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This is simple. It's branding. Foreigners who buy mega-listings in Manhattan, Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Miami, are buying due to perceived brand value, not because it's necessarily a place they actually want to live long term, or even like all that much. Notice that BRAVO has a show for mega listings in Los Angeles, and New York, but NOT San Francisco? There is a reason for that and its completely psychological (as all marketing based value is).
Like a Ferrari. Is a Ferrari 458 really the best car in its class performance wise? No, not really, there are plenty of cars that can match or come very close to the Ferrari for much, much, less money. That doesn't matter to some rich prince in Dubai. He wants what people "perceive" as the best, and that comes down to marketing and branding.
San Francisco is a great city (spent 6 years of my life there), but compared to places like Beverly Hills, Hollywood Hills, Manhattan, Miami, etc, the foreign uber-rich do not perceive as much brand value as locals might. That's a fact. World wide, people still see San Francisco as "that place where hippies smoke weed, and homeless people go to live and do drugs", whether that perception is accurate or not.
You seem delusional. San Francisco is a bargain compared to all of them, and when it comes to number of luxury homes sold it's way in the back. SF has some very expensive home sales, but they're in the anomaly. Most seem around $1-2MM. Like I said..the strong market is from people who work there. No one from outside of the area seems interested in it unless they have ties to tech.
Average sales price Q2 2014
Malibu, CA: $1,170,000
Hong Kong: (can't find data, but it's more expensive)
New York, NY: $1,774,000
San Francisco, CA: $850,000
Paris (Central): $1,389,900 USD
Number of homes sold for above $10MM
SoCal: 56
Bay Area: 6
Not sure why this thread has people all hot and bothered. From gleaning at the stats (which city has the biggest number of foreign buyers) Southern California cruses San Francisco. It seems like SF doesn't have the desirability/lifestyle image of LA/NYC/Miami Beach/Paris/London. Seems no one really cares about it. Again, why do most of those big techies up there buy mansions here but no one down here buys mansions up there?
End of.
It's hard to explain logic to someone who clearly isn't interested in it but before you post another one, please follow this:
1. You compare Malibu to SF, and somehow it doesn't dawn on you that you're comparing apples to oranges. Malibu is a residential suburban city, SF is a metropolitan job center, see the difference? For your information, Palo Alto's average home price is way more than Malibu, being well over $2,000,000.
2. You keep basing desirability on the total quantity of foreign purchases. It's a strange connection. Detroit is the fourth most popular city for foreign Chinese investment, well ahead of Miami Beach that you so touted. So using your logic, Detroit is way more desirable than Miami. See how silly your assertion is?
3. You mentioned the rich, but you cited absolutely nothing to backup your argument. You keep using stats relating to the general public that has nothing to with the rich exclusively.
4.
Quote:
why do most of those big techies up there buy mansions here but no one down here buys mansions up there?
Crazy talk; Brad Pitt, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Anniston, George Lopez, Sharon Stone, just to name a few off the top of my head, had bought homes here.
5.
Quote:
Seems no one really cares about it (San Francisco).
Seriously? I'll let that statement speaks for itself.
You mentioned the rich, but you cited absolutely nothing to backup your argument. You keep using stats relating to the general public that has nothing to with the rich exclusively.
Okay. How do you explain the data that mrsantamonica has
posted when it comes to high end home sales?
It clearly shows that at the high end, Los Angeles tops SF in
terms of actual sales. I have no bone in this "fight" between
you two, but you seem to be dismissing the data he's posted
without actually addressing it. Can you actually address the
sales data he posted?
2. You keep basing desirability on the total quantity of foreign purchases. It's a strange connection. Detroit is the fourth most popular city for foreign Chinese investment, well ahead of Miami Beach that you so touted. So using your logic, Detroit is way more desirable than Miami. See how silly your assertion is?
Not a valid comparison. Commercial vs Residential. Chinese folks are rehabbing Detroit like they're doing in various cities in Africa. They wouldn't ever live there though...they certainly stay at the luxury HOMES they collect worldwide.
Quote:
You mentioned the rich, but you cited absolutely nothing to backup your argument. You keep using stats relating to the general public that has nothing to with the rich exclusively.
Perhaps 50% people in the US who purchase homes 10MM and above are foreigners these days. Where have you been? Where is SF on that list? All the way down at the bottom. The list backs up what I said- SF does well in the 1mm sales because a lot of its workforce can afford that, but when it gets higher it drops dramatically. International people inflate these lists. There are some mega sales in SF but they are so rare. No one from London is going to buy a house in San Francisco because it doesn't have the that type of global appeal and is considered inferior to Beverly Hills or NY. As that chart points out. They don't pay SF any mind. SF people are so in love with their city and love to pat themselves on the back for this and that and talk about their google busses, but the rest of the world doesn't care about it and see it as a massive step down from NY and Beverly Hills. Even Elon Musk lives in LA even though he works in SF. SF doesn't offer the glam sophisticated lifestyle or prestige of other cities, sorry.
Quote:
4. Crazy talk; Brad Pitt, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Anniston, George Lopez, Sharon Stone, just to name a few off the top of my head, had bought homes here.
Hilarious. With the exception of George Lopez, who I know nothing about. I went and looked all of it up. Brad Pitt in the Bay Area? LOL. Why would he do that when he can afford to trapeze around some of the greatest most glamorous places in the world. What would he do in the Bay Area? Hang around coders and with iPhones all day? Brad Pitt lives in a massive chateau in France, one home in London one in Los Angeles and has some private island in New York according to "Real Estalker". Eddie Murphy has homes in Beverly Park (Beverly Hills) and New Jersey. Jennifer Aniston has homes in Bel Air and in Manhattan. Sharon Stone only has a house in Beverly Hills.
No one down here is interested in SF at all.
Last edited by mrsantamonica; 04-07-2014 at 03:41 PM..
Okay. How do you explain the data that mrsantamonica has
posted when it comes to high end home sales?
It clearly shows that at the high end, Los Angeles tops SF in
terms of actual sales. I have no bone in this "fight" between
you two, but you seem to be dismissing the data he's posted
without actually addressing it. Can you actually address the
sales data he posted?
I've already said it is not useful data, it's missing the time-frame that it was gathered, missing the defined area (what is San Francisco exactly? Does it include the South Bay? East Bay? Camel? Marin County? It does't looks like it), and missing a link that I can trace back to the source. Without the relevant information, I have to guess what the data is saying, and I don't do that.
mrsantamonica's data says SF has 33 sales of 5 millions or more; but I counted over 50 if you include suburbs outside of SF proper (not including the South Bay and beyond), so I have no idea where he/she is getting the data and what the data really mean
They can LIST all they want but in terms of $1MM, $5MM, $10MM + sales...LA trumps SF. Look above. And look how SF nearly drops off of the list entirely when it comes to above 1mm. Like I said, it seems like a popular place amongst locals (who work and can buy 1mm) but it doesn't have a draw to non-working global people.
Haha but all the million dollar homes in the LA metro add up to 18% of the market.
For the SF metro, its nearly HALF at 43%
So fyi. A few hundred homes at the top end as far as sales price does NOT define an entire real estate market.
And LMMFAO at acting like attracting trashy Paris Hilton types with a foreign accent is impressive to people in the BAY.
At the moment? The Bay Area has been considerably more expensive for decades, not just recently.
Instead of barking up the wrong money tree, you should address the issues that are holding back LA from reaching its potential.
For example, LA is shut out of this completely:
Ivy League Schools, Top 3 Alumni Concentrations
Harvard
1 Boston
2 New York
3 San Francisco
Yale
1 New York
2 San Francisco
3 Boston
Princeton
1 New York
2 San Francisco
3 Washington DC
Brown
1 New York
2 Boston
3 Providence
Columbia
1 New York
2 San Francisco
3 Washington DC
Penn
1 Philadelphia
2 New York
3 Washington DC
Dartmouth
1 Boston
2 New York
3 Washington DC
Cornell
1 New York
2 Ithaca
3 San Francisco
Related to that is data from this very interesting
article that is actually about LA, but reveals
extremely valuable insight on the geography of
where the alumni of our most prestigious schools
live.
Not a valid comparison. Commercial vs Residential. Chinese folks are rehabbing Detroit like they're doing in various cities in Africa. They wouldn't ever live there though...they certainly stay at the luxury HOMES they collect worldwide.
Exactly. The Detroit comparison is supposed to make you go, "That's silly!" Just like the argument that you're making. It follows the same logic you are using, basically you are skimping the surface and drawing incorrect conclusion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrsantamonica
Perhaps 50% people in the US who purchase homes 10MM and above are foreigners these days. Where have you been? Where is SF on that list? All the way down at the bottom. The list backs up what I said- SF does well in the 1mm sales because a lot of its workforce can afford that, but when it gets higher it drops dramatically. International people inflate these lists. There are some mega sales in SF but they are so rare. No one from London is going to buy a house in San Francisco because it doesn't have the that type of global appeal and is considered inferior to Beverly Hills or NY. As that chart points out. They don't pay SF any mind. SF people are so in love with their city and love to pat themselves on the back for this and that and talk about their google busses, but the rest of the world doesn't care about it and see it as a massive step down from NY and Beverly Hills. Even Elon Musk lives in LA even though he works in SF. SF doesn't offer the glam sophisticated lifestyle or prestige of other cities, sorry.
You keep saying things like, "No one from London is going to buy a house in San Francisco because it doesn't have the that type of global appeal and is considered inferior to Beverly Hills or NY. ", but there is no facts behind it. Without solid facts, I'm incline to think you have some kind of thing against SF, you've probably convinced yourself that the rich and the foreigners share your opinion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrsantamonica
Hilarious. With the exception of George Lopez, who I know nothing about. I went and looked all of it up. Brad Pitt in the Bay Area? LOL. Why would he do that when he can afford to trapeze around some of the greatest most glamorous places in the world. What would he do in the Bay Area? Hang around coders and with iPhones all day? Brad Pitt lives in a massive chateau in France, one home in London one in Los Angeles and has some private island in New York according to "Real Estalker". Eddie Murphy has homes in Beverly Park (Beverly Hills) and New Jersey. Jennifer Aniston has homes in Bel Air and in Manhattan. Sharon Stone only has a house in Beverly Hills.
No one down here is interested in SF at all.
LOL. Your paragraph just about shows how incompetent you are at gathering facts. A simple search would have given you the following list of celebrities who lives at Camel, notice Brad Pitt's name.
Eddie Murphy, believes it not, was my neighbor. He bought a house in Sacramento's Greenheaven Lake area back in the 90s and I was just around the corner from him. His mistress lived there long term and he would showed up regularly. He sold the house a while back, perhaps they broke up.
.
There is none. The OP wants people to argument the curiously inaccurate data he/she presented.
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