That Rare Thing: A San Francisco Demolition

Listed at $885,000 in November 2008,  this little Noe Valley fixer at 4209 24th Street sold for $896,000 in 31 days.

Two and half years later, the owners finally got their demolition permit.  It only took a few hours for the little box of ticky-tacky to come a-tumblin’ down.  Here’s what it looked like.

Noe Valley Back Smartly in 2010

Author: Jack French -- Used under Creative Commons Permission 2.0

After nearly two years of sharp declines, Noe Valley single family home prices recovered smartly in 2010.  Not enough, however, for anyone to claim that Noe Valley is somehow immune from market forces affecting the rest of San Francisco.  As of December 2010, Noe Valley home prices were still down 20% from their all-time highs, almost exactly the same as prices for homes city-wide.

Here’s the chart (double click):

What’s A Better Value in San Francisco, A Condo or a Home? (Part 2)

In my last post, I included a chart that showed both single family homes and condos stuck in relatively narrow price ranges over the last 18 months or so.  At the end of 2010 the median price of a single family home ($744,000) was about $80,000 more than that for a condo/TIC.

But that doesn’t tell us anything about “value.”  Now, let me count the ways we could argue about what “value” means, but I think we’d agree that how each property type has weathered the market battering over the last few years has to be relevant.   Take a look at this table: ...  Additional Details

Surprise! Condos are Holding Up Better Than Homes

For the quarter century (gulp!) that I’ve been involved in real estate, the conventional wisdom has always been that condo values generally do worse in down markets than homes.  Why?  To be honest, I’m not sure, but I think it’s because it’s easier to overbuild the condo market than the single family home market.  It goes back to that famous quote:  “Buy land – they aren’t making any more of it.”  Just take a look at Miami, Chicago – or downtown San Francisco.  One new high-rise can hold hundreds of condos in the sky.  Try building just one new home in SF, let alone hundreds – it aint happening.Of course, more supply  + less demand in a down market means prices fall.  Has that been the case in San Francisco? ...  Additional Details