Having been purchased for $650,000 four years ago, the resale of 250 King Street #730 closed escrow on Friday with a reported contract price of $950,000 ($710 per square foot).
Call it 46 percent over the purchase price for the penthouse unit with two parking spaces at the Beacon back in 2009, but still a few percentage points under the unit’s sale for $979,200 in 2006. The two-bedroom condo first sold for $935,000 in 2005.
∙ Will The Rising Tide Lift The Beacon Back Above 2006 Prices? [SocketSite]
∙ Unable To Fund Loan(s) At The Beacon? Hmm… [SocketSite]
Looks like the lawsuit against the developers continues. As a side spectacle, the Beacon Residential Community Association initiated seven actions against ‘prior owners’ in March and April to collect past due condo fees ranging from $10k to $30k.
Is #730 representative of other recent sales? I wonder how they are getting those prices with the lawsuit still pending because my experience is that financing is generally not available in that situtation (collection actions excluded). I have been getting inundated with refi offers and even home equity line of credit offers not seen since 2007 on my SF condo so maybe the litigation does not matter for financing any more.
EBGuy I’m curious about the suits against “prior owners”… in my experience HOA dues have to be paid up for a transaction to take place. But I’m no expert.
HOA dues follow the owner in California, who is personally responsible for the debt they owed up until the unit transfers ownership. In short sales the dues get paid up if the HOA has the lien filed but in a foreclosure the HOA has to sue the former owner for the money. It’s usually not worth the costs and legal fees but in the case of strategic defaults the HOA can likely collect something because the former owner does not want the outstanding judgment against them.
Is there a limit of 6 months HOA past dues?
Plus expenses of the HOA’s foreclosure company?
No limits, but once amount is over $5K it’s a regular lawsuit versus small claims court.
Good question mission. If the building is still in litigation how are buyers getting financing? Surely they are not bringing all cash to the party.
I know there are direct lenders (or portfolio lenders) that will issue loans with a higher interest rate even where HOA’s are in litigation. Quicken Loans comes to mind. I’m wondering however if more banks have relaxed this requirement. Fannie Mae won’t buy loans where the HOA is in litigation over serious property defects but nearly all banks just adopted a blanket approach refusing to issue loans on condos with litigation because they did not want the loan buyback risk. I’m wondering if now that some banks are making lots of money with mortgage lending again that competition is driving banks to reconsider the litigation hurdle to lending. My building was in litigation for several years until last year and the only sales were all cash. Once the litigation settled owners could sell and refinance and values almost immediately sprang back. The cash buyers scored a major windfall.
a few years back, i was refused a loan by a major lender on a condo because the condo association was suing the developer for reimbursement for some repair work. i made sure i told the loan manager that the condo is not under any distress but they are just trying to get some money from the developer, so there’s no risk as far as the loan is concerned, but he still said no.
Unit 868 (1/1 795 sq.ft. according to Redfin)closed on 3/13/13 for $541k and has a mortgage with First Republic Bank. Redfin shows it last changed hands in 2011 for $380k (cash, according to the Recorders website). Not a bad windfall…
So I checked a couple more sales from 2013 and late 2012. According to the Recorder’s site, they were cash sales (no recorded deed of trust). Oh wait, it looks like Unit 474 (2/1 1060 sq.ft.) which sold for $794k on 10/5/12 was financed by First Republic Bank. And what a coincidence, the buyer is the same one who bought Unit 868 (see post above).
The owner of 868 & 474 also bought Unit 1318 (2/2 1280 sq.ft.) on Dec. 29, 2011 for $740k (previously sold for $1.2million in 2005). She then sold it to someone with the same (common) last name on Sept. 9, 2012 for $760k. In both cases, First Republic Bank provided financing.
Here’s another one with First Republic Bank financing (different owner this time). Unit 1102 (2/2 1476 sq.ft) was sold on 9/11/12 for $930k.
Also Unit 864 (2/2 1208 sq.ft) closed on 8/24/12 for $799k with First Republic Bank financing.
First Republic is more flexible on what they finance since they are local and understand the local market a better.. So they’ll sometimes play ball when other national banks balk.
@EBGuy : can you tell me where you see who financed recent sales? You mention the recorder’s site: can you give me a URL and instructions on how to search for this information? THANKS!!