Purchased for $1.75 million in October of 2014, the “modern and sleek” unit #5 in The Silver Building, a full-floor loft conversion with exposed beams, eleven foot ceilings, high-end finishes and air conditioning at 10 Mint Plaza, a Mid-Market location a few blocks from Twitter, returned to the market listed for $1.75 million this past July.

After three months on the market, the asking price for the 1,559-square-foot, two-bedroom unit has been reduced to $1.65 million, a sale at which would now be recorded “at asking” according to all industry stats and reports. And having been relisted anew three weeks ago, a sale today would be counted as having occurred within “21 days of being on the market” according to all industry stats and aggregate reports as well.

Unit #1 in the building, which was purchased for $1.5 million in 2014, resold for a $1.425 million last year, down 5 percent on an apples-to-apples basis, as we reported at the time.

37 thoughts on “Modern Mid-Market Loft Now Listed Below its 2014 Price”
  1. Yeah well how bad is the 24 hour homeless problem in that neighborhood and this is probably why the plaza facing business attempts aren’t doing that well either.

      1. Well that much larger restaurant space at 10 Mint has been vacant for a long time and then in reading the Yelp reviews for the Mint Plaza area from what people say who are purported to have lived in the building it doesn’t sound all that attractive.

        1. The owner of Burma Supestar is opening a new restaurant at that vacant lot you describe. As for the “plaza facing business attempts aren’t doing that well either” comment. Mint 54 has been there for over 10 years. SF Fire Credit Union has been there for over 10 years. Blue Bottle Cafe is open 7 days a week and has a line out the door everday. Lastly, as was mentioned, Sushi Hashiri is a Michelin star restaurant. Maybe do a little research before concluding an outcome you have no data on.

    1. Short of an enclosure surrounding the refrigerator on the peninsula, it’s the only esthetic location to put it in MHO.

  2. Homelessness does not deter business or their patronage. We can always hold our nose for the 10 seconds it takes from an Uber to the restaurant front door, once every couple of months. It does give pause to potential home-buyers though.

          1. You mean somebody purchased it and a bank was willing to lend them the money; perhaps it was affordable to them as well in which case a small price reduction shouldn’t make them break a sweat. When the market is going up and up some people tend to get in over their head, elsewhere and in SF.

          2. Well one thing that has changed since 2014 is the tax incentives to buy this and the interest rate on any mortgage. Interest expense deduction is now capped at the interest on a $750,000 mortgage, the property taxes are going to exceed the limit on the SALT deduction (which also means none of their state income tax is going to be deductible), plus the interest rate on the mortgage has gone up between a half a percent and a percent since 2014 (depending on month). So, objectively, the affordability of this place has become more of an issue today than it was in 2014.

      1. “Yes, it must be the homeless which are suddenly depressing property values right here. ”

        Totally. And we should note that there were no homeless people anywhere near this project when it was repurposed from sweatshops to luxury lofts. It’s as if the homeless hordes descended on this block (if not the city itself) specifically just to mess with property values.There is no other possible explanation.

        1. Not only were there no homeless people before this building was turned into condos, there were no winos/ drunks passed out on the sidewalks that historically called 5th and Mission home for decades.

          1. Indeed. Fifth and Mission and surrounding blocks have been the center of SF’s skid row for decades. Homeless, drug addicts, alcoholics and other indigent people have made this area “home” for a long, long time. It is one reason that St. Anthony’s Kitchen/Foundation is in the area and has been for decades. To serve the indigent poor of the surrounding area.

            Along with mid-Market this area has been depressed for decades and attempts have been made to revitalize it. All have pretty much failed. Including the most recent which came along with the tech boom of recent years. This project was one expected to kick-start the area (finally) and includes developments as “far away” as NEMA. Not surprisingly, the depressed nature of the area remains pretty much unchanged. Some may mean it is worse since projects like this one, but to claim that this type of project precipitated what has always been is ridiculous.

    1. Oddly enough, in that neighborhood, you really DON’T want a window in your bedroom, because you’d be listening to the homeless fight all night long. I had a friend who rented at Mint Plaza and they said it was every night. Couldn’t wait to move out as soon as their lease was up.

      My favorite features of this home are the prison sink in the last photo and the prison door in the middle photo.

  3. Not an out-of-the-norm drop for a newish condo. 6% over 4 years. In fact, given the seedy area this remains, probably a “reasonable” loss if they get the 1.65 million. Looking at this unit and having been in the area a few months back it’s like 1.65 million!! Really! Only in SF – and those days are coming to an end. The recently featured Infinity unit is done percentage-wise a bit more than this since it’s 2014 sale. Again all in the ballpark and to be expected for the near and medium term. Not huge drops – just a very modest pullback which does nothing significant for SF’s affordability.

    Bottom line, will this unit get 1.65 Million? I’d guess not for several reasons. The area remains stagnant in terms of not seeing an improved sidewalk environment. I sure would not walk these streets at night. The other factor is the fading promise of Hub 2.0 ever really seeing the light of day. Two major residential projects have been abandoned in the past 6 months within blocks of this location. 5M looks like it is on hold. Suggestion to the seller, if they get an offer approaching 1.65 million take it. And don’t look back.

  4. “The area remains stagnant in terms of not seeing an improved sidewalk environment”

    Who knew that policies that have pushed levels of economic inequality past those of the Great Depression would make gentrification problematic in neighborhoods that have been home to lower-income classes for well over a century? Why can’t poor people just go away and die, and leave our property values alone?

    1. “…inequality past those of the Great Depression”

      Yes, the great depression was mere child’s play with the millions of people starving because of rampant unemployment and Rockefeller and friends didn’t have much more… it was much better than today’s unemployment rate around 3%. Homelessness is a serious problem for those that live on the street but not an unsurmountable problem.

    1. The graph you linked does show that the inequality reached similar levels around 2006. However the Obama administration kept the country out of a depression the scale of the one in the thirties and implying that today’s conditions are anywhere close to the thirties is insane, even if you can find one measure that is similar. Perhaps you haven’t been blessed with a family member that described to you what the thirties were like – first hand stories always leave a bigger mark.

      1. It sounds like you inferred that I think somehow we are in conditions similar to the Great Depression, which was obviously pretty terrible. I was not implying that (nor do I think two beers was). Massive income inequality is a problem in itself, and also a signal of economic inefficiency that, combined with other factors, can presage economic disaster.

        1. I agree on that – great income inequality does not serve a purpose for society as a whole; nobody is that talented and indispensable that they need a net worth in the billions or hundreds of millions… not sure what the limit is.

          Anyway, those aren’t the types that would buy this condo and if the people on the street can’t make a living when we have historically low unemployment rates, they probably couldn’t make it in any economy – some need serious mental health treatment whereas others are stuck in drug addiction.

      2. No, Obama’s actions did not save the day, they actually paved the way for Trump… because I guarantee you if he and Holder had sent a few bankers to jail (and the hundreds of billions in bank fines would imply that there was indeed quite a bit of wrongdoing) public resentment towards the establishment would not be what it is today.

        Anyways I’d be less worried about the 1930s and more worried about the recent 33% drop in Facebook shares. Someone on this forum keeps saying he won’t be worried until Facebook something something. I’ll bet quite a few folks in the Bay Area are feeling less wealthy over the past month.

        1. ‘Gee Ess’ didn’t actually say he “saved the day”; s/he said “(his) administration kept the country out of a depression the scale of the one in the thirties”, which is objectively true since we didn’t have one. (Whether they merely delayed one is an interesting topic, but maybe a little beyond a thread about a condo in SoMa..ya think?)

          But how they (allegedly) did it – by flooding us with cheap money for a decade – has a lot to do with this condo – not specifically, but just generally – and the ‘unwinding’ of such should probably join the Worry Parade for which facebook’s share price is serving as the Grad Marshall.

  5. When the editor posted about this property back in July of last year, I wrote:

    With an HOA Fee of $1,426.47 monthly, the buyer has to trust that the building’s management is doing lots of power washing outside to minimize the disgustingness.

    Well, the HOA dues are now up to $1,523 per month, an increase of over 6.5% in a little over a year. If the sidewalk environment is not improved, it’s certainly not because the HOA doesn’t have the money to devote to improving it.

  6. It’s remarkable that someone would pay over a million to basically live on the set of the walking dead every time you step outside.

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