Here’s an overbid riddle for you: When can being just average also make you the best? The answer: When you’re selling a home like 1826 23rd Avenue, far and away our top overbid for the week after closing for more than $1.52 million from a $899K asking price, a margin of well over 69 percent. … Continue reading Maximum Overbid: Faster Than a Speeding Bullet
Tag: San Francisco
Home Prices Soar Across Bay Area Since 2020
What does it cost to buy a house in San Francisco? It’s not an exaggeration to say that the world wants to know–SF real estate prices make headlines internationally all the time. In a raft of data just released by the California Association of Realtors, the median sales price of a house (not condo) in … Continue reading Home Prices Soar Across Bay Area Since 2020
Another off market deal closed…in the Sunset
Pleased to report yet another successful off market find for our buyers. After submitting countless offers on countless properties we were contacted by an agent who knew we do a lot of business in the Sunset and Richmond districts. The sellers were originally looking for $1,800,000, which was not going to happen, so we waited … Continue reading Another off market deal closed…in the Sunset
Barbary Lane: The Most Famous SF Street That Doesn’t Exist
Macondray Lane is a narrow Russian Hill alleyway that branches off of Leavenworth, just north of Green Street. It’s a pleasant greenbelt with great views (most of it traversable only on foot), but seemingly unremarkable. And yet, this is actually one of the most famous streets in San Francisco–or rather, it’s the nearest proxy for … Continue reading Barbary Lane: The Most Famous SF Street That Doesn’t Exist
Before & After: 1890 Castro Victorian Renovation
Sellers love to push the “r-words”: “renovate,” “refurbish,” “remodel.” Sometimes this is a practical consideration: Certain homes really could do with a new look and more modern sensibilities. Other times it’s simply a shrewd marketing move: People feel motivated to buy things that are new, and University of Western Ontario, Canada researchers find that one … Continue reading Before & After: 1890 Castro Victorian Renovation
Rich People Are Still Buying Homes In the Sinking, Tilting Millennium Tower
Last week saw the news of still more structural problems in the sinking and tilting Millennium Tower, which is now seeing some plumbing problems due to its uneven settling. It’s just more bad news for this top-dollar building with rock-bottom problems. What’s interesting though is that even after five solid years of basically nothing but … Continue reading Rich People Are Still Buying Homes In the Sinking, Tilting Millennium Tower
“Haunted” Pac Heights Mansion Listed For $5.74 Million
One of San Francisco’s most prominent haunted houses is up for sale–if you believe in such things, of course. What’s objectively true is that the Chambers Mansion at 2222 Sacramento Street listed this week asking the eye-popping but unsurprising sum of more than $5.74 million. The six bed, seven bath edifice is named for its … Continue reading “Haunted” Pac Heights Mansion Listed For $5.74 Million
SF Overbids: “Fixer-Upper” Worth $1.45 Million Anyway
Most of the time, overbids in San Francisco clock within fairly modest margins. But there are always boom times, as this week’s overbids are going hard and not apologizing for it. It’s a close race for first place, with two different sales cracking the 55 percent overbid margin. The top spot ends up being 64 … Continue reading SF Overbids: “Fixer-Upper” Worth $1.45 Million Anyway
Mapping San Francisco Superhero Movies
SF’s housing market hinges on what people think about the city, and nothing informs popular opinion quite as consistently as Hollywood, which has always had a love/hate relationship with the city. That is to say, people love to make movies about San Francisco, but they hate to actually shoot here, usually substituting cheaper cities like … Continue reading Mapping San Francisco Superhero Movies
Soaring Forest Hill Tudor Asks $3.79 Million
Proverbially, your home is your castle; in the case of a home like 146 Castenada Avenue, the resemblance is much more robust than mere proverbs might suggest. This four bed, three bath Tudor home circa 1929, with its deeply classy rust-red exterior, listed with Compass on Friday for a kingly $3.79 million, up considerably from … Continue reading Soaring Forest Hill Tudor Asks $3.79 Million
SF Overbids All Top $1 Million
It’s getting harder and harder to buy a house for less than $1 million in San Francisco, but that’s not necessarily anybody’s fault. In the examples of this week’s overbids, several sellers initially priced their offerings at under seven figures, only for bidding to push the final cost up over that mark. Of course, in … Continue reading SF Overbids All Top $1 Million
Crocker-Amazon Looker Asks $1.1 Million, With a Bonus
Everyone loves getting something extra, but it may not always be immediately clear just what you’re getting. Take a look at 209 South Hill Boulevard, a truly beautiful two bed, one bath Crocker-Amazon house that just listed on Redfin for a hair under $1.1 million. (Note that some listings mistakenly call the street just Hill … Continue reading Crocker-Amazon Looker Asks $1.1 Million, With a Bonus
Is It Cheaper To Rent or Buy In San Francisco?
For generations, San Francisco has been a renter majority city. Estimates vary, but the San Francisco Planning Department calculates that as many as two-thirds of SF residents rent their homes. The conventional wisdom is that US renters are getting a bum deal in the long run, because for most homes in most cities they’d ultimately … Continue reading Is It Cheaper To Rent or Buy In San Francisco?
San Francisco Never Had Highest Rent In the US
The big housing news today is that for the first time ever, the SF-based rental platform Zumper ranked New York City over San Francisco as the most expensive place to rent in the US. For the month of August, a median-priced one bedroom apartment on Zumper cost $2,810 per month, whereas a similar unit in … Continue reading San Francisco Never Had Highest Rent In the US
The Front Steps Guide To San Francisco Victorians
Although there are many beautiful and historic styles of homes for sale across San Francisco, the word “Victorian” is so ubiquitous with the city’s image that some homebuyers are scarcely interested in anything less. But although we all know a Vic when we see one, defining them can be deceptively tricky–especially since even the most … Continue reading The Front Steps Guide To San Francisco Victorians
The Anxious Homebuyer’s Guide To San Francisco Earthquakes
Last week we got an email from some potential San Francisco homebuyers fretting about–what else?–the risks of living in a major fault zone and the danger posed by certain neighborhoods and certain kinds of homes in the event of a major earthquake. Along with the cost of living, this is probably the number one thing … Continue reading The Anxious Homebuyer’s Guide To San Francisco Earthquakes