Asking $1,950,000 in September 2006, the three-bedroom condo atop 255 Berry Street known as #610 was purchased by former San Francisco Giants #35 Rich Aurilia for $1,750,000 in January 2007. Obviously he didn’t overpay.
Then again the 2,293 square foot condo with a 700 square foot-ish terrace overlooking the creek is back on the market today and asking $1,650,500. And yes, the condo was also listed from September to December last year at $1,750,000, albeit a bit more quietly that time around.
∙ Listing: 255 Berry #610 (3/2.5) 2,293 sqft – $1,650,500 [MLS]
∙ 255 Berry: Seven Percent Active [SocketSite]
For $1.65 million, I would really rather a kitchen with ventilation, and not a house where the entire living room smelled like whatever I was making for dinner.
I guess high-end condo now means people who don’t cook.
And I’m not 100% sold on all those neighbors having windows onto my penthouse patio… Did I see that correctly?
I’m going to guess that this goes for far less – maybe 1.3 or 1.4;
UBS holds the first (and, from what I can tell, a second as well). Love to know what he put down; will he hang in there and get a base on balls (otherwise known as a ‘walk’).
Here we go again prying into some guys poor real estaste investment. This guy’s probably working for a lot less money than he used get at some desk job. I just hope it’s not his whole life savings up in smoke.
The kitchen thing seems to be driven by women participating in the buy decision and refusing to be sequestered apart from everyone else. There also seems to be a general notion that the party tends to end up in the kitchen, so that becomes another reason to open it up and not be shy. Cooking smells indicate when you are supposed to saunter over and huff the fixings.
spary-b – did you read the bit about Rich Aurilia
not exactly some ‘poor guy’
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/profile?playerId=3362
Polip, he/she was joking.
Obviously sparky-b’s post is tongue-in-cheek.
However, one should never underestimate the ability of pro athletes to foolishly burn through (or get swindled out of) millions of dollars. I’ve read and seen some reports over the years (and have been acquainted with a few examples), and the percentage of athletes who squander their millions is astounding.
And, it’s not just athletes from the underclasses, as former Stanford star John Elway recently illustrated.
In any case, IIRC, Aurilia’s principal residence is in Scottsdale. Hopefully for him, that one was bought pre-bubble down there.
@skirunman
Being the statistical wizard you are, what do you make of Richie’s 2001 season in polip’s link? Especially in light of all the current attention given to baseball’s Hall of Fame voting and alleged or implied PED use.
I simply doubt much cooking went on there.
That walkout terrace looks like a hotel terrace. In fact the whole place looks like a very impersonal hotel. Not my cup of tea.
“purchased..for $1,750,000 in January 2007. Obviously he didn’t overpay.”
that’s $763/sq.ft for eight foot ceilings and mediocre finishes. seems really expensive but better than paying over $1k/sq.ft for orh.
Overall I personally think this is one of the few truly family friendly condos that I see on SS
I’m not one for the location with Caltrain right in my back yard… but maybe you can’t hear it when you sit on that patio?
The patio has no privacy but I’d love to have it nonetheless. What do people usually do in their patio anyway that they need to be shielded from prying eyes? IMO a more open outdoor living space helps build a community. (you sit on your patio and see your neighbors and you can call over and say “hi”.) at least, so long as there is enough space between people’s outdoor tables/etc that the conversations from each don’t drown out the other!
as for the kitchen: “great rooms” are in these days, I think there is little doubt about it. but I wouldn’t blame women for causing smoke to fill up the apartment. One could easily
1) vent an interior kitchen to the outdoors
or
2) place the open kitchen near an exterior wall to vent it directly out.
overall although I disagree that this is “in one of San Francisco’s most desirable neighborhoods” it does have its plusses…
I think I’d take something like this first, ex-SFer.
http://www.redfin.com/CA/SAN-FRANCISCO/1900-DELMAR-ST-94117/home/1492437
They only lost $280K, plus selling costs in 2.5 years, which shows the strength of the neighborhood compared to others.
If any of you know construction and know what you can build for 1,000 dollars a square you would be in the know.
This is nice, it’s not my kind of nice but its pretty cool.
It amazes me that the condos across the street from ATT Park have held the values with the area being overbuilt, construction defect lawsuits and quite a few foreclosures!!
Don’t know anything about this one guy, but regarding people’s life savings in a statistical sense I found data in the Federal Reserve’s 2007 Survey of Consumer Finances: http://www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/bulletin/2009/pdf/scf09.pdf
The median amount of financial assets held by people in the top 10% of income is $404.5k (Table 6B p A19). The median non-financial assets held by the top 10% is $715.2k (Table 9A p A30). But keep in mind that a chunk of this is RE at 2007 valuations.
I have not seen this broken out into a smaller geographic area.
I don’t think the Caltrain noise was an issue for him; I think he picked this place because of his easy commute to work. He could walk home before and after games.
According to a 2009 Sports Illustrated article,
“By the time they have been retired for two years, 78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce.”
“Within five years of retirement, an estimated 60% of former NBA players are broke.”
“Numerous retired MLB players have been similarly ruined.”
Of course, players with very short careers, which the NFL especially has its fair share of, skew these numbers a bit. Still, the number of cases of ex-pros who’ve lost multi-millions is staggering.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1153364/1/index.htm
As Chris Rock wisely observed about the difference between rich and wealthy, athletes are rich, but team owners are wealthy. Easy to burn through massive amounts of cash when you’re not financially savvy and always feel the need to live like a baller, so to speak. The last sentence doubles as an allegory of the recent housing boom/bust for those who extracted equity. People saw highly leveraged housing as wealth instead of what it really is.