SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) – While high prices and overbidding have become the norm in the Bay Area real estate market, a home that sold for $1 million above asking in San Francisco is raising eyebrows.
It’s a newly updated, 2,400 square foot, 4 bedroom home, with a two car garage and an incredible view. The home is located in a quiet neighborhood in San Francisco near Mt. Davidson, west of Twin Peaks.
“It’s been one of the most ferocious markets in history this past year,” said Patrick Carlisle, the Chief Market Analyst for Compass. “We have been seeing some very spectacular over-bids, not only within the city, but around the Bay Area.”
Available housing inventory is still incredibly low throughout the Bay Area. That makes for more competition among buyers, which can drive sale prices up.
“Though a fair number of new listings have come on the market, they’ve been snatched up faster than ever – maybe at the fastest rate in history,” Carlisle told KPIX 5. “Virtually every segment in the Bay Area has gone bananas.”
There has been a huge surge in property sales in San Francisco, specifically, according to Carlisle.
“Of course, part of that is some people are leaving. But the other side of it is, there are still plenty of people who are very eager to live in the city, own homes in the city, and are willing to pay higher prices than they’ve ever paid before,” he said. “Sooner or later, upcycles do end. What history has taught us though, is that it is extremely difficult to predict when upcycles will end.”
Potential buyers should have all of their ducks in a row, according to Woo.
“It’s a seller’s market,” Woo said. “Of course timing is important, location is important. But, to prepare the house right is the most important thing.”
MOUNTAIN VIEW (KPIX) — Despite the pandemic, the price of homes in the Bay Area continue to skyrocket, with the Peninsula having some of the most expensive neighborhoods in America.
But there are still deals out there and there is one in Mountain View that is a little hard to believe.
In the heart of Silicon Valley, the city of Mountain View has a median home price of about $1.5 million. But it also has what may be the mother of all bargains: a two-bedroom, two-bath home with granite countertops, stainless steel appliances and cathedral ceilings priced to sell for $189.999.
“Now that we’ve lowered the price to the point that it’s a really good deal, I’m getting calls like crazy on it,” said listing agent Eric Sjoberg.
In May, it was listed for $250,000, but Sjoberg has reduced the price four times since then to get it to sell. What’s wrong with it? Nothing…except it is in a mobile home park.
“Yeah, the stigma is a big thing,” said Sjoberg. “Because, especially people from other parts of the country, they think it was only poor people that lived in a mobile home.”
Known locally as the “King of Mobile Homes,” Sjoberg has sold thousands of the units over the years. He says the original mobile homes were nothing like today’s high-quality manufactured homes.
“They’ll invite their friends over, and with the sheet rock walls and the granite counters, the people go, ‘My goodness, this is nicer than my $1.5 million condo I just bought for a fraction of the cost,’” he said.
There are 58 mobile home parks in San Jose alone and if they look a little dated, it’s because the last one was built in 1980. Such parks are not considered an efficient use of land now. At its price point, the home in Mountain View would only cost its buyer about $905 per month.
There is a modest monthly space fee and the park, New Frontier, restricts buyers to 55 years and older. But you won’t beat the deal anywhere.
“I think it’s the best bargain in the Bay Area,” said resident Steve Wozniak — who happens to have the same name as the Apple co-founder — as he delivered Christmas cards to his neighbors. He said he doesn’t mind a bit that other people might look down on living in a mobile home park.
“I enjoy that there is a stigma because it keeps our rent down,” he said with a laugh. “There’s less pressure on raising the rent.”
Sjoberg said as with all types of real estate, the inventory of available mobile homes is currently very low. Normally, Sjoberg said there are about 400 units on the market, but now there are only 60 for sale in all of San Jose.
Rather than joining 27 Bay Area cities in appealing its Regional Housing Needs Allocation — arguments ranged from traffic concerns to seismic safety issue — Emeryville is seeking to qualify as a “pro-housing city’ under a new state program. That means the city must top its state-mandated RHNA allocation by 50% — in the case of Emeryville that’s about 2,700 units instead of 1800, according to City Manager Christine Daniel. Pro-housing designated cities have an advantage in applying for state housing funds.
“We think we can reach 150% of our assigned RHNA goal,” said Daniel.
To Bay Area developers the idea that Emeryville is gunning to build far more than its fair share of housing doesn’t come as a surprise. The city tucked between Oakland and Berkeley along the shoreline has long had a reputation of welcoming development of all kinds. Since 2000 the city’s population has nearly doubled from 6,800 to about 13,000, as housing has been added across the city. With the current housing pipeline that number could rise to 17,000 by 2030.
“We are at the heart of the Bay Area, the sweet spot of housing, jobs and transportation,” said Daniel. “It sounds trite to say, but it’s true.”
Emeryville city council member John Bauters loads a cart with volunteer food distributer Mary Maultsby-Jeffrey while at Emeryville Citizens Assistance Program. The block will be turned into affordable housing units, allowing ECAP to continue to offer free food box and other services to the community members in the need on the first floor of the building.
Bronte Wittpenn/The Chronicle
During a walking tour of Emeryville, City Councilor John Bauters pointed out the city-owned sites that are set aside for affordable housing. At the eastern end of town there is the triangular property at 3600 San Pablo — on the Oakland border — where Resources Community Development will build 90 units of supportive housing as well as a new home for the Emeryville Citizens Assistance Program, or ECAP, which currently hands out groceries to about 275 people a day.
At 3706 San Pablo Ave. EAH Housing recently completed Estrella Vista, an 87-unit affordable family housing project that is fully leased up after attracting 1,500 applications. And that same nonprofit developer is set to build about 70 units at 4300 San Pablo Ave., a mix of units for low-income seniors and youth aging out of foster care.
Jake Rosen, project manager for the 3600 San Pablo Ave. project, said the Emeryville City Council came through in the clutch at a time when his group was applying for funding from the state’s No Place Like Home initiative, a program that requires local matching funding. With the application deadline looming the City Council held an emergency meeting, awarding $16 million to the project. The local investment allowed RCD to receive $19 million from the state.
“Without the city of Emeryville’s substantial and timely support this development could easily have been delayed a year or longer,” said Rosen.
An new apartment building with affordable housing units can be seen on Christie Avenue in Emeryville The apartment is a part of a string of new developments in order to build more affordable housing in the city.
Bronte Wittpenn/The Chronicle
Welton Jordan, chief real estate development officer for EAH Housing, credited Emeryville with pushing a state senate bill that allowed for the mixed-age project to go through. Previously deed restricted senior housing had to be 100% seniors and could not have a mix of ages.
Emeryville stands out among the 80 cities in California and Hawaii that EAH develops in, Jordan said. “Emeryville is small but mighty,” he added. “They are willing to work with you to get things done and not so hung up on process.”
He credits the city with pushing use of Senate Bill 35, which streamlines affordable housing approvals. “Emeryville is a lot easier to work with from a planning perspective,” said Jordan. “They have embraced SB35, whereas a lot of places have not, and still want you to go through the traditional two or three year process.”
The push to attract residential development is coming from one of Northern California’s most “YIMBY” city councils. In recent years the city raised height limits to seven stories on San Pablo Avenue, used city money to buy five parcels for future affordable housing and voters passed a $50 million housing bond — a major investment in affordable housing for a city the size of Emeryville. For comparison San Francisco, 65 times more populous than Emeryville, passed a $600 million affordable housing bond in 2019.
But while development in Emeryville has fattened city coffers — it has a new $90 million school with a community pool and and provides a free “Emery Go Round” bus system — it has not been without growing pains. The open arms with which the city welcomed business has resulted in the one square-mile city being home to four major shopping centers, which has led to traffic congestion.
In addition to being the home to headquarters for Pixar and Peet’s Coffee, the city is known for its big box retailers — and the traffic that comes along with them. Best Buy, Guitar Center, Target and Home Depot — and of course Ikea — all draw shoppers from around the East Bay.
Emeryville has also struggled with homeless encampments both along the waterfront and behind Home Depot.
“We deal with all the same big city problems as Oakland and Berkeley but it’s hard because we do it with so few staff,” Bauters said. “Our Housing department is one person. Economic development is one person. Labor is one person.”
Amid all the regional shopping center traffic Emeryville is working to make the city more pleasant to walk and bike in. Last week more than 700 people gathered for the opening of Emeryville’s new $21.4 million pedestrian and bike bridge, a bowed firetruck red span that connects the east and west sides of the town over the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks. The bridge for cyclists and walkers links residential neighborhoods to the Emeryville Public Market, the Bay Street shops and the waterfront’s open space.
A new pedestrian bridge can be seen next to a new development off of Horton Street and Sherwin Avenue near Bay Street shopping center in Emeryville. The East Bay city has been quickly building a lot of affordable housing units compared to neighboring cities like Oakland and Berkeley.
Bronte Wittpenn/The Chronicle
On the east side of the bridge the developer Lennar is building 500 housing units in a quartet of buildings, the first of which will open in May. About 100 of those units will be affordable. Next to those buildings there will be a new park as well as a 910,000 square-foot life science campus called the Emeryville Center of Innovation. Bauters said the hope is that the Lennar buildings will house many of the 2,000 biotech workers.
He said the city’s approach is to make the development process predictable, requiring developers to build between 17% and 25% affordable, depending on whether it’s rental or housing. “People line up here because developers want predictability,” he said. “They don’t have to roll the dice and get stuck in the process for years.”
Bauters said the city council is looking at further upzoning for height and density along transit corridors, upzoning the entire city to a minimum quadplex citywide and improving protections for existing low-income homeowners against speculation.
Bauters in recent years has not been shy about chiding larger Bay Area cities — like San Francisco and Berkeley — for delaying or rejecting development. On Twitter he has mocked East Bay communities where neighbors fight to protect views and keep shadows from encroaching on beds of zucchinis. He jokingly suggested a new city slogan: “Emeryville: We are the city that is happy to cast shade.”
J.K. Dineen is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jdineen@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfjkdineen
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Velivela may have felt connected to the home, given the location of the company’s headquarters. “With his professional offices in the former Hills Brothers coffee plant on the Embarcadero, he now can come home to one of San Francisco’s most beautiful and historical residences formerly owned by the Hills family,” said Compass agent Karen Mendelsohn Gould. “A rare and whimsical opportunity!”
The exterior edifice has been well preserved, exhibiting the French Eclectic style just as it did in the 1930s when it was built.
Adam Potts
A serendipitous transaction, sure, but this home sale also had a unique objective for the anonymous sellers. A large portion of the proceeds are slated to be distributed among different animal and nature nonprofit groups in the Bay Area.
From this hallway view, we see the home’s oval staircase that connects its four levels.
Adam Potts
This was the first time the home had hit the market in 55 years.
Among San Francisco’s most iconic food brands, Hills Bros. pioneered the ability to vacuum-seal cans of coffee in the 1900s. The brand’s sign still stands today above 2 Harrison St. in the Embarcadero, though the offices are now occupied by Google.
Light fills the living room, a spacious area that takes up the full backside of the home’s main level.
Adam Potts
Herbert Gray Hills lived in the seven-bedroom, seven-and-a-half-bathroom home with his wife Winifred and their family from the 1940s to the mid-1960s. Among many amenities, it features a gym, a separate caretaker’s apartment, a walk-in safe, an elevator to all levels and a four-car garage, according to the listing.
Huge windows look out on classic Presidio Hills views.
Adam Potts
A formal dining room with dramatic built-ins overlooks the landscaped property.
Adam Potts
The primary suite is on the second level and includes a dressing room, two bathrooms, plus a sitting room/office.
Adam Potts
A whimsical patio offers outdoor living, both covered and exposed.
