471 Hoffman Rear Facade

Purchased as a “pride-of-ownership” Mid-Century home for $1.51 million in late 2012, the Noe Valley three-bedroom at 471 Hoffman was gutted, expanded, and returned to the market a month ago as a contemporary five-bedroom, with four levels, an abundance of stairs (and no elevator), and a list price of $5.7 million.

Yesterday, the sale of 471 Hoffman closed escrow with a reported contract price of $6.7 million, making it the second most expensive home in Noe, behind the recent $7 million sale of 553 Elizabeth and ahead of the ‘T-House’ at 526 Duncan which fetched $6.1 million in 2011.

34 thoughts on “Noe Valley’s New Second Most Expensive Home”
  1. Did I miss a picture of the front of the house on the marketing site? It looks beautiful. What’s the street side look like?

    Great work developers.

    1. it was left out for a reason imo. pretty clumsy. this one takes the cake thus far. the main floor is small, the lower rooms redundant, awkward steps in places, liberty hill blocks the downtown views. the bedrooms were good size though. that was the nicest part.

    2. Haven’t been able to find one of the renovated front exterior anywhere. Strange. The old entryway was pretty non-descript.

  2. windy and cold up there, although at least it’s on the downhillside of the street, so the yard is protected (but probably quite shady early in the afternoon, since the house is to the south of the yard.

    1. This is where the fog chases the sun. At 3 to 4PM you get into the “Mist” of Things and then the fog rolls down from Twin Peaks and stops sometimes 2 to 3 blocks down.

  3. So, it’s easy to assume from the houses being offered in Noe that techies love white walls, tiny non-functional ‘home theaters,’ glass ‘wine cellars’ and Nana walls. These clones have some horrible taste. Most rooms in this house actually looked better before the renovation. Techies seem to embrace the absence of style and are willing to pay a premium for it.

    1. I hope those techies have strong legs. Because you are one block too high for easy walkability.

    2. I am an ephemeral
      and a not too discontented citizen
      of a metropolis considered modern
      because all known taste
      has been evaded in the furnishings
      and the exterior of the houses
      as well as in the layout of the city.

      Here you will fail to detect the least trace
      of any monument of superstition.
      Morals and language
      are reduced to their simplest expression,
      at last! The way these millions of people,
      who do not even need to know each other,
      manage their education, business,
      and old age is so identical
      that the course of their lives
      must be several times less long
      than that which a mad statistics
      calculates for the people of the continent.

      1. the minor officials I saw are,

        as it is, prouder than Brahmins,

        and I trembled at the aspects of the guardians of those colossi and their site supervisors.

        1. Very nice, and just as appropriate. Even the next line, about them having “ousted the cabbies” although that seems to vary according to the translation..(has to be Varese!!!)

  4. Grapes seem sour this morning. I like the stepped balconies, reaching the view from each level. Four stories not an issue for a young family. Room to stretch out. On a value basis not cheap but if you want to live in this part of the city, seems like a more rational purchase than the 553 Elizabeth purchase.

      1. I did not view these properties except on-line, but sometimes I do view properties shown on Socketsite. Thanks for asking 🙂

          1. That’s entirely possible. Personally I would rather not be short a new version of Proposition G.

            I can think of few situations more ripe for attack by our supervisors than new money buyers of lavishly priced two unit buildings being used as single family homes. I hope the buyers of Elizabeth understood that 2-unit issue well.

          2. elizabeth is a functional 2 unit that can also be utilized as a single family home. there’s nothing wrong with that. why would the city care about that? i’ll take your subsequent deflection as a given. no need to respond to my rhetorical question.

          3. anon, you totally missed soccermom’s point. maybe reread her comment and learn what Prop G was.

          4. I didn’t even rate that Prop G thing soccermom said. Why did you? If there is somehow another bill in the future that precludes a relatively short time span for selling units? What does that have to do with this buyer, and not developer, one? price, two? or why would a hypothetical future version of a defeated bill be a thing? don’t get you.

    1. There’s nothing rational in paying 2.5 times what you would have paid in 2010. Just very poor timing and a bit of herd mentality. I used to live very close from this place. Yes it’s great to be so close from 24th and yet in a quiet area. But close to 7M? My rational mind looks at ROI and blanks out. Good thing I jumped in 2010.

    2. No sour grapes here, just disbelief. Finishes aren’t nearly as nice as 553 Elizabeth. Views are nice from the upper levels but not great. Both pale in comparison to the T-House. Four stories will get old even if the buyers are young. They overpaid. Hope the market is tight when they decide to sell.

  5. Will be interesting to see if this house experiences the same sort of revolving door ownership pattern that its immediate neighbor (465 Hoffman) has seen over the last decade or so. SS has tracked 465 Hoffman pretty well over the years, but a quick refresher of dates and sale prices:

    ’04: $840k
    ’06: $1.035mm
    ’07: $1.15mm
    ’10: $2.97mm
    ’11: $3.3mm
    ’14: $5.1mm

    Nothing wrong with a progression like that…but 6 owners in the course of a decade has to be some sort of record for Noe. And having lived about a block from this house when I first moved to Noe (and now happy to live down in the flats), I’m going to guess that (1) the distance from the core of 24th Street, (2) the long steep hill to get back home and (3) the constant wind and afternoon fog ultimately drive high end but first time Noe buyers away from what they thought were great views and a great location overlooking the valley below.

    There are few things more heart-wrenching than having a great deck/back yard and watching your kid press his face against the glass during summer vacation and ask “daddy, when will the fog go away and when will it be warm enough to go outside again?”

    Not until October son…not until October

      1. Of course they will. It’s still pretty dull and parents with creaky joints (going downhill from Hoffman will do that to your knees) will most likely decide to ship everyone to a better climate.

        I have a former NV neighbor who goes on a 2-months hiatus to Santa Cruz to escape this freaking fog. The time with his kids is too precious.

          1. Not as much actually in the summer. At least the kids have the rides and tons of other kids to play with.

  6. No_vally,

    I can think of many things more heart wrenching that telling a kid he cant play outside in his backyard in the summer. I understand your sentiment, but the hyperbole doesnt help your argument.

    If the parents own a house in Noe with a backyard, the kid is probably better off than 95% to 99% of kids worldwide…

    1. It’s the .01% or better globally. Top 1% globally is around 34,000. In other words, if you can rent in SF you are better off than 99% of the people globally. And if you can afford to not work and camp out for 6 months, chances are you are in the top 1 or 2 percent globally.

  7. I think the worst thing about this house is the relative lack of windows. If you look at the floor plans, there are ZERO side windows on any level, no lightwells. The lower two levels only have windows at the back, and this includes the main living floor. Next level up, you get 1 window in each front bedroom.

    It’s going to feel like a cave except on the top floor, particularly in the afternoon/evening. Having the one neighbor extending back further than this house doesn’t help matters.

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