Purchased for $665,000 in July of 2013, the 765-square-foot unit #1011 in the SoMa Grand at 1160 Mission Street returned to the market listed for $779,000 this past July, a sale at which would have represented net appreciation of just 17.1 percent for the one-bedroom unit with a den/office since the third quarter of 2013 or an average of 2.3 percent per year.
Reduced $725,000 in October, the unit was then re-listed at “$550,000” last month, a price was which actually the price at which “bidding would start” on December 3 (which was then pushed to December 17).
And with the auction(s) having failed to yield an accepted bid, the Mid-Market condo has just been listed anew with a $700,000 list price, a price which is now being hailed as “transparent” and would represented total appreciation of just 5.3 percent for the unit since the third quarter of 2013. The Case-Shiller index for Bay Area condo values is up 45.2 percent over the same period of time.
I lived here for 2 years in a rental and what a horrific group of entitled, unwelcoming group of folks who believe they live in a palace but is really a glorified housing project in a terrible neighborhood. Can’t believe anyone would pay more than a couple 100K to live here.
I can’t entirely disagree that the idea of living in a 765 sf one-bedroom in this neighborhood is pretty horrific right now. (Full disclosure that I have not been in this area since the pandemic, so conditions may not be as bad as I’m assuming.)
It’s pretty much the same as it was before the pandemic. Not much going on except for the people living and congregating in front of the substation.
That wasn’t my experience. I think this is one of the most underrated buildings in the city, particular its one bedrooms with eastern views.
I’m not sure where in the building this unit is; many units that once had views to the north toward Market now stare into the Trinity complex. This does seem like a particularly undesirable SoMa block to live on, now or ever.
I know someone who lived in this building. She saw a dead body (overdose) outside and promptly moved to Marin.
“Transparent pricing” should get some phrase of the year award for 2020.
I offered $25K over asking for a place a few years ago. Offer was rejected by the seller, who didn’t have any other offers on the table…
The area is nasty. I walked there last December from the Hall of Justice to take a look. Long jury duty break. Why anyone would live mid-Market escapes me. With a ton of Twitter employees not working in the area now and the potential of Twitter moving from SF this are will have little going for it. Not surprised it didn’t get a 550K start price bid..
My contrarian take is that Mid-Market is very much on the upswing. The housing pipeline in that area is tremendous. With each new building you get foot traffic, security, lighting, retail, landscaping and property taxes. A Whole Foods is opening on 8th/Market, an IKEA on 5th/Market. Once the homeless shelters open up again, I think the homeless situation will improve.
Would I want to live there at any point in the next twenty years? Probably not. But I do think the day to day livability will continue to improve.
I lived a half block from the (then-new) Harvest at 8th & Howard for the last few years of the aughts and I still run through Civic Center time to time (mostly when using the BART station). Now it’s very possible my stomach for human non-flourishing has dropped since then, but I think some backsliding started a couple years ago, well before the pandemic.
I used to zigzag through that area on my way to work, and at least directly on Market I find it to be much better than it used to be. Side alleys probably are worse. The homelessness + fentanyl crisis has worsened, indeed. On that front, I think there is rising political pressure that enough is enough.
I also think that, as long as those buildings continue to get built, there will be more and more people moving in, unwilling to walk through it every day. Security guards will be hired to pester the homeless away.
Do you think they’ll just disappear then?
that same sentiment was stated 10 yrs ago, and it is arguably worse now
Disagree. Midmarket used to be completely dead. I walked through it daily. There are way more normal white and blue collar people there now. There are also more homeless, but I’d wager that the percent of people in the area is less homeless than before.
it went from completely dead to the walking dead
The restaurants and general commercial activity is much better now (or at least pre pandemic). However the number of homeless appears to also have increased. Whether that makes it better or worse is a matter of taste I guess.
The housing pipeline in that area is somewhat of a pipedream. Specifically Hub 2.0. Given the difficulty the new tower at Mission/Van Ness is having in securing tenants as well as stories of people moving out of NEMA for nicer digs outside SF and the situation with this condo it’s not likely the proposed but not yet built projects will move forward anytime soon. If ever – think the abandoned condo tower at Market/Van Ness. Specific to the Hub, there is a stiff BMR requirement that developers have to agree to in order to build higher. I don’t see how any of that is economically feasible now.
Which abandoned condo tower, One Oak? That’s not the only condo project in the area. The smaller building at 1554 Market has topped out.
Yes. One Oak. 1554 Market broke ground early in 2019 and is topping out now – I’m referring to projects in the pipeline which have not broken ground as having an uncertain future. It will be interesting to see how sales go at 1554 and the price points the units are pegged at.
Our timescales are off. You’re referring to temporary blips such as COVID, and perhaps a BMR standoff that might last 10-20 years for the biggest projects. Those blips won’t really matter in the long run. Slowly but surely every industrial warehouse or parking lot will be replaced by mixed use office/retail/residential. The population in that area will double if not triple. Mid-Market/Western SOMA is going to be great – eventually. The Tenderloin I’m less confident in because of SRO’s.
If you are right, it will take a long time. The Western SOMA Plan is written into law. I doubt it will change for decades.
Some people won’t be happy until every last building that could house a business providing a decent wage to people who don’t code pizza delivery apps that no one will ever use is demolished and replaced with empty luxury condos for speculators, money launderers, and AirBnB
hostsparasites.Class war yada yada.
Who’s taking this office space? The industrial warehouses sound like a safer bet in the remote work shift.
Just as much quality tech talent in Atlanta, Salt Lake, Austin… With less onerous salary demands.
Temporary blip! What an optimistic bit of kerfuffle. This is going to have significant , long lasting ramifications in SF real estate, the least being the big development capital drying up for the foreseeable future.
I must disagree. I lived across the street at SOMA Residences and then bought a 2 bedroom in SOMA Grand and lived there for a decade. Also worked across the street at the 9th Circuit. There were ups and downs in the neighborhood, with ACT, new restaurants, etc. but nothing stuck, and overall, the area just got worse and worse from 2003 to now. And btw, the story lists the wrong unit number.
No one is obliged to price his home for sale in a way that is convenient for buyers. However, such shenanigans may eventually lead to a sub optimal outcome if ‘auctions’ etc. fail.
With a “view” like that, I wouldn’t pay more than $650/ sqft for that location and that’s the final offer!
I think it’s actually quite a nice little unit. Stacked in-unit washer and dryer, cozy little den/office. One deterrent for me would be if there was any hint of a view of the world ugliest federal building.
Bosh! It’s a magical mystical building designed by an avowed Marxist who hates everyone. Myself, I imagine that tower being the Eye of Sauron emitting beams of scouring fire killing off all the “yuppies” and other non-indigent populations so the area can be a paradise of Fentanyl and feces!
Hmm. Wonder if it got any bids at $550k. Hard to tell from link.
We used to live in the building, and while the neighborhood was a bit rough, the location was very convenient for getting around the city. And, the building was well-maintained and offered a lot of amenities and beautiful views (we lived on a high floor).
Nonetheless, I am glad we sold when we did–we made about $330K (before selling expenses) over what we paid to purchase and finish out the unit.
I went by the building recently, and while it still looks well-kept, the effects of the pandemic have impacted the surrounding area very hard.
i wonder whether ‘transparent pricing’ is supposed to assure the buyer that the seller *will* accept an offer at this price, or signal to the buyer that this is the absolute minimum the seller will accept so don’t waste time going lower.
Why doesn’t Scott wiener live here? He likes this kind of density…..
According to the Mercury News, he lives in an even smaller condo in the Castro.
Though I suspect you were intending to imply something else with your comment. Why don’t you come out and say it directly?
This story lists the wrong unit number. My Dad owned #1101. He sold it in 2019. It is a two bedroom and has never been auctioned. Please correct the unit number. Oh, and I agree the owners in this building think they are billionaires living in the lap of luxury and are very rude.
[Editor’s Note: Good catch. While correctly tagged and linked, it should have read unit #1011 in the prose (which has since been corrected above).]
So to be clear, if I had put in a $550k cash bid for this, they would have declined if that was the highest/only offer? I am not familiar with how these “auctions” work versus a bank foreclosure.
It’s been about 4 years since I worked one block down from there, but jeezus christ the level of bleak human suffering you’d see every single day was jarring. I can’t imagine paying these prices and having that be your experience walking out of your building.