National market report

National market report

The City of Brotherly Love is undergoing a property market revival.
The City of Brotherly Love is undergoing a property market revival.

San Francisco

San Francisco’s skyline is being transformed by development in the South of Market, or so-called SoMa, neighborhood. The area, which was rezoned back in 2005, now serves as a hub for big tech companies, expensive condos and newly built residential and office buildings. Salesforce Tower, an office tower that’s slated to be the city’s tallest, is under construction in the neighborhood, as well as other luxury buildings. Among the completed projects, One Rincon Hill has had residential units selling for about $1 million. Its average monthly residential rent, at $6,027, is among the priciest in the city. The 2005 rezoning prompted this development by raising height limits around the Transbay Transit Center, a major redevelopment project and future transit hub downtown, the San Francisco Business Times reported. The Central SoMa Plan, meanwhile, calls for further rezoning in the area to encourage sustainable transit-oriented growth. Developer John Elberling hopes to turn 250 acres of warehouses and other industry in the city’s center into a new frontier of development.

Philadelphia

The City of Brotherly Love is undergoing a property market revival thanks to strong demand for retail space, a flood of industrial development deals, a hot hospitality market and a recovering office sector. The city’s prime retail rents have jumped 87.5 percent since 2008, with rents on Walnut Street, the shopping strip in Center City, hitting a record high of $154 per square foot in the first six months of 2015, CBRE data shows. Younger and wealthier professionals have descended on Center City, as have tourists, leading to a population boom that’s helped buoy development and raise rents, the legal news service Law360 reported. Hospitality is also taking off, with a number of high-profile projects in the works, including the city’s second casino and a reported $125 million 300-room hotel. Pharmaceutical, technology and manufacturing companies have taken up leases in the city. There’s even buzz that a number of tech firms are hoping to set up shop near Comcast’s $1.6 billion Innovation and Technology Center, which is currently under development in Center City and scheduled to be completed in early 2018.

Reno

Reno is expecting a flood of tech workers, as Tesla, Apple, data security company Switch and other industry giants have announced plans to open large facilities in “The Biggest Little City in the World.” By 2020, the Nevada Association of Realtors believes that the city of 233,000 could add 50,000 new residents. The city was hard hit by the housing market collapse in 2008, but homes are now selling for nearly double the price they were at the city’s recession low in January 2010. Homes that were selling for $167,000 in 2010 are now selling for $299,250. When Amazon opened a hub in nearby Fernley in 1999, home prices rose 23 percent there. “You’re really going to see the Tesla effect over the next five years,” Monica Gore, a Reno real estate agent, told the business website TheStreet.com. The city will need to add 9,000 homes every year to keep up with the projected population growth, according to the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada.

Chattanooga

Chattanooga

Chattanooga

Stinky poultry plants be damned, developers are taking up projects in downtown Chattanooga. South Broad Street has been the butt of jokes for years because of odors coming from the Pilgrim’s Pride plant, but now hundreds of apartments, offices and retail spaces are being planned along the corridor. One developer recently paid $1.5 million for land near the plant and hopes to build a 139-unit apartment building there for $15 million. Across the street another developer is planning a $5 million mixed-use project — including a medical office, restaurant and loft apartments — in a former Chevrolet dealership. Ben Pitts, a commercial real estate agent working on the mixed-use project, told the Times Free Press, a major city newspaper, that the plant isn’t so bad but added, “I’m not going to say you’ll never get a whiff down there.”

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Aspen, Colorado

Golden Globe Award-winning actress Melanie Griffith is selling her 8,000-square-feet log mansion in Aspen. The home is on the market for $8.9 million and sits on 12 acres in wooded mountains. Snowmobiles, 4X4s, a ski run and an on-site caretaker are included with the pristine property, which is near a legendary skiing area. The mountain compound has five bedrooms and five-and-a-half baths, plus a guesthouse and a historic cabin with a wood-burning fireplace.

Highland Park, Illinois

Basketball legend Michael Jordan is still trying to sell his 56,000-square-foot mansion north of Chicago. The nine-bedroom, 15-bathroom estate has been lingering on the market since 2012 and now the former Chicago Bulls player has released six Hollywood-style videos featuring aerial views of the property with the hopes of finally selling it. Inside the home is a basketball court and professional-grade gym, plus a giant entertaining area. There’s also a huge “23” emblazoned on the 7.4-acre property’s entrance gates, a nod to Jordan’s jersey number.

Montana

The Montana ranch of former “Entertainment Tonight” anchor Mary Hart is on the market. Hart and her TV producer husband, Burt Sugarman, are selling their 6,000-square-foot home known as Elk Horn Ranch, for $19.5 million. It is located in Yellowstone Club, a 13,600-acre private retreat with an “anti-Aspen” vibe that adjoins a 254,000-acre national forest. The rustic house is located on 160 acres populated by deer, elk, bears, bald eagles and foxes. The six-bedroom, seven-bathroom house also has a wranglers’ cabin and a detached garage with an apartment above it.

Long Branch, New Jersey

Three fans of Bruce Springsteen are selling the beach cottage where he lived in the mid-’70s and wrote his hit song “Born to Run.” The Jersey Shore property, which is a short walk from the Atlantic Ocean, is listed for $299,000. The owners are HBO’s “Entourage” series star Jerry Ferrara, his sister Kim McDermott and Ryan DeCarolis. The trio bought the 828-square-foot two-bedroom cottage in 2009 with plans to turn it into a tribute to The Boss. “In a dream world, Bruce would show up and say, ‘I think I should own this still.’ But I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Ferrara said.