There’s lots of talk these days about the softening housing market. But in San Francisco, here’s one bit of anecdotal evidence to the contrary. My husband and I saw a beautiful three-story house in the Outer Richmond during its first and only open house on Sunday, two days ago. The house has sweeping views of the ocean and Golden Gate Park, and unlike the vast majority of homes in the city, the house is freestanding, i.e. detached on both sides. We fell in love. I imagined writing books in the light-filled upper room, watching the sunset over the ocean each night, having breakfast on our deck while listening to the waves. On Tuesday morning, less than 48 hours after seeing the house, we delivered an offer with 25 percent down, no contingencies, and a pre-approved loan. This is pretty much de rigeur in San Francisco. Asking for time to have an inspection, or making an offer contingent on selling one’s own house, is simply not viable.

By Tuesday afternoon we learned that there had been four to five offers. The winning bidder offered substantially more over the asking price than we did and promised to put fifty percent down. This reminded me of our first attempt to buy a house in the Bay Area 8 years ago–back then, during the height of the housing market craze, we bid (over the asking price) on 26 properties before finally winning a bid.

I was very disappointed, as this was a house we could see ourselves living in until we’re too old to climb the stairs. Remember, this is during a time when jumbo loans have been effectively nixed, meaning you have to jump through serious hoops to get the kind of fat loan you need to buy a house in San Francisco. Considering that 78 percent of the mortgage loans in San Francisco, San Mateo, and Marin in the first half of this year were jumbo loans, this should have been a quiet weekend for sales. Oh, and did I mention that the uber-desirable house in question needs a bit of TLC?

So while the market might be softening elsewhere, you still have to be fast and cash-heavy to get a house in San Francisco. Almost makes a gal consider moving back home to Alabama…well, not really.