As Wall Street Plunges, Expect More Super Homes to Hit The Market

I can’t decide whether I feel sorry for investment bankers or not.

All the investment bankers I know work their butts off: putting in such long hours, often including evenings and weekends, that their personal lives are more or less in tatters. Non-existent social life, strained marriages, kids who don’t recognize them… you know the sort of thing.

But the one thing these people have — or at least had — in common was wealth. We’re talking serious money with  numbers on their end-of-year bonuses most people don’t see in a lifetime.

Now many of the banks are falling like pin bowls on a strike out  — Lehman being only the latest in a string of collapses. A key reason, according to NPR’s business expert, is that these bankers “made a lot of dumb decisions”. Which begs the question: why were they being paid so much money?

But this is not a economics blog, and the reason I bring up this subject is that with investment bankers losing their livelihoods, you can expect to see more super high-end homes coming on the market. The following listings may have come about as a direct result of Wall Street’s meltdown:

The question is: who is left out there who can afford to buy them?

5654 Margarido Drive is described as a “majestic” English Tudor style 4/ 4.5, 4,300 sq ft home in Oakland’s Claremont Pines neighborhood. Designed by E Geoffrey Bangs, it includes professionally landscaped gardens with hot tub, an au-pair suite, butler’s pantry and library. (And, as you know, libraries are de rigueur these days.) Price: $2,400,000 ($558/sq ft).

40 N Hill Court is a “stunning” contemporary 5/3.5, 5,390 sq ft home with views in Oakland’s Hiller Highlands ‘hood. It boasts dramatic architectural details, 16 ft ceilings, walls of glass, and ebony hardwood floors (but, rather suspiciously, no photos on its listing). Price: $2,695,000 ($500/sq ft). Worth noting that it last sold in August 2007 for $2,175,000.

720 Channing Way, near Fourth Street in West Berkeley (pictured above), is a 3/1.5 converted machine shop which oozes post-industrial style, and would probably suit a seriously creative artistic type rather than a creatively serious investment banker. There are curved glass-brick walls, 15-18 ft ceilings, and ample room to carve out an artist’s studio/gallery, offices, or even a restaurant — the commercial kitchen is already in place. Price: $2,400,000 ($578/sq ft).