Purchased for $1,419,478 in April of 2016, a price which didn’t include a storage unit in the building which was purchased separately and was included in its most recent sale, the re-sale of the “rarely available top floor plaza unit” #C8H at 333 Beale Street, a 985-square-foot, one-bedroom LUMINA condo with 12-foot ceilings, two full baths, a private balcony, a den and parking, has just closed escrow with a contract price of $1,375,000.

Listed for $1,599,000 in 2018, reduced six times, down to $1,399,000 in late 2019, and then relisted anew for $1,399,000 this past April, the sale was officially “within 2 percent of asking” and with “only 38 days on the market” according to all industry stats and aggregate reports, but “at a loss,” as had been advertised.

The index for Bay Area (“San Francisco”) condo values was up 12.5 percent over the same period of time.

22 thoughts on “Another Luxury Condo Trades at a Loss, As Advertised”
  1. I don’t know. Photographs may be unfair, but these space seem odd, narrow, and claustrophobic?

    1. I find the photos to be realistic. At least they didn’t distort and stretch the photos as is often done with smaller spaces.

      Twelve foot ceilings can do a lot to offset any cramped feeling. That’s hard to capture in a photo, you have to visit the place in person.

        1. You may have noticed a McMansion trend with double height entry foyers. They’re intended to give arrivals a sense of grandeur, but the proportions are just so wrong. The floorplate is too small, resulting in a tall, awkward column of airspace. I call that space above the “chain room” because its sole occupant is the chain suspending the chandelier. Nobody spends time there and nobody is impressed. What a waste.

          The chain room will give future remodelers an opportunity to reclaim that unused space. Ditch the chandelier, construct a new floor deck, and now you’ve got a new room on the second floor which usually even has a nice window looking out over the front door.

    2. It’s is usually recommend that rooms be slightly rectangular in shape (WxW+2′ being one formula); perhaps trying to squeeze rooms into a basically rectangular space results in what one sees here.

      The posts two years ago were largely concerned with whether/not 12 foot ceilings were a folly in spaces such as these…perhaps we can just merge the two thought streams together into “ill proportioned”.

    3. Agreed. Narrow and dark. I imagine the end units, with windows on two sides, are much more pleasant.

  2. IMO, the only thing “luxury” about that unit is the 12-foot ceilings. Don’t really understand the value proposition of units like this at this price. I’m guessing the HOAs are approaching $1,000/month.

    1. RedFin reports that the HOA dues for 333 Beale St Unit C8H are $1,174 per month. Which is not unreasonable for a unit of this kind.

  3. for these custom built-in appliance, the refrigerator in particular – how much extra work or demolition is involved when the fridge is old and you need to buy a new one?

    1. Not all that much. They are not bolted in, and the front panels are made to be removable. Just swap one built-in for another, and re-attach the front panel.

      1. thanks for that insight. i just wanted to check that the multiple appliances & counters weren’t a single integrated ensemble, if i were to get myself into one like this.

  4. I’m actually surprised at the 1.375M price point. Thought it would have fallen even lower in spite of the additional storage. A strong sale overall. The biggest selling point of this unit is being on the top floor. Maybe this is a cashed up buyer that needs to park money with little or no maintenance. Downtown will come back over the long term…

  5. Does anyone realize that these “new” condo are now under eviction control as well? City expanded rent control law to include all the previously-excluded post-1979 buildings

  6. May I know why this small 1 bedroom + is categorized as “luxury”? What aspect of this apartment is luxurious?

    1. The price. “Luxury” as a real estate industry term is just a lazy shorthand for anything that with a price that places the property in the top 10% of the prices for that segment.

      Of course, I am not a real estate agent, but few real estate agents will own up to that publicly, so you heard it from a layman.

  7. Condos costing more than $2M in SF have had their best three months ever in terms of units sold. It’s great to see the comeback in condos.

      1. Condo values are down from pre-pandemic, yes, but I believe they are up quite a bit from the Nov-March bottoming out and quite close to where they had been choppy for a few years.

        Many were wondering whether the typical Spring Bump would happen at all or whether condos would continue to decline. The fact that a Spring Bump happened at all is huge for the trajectory.

        1. Don’t confuse a change in the median sale price with a change in values, particularly when the share of condo sales “costing more than $2M in SF” has increased.

          And of course, the jump in sales is also indicative of a record number of people having sold, including those who have done so despite having to record a loss.

          All that being said, the trends in rents and inventory levels are key.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *