May 15, 2008
SF: Get Your Feet Wet in the Outer Sunset
The Sunset gets a bum rap. People think it’s all fog and sand in your eyes, too far from the city central and devoid of culture or “hipness.” I like this out of the way quality. At least in the Outer Sunset, you can escape the regularly exhausting bustle of the city: with acres of parking, the Golden Gate Park, and miles and miles of ocean. And on days like today, all sunshine and glitter on the sea, there’s no better place to live.
Still, this area has never been #1 on the SF Desirable Neighborhood list, and its homes have generally fetched less than those in more easterly locations. Yet at the height of our crazy, over inflated market, even the most drab and barren properties shot up to 800k, 900k, a million.
Not so now. Submedian blogs about the current Sunset slump here:
of the 13 homes that list the previous sale price 6, or 46% are listed for less then what they were previously purchased for…..[and] anybody selling a Sunset home purchased within the past five years is showing negative appreciation. And in some cases, it is drastic: 1491 43rd Ave is now listed at $720,000. It’s high water mark was it’s purchase for $875,000 in April 2005. That’s a whopping $155,000 depreciation over three years.
He also notes that people who bought a decade ago or more, and are now selling, do stand to make profit, but how much profit is hard to know, since
They have across the board higher listing prices then the newer homeowners, and are paying the price for their desire to hang on to those higher prices by having much higher DOM’s: 54 is the DOM average for the people who have owned their homes more then five years, compared with 26 for the folks who are newer homeowners.
If you are buying, and like a little beach in your backyard, you might find a deal in the Outer Sunset. Here are a few SFH listings.
2627 47th Ave., 2/1 SFH, reduced to $560K
2646 45th Ave., 3/2 SFH for $628K
2142 42nd Ave., 2/1 SFH for $685K
2209 46th Ave., 2/1 SFH for $699K: Open this week (see link for details)
