The San Francisco luxury home market has traditionally been entrenched in the city's long-established northern neighborhoods, from Sea Cliff through Pacific Heights and up to Telegraph Hill. While those neighborhoods are still filled with huge and very expensive homes, property values on the southern side of the city have soared so high that, according to new research from Paragon Real Estate, a greater percentage of $2 million+ single-family home sales now take place in the Noe/Eureka/Cole Valley districts than in the prestigious northern neighborhoods. Just five years ago those older neighborhoods, which are lumped together as "Prestige North" had 62 percent of sales over $2 million. Now they only have 24 percent of those sales, while the Noe/Eureka/Cole area has 40 percent.
The huge houses of Prestige North still dominate the very highest end of the market—home sales of $5 million or more. The biggest sale of the year so far was an $11 million home in Presidio Heights, although Noe Valley took second place with a $7 million house, followed by homes in Telegraph Hill, Sea Cliff, and Dolores Heights. The houses in Prestige North remain the biggest and most luxurious in the city, but houses on the southern end have gained in appeal due to both changing tastes and their proximity to tech jobs.
Luxury condos have also seen a shift in geography. Prestige North dominated the market in 2007 with 67 percent of sales above $1.5 million. Now, condos in South Beach/Yerba Buena are quickly catching up, taking over 22 percent of those all luxury sales. The most expensive condos the year so far by neighborhood have been a $9.4 million sale in Pacific Heights, followed by condos in Russian and Nob hills. Yerba Buena, however, is not too far behind, with a $5.3 million condo sale recorded this year.
· Market Shifts in San Francisco Real Estate [Paragon Real Estate]