Tag Archives: News

Regional Bicycle Share Pilot Project

Coming to the Bay Area in August 2013 – Bike sharing!

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (Air District) in partnership with the City and County of San Francisco, San Mateo County Transit District, City of Redwood City, County of San Mateo, and Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority is working to pilot bike sharing in the Bay Area.

A main goal of the pilot is to evaluate bike sharing’s potential to effectively reduce vehicle traffic and improve local air quality. Bike sharing offers a clean and healthy alternative to polluting single-occupancy vehicles, by providing a means for completing first- and last-mile trips in conjunction with regional transit, as well as stand-alone short distance trips.

The pilot system will launch in two phases. The first phase will deploy a fleet of approximately 700 bicycles and 70 kiosk stations and is anticipated launch in August 2013. Within 3-6 months after the first set of equipment has been deployed, it is anticipated that additional equipment will be added to grow the system to include a fleet of at least 1,000 bicycles. The communities participating in the pilot include: San Francisco, Redwood City, Mountain View, Palo Alto, and San Jose. More program announcements and updates will follow later this spring.

Bicycle stations will be located near transit hubs, high-density residential areas and key destination points such as shopping areas and employment centers making it easier to quickly and conveniently connect to and from transit or make a short distance trip by bike.

The results from the pilot will be used to assess opportunities for expanding the program to include other Bay Area communities.

In order for System to reach its full potential (between 6,000 to 10,000 bicycles) additional funding from a combination of user fees and private sponsorships will be needed. To this end, the Air District is currently developing a Request for Sponsorship and interested in sponsoring the system should contact the Air District at (415) 749-8660.

Pilot City Name	Title of Contact	Contact Email	Contact Website
Palo Alto, Mt. View, San Jose	Aiko Cuenco	[email protected]	Santa Clara VTA
4th & King, Redwood City, Mtn. View, Palo Alto, and San Jose Diridon Caltrain Stations	Douglas Kim, Samtrans Planning Director	[email protected]	Samtrans
Redwood City	Redwood City Bike Share Liaison	[email protected]	Redwood City
San Francisco	Bicycle Sharing Program Manager	[email protected]	SFMTA
San Mateo County	Peggy Jensen	[email protected]	N/A

(from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District press release: http://www.baaqmd.gov/Divisions/Strategic-Incentives/Alternative-Transportation/Bike-Share-Pilot.aspx)

Econ 101 Palo Alto style – Another View of Low Inventory

Yesterday on Palo Alto Patch, Michael Talis posted some data highlighting the lack of inventory of homes for sale so far this year. This isn’t really earthshattering news to anyone who has been looking for or making an offer on a house in Palo Alto lately, but he does put some numbers behind the refrain ‘There is NOTHING for sale right now’ and prayers of new listings coming after the Superbowl. Here is a link to the post: http://paloalto.patch.com/blog_posts/january-2013-palo-alto-housing-drought-continues

While we are clearly in a Seller’s Market the numbers are a bit off from the ones in this article. The MLS, which is the database of homes for sale, estimates that up to 30% of the homes in Palo Alto sold this year were sold without being posted on the MLS. This is usually referred to as “Off-Market” which is really a misnomer, because the house was for sale, exposed to the market and sold, just not through a particular channel. It’s kind of like selling your used car to your neighbor without putting it on CraigsList or putting an ad in the Palo Alto Weekly.

As a home buyer, these two trends of low inventory combined with pent up buyer demand and an increasing number of homes being sold without posting to the MLS create two situations to be aware or beware of.

1) Econ 101 Palo Alto Style – As we were taught in Econ 101, in the face of scarce resources (homes for sale) and high demand, market forces will drive prices upward to equilibrium, in this case pricing a lot of folks out through a combination of absolute prices and terms (cash, no loan, no contingencies, free rent back to the sellers, throw in a dog or kid, vacation in Hawaii, do your laundry, please, please, please let me buy your house!!!!, etc.).

2) Market knowledge – I can’t tell you how many folks I met last year at open houses and otherwise who had the strategy of looking at houses on Redfin.com (very cool phone app for trolling the MLS) or Trulia.com, then looking at the houses at open houses and not utilizing a local agent. They thought they had perfect information and would love to tell me what the house sold for last time and how many $/square foot the neighborhood sold for and a bunch of other data. Guess what – they are still looking for a house, only seeing 70% of the market (the non-MLS stuff doesn’t show up on Redfin), wasting a bunch of their time and getting frustrated while the market appreciated 24% last year.

24% – That means an entry level three bedroom, one bath house in South Palo Alto that sold for $1,000,000 in January 2012, is now going to cost you $1,240,000. I don’t care how many shares of LinkedInGoogleFacebookAppleWhatever you have, $240,000 is a lot of money. You can get a really nice, low mileage Ferrari 430 for that!

If you have read this far, here is the punch line – the Palo Alto market, and by extension almost everywhere within a 10 mile radius, is ON FIRE in 2013. There are few homes and way too many buyers with way too many resources fighting over way too few homes. We don’t see anything that will change this dynamic for at least a year, potentially until 2015 or 2016. After the correction then, prices will still be 20%-40% higher than they are today, so if you are playing in this market play to win.

Arm yourself with the data and the local knowledge that you only get from a real estate professional who knows the market you are looking in. Here is a great place to find one: http://dreyfusproperties.com/realtors. Discuss your goals, why you want to buy a house and set realistic expectations, including expecting to pay a premium. Take a deep breath. Drink – A LOT.

Good luck!

My comments on the Palo Alto housing market in the San Jose Merc

I was just quoted in a San Jose Mercury News article on Bay Area home sales. Local market data confirms what I’m seeing in Palo Alto: the Palo Alto market is really strong. In fact, it’s hyperaggressive for any home under $2 million dollars. It’s our middle and high end of the market that’s driving the steady string of gains across Bay Area home sales.

Recent Press

CNBC and Bloomberg came knocking at the one-month anniversary of the Facebook IPO, asking the question, “is the Facebook flop killing Silicon Valley real estate”? The short answer is no. Our Q2 results show continuing strength in our local market, with Menlo Park posted the biggest gains. Compared to the same quarter last year:

Menlo Park: 24% increase in median price

Atherton: 23% increase in median price

Palo Alto: 11% increase in median price

Here is Mike’s read on the market.

Mike interviewed on Bloomberg TV

Mike Dreyfus was interviewed today on Bloomberg TV. Here are some highlights from Mike’s interview:  

Our market is back, and it’s moving. Palo Alto has been the center of these runs we’ve had. The reason is that Palo Alto is what younger buyers like. it’s our urban heart, it’s the center of the Silicon Valley, there’s businesses, there’s great schools and great restaurants. This surge is similar to the run we had with the dot com and Google in the early 2000s. But the advances in our real estate market are much broader than Facebook. It’s very healthy because it’s about jobs, not just Facebook but other tech companies that are hiring. Those great fundamentals drive our local real estate market  .

Sellers have waited around to sell their houses for the Facebook IPO, which has created a bit of a supply problem. As a real estate community, we’re happy it’s over. We want to get back to the great fundamentals that drive our real estate market

Where companies go public, new listing service makes real estate private

We have launched the Dreyfus Properties Private Listing Service, the first ever service designed to market luxury homes for sale while shielding them from public view. With homes in the most desirable parts of Palo Alto selling for north of $10 million, buyers and sellers are worried that information on their home could become the next viral online sensation.

Unlike public multiple listing services, the new Dreyfus Private Listing Service (PLS) offers luxury homes directly to qualified agents and potential buyers, bypassing public media, multiple listing services, and websites such as Zillow and Redfin.

“The information elite really don’t want everyone to have this information,” said Dreyfus CEO Michael Dreyfus. “Google’s great, but not when it tells the world exactly where your bedroom is.” The Dreyfus Private Listing Service directly contacts buyers who have had recent wealth events, as well as creating websites and mailers that hide identifying details.

People who list their home publicly have learned the hard way that there can be immense downside to broadcasting their wealth. Once a client gets his name on a piece of real estate, there’s no way of making that dollar amount and that address private again. Valley entrepreneurs have complex attitudes towards their newfound wealth. While they are proud of what they’ve accomplished, they do not want to be seen as different from the rest of their community. Their style is, on average, far more Warren Buffet than Donald Trump. Letting the world know they paid $11 million for their tastefully landscaped home is not an enticing prospect.

Will this shift mark a change in the culture of Silicon Valley, where the movers and shakers realize there’s a downside to sharing more and more information? As Dreyfus says, “Sharing your favorite restaurant with your friends is not the same as having them look at your financial statements, or inviting them into your master bath.”

Our private market service has received favorable reviews in Fortune/CNN and The Palo Alto Weekly.

To learn more about how the Dreyfus Private Listing Service is keeping real estate private in the place where companies are going public, please contact Marissa Myers, Director of Marketing, Dreyfus Properties (650.930.6807)

New Dreyfus Properties website!

We are excited to announce the release of our new Dreyfus Properties website! We are transitioning to a new, more powerful property search and housing stats experience that is now available on Dreyfusproperties.com.

Instant Updates: Get email about new listings and price drops within 5 minutes. Dreyfus built Instant Updates to immediately alert home-buyers about new listings and price drops. Now, five minutes after a real estate agent lists a home for sale, folks using Dreyfus Properties to search for listings will get an email alert. Users of other major real estate websites have to wait until the next day. Giving our clients an extra day is a crucial competitive advantage in our hot real estate market.

Real-time MLS stats on pricing and inventory: See the market is moving in real time. Our stats are pulled from the MLS, giving you a real time snapshot of the market. Other major stats services rely on list price data, which does not accurately reflect our market action, where homes regularly sell over list price.

Exclusive MLS content: The new website provides access to MLS content, such as Sold properties and Pending sales. Such information is only available to Dreyfus clients.

Pssst….Dreyfus Properties’ Private Listing Service is at work behind the scenes

Mike Dreyfus was recently interviewed for a feature story in the Palo Alto Weekly about Palo Alto’s private market — “super-secret, super high-end houses for sale,” as The Weekly put it. Mike has been attuned to the growing need among high net worth home owners who want to sell their homes, but don’t want the hassles of a public sale or their privacy infringed. To meet this need, Dreyfus Properties has developed the Private Listing Service (PLS). The PLS offers unique luxury homes directly to qualified agents and potential buyers, bypassing public media and the MLS.

Unlike other real estate companies, we can reach qualified buyers through our proprietary mail lists, personal contacts and network of qualified agents – all under strict controls, without public announcement. A specially designated team directly under the managing agent’s supervision implements the marketing and handles all the sensitive paperwork. The managing agent, using his deep local market knowledge, works with home owners to set valuations.

It’s time to sell in Palo Alto – Susan Tanner interviewed in the Palo Alto Patch

Dreyfus Properties is in the news again. First Michael Dreyfus in Fortune magazine, and now Susan Tanner in the Palo Alto Patch. Armed with the sales numbers we’ve just released, Susan Tanner spoke to the newspaper about the surging market in Palo Alto. Read what Susan has to say in the the full article.

The Patch took note of our eye-ball busting numbers: homes under contract in Palo Alto went up 60% since May of last year.

Homes under contract, or pending sales, is a very accurate read of the market right now. Units sold is a backward looking number, whereas units under contract indicates where the market is trending. Susan and our agents use this heads-up information to help their homebuyer and seller clients react to the moves of the market.

Michael Dreyfus is featured in Fortune magazine cover story

This month’s Fortune magazine’s cover story kicks off with a vignette from Michael Dreyfus about a home he recently sold above list price in a frantic bidding war among seven buyers. The upshot? ”We live in an alternate universe here.” Michael said. Read the full story at Fortune Magazine:

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/11/dont-call-it-the-next-tech-bubble-yet/

“Michael Dreyfus, 49, is a leading real estate broker in the heart of Silicon Valley. During the winter he sensed the housing market was coming back, though he hadn’t a clue what he’d be in for. In February prospective sellers came to him with a listing for a perfectly respectable property in Palo Alto: four bedrooms, three bathrooms, 7,500-square-foot lot, needs work. He recommended that the sellers ask $1.9 million. When the house went on the market in April, they had bumped the price to $2.3 million. Seven offers came in above that price; $2.7 million won the frantic bidding. Several buyers attempted to make offers even as the broker was supervising repairs to a kitchen flooded by a burst pipe. What’s a little leak when the price tomorrow may hit $3 million? “We live in an alternative universe here,” Dreyfus acknowledges.”

Source: “Don’t Call It the Next Tech Bubble – Yet.” FORTUNE magazine, July 2011.