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Century old bay area family estate could fetch record price

Home Prices In Monrovia Area Increased Recently

by patch.com Leave a Comment

Real Estate

The Monrovia area has experienced explosive home price growth this past year and prices are still moving upward.

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MONROVIA, CA — National home prices broke another yearly growth record as buyer demand remained strong and housing supply stayed tight.

Prices increased 1.3 percent from June to July in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale CA Metropolitan Division, according to the latest data from the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index, one of the leading trackers of the housing market. Prices were up 17.9 percent in July 2021 over July 2020.

Prices in the bottom third of the local market — homes priced under $731,000, often designated as starter homes — increased 19.7 percent year over year. The top third of the market (homes over $1,111,000) saw a 17.8 percent increase.

Nationally, home prices increased 1.3 percent from July to August 2021, according to CoreLogic data. Price growth was slower than in June to July 2021, when prices rose 1.8 percent nationally.

On a yearly basis, prices increased 18.1 percent from August 2020 to August 2021, the highest increase in 45 years. Prices for single-family homes grew by 19.8 percent over the past year; attached properties such as condominiums grew by 12 percent.

Los Angeles County is part of the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale CA Metropolitan Division, a term the U.S. Census Bureau uses to designate areas with strong economic ties. Many MSAs contain more than one county.

Editor’s note: This post was automatically generated using an analysis of the Case-Shiller Index data from CoreLogic Inc. by The Associated Press. Please report any errors or other feedback to [email protected] .

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FL Inflation Eases With Falling Gas Prices, But Other Costs Rise

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Community Corner

Though inflation is slowing down in FL, thanks to lower gas prices, costs continue to rise on food, rent and in other areas.

FLORIDA — Inflation is slowing down, led largely by tumbling gasoline prices, but residents of Florida will continue to feel pain at grocery stores and other places, according to the July Consumer Price Index report released Wednesday.

Consumer prices jumped 8.5 percent in July, compared with a year earlier, but that was down from the 9.1 percent year-over-year increase in June, a four-decade high, according to the report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Supply chain snarls are also loosening, with fewer ships moored off Southern California ports and shipping costs declining. Prices for commodities like corn, wheat and copper have fallen steeply.

Florida residents paid an average of $3.73 per gallon of gas Wednesday, compared with $4.42 a month ago, according to AAA, but those decreases aren’t enough to offset spiking prices across a wide range of goods and services.

On average, Americans paid 13.1 percent more for groceries in July than they did in the year prior, the largest 12-month increase since the one-year period ending in March 1979. Cereals and bakery products cost 15 percent more than they did at this time last year, dairy and related products cost 14.9 percent more, fruits and vegetables cost about 9.3 percent more.

In Florida, prices on many pantry staples increased over the past year.

The costs of cereals and bakery products, on average, increased 11.8 percent in the Tampa Bay area since July 2021, according to the Consumer Price Index. Meanwhile the prices of meats, poultry, fish, and eggs increased 12.2 percent during this time. Dairy products pricing increased about 9 percent over the past year, and the cost of fruits and vegetables remained about the same, dropping .2 percent.

Meanwhile, South Florida saw less steep increases on the prices of certain food items from June 2021 to June 2022. While, on average, the costs of cereals and bakery products went up 12.2 percent, the prices of meats, poultry fish and eggs saw just a 1.2 percent increase during this time. The prices of dairy products increased about 2 percent and the cost of fruits and vegetables remained about the same.

Rent prices also increased, by an average of 0.7 percent in July, and are about 5.7 percent higher than in July 2021. Lodging away from home continued to decline, falling 2.7 percent in July after a 2.8 percent decrease in June.

In South Florida, rent increased, on average, 12.3 percent from June 2021 to June 2022, according to the CPI. The Tampa Bay area saw a 14.9 percent increase in rental prices from July 2021 to July 2022.

One-third of Americans rent their homes, and higher rental costs are leaving many of them with less money to spend on other items. Data from Bank of America, based on its customer accounts, shows that rent increases have fallen particularly hard on younger Americans. Average rent payments for so-called Generation Z renters (those born after 1996) jumped 16 percent in July from a year ago, while for Baby Boomers the increase was just 3 percent.

Nationally, new car prices also continued to rise in July, up 10.4 percent from the year prior. Used car and truck prices were up 6.6 percent from July 2021.

CPI data shows that the cost of new cars increased 13.6 percent in the Tampa Bay area over the past year, while used cars saw a 6.1 percent jump in prices. In South Florida, used cars went up 6.7 percent year over year.

Medical care costs 5.1 percent more than a year ago, with a 0.4 percent increase from June to July, down from the 0.7 percent increase from May to June.

President Joe Biden has pointed to declining gas prices as a sign that his policies — including large releases of oil from the nation’s strategic reserve — are helping lessen the higher costs that have strained Americans’ finances, particularly for lower-income Americans and Black and Hispanic households .

Yet Republicans are stressing the persistence of high inflation as a top issue in the midterm congressional elections, with polls showing that elevated prices have driven Biden’s approval ratings down sharply.

On Friday, the House is poised to give final congressional approval to a revived tax-and-climate package pushed by Biden and Democratic lawmakers. Economists say the measure, which its proponents have titled the Inflation Reduction Act, will have only a minimal effect on inflation over the next several years.

Inflation is expected to remain far above the Federal Reserve’s annual target through 2023 or even into 2024. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has said the Fed needs to see a series of declining monthly core inflation readings before it would consider pausing its rate hikes. The Fed has raised its benchmark short-term rate at its past four rate-setting meetings , including a three-quarter point hike in both June and July — the first increases that large since 1994.

A blockbuster jobs report for July that the government issued Friday — with 528,000 jobs added, rising wages and an unemployment rate that matched a half-century low of 3.5 percent — solidified expectations that the Fed will announce yet another three-quarter-point hike when it next meets in September. Robust hiring tends to fuel inflation because it gives Americans more collective spending power.

Stubborn inflation isn’t just a U.S. phenomenon. Prices have jumped in the United Kingdom, Europe and in less developed nations such as Argentina.

In the U.K., inflation soared 9.4 percent in June from a year earlier, a four-decade high. In the 19 countries that use the euro currency, inflation reached 8.9 percent in June compared with a year earlier, the highest since record-keeping for the euro began.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.

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We’ve been priced out of our pretty seaside village by posh out-of-towners who are turning it into Chelsea-on-Sea

by www.thesun.co.uk Leave a Comment

A PICTURE postcard seaside community is up in arms after an invasion of second home owners.

Angry residents in The Witterings in West Sussex say the beauty spot has been invaded by out-of-towners with flash cars and bags of money.

They say the collection of villages is beginning to resemble a suburb of London rather than a sleepy seaside community.

Locals say the unique laid-back character of the area is being “irreversibly damaged” by a clamour for holiday homes .

Now they have called for curbs to be introduced on the number of second homes and Airbnb properties.

More than one in five properties in West Wittering is now a second home and in the nearby village of West Itchenor that figure is almost 40 percent.

Locals whose families have lived in the area for generations say they are being forced to move elsewhere with new-build homes costing £1m and upwards.

The Witterings has long been an attractive destination for holidaymakers due to the harbour, long sandy beach and good surfing.

Actor Kate Winslet and Rolling Stone Keith Richards both live in large homes in West Wittering and until recently singer Michael Ball also called the village his home.

But residents say the Covid pandemic has led to a huge influx of London buyers keen to have a seaside home .

Chloe Powell, a hairdresser and mother-of-one, said: “I’m born and bred in The Witterings and I can’t afford to buy here .

“My partner and I have been house-hunting and want to buy around here but it is just too expensive so we’re probably going to have to move out.”

The 34-year-old added: “I think there needs to be some sort of cap on the number of second homes because for people like myself growing up in the area it’s making it impossible to buy a home.

“As a result families who rent can’t afford to get onto the property ladder – it’s wrong.

“We’re being out-priced. We’re being pushed out. There should be some sort of restriction placed by the council.”

‘IT’S NOT FAIR’

Teaching assistant Jenny Redfern blasted: “The area is being irreversibly damaged and it’s got to stop. The number of second homes around here is ruining it.

“In the summer it is more like Chelsea-on-Sea with loads of posh cars blocking the streets and causing a nuisance.

“I’d like to see the council get a hold of the number of second homes and Airbnb properties being built here because the only people benefitting are estate agents.

“In the winter months you hardly see anyone. It’s so deserted with houses locked up and empty. I wouldn’t say its a ghost town but it is very, very quiet.”

The 39-year-old added: “It’s not fair on the locals when three-bedroom houses are being built that cost over £1m because how is any young family expected to get on the property ladder – it’s impossible.”

Dawn Philips, 47, a manager, said her whole family back to her great-grandparents are from the area, but it’s changed beyond all recognition.

She explained: “The area has changed from when I was little. The atmosphere and personality of this area has changed a lot – it is unrecognisable.

“A lot of people from London have homes here as they’re the ones with the money.

You can guarantee that new houses that are built here aren’t being built for people who live here already

Edward Bell, resident

“There are some beautiful places around here and they are simply shut up or they become Airbnb rentals and no-one wants to live next to an Airbnb house because it is a party house.”

Edward Bell, 84, who moved to the area from Hampshire 25 years ago, fumed at greedy second home hawks eager to cash in on his seaside village.

He said: “You can guarantee that new houses that are built here aren’t being built for people who live here already.

“They’re being built as rental businesses and they will be empty half the year and no-one will be in them.

“There are two new houses going up near me and they’re £1m each and you can bet they’ll be second homes.”

Mr Bell, a retired university administrator, went on: “I don’t think it’s necessarily good for local businesses. I think it’s good for estate agents, that’s for sure. It’s local people that drive the economy.

“I’d like to see the council take steps to safeguard properties for local people.”

‘SEWAGE OVERFLOWING’

Cllr Graeme Barrett, of Chichester District Council said legislation which would empower local authorities to charge elevated Council Tax for second homes was “long overdue” in places like The Witterings.

He said: “It’s a really beautiful area with many attractions. But the problem is it is attracting people with very deep pockets and it is forcing locals to move elsewhere.

“I’d like to see a cap on new homes being built. There has to be more controls on the number of new people moving to the area.”

Cllr Barrett – an Independent candidate in the May elections after sitting as a Conservative councillor – also warned the sewerage system is overflowing thanks to the influx.

Another 200 homes have been approved to be built in the area over the coming years.

But some residents say the influx of money, faces and new money helps bolster the local economy.

Hilary Scrivens, 76, who moved to The Witterings 22 years ago, said: “House prices have gone up but… They go to the grocers, the butchers, the bakers.

“It’s a shame that some homes aren’t used a bit more. They have the shutters down and are locked up but on the whole I don’t think the arrival of people from outside is a bad thing.”

Craig Jiggins, 59, from West London is retiring to The Witterings after falling in love with the area after first coming down on family holidays as a child.

The former air traffic control manager said: “I’m moving here for nostalgic reasons. I love it round here. It’s so beautiful and relaxing round here. You get a buzz when you’re here.

“From what I remember it hasn’t changed too much.”

Baseball’s Most Valuable Teams 2023: Price Tags Are Up 12% Despite Regional TV Woes

by www.forbes.com Leave a Comment

Last season’s record revenue for Major League Baseball translates into all-time-high valuations for its teams.

By Mike Ozanian and Justin Teitelbaum

T he eroding economics of regional sports networks made little difference: Major League Baseball teams are still hot assets. Before Arte Moreno pulled the plug on selling his Los Angeles Angels in January, he would have gotten at least $2.7 billion, or $280 million more than the MLB record $2.42 billion that Steve Cohen paid for the New York Mets in 2020, according to people familiar with the sale process.

The average MLB team value is up 12% this year, to $2.32 billion. During the 2022 season, revenue (net of stadium debt service) increased 7.8%, to an all-time high of $10.3 billion. The top-line gain was driven by a 64% increase in ticket revenue (including postseason and spring training), to $2.4 billion (the 2021 season started with nearly all ballparks under capacity restrictions) and a 35% increase in premium seating (suites and club seating) revenue, to $$1.16 billion. But operating income (in the sense of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) came in at an average of $17.7 million per team, down 20% from the previous season as player costs (salaries, bonuses and benefits) rose 13%, to $5.2 billion, and an increase in SG&A expenses.

Among the league’s 30 teams, geography and regional sports network economics played pivotal roles in our valuations, especially with the recent bankruptcy filing of Diamond Sports Group, which has the local media rights to 14 of MLB’s 30 teams. The Angels benefit from being in Southern California — where, like in New York, Chicago and Boston, buyers are willing to play a premium price —and are televised on Diamond Sports Group’s Bally Sports West, a profitable RSN that’s unlikely to cut its $112 million rights fee to the team when it emerges from bankruptcy. (For the annual rights fee for all 30 teams last season, see the table below.)

MLB RSN Rights Fees and Viewership

The New York Yankees, baseball’s most valuable team, are worth $7.1 billion, 18% more than a year ago. The Bronx Bombers, who collected $143 million in cable money in 2022, are televised on the YES Network, the most-profitable and most-watched RSN in the country. YES throws off about $400 million in operating income (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) and averaged 227,000 households for Yankee games in 2022. (Full disclosure: I’m co-host of the Forbes SportsMoney show, which airs on YES.) The Yankees have been MLB’s top-valued team every year since the list was first published in December 1998.

Alas, not all teams are as fortunate as the Angels or Yankees to play in big markets and have deals with profitable RSNs. The Lerner family has been trying to sell the Washington Nationals for over a year. Despite the Nationals’ revenue ($356 million in 2022) falling in the top half of MLB, the team has not been able to attract a serious offer above $2 billion. One reason: the Nationals and Baltimore Orioles, co-owners of MASN, the RSN that televises their games, have been entangled in an ugly legal dispute for many years regarding how much money the Nationals should get in rights fees.

All told, baseball’s 30 teams took in $2.3 billion in local television revenue in 2022, or 22% of their $10.44 billion in total revenue (before debt service). By contrast, during their most recently completed seasons, NHL teams got $838 million, or 14% of their revenue from local television, while the NBA took in $1.31 billion, or 13% of their overall revenue from local television rights. (In the NFL, except for the $107 million that teams got for selling their home preseason games last season, all media revenue is split evenly among the 32 teams.)

Media experts say the teams most at risk of having their local television fees cut are the Arizona Diamondbacks, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Guardians, Colorado Rockies, Minnesota Twins, Pittsburgh Pirates, Oakland Athletics and San Diego Padres because the deals the RSNs have with the teams are no longer economical for the sports networks. We kept the values of all these teams, save the Rockies and Padres, the same as they were a year ago. We nudged up the Rockies 6%, to $1.475 billion, and the Padres 11%, to $1.75 billion, because their stadium revenue (tickets, suites, advertising) should compensate for any decline in local TV revenue.

Methodology: Forbes’ team values are enterprise values (equity plus net debt) based on historical transactions and the future economics of the sport and each team. Revenue and operating income (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) are for the 2022 season and are net of revenue sharing, competitive balance taxes and stadium revenue used for debt service. Our figures also include revenue and expenses from non-MLB events at the stadium that go to team owners, include spring training games and the revenue and expenses for team-owned minor league teams. Ownership stakes in regional sports networks, as well as related profits or losses, are excluded from our valuations and operating results, as are investments in real estate and other businesses. (For our all-inclusive sports ownership valuations, see our annual Sports Empires ranking.) Sources include sports bankers, team and league executives, public documents like leases and filings related to public bonds, and media rights experts. Click here for the full list of values and additional information on every team.

MLB’S MOST VALUABLE TEAMS 2023

1. New York Yankees

Value: $7,100 M

One-Year Change: 18%

Owner: Steinbrenner family

Operating Income: $16.3 M

2. Los Angeles Dodgers

Value: $4,800 M

One-Year Change: 18%

Owner: Guggenheim Baseball Management

Operating Income: $14.3 M

3. Boston Red Sox

Value: $4,500 M

One-Year Change: 15%

Owner: John Henry, Tom Werner

Operating Income: $71.6 M

4. Chicago Cubs

Value: $4,100 M

One-Year Change: 8%

Owner: Ricketts Family

Operating Income: $57.2 M

5. San Francisco Giants

Value: $3,700 M

One-Year Change: 6%

Owner: Greg Johnson

Operating Income: $74.9 M

6. New York Mets

Value: $2,900 M

One-Year Change: 9%

Owner: Steve and Alexandra Cohen

Operating Loss: -$138.5 M

7. Los Angeles Angels

Value: $2,700 M

One-Year Change: 23%

Owner: Arturo Moreno

Operating Income: $35.8 M

8. Atlanta Braves

Value: $2,600 M

One-Year Change: 24%

Owner: Liberty Media

Operating Income: $51.2 M

9. Philadelphia Phillies

Value: $2,575 M

One-Year Change: 12%

Owner: Middleton family, Buck family

Operating Loss: -$3.7 M

10. St Louis Cardinals

Value: $2,550 M

One-Year Change: 4%

Owner: William DeWitt Jr

Operating Income: $43.1 M

11. Houston Astros

Value: $2,250 M

One-Year Change: 14%

Owner: Jim Crane

Operating Income: $44.3 M

12. Texas Rangers

Value: $2,225 M

One-Year Change: 9%

Owner: Ray Davis

Operating Income: $58.1 M

13. Seattle Mariners

Value: $2,200 M

One-Year Change: 29%

Owner: John Stanton, Chris Larson

Operating Income: $83.8 M

14. Toronto Blue Jays

Value: $2,100 M

One-Year Change: 18%

Owner: Rogers Communications

Operating Loss: -$33.7 M

15. Chicago White Sox

Value: $2,050 M

One-Year Change: 16%

Owner: Jerry Reinsdorf

Operating Loss: -$53.4 M

16. Washington Nationals

Value: $2,000 M

One-Year Change: 0%

Owner: Lerner Family

Operating Income: $45.1 M

17. San Diego Padres

Value: $1,750 M

One-Year Change: 11%

Owner: Peter Seidler

Operating Loss: -$55.2 M

18. Baltimore Orioles

Value: $1,700 M

One-Year Change: 24%

Owner: Peter Angelos

Operating Income: $64.7 M

19. Milwaukee Brewers

Value: $1,600 M

One-Year Change: 25%

Owner: Mark Attanasio

Operating Income: $22.1 M

20. Colorado Rockies

Value: $1,475 M

One-Year Change: 6%

Owner: Charles Monfort, Richard Monfort

Operating Loss: -$13.1 M

21. Detroit Tigers

Value: $1,450 M

One-Year Change: 4%

Owner: Ilitch family

Operating Loss: -$29.5 M

22. Minnesota Twins

Value: $1,390 M

One-Year Change: 0%

Owner: Pohlad family

Operating Loss: -$30.3 M

23. Arizona Diamondbacks

Value: $1,380 M

One-Year Change: 0%

Owner: Ken Kendrick

Operating Income: $28.3 M

24. Pittsburgh Pirates

Value: $1,320 M

One-Year Change: 0%

Owner: Nutting family

Operating Income: $51.5 M

25. Cleveland Guardians

Value: $1,300 M

One-Year Change: 0%

Owner: Paul Dolan, David Blitzer

Operating Income: $38.3 M

26. Tampa Bay Rays

Value: $1,250 M

One-Year Change: 14%

Owner: Stuart Sternberg

Operating Income: $9.5 M

27. Kansas City Royals

Value: $1,200 M

One-Year Change: 8%

Owner: John Sherman

Operating Income: $27.8 M

28. Cincinnati Reds

Value: $1,190 M

One-Year Change: 0%

Owner: Robert Castellini

Operating Loss: -$12.6 M

29. Oakland Athletics

Value: $1,180 M

One-Year Change: 0%

Owner: John Fisher

Operating Income: $62.2 M

30. Miami Marlins

Value: $1,000 M

One-Year Change: 1%

Owner: Bruce Sherman

Operating Loss: -$0.5 M

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From tech hub to empty husk: How S.F. building shows city’s latest cycle of boom to bust

by www.sfchronicle.com Leave a Comment

One of the saddest architectural sights on the blocks near San Francisco’s Civic Center is the backside of 1455 Market Street .

The ground floor is coated in speckled beige concrete that looks as if it was patterned by pushing giant egg cartons into wet cement. The walls above are the same concrete, but here the facade shifts to a ribbed corduroy finish that’s not necessarily an improvement.

The stubby, 16-story tower atop the five-story base has a certain blunt rigor. The scene along Market Street does its best to be inviting, no easy task within two blocks of misery-filled United Nations Plaza. Overall, though, it’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to work here — and no surprise that the tech firms that briefly made this a coveted address have packed or are packing their bags.

Once again in San Francisco, as in all cities, the underlying power of place is reasserting itself.

Or to put it in real estate terms: location, location, location.

I visited 1455 Market this week before Tuesday’s hellacious deluge and after the news that Reddit will soon move out of the space that it occupies in the 45-year-old structure. The internet forum will relocate by September to 303 Second St., a 10-story office complex at Folsom and Second streets.

There are no grand views in Reddit’s next home, and the 1988 complex has a suburban feel. But it’s a short walk to the Embarcadero in one direction and the Giants’ ballpark in another. There’s a spacious plaza in front and ever-sumptuous South Park is nearby.

In other words, 303 Second sits within an area that bustles in boom times and feels pretty good even in the city’s murky here-and-now. Walking a few blocks to work can be fun, not depressing.

Compare this to the area around Reddit’s current home at Market and Eleventh. The one attraction to outsiders is the sublime lure of Littlejohn’s Candies — if you haven’t gone, you should — and there’s a Muni stop close at hand. Otherwise you see empty storefronts, and sidewalks largely empty except for the people striding through on their way somewhere else, or individuals plagued by mental illness or drug abuse.

The mood was different when Reddit arrived at the end of 2019, joining such proudly disruptive 21st Century brands as Uber, Square (now known as Block) and WeWork. The arrival seemed to provide more evidence that long-tawdry mid-Market was being reborn as tech’s Miracle Mile. All systems seemed go-go.

Problem is, the stretch of Market Street near Van Ness Avenue always has been a faint star in northeast San Francisco’s constellation of attractions. That’s why 1455 Market Street looks the way it does, including that base with floors that cover nearly two acres: the Bank of America purchased the land in 1974 to build a computer center to process checks and deposit slips and all those other scraps that once constituted daily financial life. The massive machinery whirred behind windowless walls; an immense vault was hidden within.

Other chunky, back-office-type buildings joined it in the 1980s, the idea being that corporations needing cheap space with large floors could build it in San Francisco rather than the East Bay. Then technology advanced to the point where remote workers could be in Oklahoma or India as easily as San Ramon, and the boxy behemoths began emptying out. Mid-Market’s decline deepened.

Factors at this scale — more than the relatively modest incentive for Market Street-based firms in 2011 that became known infamously as the Twitter tax break — explain why tech firms flocked to the blocks between Fifth Street and Van Ness Avenue for a decade or so. There were few other options.

Consider the testimony of Victor Coleman, chairman of Hudson Pacific Properties, which purchased 1455 Market in 2009 from the Bank of America.

“The reality was that the city didn’t have a lot of square footage available, so growth had to go in this direction,” Coleman told Bloomberg in 2013. “People told me I bought the ugliest building in San Francisco, but that’s great because the only way to go is up.”

The catch being that what goes up, can come down. Uber built itself a sharp-looking headquarters in Mission Bay, with Chase Center to the south and a waterfront park going in to the east. Square is migrating to Oakland’s Uptown, in a cool remake of a former department store. WeWork, which, before the pandemic, seemed intent on leasing every available square foot of space in every American city, now has “only” 10 San Francisco locations.

Once Reddit goes east, the only large tenant left will be Muni’s transportation management center.

Theoretically, this makes 1455 Market a candidate to be an incubator for how unneeded office buildings can help the pandemic-stricken downtown towards a resilient future. The test case we need! But with its awkward dimensions and dicey location, I can’t picture a scenario where a conversion from office to apartments or cultural spaces  would make sense.

Give Hudson Pacific credit — the Los Angeles-based real estate firm that bills itself as “focused on epicenters of innovation” on its website — lightened up the behemoth’s presence as much as it could. The retail strip along Market has a high sloped entrance to invite you in. The windowless base that shielded computers has been punctured by windows in certain locations. By all accounts, the office spaces are top-notch.

But in today’s San Francisco, where the office vacancy rate approaches 30% and companies like Salesforce and Facebook are offering multiple floors of their office space to any takers, there are plenty of other options.

That’s how cities work. In boom times, economic tides rise so far and so fast that it seems as if they never will stop. Then comes a recession or worse, and those same forces recede.

With luck, downtown San Francisco’s tide has reached its low point. But here’s another urban truth: We never can tell what the future might hold.

Reach John King: [email protected]; Twitter: @johnkingsfchron