The median
sale price for houses in San Francisco is up to $1.1 million, according to a
recent report from Paragon Real Estate. But the report also shows that, much
like the city’s famous microclimates, San Francisco is actually made up of
dozens of micromarkets, where the difference of a few blocks can mean the
difference of millions of dollars in the median sales prices.
In Pacific
Heights, for example, the median home price was about $4.1 million, versus just
under $2 million a few blocks south in Lower Pacific Heights. Neighboring
Presidio Heights, on the other hand, had the highest median house price in the
city with $6.125 million. Paragon looked at sales between August 16, 2014, and
February 15, 2015, to have a large enough sample set to determine these median
figures, but the report cautions that some neighborhoods still had very few
sales during this period, “which may produce anomalous results.”
While sales
like those in the above neighborhoods brought the median up, there were also
many neighborhoods where median single-family home sales were far below the
citywide median. For the most part, these homes were located in the city’s
southeastern quadrant, where neighborhoods like Mission Terrace (940K),
Sunnyside (860K), Excelsior (709K), Outer Mission (782K) and Portola (751K)
were purchased for well below the citywide median.
Oceanview,
Bayview and Visitacion Valley were the city’s least expensive neighborhoods,
with median sales in the mid-600K range. The slideshow above shows a recent
two-bedroom, two-bath flip in Oceanview. The 735-square-foot cottage with three
decks and fantastic views recently received a revamp with new flooring, a new
kitchen, and new paint inside and out. It sold for 649K in January after listing
for 669K in November 2014. (Pre-flip, it sold for 585K.)
On the west
side of town, there were also some bargains. Outer Richmond is still just below
the median with a $1.05 million median, while Outer Sunset (850K), Outer
Parkside (835K) and Parkside (950K) were still well below the citywide figure.
There are
actually very few neighborhoods where the median home price matched the
citywide median of $1.1 million, but a few came close. Miraloma Park was just
over with median of $1.137 million. Inner Parkside had a median of $1.150
million, just above the citywide number. (The photo gallery below shows a
recent Inner Parkside sale that comes very close to both the neighborhood and
citywide median.)
The above
medians are all for single-family home sales, but Paragon did break down condo
sales as well. In some neighborhoods, like Yerba Buena and South Beach, median
condo prices nearly matched the citywide single-family median. And in
neighborhoods like Russian Hill, where the condo median was $1.5 million, and
Noe and Eureka Valleys ($1.3 million), the condo median went well above the
citywide median for single-family homes.
Paragon
notes, “The sale of new-construction condos in 2014 and early 2015
significantly increased median and average values in certain neighborhoods such
as Potrero Hill, Duboce Triangle, Hayes Valley and Mission Dolores.” But, even
with the new inventory, the median sales for condos in all of those
neighborhoods—except one—are all below $1.1 million. At $1.225 million, Hayes
Valley condos beat the citywide median, and as more and more new construction
units come online, we may see more of this trend.
Emily Landes
is a writer and editor who is obsessed with all things real estate.
Article and
images sourced from: http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2015/02/26/the-least-expensive-s-f-neighborhoods-to-buy-a-single-family-home/
