Purchased for $5.15 million in mid-2021, establishing a market comp at a little over $1,410 per square foot, the four-bedroom view home at 60 Clarendon Avenue, which steps down the slope of Clarendon Heights to yield 3,650 square feet of conditioned space, not including the square footage of its five decks, has just resold for $4.05 million, representing a net 21.4 percent drop in value for the luxury home on an apples-to-apples basis despite still fetching “over $1,100 per foot!”
And despite having returned to the MLS listed for $5.15 million in late 2022, and the “SELLER [HAS BEEN SAYING] BRING ALL OFFERS” since early 2023, the sale was officially “within 3 percent of asking!” according to all industry stats and aggregate market reports as the luxury home in a long established San Francisco neighborhood, miles away from Mid-Market and the Transbay District towers downtown, was relisted for $4.25 million in October and then further reduced to $4.15 million on the MLS last month.
Snicker if you will
still fetching “over $1,100 per foot!
“Still”, indeed…see what you can get in Cleveland.
There is a property for sale in Cleveland that is almost $1100 per foot! A very odd duck. There are similar numbers of listings on realtor.com for Cleveland and SF, both near 1650. In one location, 0.7% (11) are over $1 million. In the other, 65% are …
I knew as soon as Notcom threw that chum out there in the water, some commenter would bite and post some absurd, idiosyncratic listing in Cleveland.
I clicked your link, Zantage. And sure, a $1.199 million property which I assume based on the listing copy is actually zoned for live/work or perhaps just residence over retail, with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms in 1,108 ft..² Not really comparable to the above-highlighted single family, four-bedroom residence-only home in Clarendon Heights. But still, it makes the SFH here look like a bargain. And it’s been thoroughly white boxed! Kudos to you.
I understand the agent marketing hyperbole is silly and sometimes even deceptive, but at the end of the day, does it matter how far the sale price is from the asking? If one is to evaluate market data, don’t people look at closed sales and not asking prices? Do people use asking prices to make big decisions? People can (and do) ask for whatever they want, no matter how untethered from reality the asking price may be. It doesn’t mean the asset is worth such a price. Perhaps sellers get sucked into marketing hype when deciding when to hire an agent to sell their home, but I can’t imagine that stats like “within 3 percent of asking!” make a difference to the buyer or seller of the house.
So long as real estate ad copy continues to tout “above asking” sales prices, the mocking should continue. As for whether home buyers are influenced by asking prices and the anticipated above/below sales prices, ask around. I’m always amazed that lay people are so focused on these fairly meaningless stats.
It’s really no different – other than scale – to a retailer advertising “50% off!” (a price that is never really charged.)
As to whehter/not people pay attention to it…good question: I suspect some do, particularly newer inexperienced buyers, tho it’s a legitimate question as to how many people naively pay a million dollars for a house (as opposed to $5 for a BOGO box of cereal).
It’s not simply marketing copy and media reports that continue to tout and conflate “over asking!” sales with strength of the market reports but published industry metrics as well, such as Redfin’s trademarked “Compete Score,” a stated benefit of which is to “better determine what [buyers should] bid and whether they should consider waiving contingencies,” a score which is “calculated based on four inputs: number of competing offers, waived contingencies, sale to list ratio, and number of days on market” (with the sale to list ratio calculated based on “the final sale price divided by the last list price” and the “days on market” count reset each time a property is re-listed anew).
At the same time, it’s truly astounding how many people, both lay and professional alike, will attempt to counter any data or analysis that demonstrates a weakening market or downturn with, “but there are still a lot of over asking sales!”
that is helpful, thank you.
Astroturf on upper deck, with water feature below, makes for interesting potential for mini golf.
I’m imagining a big transparent helical tube connecting those two “greens”.