Maximum Luxury is a weekly column about the most expensive properties for sale in San Francisco, motivated entirely by idle (but irrepressible) curiosity. The flashy condos at 2121 Webster Street broke ground back in 2014, and the 76-unit, Handle Architects-designed hub sold its first home in 2016, to the tune of $8.9 million. However, the … Continue reading Maximum Luxury: Pac Heights Mammoth, Ultra-Rich Condo Hub Finally Gets $24.5M Penthouse
Category: theFrontSteps
Maximum Overbid: “The Worst House” Doubles Its Money
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
Maximum Overbid: A Recession Repeat Finally Wins Big
With the holiday weekend upon us–where did the time go?–not as many homes closed this week, as SF saw about 100 sales in all since last Friday. But that doesn’t mean anyone was slacking in the bidding department, as the number one taker, a two bed, two bath Inner Sunset house at 1443 16th Avenue, … Continue reading Maximum Overbid: A Recession Repeat Finally Wins Big
Maximum Luxury: Big-Time East Cut Building Finally Makes Big Sale
Welcome back to Maximum Luxury, the weekly column where we peer at some of San Francisco’s most expensive homes, just for the heck of it. Ordinarily we feature listings still on the market in this space, but sometimes a unit we’ve had our eye on up and sells out from under us before we can … Continue reading Maximum Luxury: Big-Time East Cut Building Finally Makes Big Sale
SF Struggles To Clean Up Streets & Sidewalks Yet Again
After the cost of housing and the homeless crisis, likely the biggest complaint many San Franciscans and would-be San Franciscans have about SF is that our streets and sidewalks are chronically dirty. In truth, street conditions ary a lot from neighborhood to neighborhood and even block to block, but the state of the asphalt remains … Continue reading SF Struggles To Clean Up Streets & Sidewalks Yet Again
Explaining Cubix, the SoMa Building With Tiny $379K Condos
Start packing very, very small bags, because there’s a new listing at Cubix, San Francisco’s most economically sized condo development. The unit at 766 Harrison Street, #506 is a 279 square foot studio, retailing for $379,000; that of course is a tiny sum of money in SF condo terms, so little that usually only subsidized … Continue reading Explaining Cubix, the SoMa Building With Tiny $379K Condos
The Real Estate Records SF Crushed In 2021–and the Ones We Didn’t
According to the real estate aggregate site Redfin, it’s been a wild year for housing across the US, as they have recently published a ranking of ten real estate records broken across the US in 2021. Actually Redfin’s records only go back to 2013, so this might not be all that historic of a year–but … Continue reading The Real Estate Records SF Crushed In 2021–and the Ones We Didn’t
Maximum Luxury: A Classic Pac Heights Remodel, Before & After
Maximum Luxury is a weekly column where we gander at the most expensive homes for sale in San Francisco, basically for no reason except that we want to. When 2620 Buchanan Street hit the market 90 days ago asking $18 million, it was actually the end of a long drama around this six bed, eight … Continue reading Maximum Luxury: A Classic Pac Heights Remodel, Before & After
How Did This 15-Bedroom Mission Victorian End Up On the Market?
Now here’s something you don’t see every day: A 15-bed, four-plus bath Victorian “manor” right smack dab in the middle of the Mission, listed for $4.88 million. Ordinarily a Victorian of this age (dated to 1890, per the ad) and proportions would have long since been chopped up into smaller units. But no, amazingly, this … Continue reading How Did This 15-Bedroom Mission Victorian End Up On the Market?
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
We Looked at All 391 MIRA Condos To Figure Out What’s Up With This Building
Even if you don’t know the name, everyone in San Francisco immediately recognizes MIRA, the twisting, Studio Gang-designed high-rise that opened in 2020 at 280 Spear Street–there’s no overlooking it. Just this week, a brand new MIRA unit listed for sale, a three bed, three bath condo on the 32nd floor asking just under $5 … Continue reading We Looked at All 391 MIRA Condos To Figure Out What’s Up With This Building
Onetime Hills Bros Mansion Sells For Less
Hills Bros’ Coffee remains a prominent part of the San Francisco landscape thanks to their giant, inescapable waterfront sign right next to the Bay Bridge. But the coffee tycoons left their mark on the city in other places too, such as the seven bed, eight bath circa 1937 mansion at 3498 Jackson Street that just … Continue reading Onetime Hills Bros Mansion Sells For Less
Build-It-Yourself Noe Valley House Asks $2.49 Million
We know where you can get a deal on a house in Noe Valley, but the catch is that you’ve got to build it yourself. Yes, it’s another “shovel ready” project for sale, this one at 942 Noe Street, just a few blocks from the main Noe Valley 24th Street strip. Ordinarily that term means … Continue reading Build-It-Yourself Noe Valley House Asks $2.49 Million
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
A $1 Million SF Eichler Condo? It’s Real
Here we have a new listing for a three bed, two bath condo at 66 Cleary Court #305 that drops a tantalizing name, calling this an “Eichler-designed condo.” Is it true? Joseph Eichler did not create many homes in San Francisco compared to his work in Southern California and the larger Bay Area, but there … Continue reading A $1 Million SF Eichler Condo? It’s Real
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)