As we outlined this past October:

The “High-Tech Noe Home” at 525 28th Street hit the market as new for $3.6 million in June of 2014 and sold for $3.65 million that July.

Designed by EE Weiss Architects, an elevator runs from the two-car garage to the top floor of the four-story, four-bedroom home, with a floating wood and glass staircase that runs through a retractable sky-light to reach the roof deck with big views of the valley (and yard) below.

The 3,551-square-foot home returned to the market in May of 2017 listed for $3.995 million and sold for $4.6 million in two weeks time, representing apples-to-apples appreciation of 26 percent, or roughly 8.5 percent per year, on the short-term hold.

And today, 525 28th Street is back on the market with a $4.695 million price tag, a sale at which would represent total appreciation of 2.1 percent, or roughly 1.5 percent per year, for the “contemporary residence that combines stunning architecture and state-of-the-art technology to create a luxurious and warm home like no other,” since the middle of 2017.

And as referenced by a plugged-in reader this morning, the resale of 525 28th Street has now closed escrow with a contract price of $4.2 million, down 8.7 percent since mid-2017, or roughly 5.0 percent per year, on an apples-to-apples basis (but up since 2014!).

31 thoughts on “High-Tech Noe Home Drops Nearly 9 Percent”
  1. Man. The 2007 bungalow that used to be there was a much more appropriate house than this McMansion.

      1. The conventional response to these posts showing the market thoroughly tanking before our eyes is to find some flaw and then argue that the source of the decline was the flaw, ignoring the fact that the busy street was there when it sold the first time.

        And people would try to convince themselves and others that the downturn was limited to homes with that flaw, with the obvious result that “MY home is still worth what I paid for it in 2017.” The idea is that lots of inventory allows buyers to keep bidding up the best homes while ignoring the flawed homes. And that does happen for a little while, at least occasionally.

        Here we have a home without a significant flaw. Perfect layout for a family with 3 bedrooms all on one floor, an elevator, a separated living space for an au pair or older sibling. Lots of light. Modern interior, contemporary exterior. Not a through street. 3 blocks to a playground in one direction, four blocks to a different one in another that’s adjacent to a park. If the kids are somewhat grown, you have a zero maintenance outdoor space that can be converted to a play area if they are too young for the playground. Four blocks to a Safeway. About a mile to restaurants and coffee shops in virtually every direction.

        While nothing is perfect, you aren’t going to do better than this and it still lost $650,000.

        1. I’m not going to pick apart the things that you said there, or rather the things you say are conventionally said that don’t apply here, other than to note you went from “picture perfect” to nothing is perfect to you aren’t going to do better than this. It’s a fine home. I thought it would have fared better. What happened on a practical level was, an actual all cash offer came in and they took it. Look at the timing. At the end there it was practically instantaneous.

          1. “What happened on a practical level was, an actual all cash offer came in and they took it.”

            Oh please, it was on the market for 4 months before they got that offer. It’s not like they had 6 other offers for $9Mil that, “gosh darn it, just couldn’t close as fast as this one at 4.2, so we took this one instead just to save three weeks”.

            The mental gymnastics that go on here to try to rationalize a falling price as an anomaly, in spite of an entire orchard of apples, is just amazing. You yourself had noted this was of high quality in a hot market and the price completely tanked. My point is, there’s no excuses, though a few people in this thread (real estate agents and would be sellers, no doubt) are certainly trying: this sold for what it did because prices are falling. End of story.

          2. No, there’s no mental gymnastics in play here. Of course the sellers likely didn’t get a better offer any time recently. That’s implicit. Who is rationalizing? All one has to do is look at when it went pending and when it sold to deduce that it was cash. And who said it was or was not an anomaly?

            “It sold for what it did because prices are falling.”

            I don’t think the numbers will back that up when we look back at Noe Valley sales quarter over quarter, 2018 vs 2019 to be honest.

        2. I don’t see an elevator in the floor-plans, but I do agree that it’s a nice looking house for a family.

      2. You were bullish on it 4 months ago, but it still went Slow and Low!

        “I think it gets asking or better rather quickly. The Noe market for things of this quality and in this range has been competitive this fall.”
        Posted by Ohlone Californio, 4 months ago

        1. Yes. What does that have to do with my question to Tipster?

          To your point though I will say this. Are you ready? Wait for it. Wait for it.

          I got it wrong that one wrong.

  2. Something doesn’t add up here – the front shows two stories over a garage with the main entrance on the right. The floor plans show the main entry on the left and no garage. The description mentions an elevator but none is indicated.

    1. Entrance is on level 3.

      Looks like closets got repurposed into an elevator shaft. You can see the call button outside the door in the dining room.

    2. From Socketsite four months ago:

      “The garage, which sits under the third floor family room, behind the bathroom on the second floor, wasn’t included in the floor plan. The elevator shaft runs from the garage, through the (mislabeled) “store” room on the third floor and adjacent to the walk in closet on the fourth, simply mislabeled as “CL.”

      The “main entry” to the yard isn’t the sliding glass pictured above but the door that’s semi-hidden behind the tree.”

    1. They really cheaped out on the landscaping. Two mounds of gravel filling most of the yard – what a waste of outdoor space.

  3. nice place but the yard is cheap and the next door neighbor’s house looks like a tear down.

      1. after google-street-view, it looks like a mixed block and i’d really tear down the houses on both sides of it.

        glad to see they redid the concrete in front.

        they should also “red tip” their driveway so they can always park across the front of it and not block the sidewalk. i’m surprized this hasn’t caught on more. $350 buys you an extra parking spot in front of your own house for life.

        1. “Some Driveway Red Zones may not be approved for a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to: the loss of legitimate parking spaces (for example, where a 15-feet to 19-feet space exists between driveways on streets with parallel parking)” It looks like both of those might qualify as legitimate parking spaces.

          Also, why can’t the neighbors call in a complaint about someone parking in the red and have it towed? Does paying for a red zone give certain people privileges to park in the red zone?

  4. I wonder why the developer hadn’t raised the garage (and the house with it) to make for a flat driveway.

  5. There is a lot to unpack here, but isn’t it always location, location, location? It located on the wrong side of the hill for a spectacular view. It’s located on a walk to nothing block. It’s located on a particularly windy and cold ridge. Three strikes.

    1. except all that stuff was true when it last sold. I suppose you can say that in a flat or declining market the negatives pile up more quickly for any property with issues. But otherwise that’s just excuses similar to “the last buyer overpaid”.

  6. Well, that was a quick stint with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative:

    He said that his family, including his two boys, willingly made big sacrifices over the past decade to support his work, including relocating to San Francisco last year. And so after building the CZI team and having “a proper dose of humility about my essentiality,” he concluded that it was time to go back to the Washington, D.C. area.

    They likely wanted to get their kids enrolled in school by the fall, but horrible timing for trying to sell a home.

    1. Funny that no one mentioned the horrible timing 4 months ago when this was supposed to sell fast and over asking.

      1. There were several, recent, mid 4Ms and up Noe Valley sales at that particular point in time.

    2. He didn’t buy the home. Public record shows $0 down from the buyer, full $4.6mn via loan from a LLC that is c/o ICONIQ, the wealth management company of the Zuckerberg family. My guess is that the Zuckerbergs, to attract him to CZI, said “we will give you a home” and they did. Now that he is leaving, it was sold.

      1. JS and his wife did buy the home on 5/25/2017. I’m sure they claimed the interest (if there was any) and property taxes on their 2017 return. Perhaps SALTmageddon convinced him it was time to head back east.

        I missed that the property was indeed deeded back to West Street Properties LLC on 9/5/18. I guess CZI decided to cut their losses when a buyer showed up. Home prices continue falling from the thermosphere, but tech money continues to keep the market afloat. For now.

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