Tag: square feet

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587 Jersey One Year Later

I came across this beautiful wreck during a walk in my ‘hood last autumn and snapped this photo to catch the eerie light through the windows.

Purchased a year ago for $700,000, the 1300 sf house has grown to 4BR, 3 BA and 2462 square feet.  Voila, the new 587 Jersey, just listed at a slender $1,749,000.  That’s $710 a foot.

I toured the property last Tuesday and to be honest I was underwhelmed.    The developers squeezed the extra square footage into the original building envelope by building out the attic and the basement.  Certainly a good way to avoid all the hassle of neighborhood 311 hearings, notifications, and controversy.  But at the end of the day, you’re still buying a built out basement and a built out attic.  And it shows.

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Beautiful Wreck: 587 Jersey, Noe Valley

Walking my dog, yesterday afternoon and I was brought up short by this beautiful wreck around the corner from where we live.

P1010087

Light and shadow from the rafters seemed to make the windows glow like cardboard cut-outs.

P1010088

Here’s the scoop:  Listed in mid-May for $799,000, sold on June 25 for $700,000.  1360 square feet of original detail.  $515 bucks a foot.

I quote from the listing:  “All inside doors, most hardware, some light fixtures appear original and possibly pre-1900.”

Not any more, it seems….

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What $2.1 million buys in Noe Valley

Out on brokers’ tour yesterday, I looked in on two homes  available in my Noe Valley neighborhood, priced within $2,000 of each other.  731 Douglass (at 24th Street) sold in March 2005 for $1.944 million and a mere $29o,000 in March 1997, when it was a sad-looking 1200 ft marina-style house, with a 6-car garage.  Back then:

731-douglass-old

and now:

731-douglass-now

In 1999, the owners completely redid the building, right around the same time that my wife and I were remodeling our house just around the corner and converting it from a two-unit building into a single family home.  At the time, there weren’t too many larger homes in Noe Valley.  Now, everybody seems to be adding floors or building out the basement.

For $2,150,000 you’ll get 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, plus an office with panoramic views of the city on the top level, plus a good- sized family room downstairs.  Around 3,000 square feet, based on the 2005 listing information.  It’s a nice livable layout, has lots of light and the high quality finishes you’d expect.

What’s missing?  No backyard, just a postage-stamp sized courtyard.  Another possible negative:  it’s across the street from Noe Courts and the bus stop for the 48 Quintara which might make it a little noisier than average.

Just up the hill and around the corner, on one of the nicest streets in Noe Valley,  is 110 Hoffman Street @ 23rd, selling for $2,148,000 after two price drops.  Originally listed for $2.395 back in November.

110-hoffman

This one sold a year ago for $1.2 million as a 1600 sf “fixer”.  Well, they sure fixed it.  It’s now just under 2900 sf, 4BR/3.5 BA family room/media room, and a built-out attic with panoramic views of the city, accessible by a spiral staircase.  The flow of the space is not quite as good as  731 Douglass and there’s less of it.  But it’s an impressive home nonetheless.

What 110 Hoffman has that Douglass doesn’t is a beautiful back yard and a location on one of Noe Valley’s best streets.  Now that Hoffman’s price is returning to earth, it’ll be interesting seeing how these two thoroughbreds compete.