159 Dublin Street

As we wrote at the end of last year:

“One of the nearly 100 homes listed for sale in San Francisco for which the asking price has recently been reduced, the three-bedroom, single-family Excelsior District home at 159 Dublin Street was foreclosed upon in 2013 with no bidders at $584,000 in cash on the courthouse steps.

Listed for $850,000 ($630 per square foot) this past August, the asking price for 159 Dublin has just been reduced to $679,900 ($504 per square foot). And according to the listing, the buyer will take possession at the close of escrow (although the lack of interior photos might raise a flag or two).

Including the property above, there are currently 94 single-family homes listed for sale in San Francisco for under a million dollars and 190 condos, not including new construction.”

On Monday, the sale of 159 Dublin closed escrow with a reported contract price of $650,000.

There are now 96 single-family homes listed for sale in San Francisco for under a million dollars and 178 condos, not including new construction.

53 thoughts on “Under a Million (and Asking) in Excelsior”
  1. I thought the lowest third of the market had not rallied back as hard as the mid and upper tiers, so this price seems consistent with a more challenging neighborhood and perhaps a lot of ‘deferred maintenance.’

    In my Outer Richmond ‘hood 338 27th Ave is a sub 1mm listing that just came on the market. Probate sale, will trade north of 1mm, I expect, given location. Some nice original details, some work left to be done. I have no connection to the listing other than geography. Good value for location. Good bargains out there.

  2. This thing is in line with other fixers sold in excelsior.

    Mind you, excelsior always has way more SFH’s available for sale (at any given moment) than Bayview, portola, visitation valley. Often more inventory than those 3 neighborhoods combined!

    Point of that. Even now, excelsior homes are still largely selling at high recent prices. But I’d expect a market “correction” to first be felt in the excelsior, given its consistently higher inventory. i.e. Excelsior is the canary in the coal mine.

    1. Excelsior was featured on KTSF26 some years ago as “The Next Sunset District”.

      Plus is gets the warmest weather in the city.

      They still riot and light Muni buses on fire though.

      Very good location if you’re long on the house you’re buying.

          1. one cannot live on lattes alone.

            burning buses is something you tell your grand kids about. you say you won’t but you will.

  3. This is far from a convenient location, geographically I mean, although it might work for a commuter family. Still, even in a worst-case, if the inside was a wreck needing $100,000 just to make it habitable, I’m still surprised it sold for only $650K.

    1. Agree. The # of smallish homes in North Oakland that are being renovated and sold for close to, or north of, $1MM is mind boggling.

      Even as recent as a couple of years ago, east of Telegraph was not considered a viable option for a lot of families. Talk about hyper gentrification…

      I think there are better neighborhoods in Oakland so I don’t really understand the recent run up in pricing. Maybe a spillover from priced out Berkeley buyers perhaps?

  4. You folks who are using the word “value” in this market are really saying “catch a falling knife”.

    1. You obviously don’t speak Realtor.

      That would be: “A rarely available chance to combine your sporting and culinary skills using a timeless classic sharpened kitchen tool.”

  5. Drive down Silver Ave and there was plenty of new homes being built-up in the Excelsior. Seems savvy real estate agents and developers have seen the potential in increased heights in the Excelsior, and there have been a couple new buildings going above the roof-lines in the district.

    The concern is lacking retail, but the more investment in the area, the sooner that will change, as there will be pressures due to proximity to Balboa BART and 14R line express downtown through the Mission for shifts outwards to the Daly City border…

  6. This home sold as courthouse REO from Bank of Agony to an LLC in August 2013 with tenants living there. $584,000. Just recently sold with tenants there as well. Agent affiliated with seller LLC and out of Vacaville. No information regarding the lease with the tenants and if they were there prior to Costa Hawkins law, could be protected. Still can Ellis Act and no real impact to value as it is a SFR. Sounds like an out of town LLC got into a bit of a hornets nest in buying a house through foreclosure and not expecting the tenant mess. Not a viable market indicator in my opinion.

    1. Tenants might have made the property value drop by several hundred thousand dollars. Is Ellis Act eviction easy to do? I think that protected status only matters for owner move in, Ellis Act works on anyone.

    2. Interesting that the 2013 sale shows up at the Assessor, but not on Redfin.
      Maybe another example of their data pipeline having problems with non-traditional sales?

  7. If only, if only, Excelsior landowners could be persuaded to plant street trees, I actually think it would do dramatic things for the value of their properties. Amazing that such a potentially nice hill neighborhood is totally covered in concrete.

    1. Trees are nice, but tree roots can cause expensive plumbing issues. You can suggest some slow growing trees whose roots are not as harmful to the plumbing.

      1. Unless the pipes are already leaking or you plant right on top of the pipes, I wouldn’t worry about tree roots harming plumbing.

      2. Yep, plus owner is responsible for trimming tree. So I called the sidewalk greening guys at DPW (a nice, with-it bunch, which is unusual for DPW crew), and asked for the slowest ass growing tree possible. Got one. 4-5 years on and hardly any trimming, and it won’t grow over 15-18 get tall. Poifect!

      1. the city planted all those trees. that street would be the worst in the neighborhood if it wasn’t for those trees.

  8. I just pulled sales prices for the first 4 months of 2016 for the Excelsior and compared them to the first 4 months of 2015 (source: Redfin)
    Average sales price: +14.7% up to 876k from 764k.
    Average price per sqf: +21% up to $546 from $450.

    The numbers suggest that the Excelsior is still quite hot and this house is an outlier. The Excelsior is probably the number 1 alternative for people priced out of Bernal, Glen Park, Noe and the Mission willing to buy for <1m.

    1. Preach it! Commercial district needs help, but I have seen the demographic change a bit and more people on foot in the 2+ years that I have lived there. Mansell St. which runs through the park is getting some thoroughfare improvements which is a big plus if you ask me.

    2. Generally agree although I’d say Excelsior is sharing the title of the next big thing with Portola and Bayview which are seeing similar price increases. Essentially all the neighborhoods that are the next step out from Glen Park, Bernal and Dog Patch.

    3. The key phrase is “priced out”. In other words, people are settling for these neighborhoods, not flocking to them. Guess what happens if prices come down a bit in those more desirable neighborhoods? Perhaps due to the tens of thousands of new units in the pipeline combined with the hissing sound of the unicorn bubble.

      1. False that bro! Plenty of folks moving to BV are proud to make it their home. Instead of kowtowing and a*s kissing to be good enough for precious bernal, Noe, mission, etc., they are saying screw that. Lots of new energy moving into BV and making it an exciting hood for those getting in at this stage of the game. (I’m not saying that your perspective has no validity, but am pointing out that there is another, substantial perspective to counterbalance the future ghost town you suggest.)

        [Editor’s Note: For a few other perspectives, see the discussion at Back to 2005 in Bayview?]

        1. I agree but we weren’t talking BV. Bayview is a different animal due to the T line. Much of Excelsior and Portola are pretty bleak for light rail, bike, etc that young people want. Also Bayview home prices are more bargain basement compared to Excelsior and Portola, and it’s easier for hipster businesses to score commercial space.

          1. The Excelsior can complement the Outer Mission and Portola can complement the Bayview in the same way Potrero Hill and Bernal complement the Mission. Those neighborhoods have a symbiosis. Many young families want a house with garden while living in walking/biking distance from coffee shops and restaurants. Once sufficient spending power settles in Excelsior (and housing sales are pointing in that direction), restaurants and coffee shops will start

          2. And don’t forget about Oakland. It is cheaper, has more amenities, better weather, way more exciting in terms of culture, and from many areas it is a faster ride into downtown SF.

          3. I agree that Oakland is an alternative to the Southern Neighborhoods, but consider this:

            1. Express busses (8AX, 14X) have improved services and commuting times are down thanks to the use of the 101/280. E.g. You can get from Portola to SoMa in 15-20 min by Muni.

            2. Oakland is really hard for commuting to the Peninsula. If you’re buying a house, you would want to have the max flexibility for future job opportunities.

            3. Ubering from Oakland to the city to go to a restaurant is long and expensive, whole it is doable from Portola or the Excelsior. This is something important to Millennials and I would bet on ride-sharing becoming cheaper and more widespread in the future.

          4. Pero hit the nail on the head, the residential neighborhoods always grow from the neighboring hip communities. Younger folks flock the hoods with apartments, transit and the industrial space, not the single family homes. Once those areas like BV are established as cool and safer, the single family neighborhoods around it become hip for the young families & couples that want to be near the action but not in it and want the added space/yard/garage.

            Portola is already seeing this, San Bruno Ave already has a successful 4 Barrel coffee and a microbrew is opening this month and several more hip restaurants are in talks overs spaces right now. The young professional families are already moving in and I hear the same reason over and over, ” We want to be near BV when it becomes really hip and enjoy the same sunny weather but we want a quieter neighborhood.”

            Also remember that Portola & Excelsior are far more transit rich than higher priced places like Sunset and Richmond. T third is still walking distance from Portola (only 10 mins. from our house in Portola), there are express bus lines that get right on the highway and don’t stop until downtown and Excelsior has good access and BART. Also, Caltrain is updating Bayshore and possibly adding a Quint station so access from BV, Portola, Bernal, Vis Valley and Excelsior via Geneva BRT, is going to be much easier.

          5. We looked thoroughly at Oakland, it definitely has some perks, culture being a big one, but dollar for dollar compared to the outter SF hoods you aren’t getting all those perks that are more specific to certain areas of Oakland like Rockridge which isn’t at all cheap.

            Most of Oakland is far more spread out and less walkable than SF, including the outter hoods which are usually built with zero lot lines and walkable to other neighborhoods. Commuting takes just as long to downtown once you factor in getting to Bart, the crime is still much higher in Oakland, bridge tolls and going out in the city is not at all convenient or cheap.

            Overall Oakland feels like a hip suburb/small city while the outter hoods of SF feel urban to me with plenty of diversity and city access. Plus, S/E SF is far more central to all the job centers and it’s the sunnier part of SF.

          6. @Alex740, I thought about exactly the same things when I moved to Portola 6 months ago. We sold the 2nd car as I’m perfectly fine commuting by Muni to the city center every day it takes me 35 min door to door. I hope that the public schools and some parts of San Bruno avenue will pick up over the next few years. Other than that, I couldn’t be happier with the hood and it’s prospect for the future.

          7. True that, wrt Oakland vs d10.

            Also, come next recession (and inspite of SS editor trying to raise comparisons to 2005), i betcha newly gentrifying areas of Oakland are going to sink more than d10. What’s happening now in d10 is qualitatively different than 2005 IMO. Different era, different place.

            F’course I’m vested in d10. But I also happen to be right.

          8. SFRentier you are sounding a little bearish these days, is it the Apple stock? 😉

          9. Yes, Apple is getting a bit desperate. No new blockbusters. No steve jobs. So let’s start spending big money and buy a Chinese company to make a stake in driverless cars in China. Sounds half baked, and quarter desperate, if you ask me.

    4. seriously. between the asians and tech hipsters, the Excelsior is jumping with development. lots of fresh paint going up. the City just finished fixing all the sidewalks and re-piping the streets within the last year too.

  9. Yep, Mansell will have a new bike & bus lane soon. What amazes me is that fixer upper homes in South Bernal (around Crescent Ave) still go for more than some large, sunny view homes on Northern Excelsior. If prices remain high throughout the city, Excelsior is the next domino to fall in the gentrification game.

    1. True about those homes, but I think it all has to do with distance as the crow flies to downtown.

      1. From my place in Excelsior, it takes 10 mins to walk to BART. I’m usually at Powell in less than 25 mins. Renters for now, but looking for a place here since not interested in a condo. We’re a bit older, now have younguns, used to live in the Mission, but glad to be away from that insanity – it’s become so crowded.

  10. Not as long as the SFPD looks the other way while illegal after hours gambling, drugs and prostitution proliferates on the Mission Street commercial corridor. The Excelsior is the New Tenderloin.

    1. Yes, if prostitutes and drug addicts are the ones dropping $850k for 2br 1bd houses, I agree with you.

    2. Those things are unfortunate, yes. More community action is needed. Meanwhile, I patronize the decent legal businesses that are there.

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