The San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department has a new price for a controversial $1.7 million public restroom at a park in the city’s Noe Valley neighborhood.

A generous donation helped bring the restroom’s price down to $300,000.

The planned restroom was supposed to be built in a corner of Noe Valley Town Square Park, which would be a much-welcomed addition for some people who spend their lunch or bring their kids to the area.

“It would be definitely nice to have a bathroom available, not relying on local businesses,” San Francisco resident Amanda Specht said.

But the original cost was a shock and triggered backlash.

“It is outrageous and I’m not surprised by the outrage,” Specht said. “But, it’s San Francisco.”

The controversy over the seemingly bloated price tag became so intense Gov. Gavin Newsom paused the distribution of state funds that had been earmarked for the public restroom. The much lower price the city will have to shell out for the restroom comes after a pair of companies teamed up to donate a prefabricated restroom to San Francisco and offered to pay the delivery and most of the installation costs.

A San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department spokesperson said they will be reaching out to the governor’s office and ask for a portion of the money it paused for project back to help fund a similar project at Precita Park.

The recreation and parks department plans to spend $300,000 to hire a landscape design firm to draw up the plans for the site, including mechanical, electrical and plumbing work. In addition, the work would include handling permitting, environmental review and other administrative costs.

The hope is to have the new restroom installed by late summer.

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When it first went to market two months ago, 3450 Washington St. boasted a price tag of $45 million, the most expensive home on the San Francisco market. Now, fresh from a $5.5 million price cut, this Presidio Heights mansion could be yours for $39.5 million — which means it’s still the highest-priced single-family home you can buy in the city.

The 9,865-square-foot mansion is historic, built in the 1930s by Albert Farr. Farr was a prolific California architect whose designs dot the Bay Area, notably in the Spanish Colonial Piedmont Church and the Parker Houses on Russian Hill, among a plethora of impressive homes in San Francisco’s most prestigious neighborhoods.

3450 Washington Street boasted a price tag of $45 million but recently underwent a $5.5 million price cut. It’s still San Francisco’s most expensive listing.

Christopher Sturman

In the case of 3450 Washington St., Farr chose a French Normandy inspiration. Farr’s vision is very much alive in the home’s grand facade and impressive bones, but the interiors are fresh. According to the official marketing for the property, “The estate has been completely reimagined … and recently renovated ‘down to the studs.’”

3450 Washington Street boasted a price tag of $45 million but recently underwent a $5.5 million price cut. It’s still San Francisco’s most expensive listing.

Christopher Sturman

In its renovated incarnation, the mansion encompasses six bedrooms, seven full bathrooms, and three half-baths. Additional amenities include two chef’s kitchens, a cigar room, a temperature-controlled wine cellar for up to 3,000 bottles, silk wallpaper, radiant heated floors and a wood-paneled library.

3450 Washington Street boasted a price tag of $45 million but recently underwent a $5.5 million price cut. It’s still San Francisco’s most expensive listing.

Christopher Sturman

The mansion rests on an almost-9,600-square-foot lot in Presidio Heights with gorgeous bay views.

3450 Washington Street boasted a price tag of $45 million but recently underwent a $5.5 million price cut. It’s still San Francisco’s most expensive listing.

Christopher Sturman

Despite the clear opulence on offer, the home did not find a buyer for its $45 million original ask. People have shown interest, however, according to listing agent Antoine Crumeyrolle of Compass, who told SFGATE, “We have had over 15 showings in the last 60 days, which is excellent for a house at this price point.”

3450 Washington Street boasted a price tag of $45 million but recently underwent a $5.5 million price cut. It’s still San Francisco’s most expensive listing.

Christopher Sturman

The price cut, said Crumeyrolle, “is a sign to let buyers know that the sellers are serious about selling the house sooner than later.”

The discounted price also leaves San Francisco without a single-family home listing over $40 million. The Washington Street mansion now tops a list of notable properties asking over $30 million, including the Ken Fulk bedazzled Birch home on Billionaires’ Row, asking $35 million; and the Michael Taylor signature “California Look” mansion in Sea Cliff, asking $32 million.

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In California overall, prices dropped year-over-year, as sales collapsed, supply more than doubled. No dear, this isn’t just a seasonal dip.

By Wolf Richter for WOLF STREET.

San Francisco and Silicon Valley are now in the solid leadership role of the housing bust playing out in California with sales collapsing and prices heading south from the peak in April at an astonishing pace.

Just about everything that could come together came together. After a two-year outflux of workers due to working from anywhere, there came the collapse of the startup and crypto scenes, starting in 2021 and continuing unabated, leading to the early entries into my pantheon of Imploded Stocks. In early 2022 came the spike in mortgage rates. In mid-2022 came the downturn in employment at Big Tech. By that time, the Fed had been hiking its policy rates relentlessly, and Quantitative Tightening had kicked off. This was punctuated over the past two months by the chaotic dismantling of the workforce at Twitter and its ecosystem.

Local budgets have fallen into deep deficits – although most are still flush with cash from the pandemic funds received from the federal government and the state.

Vacant office space that is on the market for lease and sublease continues to balloon, while landlords have started to file for huge reductions in assessment values ​​to lower their property taxes, which is going to cut revenues further.

This comes garnished by stories in the New York Times that Twitter stopped paying rent on its leased office spaces, and that it was instructed not to pay vendors. At least one of those unpaid vendors – a Silicon Valley company whose software Twitter had licensed – filed a lawsuit last week in the San Francisco Superior Court for nonpayment. It stated, “shortly after Musk’s purchase of Twitter closed, Twitter refused to pay the outstanding quarterly invoice, which was due on November 30, 2022, and Twitter disclaimed any obligation to pay any future invoices…”

These are all signs that the housing market is going to get a lot messier. Prices have plunged the most in San Francisco, followed by the Silicon Valley counties of San Mateo and Santa Clara.

In San Francisco.

The median price of single-family houses sold in November in San Francisco plunged by 11.4% from October to $1.50 million, and by 27% from the peak in April, according to the California Association of Realtors. A nasty-looking chart:

Condo prices plunged by 4.3% from the prior month to $1.15 million, and by 9.5% year-over-year. Since the peak in April, the median condo price is down by 15.5%. Condo sales in November have collapsed by 49%.

Seasonally, the lowest months are December and January. So that’s still to come.

But who is going to buy in the spring selling season? Prices normally rise as demand picks up in the spring; but who will be the exuberant tech workers that will want to overpay for a house by borrowing against the collapsed value of their stock options? Those lucky ones that still have jobs and stock options?

The housing markets in San Francisco and Silicon Valley are tied to the boom-and-bust cycles of the startup scene – now combined with the crypto scene and cryptos – and they’re tied to the stocks of startups and big tech and social media companies in the area, to the jobs that have to be done locally, and to the value of the stock options. All of them are puking.

Year-over-year, the median price of single-family houses in San Francisco plunged by 21%, the sixth month in a row of year-over-year declines. It was the biggest year-over-year plunge since the peak of Housing Bust 1:

Silicon Valley, San Mateo County.

The median price of single-family houses in San Mateo County, which forms the northern part of Silicon Valley, plunged by 6.2% from October to $1.78 million, and by 26% from the peak in April.

Year-over-year, the median house price plunged by 20%.

Silicon Valley, Santa Clara County.

Santa Clara County, which forms the southern part of Silicon Valley and includes the Bay Area’s largest city, San Jose, is lagging behind but is moving right along. The median price of single-family houses dropped by 1.5% in November from October to $1.60 million, and by 19% from the peak in April:

Year-over-year, the median house price dropped by 5.5%, the first significant year-over-year decline in this cycle. Prices had already undergone significant year-over-year declines in 2018 and 2019, and were on a downward path until the trillions in money-printing, the surge in the stock market, and the interest rate repression began to boost prices again.

Currently, Santa Clara County lags San Francisco and San Mateo by a few months, it seems.

In all of California.

Sales of single-family houses in California collapsed by 47.7% in November, compared to a year ago, the biggest decline since 1980, according to the California Association of Realtors. Condo sales collapsed by 46%.

Unsold inventory more than doubled year-over-year to a supply of 3.3 months, and days on the market also more than doubled – before sellers pulled the unsold homes off the market again.

For all of California, the median price of single-family houses plunged another 3.0% in November from October, which pushed the price down year-over-year (-0.6%). The median condo price fell 2.1% in November from October, which whittled down the year-over-year gain to just 2.7%.

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A four-bedroom home in a quiet San Francisco neighborhood shocked real estate agents Richard Woo and Holly Phan when it sold for $1 million over its asking price three days after it was listed, KPIX reported Friday.

The home, reportedly located west of Twin Peaks near Mount Davidson, was originally listed for just under $2.5 million but ended up selling for $3.5 million, the agents told KPIX.

“We were all very surprised, because they weren’t just over – they were way over,” Woo said of the offers.

The 2,400 square-foot home is newly updated and boasts a two-car garage, stunning views and close proximity to hiking trails. But Patrick Carlisle, the chief market analyst for Compass, told KPIX the overbid might be part of a growing trend in not only San Francisco but also the Bay Area region at large.

“It’s been one of the most ferocious markets in history this past year,” Carlisle told the outlet, explaining that “limited housing inventory” has resulted in more competition among buyers, which in turn can cause prices to skyrocket. “Though a fair number of new listings have come on the market, they’ve been snatched up faster than ever – maybe at the fastest rate in history. Virtually every segment in the Bay Area has gone bananas.”

While high prices and overbidding have become the norm in the Bay Area real estate market, a home that sold for $1 million above asking in San Francisco is raising eyebrows. https://t.co/GEAzIv7lYG

— KPIX 5 (@KPIXtv) December 11, 2021

And the size of the abode apparently doesn’t matter. Last month, a 328 square-foot cottage in the Seabright neighborhood of Santa Cruz was listed for $988,000 and ultimately swiped up for an all-cash offer of $1 million after multiple bids. The home has just one bedroom and one bathroom — with a converted living space in the garage — but listing agent Walter Stauss said its prime location close to the beach was likely what led to so many offers.

He added that the housing market hasn’t slowed down at all; he’s noticed many Bay Area buyers are keen on coming down to buy primary or secondary homes in Santa Cruz County.

“The work-from-home thing has a bigger effect than anyone anticipated,” Stauss told SFGATE. “Silicon Valley is a huge job market. The fact that people don’t have to commute anymore and can enjoy the Santa Cruz lifestyle is a big deal. I don’t see that changing at all.”

Earlier this year, dozens of people camped overnight on the sidewalk to purchase newly-built townhouses in Santa Clara costing $1.2 million. Vanguard agent Alan Thuma told SFGATE “the market was hot going into spring,” and the trend has been ongoing as many companies delay their plans to return to the office.

According to the most recent data from the California Association of Realtors, sales of homes in San Francisco County have increased by 27.5%, while median home prices have risen by $72,000 in the last month.

SFGATE Local Editor Tessa McLean contributed to this report.

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The House:

100 Flying Mist Isle in Foster City

What makes it unique:

This four-bedroom, three-bathroom house located in the oldest neighborhood of Foster City was a unique sell because of its layout and location, said Compass real estate agent Julie Flouty, who listed the property. Waterfront homes in Foster City are desirable, but the views offered by this custom-build made it even more so. The city, just south of San Francisco International Airport in San Mateo County, is a planned community built in the 1960s by raising and expanding Brewer’s Island, which was created by levees on the salt marshes of San Francisco Bay. The house is at the end of one of the city’s seven cul-de-sac islands along a 6-foot-deep and 212-acre-wide lagoon, which acts as a drainage basin to withstand flooding from storms, said Flouty. This house saw an enormous amount of interest, with one major draw being the beachfront-style deck that leads down to the water, and ample space to watch boats and paddle-boarders ply the waterways, and to view activities at nearby Erckenbrack Park. “Waterfronts are emotional,” said Flouty, who said the home’s positioning at the end of the isle created an aura of relaxation and quiet. “It’s hard to put a price on anything with a view; it’s very subjective to that one individual.” Waterfront locations are desirable, but in some communities, they also present some risk. Foster City was one of the Bay Area regions profiled by the Chronicle last year for its efforts to address sea level rise in years ahead. A $90 million project is currently underway there to build a stronger and taller levee that would keep the sea at bay. It is being financed by residents who were warned that without a new levee they would be forced to buy expensive flood insurance. As with many other regions of the Bay Area, the real estate market in Foster City saw a huge boom in 2020 and 2021, with most homes receiving multiple offers and many properties selling for as much as half a million dollars over asking price, Flouty said . While high mortgage rates and the summer season have slowed things, Flouty said Foster City remains very popular with buyers, particularly families who work in tech around Silicon Valley.

The post This home on a lagoon alongside San Francisco Bay was snapped up for the very best value ever recorded in Foster Metropolis appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

The median price of a home for sale in San Francisco has dropped recently, but it’s up compared to this time last year, according to real estate analyst firm Redfin.

Redfin said the San Francisco median price is $1.488 million, a decline of more than 5% from November to December.

Redfin chief economist Daryl Fairweather said the holidays slow down buying and selling, adding long-term perspective is important.

#New: Bay Area housing prices.
Median home price (change from last year):

San Francisco: $1,475,000 (+10%)

San Jose: $1,300,000 (+23%)

Source: @Redfin

— scott budman (@scottbudman) January 14, 2022

“I wouldn’t read too much into the monthly decline,” Fairweather said. “I think the important thing is that home prices are up 10% from this time last year. That’s the measure that I think reflects how the market is heating up a bit.”

Redfin said, depending on how mortgage interest rates go, it expects that heat to keep going up.

The housing market is sending some mixed messages to those trying to make it in the bay. The latest housing report shows homes may be getting a little more affordable. NBC Bay Area’s Janelle Wang spoke to realtor Lisa Blackwell for some clarity.

The post Median San Francisco Dwelling Value Down Just lately, However Up In comparison with Final Yr – NBC Bay Space appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

The House:

608 Sanchez St in San Francisco

What makes it unique:

Designed by noted Bay Area architect Violeta Autumn, this three-bedroom, multi-level property in San Francisco may look as though it was plucked off a street in nearby Sausalito. Autumn designed her own Sausalito home in a similar “organic architectural” style, a philosophy of design coined by Frank Lloyd Wright that refers to buildings that are integrated with — and often inspired by — their natural surroundings. This home, just steps away from San Francisco’s Mission Dolores Park, seeks to do that with wood paneling and floor-to-ceiling windows that give out onto 360-degree views of the city. The home is the upper unit in a two-condo building, with a unique spiral staircase connecting its floors, multiple fireplaces, and plenty of outdoor and rooftop areas well suited for entertaining. With such unique features, the listing garnered plenty of interest, even though it came during a bit of a lull in the San Francisco real estate market. Even before the recent surge in mortgage rates and stock market pullback, there was a noticeable slowdown in the market beginning in early May, said City Real Estate real estate agent Lily Johnson, who listed 608 Sanchez. “It’s going to be a slow summer for SF,” said Johnson, who added that if agents were used to getting more than 10 offers on properties, they’re now lucky to get just a few. Many buyers now are exhausted by the prospect of bidding wars, and some sellers are being encouraged to pause on listing their properties until the fall. Those dynamics are paving the way for what may be more of a buyer’s market than it has been in some time, at least for a few months. Still, these trends did not keep home shoppers from checking out 608 Sanchez, which saw 200 people come through its first open house and had 45 disclosure packages out.

The post Actual property lull? San Francisco dwelling with views offered for $1.4 million over record worth appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

404 Marietta Drive in the Miraloma neighborhood of SF

What makes it unique:

It was the first time on the market for this four-bedroom, two-bathroom showstopping home, which was custom-built — on the space of what was an empty lot — in 1963 by the same family that had lived in it until it was listed in January. The home, built in a distinctively Mid-Century Modern style, was designed by famed California architect Francis Joseph McCarthy, who specialized in library buildings and designed the Stanford University Library. With separate bedroom wings, walls of glass, and a near-360 degree deck, the unique home isn’t typical for what you might find in Miraloma Park, one of San Francisco’s quieter residential neighborhoods on the southern side of the city. The area has long attracted homeowners for its proximity to transportation, highly-rated schools, and hillside views. But since the pandemic it has seen even more interest, with droves of buyers – many of them priced out of Noe Valley, in particular – buying up property in the neighborhood. Homes are selling quickly and often for asking over price, said Compass real estate agent William Kitchen, who listed the property and has himself lived in the neighborhood for 24 years. Back then, the neighborhood was far more affordable and many of its homeowners were older. Now, the majority of them are young families, Kitchen said, as were the majority of the buyers who came to look at the property. Though, he said, “it was such a unique home that a lot of people just came in because they wanted to see it,” he said. Everything in the home is original from 1963, and every room inside of it has a view (except for the bathrooms). “It looks like it should be in Hollywood,” he said.

The post This San Francisco house is the costliest ever offered in its neighborhood. Are you able to guess the sale worth? appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SUNNYVALE (KPIX) — We’re used to the hot Bay Area real estate market leaving us sticker shocked, but recently a Sunnyvale home’s selling price even caught the listing agent off guard.

“By far the craziest that I’ve ever experienced,” said Rise Homes realtor Joe Polyak.

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The single-family home on Flin Way, which is 1,300 square feet with three bedrooms and two baths, just sold for $823,000 over its original listing price.

Polyak said the home next door recently sold for $2.6 million, and he valued his client’s home at around $2 million.

He was stunned when it sold for $2.68 million dollars.

“I couldn’t ever have imagined that,” Polyak said. “It’s insane.”

He said he received 35 offers on the day he opened it up to bids.

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Gary Shapiro, the lead agent for the Shapiro Group at Keller Williams in Los Gatos, said the cause for skyrocketing Bay Area home prices right now is high demand and low inventory. He believes the strong sellers market will continue into 2022. Shapiro thinks inventory will improve slightly, but it still won’t keep pace with the demand.

“We’re at a point where inventory is at an all-time low that I’ve ever seen and this is my 37th year of full-time real estate in Santa Clara County,” Shapiro said.

He also said Polyak used a common strategy to spark the bidding war frenzy over the Sunnyvale home.

“When we’re in a sellers’ market most agents will recommend asking a low conservative price knowing that the amount of demand will create multiple offers and cause the buyers to bid the price up,” said Shapiro. “I think the agent and seller should be extremely happy with the final sale price for such a small house, absolutely.”

“That is what we did, and that is what we always do is list it a little bit lower,” Polyak said.

He listed the home at $1.83 million knowing it would cause a bidding war, but he never imagined just how high buyers would go.

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“We were not expecting that and neither were the sellers, to a good surprise, obviously,” said Polyak.

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In the notoriously expensive Bay Area housing market, things got even more pricey during the pandemic.

Now, four Bay Area cities have landed on the list of metro areas with the biggest gap between list and sale prices.

According to an analysis from Better Mortgage, an online lender and homeownership platform, San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland and San Rafael have some of the highest average ratios between the list price and the sale price of each home sold. The company looked at Nov 2021 housing data from real estate listings website Redfin, the most recently available figures.

Cities with ratios over 100% represent areas where homes sold for over their list prices. The bigger the number, the greater the gap between the house’s listing and sale prices.

“This isn’t the least bit surprising,” wrote Khadeejah Johnson, head of brokerage for Better Mortgage, in an email. “The Bay Area is home to some of the most competitive housing markets in the country, driven by historically low inventory levels and supply chain issues causing new construction delays and higher costs.”

Johnson said there’s scarcity in the Bay Area, especially in San Francisco and San Jose, where “buyers are competing so fiercely that sales prices are far surpassing listing prices.”

San Francisco came in second on the list, with an average sale-to-list ratio of 108.3% and 70.8% of homes sold over asking price. The median sale price was $1,575 million. The Better Mortgage article explains that the city’s “extremely low housing inventory” stayed tight because when interest rates dropped, “savvy buyers capitalized on the cheaper loans by purchasing real estate in this city.”

San Jose was third on the list, with an average sale-to-list ratio of 107.5%, with 75.8% of homes sold about the list price and a median sale price of $1.4 million. The article explains that a lack of new construction and buyers capitalizing on record low interest rates have led to bidding wars and purchase prices to rise.

Oakland followed very closely behind with an average sale-to-list ratio of 107.3% and 76.7% of homes selling above asking price. The median sale price was unavailable. Better’s article points again to not enough inventory: Oakland’s population grew by 13% in the past decade, but new housing grew by only 5.16%, according to the report.

In eighth place, San Rafael’s average sale-to-list ratio was 104.6%, with 56.4% of homes sold above the asking price and a median home sale price of $1,325 million.

Johnson said the pandemic increased remote and hybrid work models, and low interest rates allowed more people to move out from city centers.

“Not everyone opted to move to Idaho, Colorado, Arizona or Florida,” she said. “Many homebuyers bought in the metro areas surrounding their home markets, such is the case in the Bay Area. The markets there have gotten so competitive over the last couple of years that homebuilders in the Bay Area haven’t been able to keep pace.”

Supply chain issues drove up prices higher, and many home buyers have scrambled to purchase homes while interest rates are still low, Johnson explained, which in turn has driven up the average purchase loan size. And, she said there have been even more second-home buyers on the market, adding to the scarcity.

Just outside the Bay Area, Santa Cruz also landed on the list at number 10, with an average sale-to-list ratio of 103.8%, with 62.5% of homes sold over the asking price, and a median sale price of $1.05 million

Johnson does not think the Bay Area housing market will cool anytime soon.

“Home builders are trying to catch up on a backlog of homes that won’t come close to meeting demand,” she said. “All the while, interest rates will continue to rise over the next couple of years, but homebuyers in the Bay Area will happily pay cash or the higher mortgage payments each month if it means landing the dream home they’ve been waiting years for.

In other words, demand will outstrip supply for the foreseeable future, she explained.

So what should prospective home buyers do in this wildly competitive market? Johnson said it really depends on a person’s financial situation. If someone is able to make a bigger offer to compete against other bids, then paying well over asking price might be the best course of action.

“You never want to try and time the market, so waiting on the sidelines isn’t always the best option either,” she said.

If paying over asking isn’t an option, Johnson recommends “making concessions in your search if you’re really determined to buy sooner than later.” She also said to be flexible with the size and location of a home if you plan to stay for fewer than five to seven years. And if you’re looking for the long-term, “make a higher offer if you can afford to or use a cash offer program.”

Kellie Hwang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kellie.hwang@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KellieHwang

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