Our Powerful and Moving Market: $1000/sqft is the new norm

Happy Weekend Real Estate Fans!

This weekend we saw a crop of more than 110 new listings. April is always a dicey month for listings. This past week has seen some records, eye brow-raising and the continued age of pre-emptive offer (being rejected in many cases), multiple offers and average sale prices going 8-10% over the asking price.

This week’s homes are a range with some being puzzling to me: They’re asking what for that? Or, what’s that?! That aside, whatever dip or leveling off we saw a couple of weeks ago seems to be trending back up. We heard lots of high numbers for fixers. The single family homes on Noe and Diamond, listed for $999K and $1.250M respectively, each closed above $1.4M at more than $1000/sq ft. Speaking of $1000/sqft. the one-bedroom homes at 537 Natoma are fetching close to $1100/sqft in some cases. All of the one-bedroom homes are in contact and only two-bedroom units remain. But because new developments are always fluid, backup offers are strongly encouraged. The confidence for 537 Natoma has spilled over onto 6th Street as the developers of Natoma are planning to move on a project that will improve the area even more in a couple of years. Speaking of sold out, the last unit at The Heights on the California side of the new luxe development sold at about $1000/sqft for over its asking price of $1.7M all-cash. Another craftsman home on Clifford Terrace sold above its asking price of $1.699M for — you guessed it — $1000/sqft+.

The development opportunity at 31 Romain that has entitled plans (where no garage nor vertical expansion was allowed) listed at $799K received three offers where a developer client beat out an owner-user buyer to win the property for more than 10 percent over its asking price with a short 10-day, all-cash close. And last, but not least, the fixer at 779 Wisconsin listed for $699K: 100 disclosures were requested, 25 offers were made and 1 won for more than $1M.
Take a look through this week’s newsletter. Some homes like 536 Alvarado is among the finest I’ve seen recently. Even though it may be out of your budget, it’s worth stopping by to see perfection: smart, ecologically-sound, luxe, supple finishes executed flawlessly. And, of course, navigate to www.kevinho.co to see this upcoming broker tour sheet. It’s gonna be a busy week, so let’s get out there. If you have any questions about a listing or anything you see here, be sure to contact me.