Today’s Chronicle reports a rise in foreclosure activity within San Francisco’s more expensive communities. “Bleeding” headline aside, it’s actually a good article BUT you gotta read the whole thing. If you only read the headline or first paragraph, you may miss the point and assume that the San Francisco real estate market is in worse distress that it is.

Indulge me this analogy.

Recently, my friend caught a nasty cold and cough. (You know that one that’s going around!) Three weeks and mountains of medicine later, she finally recovered. I caught a similar illness and was better in about a week.

I like to joke that I have a heartier constitution. (Must be the Texan in me!) It’s not that I’m immune to illness, it’s that when I do fall prey to a bug, I tend to get less sick and recover more quickly….

Kind of like the San Francisco real estate market. It’s not that we don’t have distressed property here because we do have short sales, REOs, and foreclosures in almost every neighborhood. Our SF housing market has undergone a correction averaging about a 18-20% home price decline from the peak. There’s no doubt about that.

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