Renovated prior to its purchase for $901,000 in April 2005, 130 Newman is back on the market and asking $849,000. The kitchen is the centerpiece of the single-family Bernal home. On the market for $979,000 in August 2008 before being withdrawn that October.
∙ Listing: 130 Newman (2/1) – $849,000 [MLS]
Needs to be sold for $997K to beat inflation. As many have mentioned, lighter nominal drops so far with heavier real drops, which is how many housing busts work through the system. As someone mentioned, it certainly worked that way in SF from 1990 to 1996 (around a 11% nominal drop on Case-Shiller, but inflation was 20% during that time).
I think it’ll move quickly at that price.
Hellooo Jerry!
Nice kitchen
The kitchen cabinetry will sell the house on its own. Seriously, I have clients who are really interested in this property.
Just curious….does the crawl space/play room in the attic count towards square footage?
What’s with this kitchen trend to have NO upper cabinets…I’ll give this one a C+…needs more storage above the counter…open shelves are so staged…
are people really stlll paying $700/sq ft for bernal? If so, i am amazed that a C level neighborhood is holding that kind of price.
I don’t know that Bernal ever got to 700 a foot in the first place. This property is probably larger than what the tax records show.
$700/SF is not unusual, depending where in Bernal, downtown views or no, condition, and total square footage. $700/sq foot can mean downtown view houses in north Bernal in the $1-1.5 million range, or sometimes smaller remodeled houses on the west slope or north of Cortland going for, say $850k for 1200 SF.
And Spencer, of course, “A,” “B,” and “C” neighborhoods are in the eye of the beholder. If the criterion is home price, there have always been houses in Bernal that sell for more than do some condos in Pac Heights. fI the criterion is people, for one person, the “A” crowd is at Matrix; the next person might think that crowd is a bunch of douches to be avoided like the plague.
I guess so, and point taken about smaller properties skewing higher. But I’d put Bernal at more like high 600s for the best, finished stuff. You might be surprised to learn that there have only been four 1.5M and higher sales, and only 13 1.4M and higher sales. I sort of was. So 1 to 1.5 can represent a pretty stark difference in quality over here.
I know what you guys were going for on the headline for this posting, but I think it would have worked better if you had gone with:
“Heeeelloooooo Newman!”
Just a suggestion…:-)
“are people really stlll paying $700/sq ft for bernal? If so, i am amazed that a C level neighborhood is holding that kind of price.”
Good jobs are in the south bay. Noe Valley is only so big so people with money are moving to Glen Park and Bernal. Where else are you going to get a single family home with this sort of access that isn’t in the ghetto?
Its amazing to me too.
When I was a kid this would have been considered absurd. There were literal hillbillies/Bikers living in both Glen Park and Bernal. Now people pay 800K for a house in the lower Mission
Milbrae, Burlingame and parts of San Mateo are crazy expensive now for the same reason.
Seems you pay less now to live in the northen parts of SF and the northen parts of Marin
Its all about family-possible areas with access
Bernal is very close to South San Francisco biotech, as well as a shorter commute to Silicon Valley.
Is San Jose/South Pennisula that bad that people all want to cram into Bernal Heights?
Makes you wonder about our zoning as the market seems to be be telling us there are more people who want to live in family friendly transit accessible dense neighborhoods than exist.
One look at the dumpy little commercial strip in Bernal or the prices in Glen Park seems to confirm this
Friends who live in SF may get jobs on the Peninsula, but their social networks remain in the city. Those who have kids and simultaneously move to the suburbs tend to disappear from old social networks (perhaps making new ones with fellow suburban families). Many choose to move to the suburbs sooner or later, but whether staying in a too-small Bernal cottage or moving away from their friends, people make sacrifices.
Re: @Zig – “dumpy little commercial strip in Bernal”
I don’t love Bernal, but I really like the “dumpy commercial strip” that is Cortland Ave. People live in the city rather than Millbrae so they can walk to places like Liberty Cafe rather than drive to the Safeway complex that might have some old crappy diner next to a Starbucks. I heard a story on NPR that called this the Seinfeld effect (ironic on a Seinfeld tinged post). People who grew up watching Seinfeld want to live in an urban community where you can walk to your hangout place (and devise any number of schemes that will ultimately fail hilarously).
Evan, I think you missed my point but it is wrong to think there aren’t good restaurants and services to walk to in Millbrae or San Mateo or Burlingame if you live in the right part. In fact these three I would think have more to offer for a family. All three towns were originally built along the Southern Pacific line.
My point really was only these places (including Bernal which I think has a pretty weak commercial strip) are at a premium
It was more a commentary on our poor city planning
“Is San Jose/South Pennisula that bad that people all want to cram into Bernal Heights?”
It depends on what you think is “bad”. Clearly most of the 1.8M people who live in Santa Clara Co. don’t consider it a bad place to live. But if you’re looking for a walkable experience then only about 15% of the housing stock can provide that (the various “downtowns” are quite walkable and full of many coffee houses and Seinfeld cafes). And if you want urban, downtown SJ is the closest facsimile but a long way off from SF.
Downtown SJ is still struggling to deliver an urban experience though the most recent attempt (started at about 2000) has gone a long way to reverse Dutch Hamann’s efforts to turn San Jose into automobile utopia while destroying the walkable community.
I’d say that downtown SJ has at least another decade to go, and that is stalled right now with the new high rises not selling out. So the SE SF neighborhoods will continue to look attractive to those who want an urban feeling.
This property is probably larger than what the tax records show.
I’m not so sure about that, but the downstairs has a very anonn/sparky-b value fixer vibe to it (in its pre-remodel state circa 2002). Wondering why the remodellers just didn’t go for it and annex the downstairs (over on this side of the bay, I’m pretty sure, you can add on ‘by right’ if the ceiling is over 6 feet tall…). Well, it did cost them $675k in 2002.
I wonder how much fashion and generational trends have to do with Bernal Fascination? My parents would love Menlo Park, but hate Bernal. My father always chose a home for how close it was to his office and to good schools to raise a family. Because of that generations choices, for years Menlo was more expensive than Noe, now the opposite is true.
It seems the present generation of buyers would rather commute 1 hour each direction and pay for private schools, all so that they can claim to have an “urban experience”. My brother looked at condos off University Avenue in Palo Alto so that he could be within “walking distance” to his office, but being 32 years old, chose to live in the city and drives to work 3 days a week (2 days he works from home). I think it all comes down to some fashionable choice in that there is just as much density on University Avenue as 24th street, but it is more hip to deal with city problems and waste resources commuting long distances to workplaces I guess?
ebgUY,
What is that quote?
Bad formating,(the only italics should be):
anonn said: This property is probably larger than what the tax records show.
sparky-b: Does it look feasible to dig out another foot or two downstairs? Obviously they should have done that it 2002…
You could dig it out, new foundations, windows, drains, etc. Of course you also need stairs and a place for those to go on the main floor.
I completely agree about the upper cabinets – it looks bizarre and is such a waste of space.
“I wonder how much fashion and generational trends have to do with Bernal Fascination?”
I think that is part of it– more people today prefer to live in the city than decades ago– but I think social patterns, e.g., where circles of friends are and where they socialize– are one reason why. Single (and many coupled) people want to be near their friends. People who’ve lived in SF are more likely to have a critical mass of friends in San Francisco than near any one employer in suburbia.
Couples often work in different parts of the Bay Area. People don’t work at one company for as long as they once did. So moving out of the city to be near any one suburban employer doesn’t make as much sense.
Re: @Zig – “dumpy little commercial strip in Bernal”:
Cortland Street has some interesting new offerings:
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/foodie/2009/11/bernal_heights_food_marketplac.php
http://www.tablehopper.com/chatterbox/ichis-lucky-cat-deli-the-latest-to-join-the-bernal-marketplace/
http://sandboxbakerysf.com/
Bring out the pole…
That was fast. In contract in 7 days.
I’ll give this one a C+…needs more storage above the counter…
I’ll bite. How would noearch have handled the window in corner; in this case, I think no upper cabinets may have been warranted.
Slide the range and hood to the right a bit and put an upper on either side, add a deep upper cabinet with appliance garage on the right of the frig. (over the DW). Those 3 uppers would do wonders for the storage.
, for years Menlo was more expensive than Noe, now the opposite is true.
They are about the same price now, at least according to Redfin.