of the Concord City Council.
As well, the San Francisco Business Times has published an article with more quotes from the three developers. The individual plans from the developers vary is scope and density. It is interesting to note that one of the developers has plans to create an orchard/farm to be a buffer against some of the existing neighbors.
To follow the progress of the development you can receive updates from http://www.concordreuseproject.org/.
Catellus Development Company will present from 8:30 to 10:00 a.m., Lennar Urban from 10:15 a.m. to 11:45 p.m. and SunCal Development Company from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m., followed by public comment from 2:45 to 4:15 p.m.
The meeting will be held in the City Council Chamber at Civic Center, 1950 Parkside Drive and will be televised live on Concord Cable TV channels 28 (Comcast), 29 (Astound), and 99 (AT&T), and streamed on the City’s website, www.cityofconcord.org. Videos of the meetings will also be available for viewing the next day from the website.
The California Associaiton of Realtors® provided the latest infographic on what the market experienced in January of 2015. The San Francisco Bay Area led the state with a median single family home price of $669,590 for the month of January. Meanwhile the number of sales in the San Francisco Area fell by 14.2% year over year.
Right now the market is tight as inventory is low. Home buyers are coming off of the fence because of low interest rates. As well, lower oil and gas prices in January and February provided a bit of breathing room in many budgets. This is inspiring renters to move towards home ownership.
In a survey conducted by Freddie Mac on Home Ownership and Rental Perceptions renters held a very high view of home ownership. In fact, 91% of those surveyed said that owning a home was something to be proud of.
Buyers are coming off of the sidelines and inventory is down.
All this means that for the foreseeable future, Sellers are in the driver’s seat.
The California Association of Realtors® has released their market information for December of 2014. The results are a bit mixed. The average sale price was up, but the number of sales was down in the San Francisco Bay Area. The San Francisco Bay Area’s median priced single family home in December sold for $718,370.
The Concord Naval Weapons Station (CNWS) Reuse Plan has solicited proposals from three master developers to develop the 5,028 acre site. The CNWS Reuse Project will begin Phase 1 with the development near the North Concord/Martinez BART station. The future phases will fan out from the initial development.
The three developers Catellus, Lennar Urban, and SunCal will be presenting their various proposals to Concord’s City Council on February 10th and 11th. Both meetings will be held in the City Council Chambers at Civic Center, 1950 Parkside Drive. The meetings will also be televised live on Concord Cable TV channels 28 (Comcast), 29 (Astound), and 99 (AT&T), and streamed on the City’s website, www.cityofconcord.org. The developers will have 45 minutes to present their proposals, followed by 1 hour and 15 minutes of questions. The meetings are preliminary in the process and the City Council and staff are not planning on making a final decision at these meetings.
The three developer proposals can be viewed at these links:
A printed copy of all materials can be viewed at the Concord Public Library, 2900 Salvio St.
The proposed plan calls for the construction of almost 12,000 new housing units and 8,000,000 sq. ft. of commercial, industrial, and institutional space. Under the proposed development plan almost 3,300 acres of the inland area will be preserved as parks and open space for public use. All three developers have provided designs that differ from the proposal developed by the City of Concord.
Since the CNWS is adjacent to Dana Estates, the development will likely have an impact on the neighborhood and home values.
Photo Credit: 100_5471 by Greenbelt Alliance used by Creative Commons
Many homeowners wonder what renovations are going to bring the most return when they sell the home? To phrase it differently “What are the highest value home improvements?”
Thankfully the Remodeling 2014 Cost vs. Value Report (www.costvsvalue.com) provides a list of the remodeling projects that bring the highest return on investment once a home is sold. While the costs and returns varied from region to region across the nation, the report details what the San Francisco Bay Area can expect.
The five remodeling projects that provide the most value upon sale for the San Francisco Bay Area are detailed below:
1. Wood Deck. The project that is most likely to provide the greatest recovery of its cost is the addition of a wood deck. Not all Homes lend themselves to the addition of the wood deck but that is the item that would the greatest cost recovery at 176% of cost. [Read more…]
