A Diamond Heights Eichler at 1027 Duncan St. drew 11 offers and sold for $1.3 million over asking, signaling record demand for midcentury homes in San Francisco.
Courtesy of Open Homes Photography
With 11 offers within days of listing, this San Francisco home offers a classic example of Joseph Eichler’s design sensibilities, as well as clear evidence that today’s buyers very badly want his homes. Ironically, Eichler’s company, which started out building what he envisioned as modestly priced homes, was bankrupt by 1967. The architect would likely never have imagined that 1027 Duncan St., as sweet as it, would sell for over a million dollars over asking — and do so in just a little over two weeks.
For Eichler fans, 1027 Duncan St. is a treasure. Located in Diamond Heights, the home, though clearly remodeled and updated, has stayed true to Eichler’s vibe: The design he so loved has been preserved here, from the wood-paneled walls and floors to the high ceilings crisscrossed by exposed beams, to the easy flow from indoor to outdoor spaces.
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A Diamond Heights Eichler at 1027 Duncan St. drew 11 offers and sold for $1.3 million over asking, signaling record demand for midcentury homes in San Francisco.
Courtesy of Open Homes Photography
A Diamond Heights Eichler at 1027 Duncan St. drew 11 offers and sold for $1.3 million over asking, signaling record demand for midcentury homes in San Francisco.
Courtesy of Open Homes Photography
In this home, a single level encompasses 1,862 square feet. There are four bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms, as well as a remodeled, but still period-perfect, kitchen that opens to a formal dining room, and a living room with a stone hearth. The building is a three-sided rectangle, allowing for these rooms to border an outdoor courtyard complete with lawn, patio and outdoor dining area.
Eichlers have reached cult status at this point, steadily rising in popularity from the mid-1990s to a point now that Eichler probably couldn’t have envisioned.
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Before turning to real estate development, Joseph Eichler was a grocer, selling provisions in Burlingame. When he moved his family into Frank Lloyd Wright’s Bazett House in Hillsborough, Eichler fell in love with Wright’s signature mid-century design. He sold his grocery store after two years in Bazett House and turned to development.
A Diamond Heights Eichler at 1027 Duncan St. drew 11 offers and sold for $1.3 million over asking, signaling record demand for midcentury homes in San Francisco.
Courtesy of Open Homes Photography
But he was only a tenant in Bazett House, and after two years there, Eichler and his family were evicted by Louis and Betty Frank (devoted clients of Frank Lloyd Wright), according to historical research published by the Eichler Network: “If the young Franks had not taken over the pivotal Bazett of Hillsborough back in 1945, serving Eichler, their inherited tenant, with 90-day eviction, history might have followed a very different course.”
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Eichler may have lost Bazett House, but the midcentury aesthetic was deep in his blood. “Within six years, Eichler had left the egg and butter business for good and started a new career in homebuilding, founding the Eichler Homes Co. in 1949,” content marketing blog Means-of-Production wrote.
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A Diamond Heights Eichler at 1027 Duncan St. drew 11 offers and sold for $1.3 million over asking, signaling record demand for midcentury homes in San Francisco.
Courtesy of Open Homes Photography
A Diamond Heights Eichler at 1027 Duncan St. drew 11 offers and sold for $1.3 million over asking, signaling record demand for midcentury homes in San Francisco.
Courtesy of Open Homes Photography
Both Wright and Eichler envisioned a “Usonian” model for a home, one that, to use the words of historian Keiran Murphy, “eliminated the attic and basement, included sandwich-wall construction, and had furniture made out of plywood.” But while Wright’s home catered to individual clients, Eichler sought to mass produce, building whole subdivisions on spec, and then selling them to buyers. Originally, his designs were meant to be inexpensive but still high-quality, functional and practical, with a focus on modern angles and natural materials that best highlighted a property’s physical setting.
Eichler brought social justice ideas into his work as home builder. To quote Alta Journal, “Eichler emphasized affordability and modernist design, and he insisted that his houses be sold to anyone regardless of race. With a postwar bank loan, qualified buyers could own a new Eichler for a minimal down payment of a few hundred dollars.”
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A Diamond Heights Eichler at 1027 Duncan St. drew 11 offers and sold for $1.3 million over asking, signaling record demand for midcentury homes in San Francisco.
Courtesy of Open Homes Photography
A Diamond Heights Eichler at 1027 Duncan St. drew 11 offers and sold for $1.3 million over asking, signaling record demand for midcentury homes in San Francisco.
Courtesy of Open Homes Photography
Today, nearly 11,000 Eichlers exist in California, and in 1027 Duncan St., we see an example of classic Eichler design. It’s also an example of the extreme demand for such homes. The last time this property sold was 2017, when it fetched $2.2 million. According to listing agent Danny Fernandez of Corcoran Icon Properties, 1027 Duncan St. was wildly popular with prospective buyers, receiving multiple over-asking bids.
A Diamond Heights Eichler at 1027 Duncan St. drew 11 offers and sold for $1.3 million over asking, signaling record demand for midcentury homes in San Francisco.
Courtesy of Open Homes Photography
When it sold (closing in just 17 days), this home sold big: The original list price was $2.495 million, but the selling price was $3.8 million — $1.3 million dollars over the asking price. Based on comparable property sales in the Bay Area, Fernandez described it as a “record breaking single family Eichler home.”
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Clearly, the sale also sets a scorching new Fahrenheit for Eichler fever.