Purchased for $646,594 in 2005, the 896 square foot one-bedroom #1007 at the Beacon (260 King Street) was taken back by the bank last October with no bidders at $333,480 on the courthouse steps (and versus a $517,200 note then past due).
Currently occupied (no word on whether or not by the former owner who put a prideful 20 percent down), the “well kept” unit is back on the market and listed for $293,000, a sale at which would break the 50 percent off its previous open market sale mark.
At the same time, we count six (6) other Beacon condos currently scheduled to hit the courthouse steps and at least fifteen (15) more in preforeclosure and headed that way.
∙ Listing: 260 King Street #1007 (1/1) 896 sqft – $293,000 [MLS]

28 thoughts on “Fifty-Five Percent Off Its Two Thousand Five Sale Price At The Beacon”
  1. Whoever’s occupying it now certainly isn’t helping with staging… but seems like a good price if you can be sure they’ll move out without trashing the place.

  2. I wonder if that’s a protected tenant in there. Or the owner who defaulted. It’s not tough to do an owner move in with a tenant (I’ve done it myself) but my tenant wasn’t protected.

  3. Perhaps the dirty dishes in the sink and dirty underwear artfully draped on the bed are part of a neorealist trend in staging, rejecting the bourgeois upscale, polished look. Maybe the apt. is actually occupied by a talented interior designer and the space had to be “antistaged” to connect with the average buyer at this price point.

  4. I doubt the HOA fees are really $750. The parking will be high, but I also doubt the $1,000. The parking costs on REO in the Beacon are a direct result of the developers FUBAR in having both an HOA and a commercial association. Residents have an option to lease spaces in the garage at a reasonable rate (maybe $250/mo) from the CA as long as they never go into arrears on the lease, at which time the option for that unit reverts to “market rate”. Thus, the REO at the Beacon all have rediculous parking fees because the leases went into arrears during foreclosure. Just one of the many charming features the Beacon has to offer.

  5. No KG. The bank owns it now and so you can finance it with 3.5% down via FHA (but pay a higher interest rate) or 20% down via just about anywhere else.
    The cash would have been needed to buy it at the foreclosure sale, but that already happened: there were no buyers, so the bank took it.
    Thus, whatever it sells at will be the New Market Price.

  6. @tipster, is that still the case if the Beacon is in litigation? Trying to see the catch here — the monthly payments on 300k are so low that this seems like a no-brainer of an investment property.

  7. So when someone new buys the property, do they get to return to the $250/month parking from the CA? Or are they stuck with the “market rate” in perpetuity? (And is that really the market rate? $1000/month for a PARKING SPACE?)
    So none of the units in the Beacon have deeded parking? All the spaces are owned by the CA?

  8. ^^^What do you think a real estate blog is for? Just to look at the purdy houses (or not)? To follow to real estate market, pricing is quite relevant. What are you doing here, then? To look at the pictures?

  9. I’m here to see what SF going’s to look like for my kid — the next gen. I’m living in the future & loving it. It’s my way of not dealing with all the present reality. That said, SF’s looking really put together in recent years and more amazingness enroute.
    Appreciate the variety here but it just seemed like a play by play about this building which I don’t get.

  10. Not to speak for the socketsite editor, but it seems obvious to me that a real estate blog that is updated a few, if not several, times per day is going to have to feature buildings that have lots of action going on, almost by necessity. Most buildings that don’t have any units “trading” at any given time (that is to say, most of the buildings in SF) by definition aren’t newsworthy.
    That’s the reason you see so much coverage of The Beacon. What with the ongoing litigation, forclosed-on units, fire-sale pricing, etc., there’s frequently something new to say. Hence the getting of “a lot of press here”. The fact that the units are cheaper than most at other drama-surrounded bldgs like The Infinity and ORH only adds fuel to this phenomenon.

  11. Thanks Brahma — when I move into the industry, it will mean more to me. Now, I’m mainly interested in urban form and design — but that’s part of the richness of the site. It’s an education to read the comments. (far richer than getting my RE license last yr).

  12. From what I’ve heard, the litigation means 25% down minimum.
    No one is going to actually pay $1000/month for a space. You could just as soon get a market rate spot for $200-$300/month.
    I get the feeling that once you default on the parking/HOA fees, you are dooming all future owners of the unit to paying market rate for parking. Otherwise, these units could show that there is 1 parking spot on MLS. Deeded parking FTW!

  13. In case you are wondering about the other end of the spectrum, Unit 33C in the St. Regis has just been dropped 5% to 1.995, having sold for 2.7 three years ago. Falling about 8% per year, about the same as this Beacon rate of decline: the lower end just had a two year head start.

  14. And note, a fractional at the Ritz Carlton is now listed for 59% off its 2007 price.
    I wonder who’s selling that one? As it is, it appears (from the SF recorders site) one of the fractionals for Unit 305 was foreclosed in May 2010. And then two months later another fractional owner transferred (deed in lieu?) their share back to R C CHRONICLE BUILDING LP. Oh, and you have to love that in both cases the mortgagee on the Deeds of Trust was Ritz-Carlton Development Company. I guess they were, in reality, just renters. Now about that ‘security deposit’… errrr… downpayment.

  15. Bad building not representative of whole market. fee
    Prices not bad or up in this area. rents high and rates low.

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