Sometimes the real estate game is simple: All you have to do is predict the future. That doesn’t require any special powers–just a reasonably good sense of the way things are going. Case in point, back in September we featured 320 Day Street, a crumbling fixer advertised as “the worst house on the best block” … Continue reading Maximum Overbid: “The Worst House” Doubles Its Money
Category: real estate
Tahoe Property With “Underground Lair” Plans Seeks $12.5M
One of our favorite sub-genres of home listings is incredibly ambitious and expensive luxury properties that have not yet actually been built but still seek millions of dollars. You can find lots of these phantasmal gems in San Francisco, but we have to admit, this latest Tahoe listing in the town of Olympic Valley might … Continue reading Tahoe Property With “Underground Lair” Plans Seeks $12.5M
The Three Numbers That Show SF Hasn’t Built Enough Housing
How much new housing does San Francisco need? Housing watchers can argue this point all day without breaking for lunch and still never reach a conclusion. But if you just want to underscore the need, the Public Policy Institute of California, an SF-based nonpartisan non-profit, examined census data for every California county and boiled it … Continue reading The Three Numbers That Show SF Hasn’t Built Enough Housing
The Most Expensive SF Homes Sold In 2021
As a wise man once said, it ain’t over till it’s over, and with many weeks left in 2021 it could still yet turn out that we’re a bit premature with this end-of-year ranking. A last-minute sale could nab any one of these top spots before 2022 rolls around; but unless fate conspires against us … Continue reading The Most Expensive SF Homes Sold In 2021
Maximum Overbid: Peaks In Valleys
The time has come once again to follow the money with Maximum Overbid, our weekly column examining just how much SF buyers went above and beyond when paying for a home. And for the first time in literally months, the top overbid for the week did NOT happen in the Sunset; instead it’s a Noe … Continue reading Maximum Overbid: Peaks In Valleys
Buy a Chunk of This Truckee House For $5,000
When you’re cruising Tahoe real estate listings–as many of us do when the stars are right and we feel that peculiar urge–there are always a few oddballs in the lot where it’s not necessarily clear what’s on sale. Just this week a listing appeared for 12595 Legacy Court in Truckee, a two bed, two bath … Continue reading Buy a Chunk of This Truckee House For $5,000
The Latest SF Liquefaction Zone Maps (for those who must know)
Did you feel it? At about 7:30 PM last night, the US Geological Survey recorded an earthquake below one corner of El Cerrito’s Sunset View Cemetery, about 4.9 kilometers down. (That’s three miles, more or less.) It was really just a little bump and rattle, measuring 2.5 on the Richter scale–barely worth noticing, although people … Continue reading The Latest SF Liquefaction Zone Maps (for those who must know)
This Is the Least Expensive Home In the Most Expensive City In the Country
Every year, the aggregate site Property Shark releases its rankings of the most expensive housing ZIP codes in America–and every year Atheron lands in the number one spot, or very close to it. It’s almost a tradition, by this point. This year, the site followed up with a bit of a brainteaser: What are the … Continue reading This Is the Least Expensive Home In the Most Expensive City In the Country
Maximum Luxury: $6.8 Million Pac Heights Vic Returns After Just Nine Months
Welcome back to Maximum Luxury, the column where we gander at the most expensive homes for sale in San Francisco, simply because we can. The offering at 2411 Washington Street in Pac Heights just opened very hot, listing on Black Friday for $6.8 million. This is a classic SF Victorian circa 1900–note that since that’s … Continue reading Maximum Luxury: $6.8 Million Pac Heights Vic Returns After Just Nine Months
Maximum Overbid: Stuffed With Thanks
This being a short week with a holiday, you’d imagine it wouldn’t be as busy on the homes front. And you’d be right; whereas an average of 161 homes closed each week in 2021 thus far, for the past seven days it was just 91. With things a little bit quiet, maybe this is an … Continue reading Maximum Overbid: Stuffed With Thanks
Empty Bernal Heights Lot Becomes New House After 20-Year Campaign
According to the new listing for 106 Bache Street, the four bed, four bath property now asking $2.28 million is a “brand new house in Bernal Heights,” and that’s true–but it’s only a fraction of the story. Bernal Heights remains one of SF’s most popular and marketable residential neighborhoods, but it’s also one of the … Continue reading Empty Bernal Heights Lot Becomes New House After 20-Year Campaign
Why Everyone Loves Eichlers
Joseph Eichler built some 11,000 homes in the course of his career, and now nearly 50 years after his death his Eichler homes still exert a powerful effect on the popular imagination. In short, people love Eichler homes, noted for their open floorplans, large atriums, and mingling of indoor and outdoor space, to name a … Continue reading Why Everyone Loves Eichlers
Maximum Overbid: Sunset Surprise
Overbids are entertaining, but skeptical housing watchers always have to wonder whether they’re the result of real market forces or just canny sellers pricing low (although arguably the latter IS a market force–just not necessarily one we account for a lot of the time). It’s always more fun to imagine that the top seller for … Continue reading Maximum Overbid: Sunset Surprise
Once Again, This Bay Area City Is the Most Expensive Place In the US To Buy a Home
The listing site PropertyShark has once again compiled their annual accounting of the most expensive housing ZIP codes in the country, and for the fifth year in a row the top spot goes to Atherton, the incredibly wealthy San Mateo County city that this time boasts a median home price of more than $7.47 million. … Continue reading Once Again, This Bay Area City Is the Most Expensive Place In the US To Buy a Home
This Is Why a 328-Foot Santa Cruz Home Sold For $1 Million
Context is the secret ingredient that can make sense out of the nonsensical, especially when it comes to buying and selling homes. At first glance, the recent sale of 114 Mountain View Avenue in Santa Cruz appears baffling, possibly even absurd: Dubbed a “vintage bungalow”, this diminutive 1948 offering measured out to just 328 square … Continue reading This Is Why a 328-Foot Santa Cruz Home Sold For $1 Million
Maximum Overbid: When You Try To Lose But Win Anyway
This week’s number one overbid, 1559 18th Avenue, barely ekes its way into first place by clearing just over 152.5 percent of its asking price after a mere eight days on the market, which in any other context would sound incredible but in SF is really just normal, if you can wrap your brain around … Continue reading Maximum Overbid: When You Try To Lose But Win Anyway