San Francisco’s largest 2022 residence gross sales have been off market
In 2021, luxury properties on the market in San Francisco were in high demand. In 2022, the trend reversed: buyers no longer craved the high-end properties available on the market that rarely solicited overbids. This year instead saw record-breaking prices for off-market luxury real estate in San Francisco.
As far as we can decipher, the top three off-market home sales each represent transactions of about $30 million. In contrast, the three giants in the market were $17 million, $19 million, and $29 million. Interestingly, most of the above houses – sold on and off the market – are similarly proportioned and have a similar architectural pedigree. (The outlier is the cash sale of two penthouse condos in Summit Tower for $29 million.)
Sotheby’s International’s Deborah Svoboda represents high-end sellers and buyers in San Francisco. She believes 2022 “has proven to be a challenging year for San Francisco’s real estate sector due to back-to-back interest rate hikes, stock market volatility and tech layoffs.” But, she added, “the luxury market has held steady, as evidenced by the top three annual sales, ranging from $29.5 million to $34.5 million, all of which were OTC.”
Why leave the market? Alex Clark, real estate agent and founder of real estate firm FrontSteps, is a regular contributor to Pocket Listings. There are many reasons sellers and their agents choose to sell off-market, he told SFGATE.
“It’s not easy to pin down one main reason,” he said. “For some, it’s the privacy of only getting approved and verified buyers through the door. For others, it’s a way to test the price and interest rates, and for many it’s because they don’t want to go through the pressure and stress of properly preparing a home for sale. Ideally, that means you often shy away from just a small makeover… move out, fix bathrooms, floors, kitchens, lighting, garden, or at least paint and staging. That can be a lot.”
Below are what appear to be San Francisco’s top three off-market residential real estate sales of 2022.
2790 Broadway
In late summer of that year, 2790 Broadway sold out for $34.5 million. The 12,000-square-foot Pacific Heights mansion was reportedly purchased by an LLC with ties to the ultra-wealthy Glazer family. Malcolm Glazer, founder of private equity firm First Allied Corporation, died a billionaire in 2014. His heirs now own the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the immensely popular English football team Manchester United. And now, it seems, the Glazers own a 1927 Beaux-Arts beauty designed by Arthur Brown Jr., the architect who built San Francisco’s City Hall and Opera House, the California School of Fine Arts, and even the Coit Tower has worked.
This 14-room mansion was once the home of art collectors Norah and Norman Stone, who filled some of its vast halls with outstanding works of modern art.
3450 21st Street
In July, Mark Zuckerberg sold this Liberty Hill mansion for $31 million, trying to do it quietly and over the counter. The quiet part didn’t actually happen, because Zuckerberg’s sale was the most expensive San Francisco home sale of 2022 up to that point. It quickly made headlines, and not for the first time.
Zuckerberg originally bought this 1928 home in November 2012 for $10 million, meaning he made a pretty penny here. The Real Deal reported that “the [new] The buyer for the Zuckerberg property is 3450 21st Street LLC, which is also the address of the property. In other words, we have no idea who bought this place. (It’s also blocked on Google Street View!)
The home made headlines back in 2016 when Zuckerberg’s neighbors at the time complained about the security team he hired to oversee a renovation. This renovation appeared to be extensive as it expanded the property’s existing 7,400 square feet by adding space over three floors, adding a bathroom, remodeling the remaining bathrooms and kitchen, and adding a rooftop deck.
3355 Pacific Ave
A Google Maps image of 3355 Pacific Avenue in San Francisco, California.
Google Maps
3355 Pacific Avenue is a 1926 mansion that offers stunning views of the Presidio. It fetched a whopping $29.5 million in an off-market deal this Novemberaccordingly red fins listing and ownership records.
Redfin records tell us as well The mansion is 9,081 square feet with four bedrooms, seven bathrooms and an elevator. Inside, large windows in the formal dining room frame the Golden Gate Bridge, while outside is an oversized 7,661 square foot landscaped lot. So yeah, lots and lots of room for this one.
