San Francisco's smallest condo on the market (no bedroom, hardly a kitchen) sells for 40% over asking price
In case you don't know, homes in San Francisco are outrageously expensive.
Mind-bogglingly, eye-bulgingly, jaw-droppingly expensive.
Latest case in point: This 291-square-foot studio unit, which Curbed San Francisco identified as the tiniest condo for sale in the city, just sold for $415,000—after a bidding war that jacked up the price nearly 40 percent. (Click here or on a photo for a slideshow.)
The asking price was $299,000, and buyers instantly recognized this little cupboard's price point as a steal. An all-cash buyer won out and the home went from listed to sold in less than in a month.
The sales price doesn't only speak to how competitive San Francisco's market is right now; it also speaks to the ridiculously fast pace at which the city's home prices have grown over the past decade. Not even 12 years ago, this same unit was purchased for just $155,000. The home has nearly tripled in value during a decade that included one of the largest and deepest housing crises the nation has ever seen.
So what did the buyer get for all that cash?
Zero bedrooms, no real kitchen, one bathroom and less 300 square feet on the second floor of a 33-unit building; click here or on a photo for a slideshow. The unit itself is just one room (unless you count the bathroom, which does have a separate door!). The "efficient electric kitchen" touted in the listing is really scarcely even a kitchenette, just a tiny stove, fridge and sink squeezed into a wall. There's a Murphy bed that pulls down into the living room, and a built-in desk by a window.
But at least the overhead is small—just $289 a month goes toward the homeowner's association and the listing boasts that a bank of solar panels helps keep utility costs low—so maybe that somehow helps this owner or investor feel better about spending nearly $1,500 per square foot.
You can count the zeroes with each step.
For the record, that puts the price-per-square foot in the same ballpark as Spelling Manor or even Le Palais Royal in Florida (currently on the market for $139 million), and those properties have acreage, to say the least.
For San Francisco's boom housing market, this might be as cheap as it gets.
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