SF: The Condo and the Single Girl
Ladies, you never know: You could find yourself single at any time. Maybe you find yourself that way now. That doesn’t mean the idea of owning a house should be relegated to the back of the closet along with your torn up photos of your X or the wedding dress you hope never to see again, yet can’t quite throw out.
No, you will pick yourself up and look at condos this weekend. No better therapy, they say, than shopping (I absolutely disagree with this, but make an exception for home shopping, which would cheer me up immediately and entirely). And condos are a good place to start, since they grant you access to a little community, something you might want if you’re on your own. They are the proverbial foot in the door of SF real estate, and if all goes well, one day you can sell that condo and move in to real, detached home– with or without a partner.
Empowered then, I list for you a few condos open this weekend that I myself am going to see. And for once, I can actually review them candidly, because, hey: As I’ve wanted to so ever since Redfin was banned from doing house reviews, I started my own blog, San Francisco House Porn (because I am obsessed with houses and spend many a dark hour peering at their images, I could think of no more fitting name). And since that blog is not affiliated with selling real estate, there’s not any conflict of interest with me posting opinions on homes for sale. As I say on the blog, there can’t be a conflict of interest, since my only interest is buying a house that doesn’t suck. Hope I can help a few of you do the same.
See you this weekend?
210 Hoffman Ave: Several units in this Noe locale open this weekend. I’m interested in this 1/1 at #A for $479K. This is a TIC but the building is vacant so the rules and such are yet to form. I would be able then to say: “Dogs? Yes!”
20 Crestline Dr., #5: Twin Peaks with the soaring city view. Love it. This is a 1/1 TIC for $429K.
1776 Page, #B: a 1/1 in the Haight. The price, $299K, makes one a little suspicious, but that’s what open houses are for.
25 Guerrero, #202: Here is a Mission 1/1, newly listed at $399K. TIC with a great yard in the sun belt. Worth a look!
David said:
I understand that some people really like SF, but I just have to say that every place in the country has “unattainable” houses/condos/penthouses or whatever. If I’m going to obsess over gorgeous R.E., it’s going to be somewhere like my private Caribbean island, but to each his own I guess.
However, here and in NYC though it seems to be an unhealthy obsession. I mean, I like looking at houses and such, but it’s in relation to where I see value in my house or investment potential. Other than that, it’s just a pile of sticks, metal and rock.
October 15, 2008 12:34 PM
Marnie said:
David, I am going to guess you don’t already live/work in the city? Lots of renters like me do, and we dream of being able to stay where we have established a life. We love this city! Being able to afford it is an obsession, but that makes it more worthwhile, the wanting it so much.
October 15, 2008 12:39 PM
David said:
I work in the city, don’t live there.
you can afford it–you rent, and given SF’s rent control & eviction rules, you can stay pretty much forever wherever you rent. Plenty of people who love&work in Manhattan can’t even come close to affording the rent.
Just another reason why I don’t quite understand the obsession. Maybe it’s an East Coast/West Coast thing. There are many cities (NYC, Boston, DC) where people rent their whole lives and don’t feel like they need to buy something. Here in California it seems like people regularly break their backs/banks to stretch into something unaffordable when they can literally rent the same place for half as much (and have rent control to keep it just like a fixed mortgage)
October 16, 2008 8:29 AM
Gary said:
Renting gets old. Landlords get to make the rules, and you always have to worry about being evicted at some point. It’s hard to settle down with those constant conflicts. Plus, honestly: Who wants to sink money into a rental. I’d improve the garden, or re-hab my ghetto kitchen, but I don’t own this place, so why would I spend that money. Instead, I live in relative squalor that makes me sad to come home to.
October 16, 2008 10:27 AM
Denise Crawford said:
Oh yeah! the place on Hoffman…I lived half a block away on 23rd street when I was a kid. Back in the 50’s-60’s, the downstairs of Hoffman was the place where I went to buy candy with my first allowance. That was way back when Noe was just an affordble neighborhood for ordinary folks to live. Sigh. My parents didn’t want me to go to Mission High school in the summer of love, and it’s been suburbia (blecch) ever since. I aspire to move back one day.
October 22, 2008 4:01 PM