339 Golden Gate Avenue, Belvedere: The Pink House

Designed by legendary architect John Mead Howells, built in 1912, and listed for $11.75 million in 2012, the asking price for “The Pink House” on Belvedere Island was reduced four times before the property was withdrawn from the market in 2013.

The formal living room on the main floor of the seven-bedroom home is finished with old-growth redwood and opens to a terrace with unobstructed views of Mt. Tamalpais, Sausalito, the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco.

The master suite occupies the entire top floor, with a fireplace, walk-in dressing area, terrace and marble bath with Golden Gate views and a glass-enclosed shower stall.

Listed for rent at $17,500 a month early last year, 339 Golden Gate Avenue has just returned to the market with an asking price of $7.95 million, the same price at which it was withdrawn in 2013.

23 thoughts on “The Pink House Returns For $4M Less”
    1. At first I thought, how bad could it really be… but yeah.. It’s bad. Still, I kind of want it.. and I wouldn’t dare white box it!

    2. I don’t get what’s so awful about the floor plan, other than the lack of en suite bathrooms.

      It’s a house that reflects its day and its location at a time when Belvedere was a “country house” location. From a time when formal entertaining really was formal, this place offers a much more relaxed public floor. There’s a floor for the kids — complete with a great playroom for foggy days — that could also work for a bunch of weekend guests. The master suite is luxurious for the time.

      What’s not to like…. in 1912?

      1. I do wonder why the architect chose not to open more southern windows to the view of downtown. That was an odd choice.

  1. Looking for a swap contract to short two Noe white box rehabs and buy this and wait for convergence. Relative pricing seems wrong.

    1. It does seem incongruous. But it makes sense in the context of the new phenomenon of “the working rich.” Going back many centuries until not long ago, the rich sat around in palaces like this and did not work much. Now they work more hours than anyone else. Like Joshua says, access to silicon valley, where lots and lots of money is being earned, is driving NV prices. The working rich don’t really have that much use for a beautiful big place on Belvedere Island.

      1. I understand your point, but it sounds a lot like, ‘it’s different this time.’
        I would still like to take the other side of a bet which was

        -2 * (553 Elizabeth, Noe @ $7mm)
        +1 (339 Golden Gate Avenue @ $7.95mm)

        There are boatloads of houses in Noe that can be dandied up. There aren’t that many commanding views of the city and the GGB with ballrooms, significant architecture and a BALLROOM. (A ballroom? An effing ballroom with views of the bay on 3 sides) On occasion here I have made fun of ‘classic’ decor as smelling like old ladies. This house for sure smells like rich old women, but I would buy it all day vs. a modern Noe.

        Also, the pink house is the name of the presidential residence in Costa Rica.

        Also, it’s unclear to me whether Bill Bullock and Lydia Sarkissian have paid appropriate licensing fees to Skinemax for use of their background music in the home tour video.

        1. Maybe it does pay (more) to have a chance to rub shoulders with your fellow working rich while strolling around NV. There’s probably cachet to also tell the other guy across the negotiation table that you live in NV (as opposed to, “yeah, I commuted in from Tih-BU-ron”).

          Wasn’t Fronzi also reminding us often that you can buy a castle in France for the price of a new NV home?

          [Editor’s Note: Nope. For the price of a duplex in Bayview.]

          1. Most of the Belvedere/Tiburon locals send their kids to the public schools. Reed School District PTA is where the 0.1% and the wannabes rub shoulders.

          2. But all that cachet would go out the window when you invite the client over to dinner at your dwell box and they check on redfin to see how much you paid.

        2. On your main point I am in complete agreement. If I had $8mm to drop on a house, I would buy this place over any NV place any day. It is very odd to me that we appear to be in the minority on this. But I don’t think this is a matter of the market being askew in a manner that will be corrected, but rather a fundamental change in who the rich are and what they want and need. So that is different this time.

          1. “…A fundamental change in who the rich are and what they want and need”

            I would have agreed when I was 25. I would have been swayed in 2007. By now though, I’m posted up in Omaha looking for cigar butts and railroads, tap dancing to work, waiting for the tide to go out to see who is still wearing a swim suit. It really takes a bubble or two for people to realize that which is quickly received is often quickly taken away….

            There’s gotta be a car metaphor somewhere. The Noe house is like a really dope Camry with a custom leather interior. The Pink House is a Maybach. The Camry is more useful, your friends know what it is. It’s more appropriate for your age. I wouldn’t be embarrassed to tell my friends I had a Camry in the sort of show-offy way I would about having a Maybach. It’s just that you’re still an idiot if you’re paying Maybach prices for a Camry.

            (I know, if they can sell an app for $500mm, godspeed. Why am I whiling away an afternoon commenting on message boards. Hating the game, etc. etc.)

  2. Gorgeous. I love it. I was thinking it was lowered due to the owners wanting a bidding war, but S.M. points out the comps & it’s in line with the comps.

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