Monday, January 24, 2011

When does a bubble begin?

When do appreciating assets become a bubble? In San Francisco, activity and interest for "alternate" office space in the South of Market Area (SOMA), is now higher than class-A space in the downtown Financial District. This recent imbalance in interest has been driven by tech firms such as Zynga, Google, and Twitter (to name a few), who have sucked up hundreds of thousands of square feet of SOMA space.

250 Brannan Street, San Francisco
The result has been an increase in SOMA building valuations, highlighted by the recent sale of 250 Brannan Street for $33 Million. As reported in the San Francisco Business Times last week, the sale price represents a 12% increase over the last sale of the building in 2007. 

So are we in the midst of the next "bubble"....