The sale of the Book Concern Building‘s unit #505 at 83 McAllister Street has closed escrow with a reported contract price of $415,000, five percent under asking. And with 259 legal square feet, call it $1,602 per legal square foot for the well designed Civic Center studio.
That being said, the legal square footage of the condo doesn’t include the 150 square foot sleeping loft which is technically “storage” space accessed by way of the custom installed spiral staircase.
And while the sale of the studio for $415,000 may seem crazy, keep in mind that the condo was first listed for sale for $417,000 back in 2006 which was before its award winning makeover.
Looks like you can stand up in the loft space, so technically this thing is more like 400 sq ft. Who cares about stupid planning dept “definitions.” So many flats don’t have legal BR’s that are totally valid for BR use- they have ceiling height, window, even a frickin closet. The formal definitions are largely irrelevant, IF the actual space is useful for the intended purpose.
[Editor’s Note: Technically it’s 269 square feet, effectively it’s more like 400.]
The bedroom loft looks like it might be barely over 6-ft high. Anyway, the total space is still really tiny.
I have been in the unit, and I live next door. The height of the loft is way over 6 feet. It’s 9 ft, and it is a very large bedroom area that is extremely functional. The actual height in the open loft area from floor to ceiling is 19 feet, so even though the square footage of the overall unit is fairly small at 400 square feet, the space feels larger than it is because of the huge vertical space. Most people live in bigger one bedrooms, by measure of square feet, but how many of them have the spacious feel of 19 feet ceilings in there living area?
I just sold a 475 sqft unit built in 1996 with a full size kitchen,full size bath, swimming pool/spa, on-site covered parking,in unit W/D, 24 hour security, low HOA dues, Earthquake insurance and a better location on the Embarcadero next to the BB and Muni for 475K.
This nonsensical statement by biketowork…
“The actual height in the open loft area from floor to ceiling is 19 feet, so even though the square footage of the overall unit is fairly small at 400 square feet, the space feels larger than it is because of the huge vertical space.”
Makes me think that some of the new people coming to SF to work here and attempt to find housing are smoking crack or are desperately out of touch with reality.
The space is not 400 hundred sq feet…it’s 259. To think this is a 400 sq foot unit one must believe in the tooth fairy or be smoking crack. As soon as you start thinking this is a 400 sq foot unit developers will start asking the city to allow them to build 150 sq foot units because the idiots that are buying them for $1600 a sq foot are thinking they are 1500 sq foot units.
Are you all that desperate for a inch of SF that you will pay any price to live there?
I didn’t just move to SF. I was born and raised here. I grew up in the mission, and I have taught in the city for 25 years. I work within walking distance of my condo. While the neighborhood is far from perfect. I love living here in the center of it all for it’s proximity to…well everything. At the moment, it’s a little noisier than usual because the top rated bakery going into our building is currently under construction.
RUKidding wrote:
Apparently not any price, but a higher price than most currently non-renting people can imagine paying, since this place sold, albeit at five percent under asking.
I feel for the seller, he or she probably should have held out and rented this place out for a few years before selling.
And although the units in question that are in the building stages currently are largely rentals, the city has, in fact, allowed developers to build apartments with a total minimum area per legal residential unit at 220 ft.² including closets and the bathroom, or put another way, the minimum legal living room for a residential unit was reduced from 220 to 150 ft.²
It’s only a matter of time before those units get converted to condos or the limit for total minimum area per legal residential unit gets reduced to 150 ft.² or both.
Mark Twain always said, “Lies, Damned Lies, and PPSF!”