Results tagged “realestate”

Stranger things have happened, but we sort of doubt these rumors about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes having maybe possibly been the top secret buyers of one of the most expensive properties in San Francisco, 300 Sea Cliff Ave., which recently sold for $18 million.

The second phase of the Hunters Point Shipyard Redevelopment Plan was released yesterday by Lennar Corporation. If approved by the City's Redevelopment Agency next Tuesday, the second phase will add 159 townhomes and flats (and a bocce ball court, because you know, we're worldly and Euro-sophisticated here in San Fran-Cisco!) to the 88 townhomes that will be built during the first phase, starting early next year.

The fine folks over at Curbed reported yesterday that Twitter co-founder Evan Williams (heretofore known as @ev) sold his SOMA penthouse (going for a scant $1,498,000) on Fourth Street. You know, that large megaplex across the street from K&L Wine Merchants? That one. Anyway, Williams bought a fancy new Victorian in Noe Valley. Charming! This comes on the heels of his partner, @biz, selling his own pad for fancier grounds. What's this mean? It means Twitter is doing well. Very well. (Can you give us some money, Evan? Oh, just kidding. Sort of.)

While some Valencia Street merchants and Geary Boulevard business owners would have you believe that San Francisco is a bastion of overpriced boutique stores and inaccessibility, respectively, most of you are too smart to believe such tripe. A city is, arguably, meant to grow. Onward and upward, right? Right.

Curbed featured this photo montage sent in by reader Ben of storefronts that are empty or for lease along Union Street from Gough to Fillmore. Check out the larger version.

The man who has spent his local political career championing the rights of the Tenderloin poor, the SRO-dwelling, and the owners of property more likely to be made of cardboard than of concrete, Supervisor Chris Daly is facing further scrutiny by the SF Appeal and Chron yet being defended by the Weekly this week -- all relating to the recent revelation of the purchase of not one but two homes in Fairfield, far afield of the district Daly represents. This of course follows on much e-ink already spilt and spread around in the past week on this subject, which is obvious fodder for Daly's detractors and brings forth a flood of eager defenders.

Friday's the deadline for the last (Grand Prize) drawing of the San Francisco Dream House Raffle, which benefits Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Buy a $150 ticket, and you could win a $2.4 million Dream House in the Sunset or $1.8 million in cash. Most people would be smart to take the cash, unless they can afford the huge taxes on the house. Or, if they already own a less dream-worthy house, they could sell it to pay the taxes, or something. Either way, your $150 benefits a great cause. The final, Grand Prize drawing takes place July 25.

Adding to CitiApartments constant woes, SFAppeal has word that the troubled real estate company has been inundated with complaints from tenants, accusing them of refusing to refund security deposits. Habitually, it seems. Ted Gullicksen of the Tenants Union says that they have "been getting '3 or 4 complaints a week" on this issue.'" What's more this withholding of funds, if true, is illegal. Which in turn Which in turn, well, sounds kind of sleazy on CitiApartments's end. (Not that they've technically done anything technically illegal. Technically.) According to Appeal, "Craigslist's terms of use declares that 'all postings...are the sole responsibility of the person from whom such Content originated.' Pretty standard TOU stuff -- but their section 7 (Conduct) states 'You agree not to post...Content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive...' [going on to say] 'If you post Content in violation of the TOU...you agree to pay craigslist one hundred dollars ($100).'" Since CitiApartments' craigslist advertisements demand security deposits, one that "that they seem to know will not be returned would constitute a violation of [Craigslist's] TOU'" a new meme has been born. Appeal goes on to explain, "You know -- and we're certainly not advocating this, just, you know, pointing it out -- if a person really wanted to push back against whatever it is that CitiApartments is doing, they could pretty easily twist the knife a bit on Cragistlist, simply by flagging every single CitiApartments listing. (Someone we know just tried this, and says it's very fun.) Then keep an eye on them." Read more about it.

It seems real estate construction types are finally -- finally! -- realizing in 2009 that no one can afford their mindnumbingly thoughtless, albeit impressive and mildly erotic, InfinityBeaconOneRinconBLŪ luxury towers. San Francisco Business Times has more, but here's a frank, death-of-fun quote from one of those coalition, do-gooder types. AHem:

by Ted Weinstein

Ready to throw down money for a place in San Francisco to (finally!) call home? Well, for mere pennies (i.e., $189,000) you can own this downtown micro-condo. This hypercozy 441 square foot studio, located at 333 Grant Avenue, #405, is smack-dab on the border of Union Square and the Financial District. While this pad looks perfect for, say, a blogger with a feline fetish and little belongs, it is pretty small. Cubix small, maybe. But seeing as how the place went for $234,000 back in November of 2004, reports Curbed, it looks like the steal with this pricetag. Especially with such a choice location, and a pad featuring exposed brick and a washer and dryer. Check out even more shots of the small space, and judge for yourself.

       

As already mentioned by SFist Chron favorite Leah Garchik, Mayor Gavin Newsom and Jennifer Siebel plan to buy designer Candace Barnes' house. And according to On the Block, it's probably this house, circa 1915, at 1581 Masonic Avenue.

Sleep easy, San Francisco. Mayor Gavin Newsom has, at last, sold his Russian Hill bachelor pad. On the market for over a month, the spacious and too tastefully decorated penthouse condo, if you recall, had trouble finding a buyer. Today, the apartment is in escrow. While the asking price was a cool $2.995 million, the sales price has yet to be revealed. Anyway, congrats, unidentified buyer. Also, all together now: oh, if those walls could talk.

The Jackling House, built by California architect George Washington Smith in 1926 for mining guru Daniel C. Jackling, will be taken off of life support. Yesterday, the Woodside City Council decided, after years of fighting over the issue, that the 17,300 square-feet Woodside mansion can be torn down by its current owner, Steve Jobs.

A month after being on the market -- with an initial asking price of $3,200,000 -- Mayor Gavin Newsom's penthouse condo at 1101 Green Street #2001 has plummeted in price. According to SocketSite, the asking price for his 1,693 square foot one-bedroom bachelor pad has been reduced to a mere $2,995,000.

If you're not reading Curbed, you're missing out. On a lot. Take, for example, this Bernal Heights home (638 Banks St Unit 638-A) they came across, which is currently on the market. The decision to use this, um, decorative comforter to sell a house in San Francisco sure does pop, doesn't it?

A Glen Park home recently received an award for being so stunning, as well as its own article in the Wall Street Journal. The American Institute of Architects Housing Award, which is handed out annual to outstanding residential designs, bestowed local architect James Zack and Lisa de Vito with one of this year's big prize. The house, located on Laidley Street, was described by WSJ as such: "From the street, its four light-gray cubes, neon-green door and huge, perfectly square front window all look as if they could have been assembled from massive pieces of Lego. Inside, a three-story translucent staircase made of acrylic filters sun from the skylight up top to the basement below ground. Virtually every room of the 3,000-square-foot home has large windows displaying views of the city so vast they're sometimes harrowing." Gorgeous.

According to a recent report, "[t]he vacancy rate for U.S. apartments hit a three-year high in the first quarter and asking rents dropped the most in at least 10 years." And no where is that more felt than in San Francisco. This quarter, San Francisco/Bay Area saw, where the "biggest effective rent drop in the country," plummeting from 2.8 percent to $1,775. What's more, according to Curbed, rent rates have not yet seen bottom. (An aside: any choice studio availabilities for under $1,000 on Sutter Street, or in Hayes Valley or Glen Park should be sent here.) Also, is anyone calling Blu, Cubix, or one of those huge boxes in Mission Bay home? Seems like a good time to snatch those up.

According to yesterday's article in the Examiner, rent prices are dropping. Plummeting by "$200 citywide," says one broker. Fantastic news, right? Not according to blog de revolución BeyondChron, who thinks prices are still too high. Which: true. (Curbed mercifully filters down the BC article here.) But we can't imagine prices coming down to a reasonable price any time soon, especially for those of us living on a single income who don't string together zeros and ones for a living. In related news, ultra-compact green complex Cubix is slashing prices on those boxes they call apartments (think efficiency studio, only cozier), and One Rincon Hill could use a little ($4,500+) love too.

by Lisa Hix

Now that few can afford to buy, well, anything, what will happened to the promised Mission Bay/South Beach lifestyle? Much like Rincon Hill, We hear vacancies abound over there.

That seldom-visited, pointy restaurant at the corner of Market, Sanchez, and 15th streets, Thai House, looks like it might become a "50-foot-tall mixed-use building with ground-floor commercial, 22 residential units, and underground parking." Sure, it's all still under discussion, but it looks like the place you rarely went to eat will turn into yet another place you will rarely frequent. Progress!

    

Found over at It's Lovely! I'll Take It (via redfin), check out the sweet Noe Valley pad you can call your own for a cool $738,000. Mention you were raped and murdered inside the house in a previous life, and get a 10% discount off of your first mortgage payment.

Looking at our monitor through a wall of tears, the following info is difficult for us to report. According to Curbed, it has been confirmed that "the second tower of the Rincon Hill development has been cancelled for the foreseeable future." With vacancies still inexplicably open at the tallest apartment building west of the Mississippi River, One Rincon Hill; our economy in the bidet; and the cost of housing getting higher by the hour, developers have pulled out. Oh, and not only has development in Rincon Hill be drastically reduced, but at other locales across the Bay Area as well.

Despite the fact that penetrating tower after penetrating tower continues to sprout up across SoMa, downtown, and Rincon Hill, San Francisco rent prices are still skyrocketing. According to SF Business Times, [a]sking rents in San Francisco have shot up 6.3 percent since the third quarter of 2007 to an average of $1,827 a month," climbing higher than every U.S. city save for Seattle and Tacoma. Also, except for New York City, the average monthly rent most of you throw away for your charming abode is higher here than anywhere else. No surprise there. This all comes on the heels of three new rental units popping up -- Trinity Properties' 1,900-unit development at 1169 Market St.; Avalon Bay’s 260-unit project at 355 King St.; and Urban Housing Group’s 192-unit project at 555 Mission Rock Blvd -- which most of you, let's assume, just won't be able to afford. (SF Biz Times, via Curbed)

Home to Seabiscuit wins, San Mateo's Bay Meadows, held its final race on Sunday. Over 10,000 people showed up to the South Bay not-San Francisco Thoroughbred gambling hotspot to bid it adieu. The 74-year-old track, according to CBS 5, is scheduled for demolition to "make way for a development project that includes 83 acres of housing, office, and retail space." (Bah.) To find out now what to do with your hard-earned money, go here and here.

One Rincon Hill - the tallest apartment building west of the Mississippi, or however its tag line goes - has been open and ready for business for some time now. It should come as no surprise to regular readers of SFist that we are very envious of its inhabitants, people who are ten times better than you.

We live just up the street from Haight and Stanyan, and the other day someone dropped off a flyer about how Whole Foods is eager to transform the former Cala Foods (now a vacant lot and boarded-up deathtrap) into a pleasant, overpriced gourmet food store with apartments on top. The design of the flyer reminded us of some incomprehensible posters that appeared briefly in the neighborhood two years ago -- could D.B.H. be back? (Hint: Probably not.)

Barf. San Francisco makes yet another one those vile quality-of-life top-ten lists. This time, it seems, we come in at No. 8 as one of the Best Places to Buy a Home, at least according to . What? Anyway, the article goes on to claim that "[w]hile housing certainly isn't cheap in the City by the Bay, it is definitely in demand and continues to appreciate. For a buyer, San Francisco offers a culturally rich and beautiful city that is chock full of opportunity." Again, barf. Second verse same as the first: not many can afford to buy here. And with strange, foreign, mythical lands making the same list -- Charlotte, N.C.? Jacksonville, Fla.? St. Louis, Mo.? -- what Forbes editor allowed San Francisco on this list? Frustrating. (via Curbed)

Wait, really?