June 17, 2009
A Historic Look At 437 Hoffman (Before Noe Was All Builts Up)

Who could resist a historic look at 437 Hoffman atop Noe Valley circa 1905, versus as it looks today after all those damn density hounds had their way with the neighborhood.

∙ Listing: 437 Hoffman (3/2) - $1,495,000 [MLS]
∙ The Next Era In San Francisco’s Development: It’s All About Density [SocketSite]
First Published: June 17, 2009 3:00 PM
Comments from "Plugged In" Readers
that's a beautiful shot...rolling hills, trees, fresh air...sigh...i miss the good ol days
Posted by: Rincon Hill Billy at June 17, 2009 3:26 PM
Beautiful. I love repeat photography, especially when it shows the City in it's early stages.
Posted by: SFer at June 17, 2009 3:29 PM
Stunning ! Life seems far more simple(r) back then !!
Posted by: Chad at June 17, 2009 3:47 PM
OMG! Renovated! Laundry Room! Planning Commission!! Hooray for exclamation points!!!!
Too bad the listing agent can't dot his i's with happy faces!!!
Posted by: kaya at June 17, 2009 4:16 PM
That picture is super cool. Wish we could see it less tightly cropped.
The lack of windows on the sides of the house implies that people were thinking density even back then.
Posted by: Sb at June 17, 2009 4:29 PM
The front of the house looks better in the before picture (disregarding the construction). It seems to have sunk into the ground since then.
Appears it last sold in 2006 $1.23M, currently 15k/year in property taxes. I like the marketing tactic -- this certainly is a historical opportunity :)
Posted by: dub dub at June 17, 2009 4:50 PM
Very cool house. I snuck in before it went on the market since my buddy lives around the corner. Nice neighborhood, park down the block and close to 24th restaurants.
Outside doesn't look like much but the interior, views are really nice. I especially like the huge backyard.
Does anyone know if you can condo these units?
Posted by: Flunkster Dude at June 17, 2009 5:13 PM
I can't believe there isn't someone jumping in with an in depth financial analysis of this property's value compared to 1905 with comparitive graphs for stocks, commodities, precious metals, etc.
Posted by: OneEyedMan at June 17, 2009 5:27 PM
^Give it more time. Someone will oblige.
Posted by: eddy at June 17, 2009 5:30 PM
Proof that many of the structures that some want to preserve are really only simple wood boxes of moderate construction and little design, built as cheaply and quickly as possible to provide housing to what WAS a fast growing city. I have never understood San Francisco's love affair with homes such as this. In most world class cities this would be called a wood shed.
Posted by: jeff2 at June 17, 2009 5:35 PM
I'm pretty sure the street was raised, not the house sinking. Upper Market is similar - main entrances on some houses were raised a whole floor when Market was expanded at some point.
Posted by: Eric in SF at June 17, 2009 6:02 PM
Nice place and nice neighborhood, but $1.5m and no parking may be a tough sell right now.
Posted by: sanfrantim at June 17, 2009 6:04 PM
Does anybody know what the costs and complications are of turning something like this back into a single-family residence? What I mean is eliminating or repurposing the separate entrance, cutting doors or staircases or whatever to get to a reasonable "flow"...
Posted by: Jeremy at June 17, 2009 6:14 PM
Doggone photoshoppers removed the pickups, dumpsters, and porta potties from that vintage photo. We all know that it is impossible to construct anything without pickups or green porta-johns.
The photoshop trend continues to the present day. The MLS photo has the power line on the upper right removed. You can tell because who ever did it removed the wires from the sky but was too lazy to remove the wires as they pass over the shingled upper story.
I wonder what else was manipulated in the MLS images ?
And yeah, Hoffman St. is nice but not 1.5M nice.
Posted by: The Milkshake of Despair at June 17, 2009 6:59 PM
@The Milkshake, "Doggone photoshoppers removed the pickups, dumpsters, and porta potties from that vintage photo." (From 1905)...
Well for one thing they removed the outhouse. And that's where the renovation came in- indoor plumbing and bathrooms! ;)
Posted by: StockBoySF at June 17, 2009 7:48 PM
I'm appalled that even back in 1905 it was impossible to get anything past the planning commission unless it had bay windows.
Posted by: diemos at June 17, 2009 7:54 PM
That puts new perspective to living "in the sticks" back then which I am sure Noe Valley was.
Posted by: Ryan at June 17, 2009 7:55 PM
Overpriced shack. Whoever bought it needs a lobotomy.
Posted by: BobbyS at June 18, 2009 5:40 AM
"The lack of windows on the sides of the house implies that people were thinking density even back then."
or maybe not enough money to warrant another window?
or maybe less windows was good then in order to keep the house warmer?
Posted by: DanRH at June 18, 2009 6:31 AM
1.5 would have been a stretch for this property even at the mythical and elusive peak.
Posted by: eddy at June 18, 2009 7:52 AM
It seems that so many of these listings are forgetting to state that they're looking for *Canadian* dollars. Everyone assumes that the ask is for USD, making the price seem outrageous :-)
Just a little communication problem!
Posted by: Jeff at June 18, 2009 9:19 AM
An interesting photography from back in the day, you guys should run more of these. I wonder how much the inside has changed.
Posted by: asad at June 18, 2009 10:18 AM
Data point: 437 Hoffman went in front of the Planning Commission in September to remove a dwelling unit and was denied. Is it possible this is for sale again just because the project wasn't possible?
Posted by: Noe Valley, SF at June 18, 2009 10:40 AM
The city was very differant "back in the day"
My family owned a farm downtown - imagine that; a farm downtown....
Great photograph....
Posted by: Mike L at June 18, 2009 2:12 PM
@ Noe Valley: But maybe it has since been approved. The listing states: "*SF Planning approved transition to SFH."
In any event, priced a bit too high. But that may be the new pricing strategy for generally-desirable Noe listings: Set a price expecting that interested buyers are going to want to pay a bit below list, at least. That seems to have been what was going on with the 25th street listings much discussed here recently. Both were quick sales of good properties a few points below list.
Posted by: sanfrantim at June 18, 2009 2:24 PM
Price reduced to $1.395
Posted by: eddy at October 2, 2009 1:30 PM
The list price for 437 Hoffman has been reduced to $1,330,000.
Posted by: SocketSite at October 9, 2009 11:20 AM
The list price for 437 Hoffman has been reduced to $1,295,000. Purchased for $1,229,000 in May of 2006.
Posted by: SocketSite at October 30, 2009 12:10 PM
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