3577 Pacific Avenue (www.SocketSite.com)

Touting an “Exciting new price!” of $5,995,000, the newly renovated 3577 Pacific Ave has just joined our quickly growing high-end million dollar cut club.

3577 Pacific Avenue: Living

That’s assuming you count the three days at which it was originally listed for $7,700,000 (now 22% lower). If not, it’s now only $955,000 (14%) under its last price of $6,950,000.

UPDATE: And from a plugged-in reader, the full floor plan monty (pdf).

∙ Listing: 3577 Pacific Avenue (6/4) – $5,995,000 [MLS]

25 thoughts on “An “Exciting New Price” (And Club Initiation) For 3577 Pacific Avenue”
  1. Yikes! I love this house. I’m surprised someone hasn’t fallen in love with it yet. However in this market I think it has a little further to go.

  2. Yeah, not the best in terms of curb appeal. At this rate I wouldn’t be surprised if it went for even less than I said back in November:
    “I don’t see how it’s going to fetch $1500 a square foot. Maybe 5.5 mill.”
    Chasing the market down = always a dumb idea.

  3. I’m not surprised that this property is still sitting and I’m really surprised that the developer/realtor wasn’t more astute about pricing it correctly to begin with. They’re so in their own wally world. When will these supposed professionals recognize the new reality? Try pricing in the 4mm range, if they’re lucky.

  4. Judging by the number of reductions, it looks to me like the market has dropped about 10% in the last week.
    Hard to tell when so little is selling.
    I’m thinking that people were waiting to see what the mood was like after the super bowl and what sort of stimulus might be in the package to boost real estate sales. The mood is grim and the stimulus fell somewhat short on real estate issues, so we’re seeing lots of drops this week. The economy isn’t getting any better and the stock market keeps sinking.
    The properties furthest out of line appear to be dropping the fastest. I’d bet the some of the agents are getting sick of paying the marketing costs for something so overpriced, and are starting to apply a bit more pressure than usual.

  5. On tipster’s last point about realtors getting tired of marketing homes that are just not going to sell at listed prices, I saw an interesting “report” on Paragon’s web site. This has all sorts of flaws, but it is clearly designed as a signal to the SF cartel that they need to start beating seller/clients into lowering prices so that properties can start moving again. I particularly like the quote from “House Selling for Dummies” (don’t get me started on the choice of source) to pound the point home: “Ironically, instead of getting more money… [Over-pricing] usually stigmatizes a property and reduces the eventual sale price to less than it would have been with more realistic pricing.”
    Translation — tell your clients to lower the list price and not only might it then have a chance to sell at all but it will sell for more in the long run.
    Quote a change in tactics from a year ago when the party line was still to beat on buyer-clients to bid early and often and bid high.
    http://www.paragon-re.com/docs/general/How_Much_Have_San_Francisco_Home_Values_Declined_Feb_09.pdf

  6. Trip – Thanks for the Paragon report. Very helpful.
    Trip & Tipster – I think you’re both right, the cartel is starting to listen to the market. When I mentioned repricing units to agents back in December, it used to be that they would balk and say they’re not sure they have to. Now they say yes, we plan to do that, and they suggest that I just put in a bid to start the process. Some even say that a reasonable but low-ball bid will be considered.
    The government’s stimulus plan is important for me. The $8,000 tax credit’s November due date will be an important determinant for timing, and the increase in the amount for loan guarantees will be important in determining how much I’ll decide to spend. I’m waiting to catch the knife, hoping that it will be a butter knife by the time I decide catch it.
    But the pricing has got to come down. When I see SOMA or media gulch lofts listed for $899,000, it makes me question the seller’s sanity. I’ve seen dirty little places in older buildings that literally smelled and they’re still asking $600,000+. I understand that there are other forces at play pricing, but seriously…where have they been since October? When places aren’t priced correctly, buyers sometimes feel foolish for even looking at the place.

  7. The question is whether real selling prices have actually gone down. They have not gone up much, probably, but I bet that good comps of mid-2007 would be not more than prices sold now in Pac & Pres Hts, and nearby neighborhoods.

  8. Conifer – You can argue comps, but mean price per square foot, medians, and of course sales are way down in 2009 for Dist 7B (Pac Hts) and everywhere else. Here are sales volume and mean price psf for single family homes in Dist 7B by year:
    2009 YTD: 2 sales, $760 psf
    2008: 39 sales, $950 psf
    2007: 49 sales, $971 psf
    2006: 41 sales, $974 psf
    2005: 59 sales, $1,013 psf
    2004: 72 sales, $855 psf
    2003: 67 sales, $734 psf
    At this moment, there are 20 single family home in Active status for Dist 7B (a 20-month supply at the current sales pace of 1/month). The mean list price psf is $1,291 for these listings. OK, let’s remove 2845 Broadway ($3,154 psf) and a couple other +$10M listings. Now the mean list price drops to $934 psf. But who is going to be stepping up to pay $900 – $1K psf going forward? The 2 buyers so far in 2009 paid over 20% less.
    The drop in sales volume in this district (and every other) must indicate a growing supply. Listings are not up proportionally – but there must be huge and growing number of pent up sellers waiting to list. We’re back at 2003 price levels in premium districts – but the rest of the country is already heading for 1998-2000 levels or lower.

  9. 2580 Broadway sold in three days for close to asking. It was listed at $4.25M and tax records show 1,866 sq ft. That equates to $2,294/sq ft in district 7. Choice properties in Pac Hts still move and move quickly.

  10. So I guess there are only two “choice properties” listed recently in Pac Heights since that is all that have sold in 2009. Seb, how do you define “choice”?

  11. 2580 Broadway shows as “Pending” in the MLS so it’s not in the sales stats yet. Also, the listing does NOT include square footage – so when/if it does sell for $2,200 psf, the mean price psf for D7B will be unaffected. As we’ve discussed, many listings lack square footage data (for whatever reasons) – too bad the listing agent choose not to include it here as it would have jacked up the average psf for 2009.
    $4.2M and $2.2K psf seems like a high price to pay for something that sold in 2003 for $2.6M and appears to have had no renovations since then. There have been very few SFH’s that have ever sold for more than $2K psf (at least when they list the square footage). I guess there are still a few who will pay up for a Broadway address – and the other 4 active Broadway listings are priced from $7.8M – 65M.

  12. Now that the price is dropping, I can share a little insight. I was at the playground across the street from this house and they were putting the finishing touches before coming to market. I yelled across the street, “Hey, you guys going to sell the home?”
    A blunt reply, “Yes.”
    My follow up…”What are you asking? $4.5 or $5 Million?” Mind you I had never set foot in the front door.
    The reply, “You’re kidding. Come have a look.”
    After a tour and while inside I was made to feel about 1 inch tall, chided, and asked, “Still think $5M?”
    In my head, I was thinking, “Actually, yes,” but I told him, “No…thanks for the tour”, and started walking out.
    While leaving was whispered to, “Expect it to sell around $7,000,000.”
    Guess I wasn’t so far off after all.

  13. Perhaps not so “exciting” this time around, the list price for 3577 Pacific was just reduced to $5,650,000 (a cut of $345,000/5.7%). Now listed for 26.6% under original ask.

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