SocketSite™

You have got to be kidding. The owners of 755 Marina are clearly under the impression that it is 2005. If ever there was a house that needed to be staged, this is it, and even then it would not justify this inflated price.

I cannot see any reason why this house should be priced so much higher than 611, which is clearly the nicer of the two, extra half bath or not. Have people completely forgotten about fundamentals, or do they really believe that they can slap any price tag onto a "Marina" location and people will be beating down the door to bid on their underwhelming home? Ridiculous. It will be interesting to see how long this sits on the market, or if there are people ignorant enough to pay this price for location only, as clearly the house is not worthy.

I saw the property at 611 Marina, and based on other properties available and on the market, it sure looks like a bargain.

Seems as though prices in the Marina haven't wavered in the past year. Several new listings of condo flats have appeared in the last week at $1.3 million and higher. I guess there's too much demand down there...

the bathroom in 755 has got some ugly ass tiles. hmm...come buddy, spend a little. and the tiles in the kitchen arent any better.

outta curiosity, what wld the MONTHLY earthqake insurance be on a 5M $ house like this in the marina?

755 is on PropertyShark due to auctioned I think on 4/11

755 Marina promotes "Best Views in San Francisco on this waterfront luxury home" and not one single picture of the "view" and "waterfront". Come on, the agent needs a lesson or two about marketing....

And the kitchen? Looks like an 80's kitchen to me. This property should be priced a million below 611 Marina, not 1.5M above!

Wow, it's in foreclosure!

Did someone take out a funny loan on a property like this and now they can't repay it or even sell it for the remaining principal on the loan? Obviously, that's the reason for the preposterous price. I wonder who appraised it for that price, though maybe it was an option arm or other such thing where only the minimum payments were being made.

Who knew it would start in SF on a property like this! I thought the mortgage problems were only a problem in rust belt states, not SF.

This can't be good for the real estate market in SF!

Another vote for 611. I checked it out during open. House looks great and they've got $500k in the foundation.

755 is just all wrong. It's a disaster.

I couldn't find info on the loan myself (subscribe to foreclosures.com) so I'm unsure if these folks are upside down. But, given the price of the home and also the fact that it's on the chopping block, I would say they probably are. They probably purchased and then maxed out the equity during high times and then were unable to refinance their adjustable rate mortgage.

A short sale in the Marina? Is that possible?

Does anyone know the outstanding loan balance against it?

My data service doesn't show the loan amounts, but it shows 6 refis since the 1999 purchase - or one refi every year through 2005, with one of the last ones marked "high liability." I'd suggest that buyers look at a preliminary title report to give you an idea of the outstanding debt on the property (and also to see if there are an easements/encroachments/unusual title conditions).

In the picture, it says LIVING ROOM above the fireplace of 611 Marina Boulevard. Is that phrase really emblazoned above the fireplace, or is that just a caption added to the photo?

[Editor’s Note: Photo caption.]

A refi every year?! So they bought the place, made the payments for one year, then refi'd every year after that to get money to make the next year's payments?! Wow!

Move aside, One Ricon Marketing Team: THESE PEOPLE ARE MY HEROES!!!!

I had been looking at this Ponzi scheme only from the demand side: too many idiots chasing houses. What I hadn't seen was that the free and easy money enabled people to keep living in homes they couldn't afford, keeping the supply artificially low when they held, rather than sold, their houses.

So not only was the demand artificially high, the supply was artificially low. Wow!!

I think I just increased my estimate of how much prices will fall in the next few years. And right in the Marina! Go figure.

I moved to SF from Chicago in 2005. When I see values like these two, I want to return to Chicago despite the coldest of Winters.
SF prices are a joke by almost any measure, definitely when compared to renting, and will eventually price SF out of competition with other cities. IMO, a crash will probably come!

Cary

Prices are falling b/c one house is listing it $1million+ higher than fair value? I LOVE THIS BLOG! lol

There is nothing special, unique or interesting about either one of these two places. And, at these prices, neither one is worth it either, located in the Marina or elsewhere. What a JOKE. Good LUCK trying to sell at these laughable price tags. They're about to lose what they couldn't afford in the first place. How sadly short-sighted and/or greedy the buyers were.

Duh,

I'm not sure if your comment was in response to mine but to clarify: I'm not predicting an imminent collapse of SF prices. What I am suggesting that is the rent equivalent of 755 Marina is at least $23,000 a month. Judging from the pictures I saw, it isn't worth half that! When the ONLY financial incentive for buying is future appreciation you are taking on additional risk. IMO the risk for SFH ownership is very high and when compared to other cities with similar profiles (Chicago, Miami, Phoenix, Denver, ect) it will become incresingly difficult to atract labor and business.
I love SF but ....there is a price!

Cary

I'm with you, Cary. I've heard so many people talk about Chicago in that respect. I don't know Chicago at all, but a quick look at Craigslist amazed me. For what I'd need for a 20% down payment here in SF, I could buy an equivalent condo for cash there. No joke.

Sign me up for the Chicago fan club also. Clean streets, amazing architecture, great restaurants, Wrigley Field, the CSO and Opera. You can buy a 2bd in the Meis designed 910 Lake Shore Drive for about $400,000! With parking! A national modernist landmark, next to the shops and museums of Michigan Avenue for about $375 a square foot!

Most of the people commenting here have probably profited, to some degree, from the absurdity of the San Francisco real estate market - myself included. It is undeniably absurd and this site (socket site) does offer a rational perspective to the swinging fabulous wrongness of it all. It is great that we can vent and yet all this banter sounds like a group of kids at the end of a year long purge at an amusement park. Regardless - it is a unique place to reside or reside by. And with global warming at our heels, it may just be the new Madrid.
But the immediate issue at hand may be one of marketing. 611 Marina has priced itself fairly and done great marketing - given that from time to time one sells context more than content. All of this in contrast to 755 Marina - terrible marketing and an insane price. It's called a nice twist of fate.

Prices definitely continue to be going up in The Marina. There is absolutely NOTHING reasonable under $2 million dollars in The MArina. There is one place for $1.4 but it's only about 1,400 sqft and in an alley with no parking.

2707 Laguna St. was a clear example of how hot the market is, with 5 bids and 500K over asking to $4 million, from a $1.89 purchase price in 11/05!

Seriously, go to any open house in The Marina or Pac Heights, it is crazy. No inventory for high-end 'affordable housing $1.8-$3 mil.

Duh is the poster otherwise known as PrimeProperty, a realtor on another forum who frequently selectively cites the facts to support his proposition that the Marina always goes up. It's been a game on that forum to "out" his facts and the property he references has already been outed on other forums. His facts are always "outed" in this manner.

The 2707 Laguna property he cites was practically a teardown, with a new foundation and significant new square footage added by the new owner. Yet Prime trots this place out on every forum he can, in order to make people believe that every place in the marina has more than doubled in the last year.

He's been referencing busy open houses in the Marina. But similar to the movie "The last days of disco", where, after the disco craze was over, the NYC disco owners paid people to stand outside their discos to continue to have long lines to try to lead the unhip to believe that the disco craze was still on so that they would continue to pay the $200 (2007 equivalent) cover prices and $50 drink prices, no one believes him this time either.

6 refis since 1999? That is genius. You're right, they either did that to pay for the mortgage payments for the upcoming year or spent the money in other places (business or pleasure). I wish I had thought of that.

Well, we'll see if it goes on the block and is successfully sold or if the bank takes it over. They are running out of time if the auction is in April. My guess is that they won't sell it on the open market in time.

I don't know what the refi amounts are, or if they have a HELOC loan of some sort, but here's a comparison of the two homes on purchase price: 755 paid $1.58mm in November of 1999, with a loan of $1.1mm, making their down-payment amount $480k. Conversely, 611 paid $1.62 in March of 1999, with a loan of $500k, making their down-payment amount $1,120,000.

611, while having the more expensive of the two homes, only borrowed about the same amount as 755 put down. They will make a very nice profit on their home, even while now having the lower price of the two.

It should be no surprise that the one with the risky financing is now in foreclosure. Knowing that 755 has refied every year, I'd say they are beyond under water...they're drowning.

Yes, this is only one example. But I have read so many people's posts about how SF is different, especially in the higher end market, and yet, here is a perfect example of how some people bit off more than they could chew. I guarantee you they were not the only ones.