Measuring 3,770 square feet and outfitted with three bedrooms, four full bathrooms and a pair of private balconies, the Lumina Tower D unit #36A at 338 Main Street was relatively priced and listed at $8,895,000, or roughly $2,359 per square foot, by the sales office last year.

Said listing was withdrawn from the MLS two weeks ago. And today, 338 Main Street #36A has been listed anew with an official “1” day on the market and a (not officially reduced, at least not according to MLS-based stats) list price of $7,875,000.

And while $2,089 per square foot isn’t exactly cheap, it is 11.4 percent and a million dollars cheaper than a few weeks ago or last year.

At the same time, the 1,572-square-foot, two-bedroom unit #35A a floor below remains on the market listed at $2,995,000 ($1,905 per square foot) having been purchased from the sales office for $3,149,500 ($2,003 per square foot) last June.

30 thoughts on “Million Dollar Price Cut for a New Penthouse Condo”
  1. Has Redfin become a shill for the RE industry? They seem to be scrubbing these price histories more and more (Marin listings are the worst; never any price history, and pics pulled after house sells).

    Redfin used to be my one-stop shopping for online RE, but lately I’ve been going to Zillow more and more, where they track historical price changes and re-listings much better.

      1. Yes; I’ve looked at listings on that site daily for over 6 years. Marin (Mill Valley) seems to be an exception to other areas.

  2. “Has Redfin become a shill for the RE industry?” Redfin is part of the RE industry. They are a real estate brokerage firm.

    “They seem to be scrubbing these price histories more and more.” They have never listed price histories for listing that have expired; only for ones that have sold.

    1. On your second point, they used to. Now, when a place goes off the market (say, for winter) and is re-listed later, you won’t see the previous price history (whereas you used to) – just ‘delisted’, etc. However, Zillow will often save the entire history of listings, cuts, etc.

      This was more to the OP about “1 day on the market”; redfin seems to be aiding and abetting this now vs prior years.

      1. As a brokerage and participating member of the MLS, Redfin, unlike Zillow, is required to abide by the local rules of each MLS that govern which data is allowed to be shared with the public, rules which have been tightening in general with the advent of new outlets for sharing (and analyzing) said data.

        And now back to Lumina and the trend(s) at hand…

    1. Convenient tautology there, dragonboy: a price cut is just a sign of an overpriced property, and never an indication of market stress…

    2. One can say that about ANY San Francisco real estate except for a few historic and amazing properties. Or would you prefer a McMansion in Plano, Texas?

      1. Yes and no. The choice is not between an overpriced SF property and something in Plano, Texas. There are plenty of better housing options in other thriving metros. SF is not competing with Plano. it is with LA, Seattle, Atlanta and so forth.

        1. If San Francisco is competing with these or any other cities, it is winning. SF’s population increased by 10,000 people last year

          1. I’m not sure how that’s relevant. Remind me which of those cities have SF’s economy.

  3. Why does the MBR have two bathrooms? If a couple each wants their own bath why does one need two sinks? And it appears there is a third separate toilet – is this for when you have threesomes and everyone needs their bathroom space?

    1. that is indeed interesting. also the bathrooms look very cramped for such an otherwise luxury unit.

    2. that part of the layout is bathroom free (oddly) in the public spaces. i could see his and hers, but this one might have been better if it connected to the area by the kitchen as opposed to master suite. as is, dining-kitchen persons have a long powder-room walk (unless they use master sanctuary bath # 2).

  4. Any updates to the % of units sold in the second tower? Last I heard it was less than 40%, and the sales office has been open for what, 18 months? The big change is the falloff in foreign, primarily Chinese investors who want to park their money in US condo real estate (since they want to hold RE but not deal with the maintenance of a SFH).

  5. It’d be interesting to know what kind of pricing evaluation is going for major condo projects set to open sales offices by the end of this year or early next year. It’s likely that any project which started construction in late 2014 or so projected continued major appreciation at least through the time period the project would be ready for occupancy – 2017/2018. We won’t be privy to any internal price evaluations going on, but the 10% drop in prices for new condo units certainly is not good news for projects coming on the market during the remainder of 2017 and all of 2018. Price points set by sales offices likely will have to be lower than what was projected just a year or so ago.

  6. I don’t understand why anyone would want to buy at Lumina. Yes, the finishes are better than infinity but most units have obstructed view to the bay and for that you get a pleasure of spending $2000-3000/ sqft! Just doesn’t make any sense. If I were spending that kind of money, I rather buy at Infinite and just remodel the unit to spanking new. It’ll cost the same. Yeah I know you can’t replace the old pipes but as far as I know, Infinity doesn’t have pipe problems yet. IMO, paying more than $1000-$1300/ sqft for Lumina for those units with obstructed bay views is lunacy.

    1. I bought a 2b/2ba in Lumina for <$1100 / sqft. Partially obstructed bay bridge view, but I've come to realize that bridge views are most premium priced views in SF. To give you an example, when buying, there were two units on a high floor with identical floorplan (Towers themselves are symmetric, so 2 units of each type on each floor) and one unit commanded a $350K premium for view of the Bay Bridge vs Twin Peaks on the same floor.

    1. Even if you never use the balcony, it is a desirable feature. The balcony above the unit serves as an sun-blocking awning. It allows you to have the shades open for a much greater portion of the day.

      1. Never thought of it that way. With that said, Lumina balconies are much nicer than the planks they have on Infinity.

      2. @another, it depends on the design of the unit and building. I’ve been in units with balconies (above) that are sunny and hot year round – with the balcony not providing any relief.

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