Another San Francisco home hits block for record $65M
2006: Three
and a half years after it shattered San Francisco sales records, a mansion
on Billionaire's Row in Pacific Heights is back on the market for twice as
much: $65 million.
Two structures at 2845 Broadway went for $32 million in November 2002,
making them the most expensive estate in city history. But the property
still wasn't finished.
Construction guided by New York architect Charles Young on the
17,500-square-foot limestone main home and 5,000-square-foot guest house is
still not complete.
When owner Peter Sperling, son of the founder of the University of
Phoenix, bought the property, it had not been publicly listed but was
marketed discreetly by broker David Barrett, head of Warwick Properties
Group.
But in a nod to how busy the high-end housing market has become in San
Francisco, Sperling this time around put 2845 Broadway on the same multiple
listing service used for everything from low-slung bungalows to highrise
condominiums to SoMa live-work lofts.
Barrett still has the listing, along with Joel Goodrich, another high-end
broker. The duo represented the buyer of Sharon Stone's Seacliff-area home
last year. It listed for $15 million.
Pressed on the matter, Barrett said he believes $65 million is a
reasonable price for the estate.
"I cannot believe how much genuine, significant, qualified interest
there is," Barrett said, noting several plausible inquiries the weekend
it listed.
But another high-end broker, Nina Hatvany, said the price sounds rich
even considering $18 million Sperling is said to have sunk into
construction. The high-end market has remained fine, she said, but the top
sales have been in the $20 millions.
"It sounds unbelievably high to me," Hatvany said. "We're
in some very thin air here."
Buzz among brokers is that Sperling will need to sink $8 million to $16
million more into the property to finish it, including installing interior
walls, ceilings and finishes. Barrett said it is definitely possible
Sperling has put $18 million into the renovation work. As to how much it
will take to finish, the broker said that will depend heavily on the plans
of the buyer.
"There has been a significant investment since it sold,"
Barrett said. "It's a good oppotunity for a new buyer to finish it to
their specifications."
Selling wouldn't deprive Sperling of a place to hang his hat in San
Francisco. While work was being done at 2845 Broadway, he picked up a
ready-to-go mansion at 2323 Hyde St., which had listed for $15 million, in
2003.
Sperling set the city's high-price mark for the year -- just as he had
the year before, and the year before that, with the 2001 purchase with his
father of 3450 Washington St. for $18 million. - 2006 March
13 SAN
FRANCISCO BIZ TIMES
Home prices hit record
high in Bay Area
Recession. What
recession? This seems to be the question San Francisco Bay Area homebuyers
are asking as they send the region's home prices to a record high.
According to real estate research firm
DataQuick Information Systems, the median home price in the San Francisco
Bay Area jumped 6.3 per cent year on year to a record US$402,000 in April.
That figure was 5.5 per cent higher than the median home price in March. The
previous peak, US$386,000, was reached in March 2001.
The number of homes and condominiums sold
in the nine-county region soared 49.7 per cent year on year to 10,768. Month
to month, the number of homes sold rose 3.4 per cent. The sales count in
April was the highest since August 2000, when 10,931 homes were sold. April
also saw the fourth consecutive increase in home sales after 13 consecutive
months of falling sales volume.
'Last year's declines in Bay Area real
estate were mostly a correction of the excesses of 1999 and 2000,' said
DataQuick president Mike Ela. 'Right now, the market is back in balance and
the region is seeing the same trends we're seeing in the rest of the state,
near-record sales and rising home values.' Affordable mortgage rates in the
region is a major reason for the increased activity, although the typical
monthly mortgage paid by Bay Area buyers in April rose from US$1,965 in
April 2001 to US$2,045 in April this year. The all-time highest typical
mortgage paid, according to DataQuick, was US$2,124 in May 2000.
The Bay Area's home prices continue to
dramatically outpace the median home price in the US, which was US$144,000
in April. In California, it was US$258,000.
The latest buying activity also seems a
far cry from the crazy days of the dotcom boom, when the median home price
surged from US$246,000 in April 1997 to US$378,000 a year ago. During that
period, home price increases of 20 or 25 per cent each month were not
uncommon. The median home price represents the mid-point of prices buyers
paid during the month.
But counties within the Bay Area
that saw the most dramatic sales spikes during the boom performed weaker
than other counties in the region. Santa Clara County saw home prices fall
1.7 per cent to US$458,000, while wealthy Marin County's median home price
fell 3.5 per cent to US$577,000. - by
Jennifer Lien Singapore
Press 27 May 2002
But remember good ol' Dot-Bomb days:
Tech bust takes toll on Silicon
Valley home prices
The continued tech recession in Silicon Valley has caused median home prices
here to retreat for the first time in six years.
The median price of a single-family
resale home in the San Francisco Bay Area fell 1.6 per cent year-on-year in
October to US$376,000 (S$684,000), latest figures from real estate research
firm DataQuick Information Systems show. The last such fall was in December
1995.
Home prices in Silicon Valley had been
holding firm for almost two years since the dotcom boom came to a screeching
halt. The boom of the last several years had caused residential properties
to be in such demand that houses sold for 10 or 20 per cent above asking
prices.
It's a buyers' market in Silicon Valley
now. The number of single-family homes sold in October fell 19 per cent to
5,431, the 14th month the figure has fallen year-on-year. But on a
month-to-month basis, October's sales were 9 per cent higher.
The median home price represents a
halfway point whereby half of all homes sold cost more than the median, and
the other half cost less.
The Bay Area figure covers nine counties
surrounding the city of San Francisco. The three counties with the strongest
high-tech and financial activity naturally commanded the highest median
prices.
Marin County, just north of San
Francisco, saw a median home price of US$535,000, a 2.6 per cent drop. The
median price in San Mateo County, which includes cities like Menlo Park,
heart of the venture capital industry, as well as several elite private
neighbourhoods, was US$530,000, a 0.9 per cent decline. San Francisco
County's median home price was US$495,000, 3.1 per cent higher than in
October 2000, while Santa Clara County - home to Stanford University, San
Jose and a host of high-tech firms - saw a median home price of US$438,000,
a whopping 11.5 per cent lower.
Counties farthest from the main Silicon
Valley area, requiring a one or two-hour commute, naturally commanded lower
home prices: Solano County homes were US$228,000, Napa County's were
US$282,000.
But prices in the region remain
significantly more expensive than in the rest of California - the state
average median home price in October was US$235,000.
The tech slowdown, and the resulting
quick sales by owners unable to pay their mortgage loans, as well as lower
mortgage rates, has resulted in more affordable homes within the reach of
serious buyers. More lower-priced homes sold in October, partly explaining
the steep drop in median prices in some areas.
The Sept 11 terrorist attacks are
expected to have had a limited effect on home sales, with anecdotal evidence
suggesting that sales bounced back to pre-Sept 11 levels a few weeks after
the attacks.
Looking forward, observers do not
expect the region's property market to fall into a sustained or serious
slump. 'Today's Bay Area market is actually pretty normal. The market in
1999 and 2000 was overly rambunctious,' said DataQuick president Mike Ela.
- Jennifer Lien
Singapore
Business Times
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