Everybody knows the refrain: Real estate in this town is crazy! Here's your latest exasperating evidence: A two-bedroom condo that first sold in late April for just under $1.2 million, in the new Linea complex on Market Street in Safeway Heights, has just been put up for sale again — two and a half months later — for $1.375 million. As SFGate's On the Block blog notes, the unit does not yet have a buyer, so we can't yet conclude that a unit in this market can appreciate that much, that quickly. But somebody's agent obviously thinks it can!
Clocking in at 1,043 square feet, that would make this a $1,318/sf deal. As Trulia shows us, average per-square-foot prices have been on a steady climb in S.F. since 2012, with two-bedrooms now averaging $897/sf. As of this month, $863/sf is the average going price for all sizes of units. That's a 60% jump from January 2012, when the average was around $540/sf.
Therefore, that unit in the Linea — which is supposed to have a nice view — had better have pretty fantastic views to be 47% more expensive than the average two-bedroom right now, on a per-square-foot basis. Sure, it's also well located, with proximity to the Mission, Castro, and Hayes Valley and easy Muni access, but dear god.
Sidenote: The Linea is diagonally across the intersection from that new rental development, 38 Dolores, where that three-bedroom was renting for $8,100 as of last October. It looks like one of those units, a.k.a. Floor Plan 13, is available right now for $8,700.
Congratulations to anyone with the capital and means to have entered the local real estate market before all this happened, because you're sitting pretty on a nice retirement fund.
Update: A real-estate friend points out that the seller in this case might just be trying to get out of a regrettable purchase by breaking even, after transfer taxes, broker commissions, etc. We'll see if they get that price.
