{"id":88308,"date":"2025-12-09T23:30:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T23:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/88308\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T23:30:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T23:30:14","slug":"one-neighborhood-in-sf-has-passed-its-pandemic-pricing-peak-youll-never-guess-which","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/88308\/","title":{"rendered":"One neighborhood in SF has passed its pandemic pricing peak. You\u2019ll never guess which"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Francisco\u2019s housing market is on an AI-fueled upswing<\/a>, but even though inventory is low and tech valuations are high, overall prices in the city are still well below their dizzying pandemic peaks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During that era, cabin fever met historically low interest rates to create a buyer frenzy that has not been topped since \u2014 except in one surprising neighborhood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a stately northern locale like Pac Heights or the Marina, or a tech-centered hot spot like Noe Valley or Potrero Hill, according to data that Zillow compiled exclusively for the SF Standard. In fact, it\u2019s not a neighborhood that most people associate with housing at all: the Financial District.<\/p>\n

According to the data, the bank- and law firm-laden neighborhood is the one place in San Francisco where average home values are now slightly higher than they were when the market peaked in May 2022 \u2014 currently hitting $1,006,733.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are two main reasons. One is that prices for condos, the vast majority of the neighborhood\u2019s for-sale housing stock, never reached the heights of single-family homes during a time when space was at a premium. The other is that there are few residential projects in the neighborhood, and the ones that are there trend toward ultra luxury.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AThe Four Seasons Residences has had several recent $8M-plus sales, but they\u2019re not enough to pull SoMa out of a 25% price decline since pandemic peaks. | Source: Courtesy Steven J. Magner<\/p>\n

That\u2019s in contrast to SoMa, where values are down around 25% from their peak to just under $750,000. Even several $8 million-plus sales at the Four Seasons Residences this year are balanced out by a much higher volume of cheaper transactions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The FiDi has Mira and One Steuart Lane largely to thank for its rarefied status. The 391-unit Mira, a block from the Embarcadero, sold out recently. It completed construction in 2019, but has had numerous post-pandemic sales at $2.5 million and up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 120-unit Skidmore, Owings & Merrill-designed One Steuart Lane, directly on the waterfront across from Rincon Park, is smaller and even more luxe. Construction wrapped up in 2021 and post-pandemic sales include two three-bedroom, three-bath units at over $9 million each, or over $3,000 per square foot. A similarly sized unit on the 19th floor of the 20-story travertine tower is currently asking $11.5 million.<\/p>\n

\"AOne Steuart Lane in the Financial District has hit price points over $3,000 per square foot. | Source: Courtesy Lunghi Studio\"AThe travertine tower is directly across from the Embarcadero, \u201cthe playground for San Francisco.\u201d | Source: Courtesy Lunghi Studio<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve got 20 units [sold], and four of them are at 2,700 bucks a foot, or $3,000 a foot, then boom,\u201d said Paul Zeger, founder of condo sales and marketing firm Polaris Pacific, which handles sales at One Steuart Lane.<\/p>\n

But even with such a small sample, the data helps shine light on a larger trend: the same \u201cflight to quality\u201d that has defined the office market of late is having a similar impact on condos. In today\u2019s market, buyers spending the same amount of money may get a newer, more upscale building with views. That means deals are closing in some of the city\u2019s most luxurious buildings, while less desirable units languish, even with considerable concessions<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf your goal is to move the product and find the market, there always is a market, but you have got to motivate people much more heavily to get them to move South of Market now than you do to have them move to the Financial District,\u201d Zeger said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AZillow\u2019s borders for the Financial District | Source: Google Maps<\/p>\n

The Financial District has also been on a hot streak for its primary commercial audience, bringing in not just office tenants, but also hot restaurants and bars<\/a> as more revelers come downtown seeking a fun night out<\/a>. That translates to new amenities for prospective condo dwellers in the formerly sleepy section of downtown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until the post-Loma Prieta removal of the Embarcadero Freeway that you could live by the water and still be near the office. Come the pandemic, the rush for outdoor-friendly living made the area even hotter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Embarcadero has come so far since the days of the double-decker freeway running around there,\u201d Zeger said. \u201cNow it\u2019s really the playground for San Francisco. That\u2019s where people run, bike, hike, and walk.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, most of the new luxury condo inventory in the city \u2014 One Steuart Lane, the Avery, 181 Fremont, Lumina, Mira, the Harrison \u2014 is within a few blocks. With very little development on the horizon, the tight inventory will only compress further.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe supply is going to be lower than we\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d said Shalini Shadda of City Real Estate, whose business is concentrated in the luxury buildings along the waterfront and who is also on the board of directors for the East Cut Community Benefit District.<\/p>\n

Even now, for buyers with a sub-$2 million budget, there are few new construction options by the water, said the agent. As interest rates come down, more buyers will be likely to move quickly in the new year to try to get ahead of the growing demand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a domino effect,\u201d Shadda said. \u201cPeople are ready to jump into the market so they feel like they\u2019re not competing with a ton of people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Francisco\u2019s housing market is on an AI-fueled upswing, but even though inventory is low and tech valuations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[3010,25424,388,11853,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-88308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-commercial-real-estate","tag-financial-district","tag-real-estate","tag-residential-real-estate","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}